Three days later, I was settling into my new life with Caleb in the bear clan's territory.

"Twenty-seven missed calls."

I put my phone down and looked at Caleb, who was sipping tea across from me.

We were in a modern city hidden deep in the forest.

This wasn't the "slum" Trina had described, but a technologically advanced utopia, inaccessible to ordinary people.

"All from Trina?" Caleb asked.

"Her and the media," I shrugged. "They all want the 'truth'."

A second later, my phone rang again.

A video call this time.

Trina's face appeared on the screen, but she looked completely different.

Her face was perfectly made up, adorned with expensive jewels. Behind her was a lavish bedroom.

"Helena!" Her voice was sickly sweet. "Look at my life now!"

She held up her hand, showing off a massive diamond ring.

"Calvin's wedding gift! Twenty-five carats!"

I watched her show off, my face a blank mask.

"And this!" She spun around to show off a priceless gown. "Chanel haute couture! Only three in the world!"

"Congratulations," I said, my voice flat.

"Congratulations?" Trina's smile twisted. "Helena, do you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to give birth to the noblest bloodline in the world!"

She caressed her flat stomach, her eyes gleaming with a feverish light.

"Calvin has the purest Alpha genes, and I… I will give him the perfect heir. Our child will rule the world!"

My blood ran cold.

Those words… they were exactly the same as in my vision.

"Trina," I probed, "how can you be so sure?"

"Because I know!" she shrieked with laughter. "I know the secrets of this world! I know the value of the strongest bloodline!"

She leaned into the camera, her eyes full of hate.

"In my… in my past life, you had all of this. The strongest bloodline, the highest status. And I was married off to that Elven Chief, tortured to the point that I begged for death!"

So, Trina has lived this life before.

"But this time," she went on, "the tables have turned! You married the lowest of the bears, and I will have everything!"

"Trina…"

"Just you wait!" she cut me off. "Calvin will give me the most powerful child, and your bear husband will only give you violence and death!"

The video cut out.

I sat there, my hands trembling slightly.

Trina's words confirmed my fears. In a past life, I had married Calvin and borne the strongest heir, only to be killed by him and my sister.

"She's been reborn," I told Caleb.

Caleb put down his teacup, his eyes glinting. "I know."

"You know?"

"An ancient gift of foresight runs in the bear clan," he said, walking to the window. "We can feel the ripples in time. The moment you walked toward me, I felt the path of fate shift. I knew this wasn't the first time you'd made that choice."

"Then why did you still accept?"

Caleb turned to look at me, his eyes full of love.

"Because this time," he said, "I will protect you."

He moved closer, and I felt a powerful current flow between us...the pull of a true mate bond.

I closed my eyes, ready for his kiss, but a sharp knock at the door broke the spell.

Caleb frowned. "I wasn't expecting anyone."

The door flew open and Calvin stormed in, his eyes red and his clothes a mess.

"Helena! You were supposed to choose me! Why did you choose him?" he roared.

I stood up and sneered at him.

"You've got Trina, isn't that enough? What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing?" he laughed coldly. "I'm here to tell you the truth. Do you know what the bears are? They're failures! Outcasts, abandoned by all the other clans!"

"The ancient families," he sneered, "they value bloodlines and raw power. The bears threw all that away to dabble in human business and technology. They're traitors to all shifters!"

"And you," he pointed at Caleb, "you're just a savage from the forest! You don't deserve Helena!"

Caleb didn't answer, just watched him calmly.

"What do you have that I don't?" Calvin continued to rage. "I'm the strongest Alpha! I have endless wealth and power!"

"Wealth?" Caleb finally spoke, his voice calm as a still lake.

He pulled out a tablet and set it on the table.

A long string of numbers filled the screen.

Calvin leaned in to look, and his face went white.

"That's… that's impossible…"

"Thorne Industries 2024 estimated net worth: eighty billion dollars," I read aloud calmly. "The world's largest renewable energy company, three aerospace firms, and several gene-splicing technology start-ups."

"And your wolf pack's assets," Caleb added, "one-point-five billion."

Calvin started to shake.

"But none of that matters," Caleb said, coming to my side. "What really matters is that I would never treat Helena like a broodmare."

"A broodmare?" Calvin forced a laugh. "I would never…"

"Then explain this."

I pulled out my phone and played a recording.

Calvin's voice came through the phone's speaker, crisp and clear: "Trina is just an appetizer. Once I have Helena, I'll keep her pregnant until she produces the perfect heir."

Calvin's face turned ashen.

"How… how did you get that!"

He looked at us, his eyes filled with desperation.

"I can explain, Helena. It's all a misunderstanding."

He extended his claws and moved toward me, as if he planned to drag me away right then and there.

"A threat?" Caleb took a step forward.

Instantly, the temperature in the room plummeted.

Calvin felt the pressure of the Bear King's bloodline and began to tremble involuntarily.

"If you ever try to harm Helena again," Caleb's voice was terrifyingly calm, "I will rip out your throat."

Calvin shot us one last, hateful look, then fled like the coward he was.

"He'll be back for revenge," I said.

"I know." Caleb took my hand. "But this time, we'll be ready."

My phone buzzed again.

It was a picture from Trina. She was in a wedding dress, smiling brightly, but her eyes held a manic glint.

The caption read: Just you wait and see my perfect bloodline, sister. This time, my child will be the one who rules the world.

I stared at the picture, a chill running down my spine.

In my vision, Trina got everything she wanted in the end.

But what was the price?

I had a feeling I was about to find out.

A few days later, news of the "wedding of the century" between wolf Alpha Calvin and human noble Trina Morrison was everywhere.

Calvin seemed to have given up on me completely.

