“I am so proud to announce that, a month from my twentieth birthday, I will marry Quincy Malone, Beta Jean Malone’s daughter,” Alpha Branden Harrison declared at his grand birthday banquet, his voice echoing across the hall.

The crowd froze, the air heavy with disbelief. I stood among them, utterly stunned. He was my mate.

For four years, I had been bound to him by the sacred bond, yet he announced his union with another.

Whispers spread like wildfire, questions hanging in the air. None louder than the one in my heart, “Why?”

Quincy Malone, the so-called daughter of Beta Jean, was the product of my father’s betrayal.

Born to a rogue, Johanna Burke, she was the reason my mother divorced my father and fled back to her birth pack. A stain on my family’s history. And then, she was to marry my mate?

When the banquet ended and the last guest departed, I confronted Branden at the back of the hall, far from curious eyes. My emotions boiled over.

“What is the meaning of this?” I shouted, my voice cracking with anguish.

Branden stood unfazed, his tone maddeningly calm. “I love her more than I love you.”

His words cut deeper than any blade.

“Oh,” I whispered, a bitter laugh escaping me. Why had I even asked? The answer was as clear as the betrayal etched in his eyes.

I should have known better. My father’s infidelity had taught me the weakness of the mate bond.

If my mother could sever ties with her mate, then so could I. No matter how dazzling the bond seemed, if it did not fit, it was not worth holding on to.

With trembling determination, I said, “Then I, Eleonor Malone, reject….”

Before I could finish, Branden’s hand clamped over my mouth. His strength pinned me to the wall, his emerald eyes blazing with fury.

“Don’t you dare defy me, Eleonor!” he hissed, his voice dripping with rage. “Who gave you the right to decide your fate? To rebel against me?”

The air thickened, suffocating under his dominance. His heat overtook him, his anger igniting something darker. My struggles were futile as his strength overwhelmed me, leaving me helpless.

I fell to the ground, tears streaming down my face, my body trembling with pain and humiliation.

As I laid there, broken, I noticed a shadow moving behind the wall; it was Quincy. She stood there, her expression twisted in disdain and annoyance, watching everything unfold.

When Branden finally left, his desires stated, Quincy emerged. A silver dagger gleamed in her hand, the cold metal catching the light.

“How dare you touch my future husband, you bitch,” she spat, her voice venomous.

Before I could respond, she drove the dagger into my chest. The cold steel burned as it pierced my heart, my cries fading into the darkness.

Death came swiftly, but peace eluded me. My soul lingered, a restless specter bound by pain and betrayal. I watched, unseen, as Branden and Quincy went on to live their twisted version of happiness.

But their joy only fueled my rage.

In death, I made a vow.

I would return. And in my next life, they would pay for every drop of pain they inflicted upon me.

“The mate bond may have broken, but my vengeance will never fade.”

***

“Eleonor, wake up!” A loud banging on the door jolted me awake, but could not force me to open my eyes.

“Don’t disturb me,” I murmured.

But the voice continued to echo, “Eleonor, wake up and open the door.”

As the second voice came to my ear, I started to realize if I lived alone in a studio apartment, and no one ever knocked on my door like that.

But the real question was, “Who was Eleonor?”

“Eleonor, you hear me? Wake up before I break down the door again,” the voice yelled again, impatient and angry.

Panic swirled in my chest. With hesitation, I opened my eyes and sat upright. A chill ran through me as I realized something was terribly off.

“This isn’t my room,” I whispered, my voice trembling.

Gone were my small but cozy apartment and familiar surroundings.

Instead, I was in an unfamiliar bedroom. The wooden furniture had a rustic charm, the room smelled faintly of pine.

“Where am I? Have I... died?” My hands flew to my cheeks, pressing against the warmth of my skin. “Is this some kind of afterlife? Did I overdo my diet and push my body too far? Oh my God!”

The voice outside the door grew more impatient. “Eleonor, stop wasting time and open the door!”

Shaking off my thoughts, I climbed out of bed with a heavy heart and shuffled to the door, unlocking it cautiously.

