The final jolt of electricity ripped through my nerves.

Through the reinforced glass of Ravencrest Asylum, Liam Blackwood watched me, his icy blue wolf eyes showing no emotion.

My husband, the groom, was watching me being “disposed of” like trash.

"Your 'gift'?" The speaker warped his voice, but it couldn't hide his contempt. "It was all a lie to marry into the Blackwood family. Sophia is my fated mate. You, Elena, are just a mistake that needs to be erased."

Beside him, a blonde woman clung to his arm, her scarlet-painted nails toying with the Alpha pin that should have been mine.

The voltage surged to its peak.

Deep in my soul, my wolf let out one last, agonizing howl—

Then, I opened my eyes.

The light from the crystal chandelier was blinding. The smell of champagne bubbles, cloying perfume, and that familiar, suffocating scent of cedarwood mixed with a top-tier Alpha’s power.

The engagement party. I was back. I was somehow back on this night.

I was wearing that ridiculous silver dress—the one he’d mocked, saying I looked like “a desperate fish trying to crawl onto land.”

The memories stabbed me like shards of ice. 327 days in captivity. The electric shocks. The silver shackles. The last breath I took as they exchanged vows on a global livestream.

This was no dream. I had returned.

Liam was holding Sophia Vance’s hand, facing the room full of guests and the heads of both our families, his voice loud and arrogant.

“The so-called century-old curse is nonsense! Sophia and I are soulmates. Tonight, I, Liam Blackwood, officially break my engagement to Elena Foster!”

His gaze shifted to me, cold and annoyed.

“Elena, your Foster family fabricated the myth of the ‘White Wolf Seer’ just to tie yourselves to us. As far as I’m concerned, the game is over.”

In my last life, I was heartbroken and speechless, a passive victim falling into the abyss.

This time, I pulled free from my mother's cold hand and took a step forward. The sharp click of my heels on the marble floor strangely silenced the hall.

“Liam,” my voice was quiet, but it cut through the air with an icy edge, “before you run off to your ‘true love,’ perhaps you should first explain the money you lost from the ‘Alpha Future’ fund in Las Vegas last week? How do you plan to cover it? Three million, was it?”

Dead silence.

The smug look on Liam’s face froze. Sophia’s smile stiffened. His father, Marcus—the current Alpha of the Blackwood pack—whipped his head around, his gaze like a knife.

“What gambling debt?” Marcus’s voice was low, rumbling with a brewing storm.

I gently touched my temple. The White Wolf’s Eye tingled—not with a vision, but with a memory. In my last life, that debt nearly ruined my family.

“Or,” I continued, my eyes flicking to the brand-new diamond necklace around Sophia’s neck, “we could talk about why Miss Vance’s spending records appeared at every single restaurant and boutique in the same Aspen hotel where you were supposedly ‘healing alone’?”

A louder wave of gasps rippled through the crowd.

Liam’s face turned pale with rage. “How dare you investigate me?!”

“Investigate?” A cold smile touched my lips. “Do I need to, Liam? The ‘White Wolf Seer’ might be a fraud in your eyes, but unfortunately for you, the things I ‘see’ are always more… vivid than you can imagine.”

I turned to the grim-faced Mr. and Mrs. Blackwood. “Given your heir’s… extracurricular activities, and his public humiliation of me and the Foster family, I, Elena Foster, hereby declare—”

I paused, sweeping my gaze over Liam’s furious face and the panic in Sophia’s eyes.

“The engagement is off. The Foster family withdraws all promises of alliance.”

With that, I turned elegantly. The sound of my heels echoed in the dead silence.

The moment I turned my back, an invisible, excruciating pain seized Liam.

He let out a muffled grunt and clutched his chest. His face went white, his blue eyes filled with disbelief and agony.

It was the backlash from the mate bond breaking. Because I, his once-fated mate, had publicly and decisively severed the connection.

For an Alpha, this wasn't just a humiliation; it was a direct wound to his very soul.

Marcus and Evelyn stared at their son in shock. Sophia tried to help him, but he shoved her away—the pain of the backlash made him instinctively reject the touch of anyone who wasn't his true mate.

I didn't look back. But I knew what was happening. This kind of spiritual slap in the face was more complete, more fatal, than any accusation of embezzling funds.

Stepping out of the ballroom, the cold night air swept away the sickening smell of cedarwood. A long-lost power began to awaken in my veins—the power of the White Wolf, cool and luminous as moonlight.

I took out my phone and tapped on a number that had been dormant for seven years but never deleted.

The text was just one line:

[The chains are broken. Is your promise still valid?]

Sent.

Almost instantly, the screen lit up:

[For you, my promise is eternal.]

It was followed by an image: a first-class ticket from Paris Charles de Gaulle to New York JFK, dated for forty-eight hours from now.

[Wait for me, Ellie. This time, I’m not letting go.]

Julian Thorne.

My childhood sweetheart, my first love, the flame in my soul that had never died.

A sudden heat shot up from my stomach, spreading through my entire body.

My wolf soul whimpered, not in sorrow, but in a wild, fierce anticipation. The scent of moonlight and fresh snow, my unique pheromones, uncontrollably intensified.

My heat, triggered ahead of schedule by a promise from across the ocean.

“Elena?” My mother touched my arm, worried. She sniffed the air, her eyes widening as she noticed the change in my scent.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm the storm inside me, and pressed the phone against my racing heart.

“I’m fine, Mom.” I looked up at the night sky, at the crescent moon sharp as a hook. “In fact, I feel… powerful.”

My war had just begun. And my Alpha was coming home.