The television screen showed the lavish wedding ceremony.

Crystal chandeliers, a sea of roses, a multi-million-dollar wedding gown.

Trina stood beside Calvin, her smile as perfect as a doll's.

"Turn it off," Caleb said, wrapping his arms around me from behind.

We were in the bear clan's sanctuary, having just completed our own simple, sacred bonding ceremony. No media, no politics, just two souls bound together.

"No," I said, watching Trina's triumphant smile on the screen. "I need to see this."

On TV, a reporter was interviewing the bride.

"Miss Trina, what are your hopes for the future?"

Trina caressed her flat stomach, her eyes gleaming with that familiar, manic light.

"I'm going to have the most powerful child," she said, her voice sweet, but her words dripping with ambition. "A perfect bloodline, capable of ruling the world."

Beside her, Calvin nodded, his own eyes full of greed. "Our heir will rule over all the clans," he declared.

I turned off the TV.

Those words brought back the horrifying images from my vision.

It wasn't long before Trina, emboldened by Calvin's power, showed up uninvited at our doorstep.

She was still in her priceless wedding gown, but the smile was gone from her face.

"Let her in," I said.

Trina walked in, her eyes scanning the room.

The decor was simple, with no lavish ornaments, but every detail was tasteful.

"This is your new home?" she sneered. "It looks… plain."

"I like simple," I replied.

"Simple?" Trina scoffed. "Helena, do you know how much my wedding cost? Fifty million dollars! Every dignitary in the city was there to congratulate us!"

"Congratulations."

"And you," she looked around, "you married a savage who lives in the woods."

Caleb stood up, a cold light in his eyes, but I gently touched his arm, telling him to stay calm.

"Trina, you didn't come here just to compare weddings," I said, looking her straight in the eye. "What do you want?"

Her mask shattered, revealing pure malice.

"I want you to watch me win!" she shrieked. "I want you to know that this time, I'm the winner!"

She touched her stomach, which, despite the recent wedding, already showed a subtle swell.

"I'm already pregnant," she announced proudly. "I'm already carrying Calvin's child. This child will have the purest Alpha bloodline!"

I looked at her overly excited expression, a sense of unease washing over me.

"So soon?"

"We used… special methods," Trina said, a wild look in her eyes. "To ensure the most perfect bloodline, we underwent an… enhancement."

"What kind of enhancement?"

"You don't need to know." Trina turned to leave. "You just need to wait and watch my child become the king of the world!"

She paused at the door and looked back at me.

"By the way, Helena. No matter where you run, I promise you one thing. I will make sure your life is a living hell compared to mine."

With that, she swept out.

For three months, Trina's Instagram was a constant stream of her supposed happiness.

But a photo she posted after the third month shocked me.

She was wearing a tight maternity dress, and her belly was huge.

The size was all wrong.

At only three months, she looked like she was at least six.

"This isn't normal," I frowned.

What was even stranger was the background of the photo. A faint black mist seemed to hover in the air behind her. It was subtle, but I could feel the corrupting energy radiating from it. My intuition screamed a warning.

I looked down as my phone buzzed with a new message.

It was a video from Trina.

"See, Helena!" she waved at the camera, her belly grotesquely large. "Look at my little prince! He's so active in my belly!"

She caressed her stomach, but I noticed her hands were shaking.

"Calvin says it's a sign of the strongest bloodline," she continued, though her voice sounded weak. "Our child will have power beyond any clan!"

In the video, I could see cracks forming on the wall behind Trina, as if something was exerting pressure from within.

"Trina…" I was starting to worry.

"Don't worry about me!" she cut me off. "Worry about yourself! When my child is born, he's coming for you!"

The video ended abruptly.

Some time later, a late-night call jolted me from my sleep.

"Helena!" It was my father, his voice thick with panic. "Get to the wolf territory now! It's an emergency!"

"What happened?"

"It's Trina… she's had the baby. But…" his voice trembled. "There's something wrong with the baby. Something very wrong."

"What's wrong with it?"

"You'll see when you get here. And bring Caleb. We might need his strength."

The line went dead.

Caleb and I left immediately. My heart pounded the whole way there.

The wolf territory was on lockdown, all media driven away.

That level of secrecy told me just how serious the problem was.

We were led to a mansion deep within the territory.

Even before we entered, I heard a terrible sound.

It wasn't a baby's cry. It was a sound caught somewhere between a human scream and an animal's shriek.

Calvin was standing in the middle of the living room, pale as a ghost. His eyes, when they met ours, were filled with despair.

"Helena… thank you for coming," he rasped.

"Where's the child?" I asked.

Calvin pointed upstairs. "Trina's up there, with… it."

"It?"

"Just go see," Calvin shook his head. "We… we created a monster."

Caleb and I went upstairs, the sound growing clearer.

I pushed open the bedroom door and saw a horrifying sight.

Trina was sitting on the bed, cradling a bundle of blankets. Her hair was matted, her eyes were vacant, and she was muttering to herself in a strange, singsong voice.

"Trina?" I called out carefully.

She looked up, and a mad light flashed in her eyes.

"Helena! You've come to see my masterpiece!" she laughed. "Behold the perfect heir I've created!"

She pulled back the blanket.

My blood froze.

It wasn't a human baby.

Its skin was a sickly, blue-tinged white, and a thin, wet sheen of scales was visible in the light.

But the worst part was when it cried, I saw several faint slits on the sides of its neck, like gills, pulsing weakly.

And when it saw me, it spoke.

In a raspy, ancient voice that didn't belong to a newborn, it said:

"Mother… I smell sweeter blood…"

It reached out a tiny hand, pointing at me.

"I want that woman's blood… and the one inside her womb…"