The door swung open, revealing a young woman with auburn curls and piercing green eyes. Her hands were full—a brown paper bag in one and a thermos in the other.

She glared at me as if I had personally wronged her.

“Finally,” she huffed. “I brought you breakfast. Now get ready, or we’ll both be late. You know the headmaster hates waiting.”

I blinked at her, utterly bewildered. “Sorry, but who...are you?”

Her eyes narrowed, and her lips twisted into a scowl. “Are you joking? Eleonor, it’s me, Everly. Your best friend, the one who keeps you from getting into trouble with the pack?”

“Pack?” The word felt foreign in my mouth, yet it tugged at some buried memory.

Everly did not wait for an explanation. She pushed me toward what I assumed was the bathroom and tossed a towel at me.

“I don’t have time for your nonsense. Shower, now! I’ll be in the kitchen setting up breakfast. If you’re not out in ten minutes, I’m dragging you there myself.”

The door clicked shut behind me, and I turned toward the mirror.

The sight made my breath hitch.

The person staring back was not me. Sure, there were vague similarities—brown hair, fair skin—but the angles of the face, the sharpness of the cheekbones, and the striking amber eyes were entirely foreign.

“What the!”

I leaned closer, running my fingers over my unfamiliar features. That was not my body.

Panic swelled in my chest, but before I could think further, a voice rang out—not from the room, but inside my mind.

“Morning, Eleonor,” it yawned lazily.

I froze, gripping the edge of the sink. “Who... who’s there?”

The voice chuckled, soft but unmistakably amused. “You’re teasing me again, Eleonor? It’s me, Selene—your wolf.”

“Wolf?” My voice came out in a whisper.

“Don’t play dumb. We’re late again, aren’t we? You promised Everly you wouldn’t make her angry anymore. Now, get moving.”

The room spun around me. Selene? A wolf? The name Eleonor Malone suddenly felt oddly familiar.

Then it hit me.

It was the name of the protagonist in the book I read for the third time last night entitled “Alpha Who Never Loved Me.”

I stumbled back, gripping the sink for support as realization dawned.

“I’m...in the book?”

The reason I had read that cursed story over and over again was to find a plot hole—anything I could use to save the female lead.

I despised the ending where the heroine was left to die, watching helplessly as her mate married her stepsister.

And then, somehow, I was inside the very book whose ending I loathed?

No way! That had to be a dream. I had to be imagining that because I had obsessed over it too much before falling asleep.

“Right, it’s just a dream. Wake up, Leah. Snap out of it!” I slapped my cheeks repeatedly, hoping the sharp sting would jolt me back to reality.

Selena’s voice, calm and curious, echoed in my mind. “What are you doing, Eleonor? And who is Leah?”

I froze. “It’s my real name, okay? I am not Eleonor—I’m Leah.”

The wolf inside me sighed, her exasperation palpable. “Eleonor, you’ve clearly gone mad. Maybe you should sit down and think this through.”

“No, I’m serious! I’m Leah, and I’ve somehow ended up in this ridiculous book.”

After five frustrating minutes of arguing with Selena, who refused to acknowledge my claims, I gave up. There was no reasoning with a wolf who believed I had lost my mind.

Instead, I trudged to the bathroom to take a shower, trying to ignore her occasional comments about teasing her too much.

When I emerged, Everly was waiting for me with breakfast on the table, her chatter filling the room. I said nothing, keeping my mouth shut, but my mind would not stop racing.

‘What page am I on now?’

As I absentmindedly bit down on my spoon, panic gnawed at me.

“Eleonor, are you nervous because your mate will turn twenty in a week and officially become the Alpha of the Nightwalker Pack? Not to mention, he promised to marry you after that, didn’t he?” Everly teased, a playful grin on her face.

“Married?” I repeated without thinking, the word sticking in my throat.

Everly nodded enthusiastically, launching into a long-winded monologue about the preparations, the expectations, and how everyone envied my position as the future Luna.

I barely heard her. My brain worked overtime, piecing together where exactly I was in the story.

A sudden realization hit me like a thunderbolt. But they never actually got married.

