Chapter 1

My fiancé and my little brother gave me a flower for our engagement.

In my last life, it drank me dry in eight weeks—and my dead sister climbed out of it.

"Hazel? Babe, you're staring."

Jaxon's voice was right by my ear, low and warm. Behind us, the party was winding down. Someone was stacking chairs, and the string lights over the lake deck were still on.

My fiancé stood in front of me in his good navy suit, holding a glass box in both hands. Inside, on a little silver stand, sat a single flower bud the size of a plum. It was pale pink, almost white, with thin red veins running up its sides.

My little brother, Theo, bounced on his heels next to him. He was fifteen and still had the round cheeks of a kid.

"It's a moonblood orchid," Theo said. "Super rare. Jax and I tracked it down together. It's supposed to make your wolf crazy strong. You're gonna be the best Luna Stonecrest has ever had!"

The bud gave a tiny pulse, like it had a heartbeat.

I knew that heartbeat. I'd fallen asleep to it for eight weeks.

In my previous life, I cried when they gave it to me. I put it on my nightstand by the big window so it could soak up the moonlight. I sprayed it with water every morning. I even bought it a grow lamp for cloudy nights.

The first time it bit me, I was asleep. I woke up with a red dot on my fingertip and a thin root curling back into the soil. I thought it was sweet. Jaxon said it was bonding with my wolf.

Then the dots moved. My wrist. My collarbone. The soft spot under my jaw. Every morning there were new holes, and every morning the bud was a little redder and a little prettier.

And every morning, my wolf was a little quieter.

By week five, I couldn't take it anymore. I carried the glass box down to the river at the edge of our land, ready to throw it in.

Jaxon caught me on the bank. He didn't even need to grab me. He used his Alpha command, and my knees hit the wet grass before I knew I was falling.

"It's a few scratches, Hazel," he said, standing over me. "A Luna's supposed to be tougher than that."

Three weeks later, I was dying in our bed.

I remember the cold most. The pack doctor piled three blankets on me, and I still couldn't stop shaking. Jaxon sat on the edge of the mattress with red eyes. Theo knelt by my pillow and held my hand, crying so hard his shoulders shook.

"Please don't go," he kept saying. "Please, Hazel."

I remember thinking that at least I'd raised him with a good heart.

Then he turned toward the nightstand and whispered, "Is it almost time, Scarlett?"

Scarlett?

I wanted to ask what he meant. I couldn't even open my eyes.

My heart stopped a minute later.

I didn't go anywhere. I floated up near the ceiling and watched the doctor pull the sheet over my face. Jaxon let out one loud sob, and Theo cried right along with him.

Then Jaxon sent the doctor and the guards out and locked the door.

Theo stopped crying like someone had flipped a switch. He wiped his face on his sleeve and ran to the nightstand.

"She's gone," he said. "She's really gone. You can come out now, right?"

The bud split open.

Red light poured out of it. The petals peeled back one by one, wider and wider, and something unfolded from the middle. An arm. A shoulder. Long dark hair. A naked woman slid out onto the carpet and lifted her face.

It was my older sister, Scarlett. The sister who died in a car crash on the mountain road four years ago.

Jaxon was on his knees in a second, wrapping his suit jacket around her and kissing her like a starving man. His scent filled the room, cedar and smoke.

"Four years," he said into her hair. "Moira swore Hazel's blood would bring you back. She was right. You're whole again."

Scarlett laughed against his chest. "I told you. A healer's wolf makes the best fertilizer."

She held out her other arm, and Theo threw himself into it.

"I missed you so much," he said. "I checked on you every single day. Hazel's so boring. All she does is fix people and make me run drills. You're my real sister."

Scarlett kissed the top of his head. "I know, baby. Hazel was never going to be Luna. She was just keeping my spot warm."

I hung there and watched the three of them hold each other.

Jaxon's first love had always been Scarlett. Everyone knew that, me included. I just thought she was dead.

But Theo knew this. He knew it the whole time he was holding my hand.

Then everything went white.

"Hazel?"

Jaxon's hand was on my waist again. Cedar and smoke. The lake. The string lights.

"You okay?" he asked. "You look pale."

Theo tilted his head, eyes big and shiny. "Do you hate it?"

Inside the glass, the bud pulsed again. I could feel it looking at me. Waiting.

In my previous life, I'd cried over this flower. I'd fed it my blood and thanked them for it.

I reached out and took the glass box from Jaxon's hands.

"Hate it?" I smiled at my brother. "It's perfect. Trust me, it's going to get exactly what it deserves."