The next clue was the timing—a week before the Alpha turned twenty.

My blood ran cold.

It meant that was the final chapter.

The chapter I hated the most. The chapter where the female lead died.

A wave of panic surged through me. My thoughts spiraled out of control, and the sharp memory of my earlier experiment in the bathroom resurfaced.

I had tried to pinch and scratch myself to wake up, and it hurt. It bled.

Which meant I could die here.

“I don’t want to die,” I whispered under my breath, the words slipping out between Everly’s cheerful chatter.

“Die?” Everly paused, her brows furrowing for a moment before she grinned again. “Oh, you mean you’re being extra cautious because your wedding is just around the corner, right? Makes sense. After all, it’s such a big event....”

Her voice faded into the background as dread settled heavily in my chest.

I had one week left. One week to change my fate.

If I failed, I would not just hate the ending, I would be the ending.

I just pouted as Everly continued rambling enthusiastically, completely unaware of the storm brewing in my mind.

She did not know what was coming, since it had not happened yet, but I did. I had read this story three times, and each time, I was haunted by the same tragic ending.

But at that moment, I was not just a reader. I was there, living as Eleonor. And that meant I had a chance to change everything.

Right, that was the reason why I read the story over and over again. It was to find a loophole, a way for the female lead to escape her fate.

If I could use that knowledge to rewrite my own ending, maybe I could save myself.

The first step was clear. I needed to find my mother, who had gone back to her origin pack, Whiteclaw Pack.

“Let’s keep alive, Eleonor,” I muttered under my breath, the words both a prayer and a promise.

Everly, predictably, misunderstood. She beamed at me and chirped, “Right. Let’s keep alive until the wedding—no, no, I mean forever!”

I sighed, shaking my head. “Sure, Everly. Forever.”

**

After a long day of teaching at the academy, I felt the weight of my plan settling on my shoulders. If I was going to leave the Nightwalker Pack and seek refuge with my mother, I needed to make it official.

I printed a pack transfer letter and decided to bring it to the Alpha’s office for stamping.

It was a risky move, but I hoped it would go smoothly since Eleonor had often visited the Alpha’s office in the novel to handle academy-related files.

To avoid suspicion, I also carried a stack of academy documents with me.

As I walked through the packhouse, I forced myself to stay calm. Wolves passing by smiled and greeted me warmly, as if my presence there was nothing out of the ordinary. It was comforting and unsettling all at once.

When I finally reached Branden’s office, I paused outside the door to compose myself. But just as I was about to knock, I caught a glimpse of something through the small gap in the slightly ajar door.

My breath hitched.

Inside, Branden and Quincy were wrapped in each other’s arms, locked in a passionate kiss.

What a cursed pair of lovebirds!

My heart clenched, not with jealousy but with disgust. I knew the scene all too well—it was a pivotal moment in the story.

That was the moment where Branden’s betrayal became undeniable, the moment that set Eleonor on the tragic path to her own death.

But there I was, witnessing it firsthand. And seeing it with my own eyes was far more infuriating than reading it in the novel.

What made it worse was the conversation that unfolded between their stolen kisses.

“You really want to marry me, right?” Quincy asked, her tone saccharine and spoiled, dripping with false innocence.

“Of course,” Branden replied without hesitation, his voice laced with a sickening sincerity. “There’s no one I love except you, Quincy. You know I’ve loved you since you came here.”

Then, their tongue linked again exchanging saliva.

My stomach churned as I saw that. But then I realized if that conversation was not in the novel.

It seemed the book had not told the whole story.

Apparently, Quincy and Branden had only known each other as a friend all the time. But in the book, they were in affair about two to three years ago.

However, if Branden said it was since Quincy came to the Pack, it meant he had set eyes on her since she was five.

Eleonor was also five that time when her father brought another woman with a daughter to our house.

Her mother cried and they argued for an hour, which only ended by rejection and divorced between them.

That was the one of the scene that I did not like, but well, sometimes it needed to be heated.

However, as if to twist the knife deeper, I overheard Quincy laugh mockingly and call me, or rather Eleonor, “a placeholder Luna,” at that moment.

“Sstt, don’t say it too loud,” Branden also chuckled after hearing that.

As a result, rage bubbled up inside me. I could not help but reflect on Eleonor’s sacrifices.

From the time she was a child, Eleonor had dreamed of becoming an independent warrior, a proud protector of her pack.

But when the mate bond formed between her and Branden at sixteen, her aspirations were pushed aside. She devoted herself entirely to supporting his leadership, learning diplomacy, and strategy to stand by his side as Luna.

Meanwhile, Quincy, who had always dreamed of mating with an Alpha, had never given up her pursuit of Branden.

She bragged constantly, flaunting every new gift Branden gave her during their so-called friendship.

But the Moon Goddess had another plan, instead of mating with Quincy, Branden was mating with Eleonor. His attention that was originally for Quincy changed to her.

At first Eleonor did not have the heart to hurt Quincy, but she could not reject Branden's affection and attention, so as time went by, she believed that everything was arranged by the Moon Goddess herself.

While I was still recalling the scene from the novel, Selena’s voice interrupted my thoughts.

“Eleonor, our bond with Branden is weakening,” she said, her tone tinged with worry. “He’s emotionally tied to another wolf. That connection is breaking what we share.”

I froze. There was one again that was not in the story.

“Why didn’t you say this in the novel?” I scolded her, frustration creeping into my voice.

Selena sounded confused. “What are you talking about, Eleonor? What novel?”

Ah, of course, she would not know. She was part of this world, oblivious to the fact that her reality had once been a work of fiction.

Maybe that was happening because I had already begun changing the storyline.

In the book, Eleonor never found out about Branden and Quincy’s affair—at least, not until it was too late. This must have been what allowed Selena to sense the weakening of their mate bond.

“Forget it,” I muttered, shaking off the thought. “I should give that cursed lovebird a lesson.”

Anger surged within me, and my fists clenched involuntarily. The urge to barge into the office and confront them was nearly overwhelming.

But no. That would only derail my plan.

I needed to stay calm, keep my head down, and play my part until I was free of the Nightwalker Pack and its deceitful Alpha.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped back and stationed myself in the hallway, pretending to shuffle through the files in my hands. My heart pounded as I waited for them to finish their little rendezvous.

When the door finally opened, Quincy emerged, her face glowing with smug satisfaction.

“Oh, Eleonor,” she said sweetly, her saccharine tone making my skin crawl. “What brought you here?”

I forced my expression to remain neutral, holding up the stack of papers. “Just some academy documents that need the Alpha’s approval.”

“Of course,” she replied, her eyes gleaming with triumph. “Branden’s inside. Go ahead.”

As she walked past me, her aura of satisfaction felt almost tangible, like a sickeningly sweet perfume that lingered in the air.

I squared my shoulders, straightened my back, and stepped into the office, meeting Branden’s gaze head-on.

For a split second, he looked startled. But then he quickly composed himself, masking his surprise with the authoritative demeanor of an Alpha.

“Eleonor, what do you need?” he asked, his tone cool and detached.

I held up the transfer letter, hidden among the academy documents, and kept my voice steady. “I need your stamp of approval for some files.”

His eyes scanned the papers, his expression unreadable. For a moment, my stomach twisted with worry. Would he notice the transfer request tucked into the stack?

But then, with a swift flick of his wrist, he stamped all the documents and handed them back to me.

“Anything else?” he asked indifferently, as though he hadn’t just been caught kissing my stepsister minutes ago.

“No, Alpha,” I replied curtly, turning to leave before my composure could crack.

But as I reached the door, his voice stopped me.

“Eleonor,” he said, almost casually, “I’ve told you before, I’m not officially Alpha yet. I’m just replacing my father for now. It’s still a week away. Call me by my name, okay?”

I nodded stiffly. “Right. Thank you for everything, Branden.”

I forced a polite smile and began gathering the files.

As I did, his hand brushed against my wrist.

“Wait,” he said sharply.

Panic flooded my chest. Did he notice the transfer letter?