Reborn: The Alpha's Regret and the Serpent's Queen

It was the Mating Ceremony, the most important day for our pack, but for me, it felt like walking to the gallows. I stood on the velvet carpet, waiting for Jacob, the Alpha heir, to claim me.

Suddenly, my younger sister Bella threw herself at the Elder's feet, screaming that she and Jacob were in love. Jacob didn't deny it. He looked at me with cold calculation, announced he chose her, and publicly broke our engagement.

In my previous life, this betrayal broke me. I had fought to marry him, only to become a "defective incubator" locked in a room. I remembered the bruises that never healed and the fire that eventually killed me. While I burned to death, Jacob only cared about saving Bella.

Now, standing in the same spot, the crowd mocked me as "damaged goods." My father sneered, pointing to the back of the room where the "lesser" clans stood, telling me to pick a rat or a snake if I wanted to stay in the Pack House.

They thought they were ruining me. They didn't realize they were handing me the key to my freedom.

I turned away from the smirking wolves and walked toward the darkest corner of the room. There sat Draco, the Serpent King, a man everyone feared and despised.

He was the only one who had tried to smash through the burning beams to save me in my past life.

I stopped in front of him, ignored the gasps of the crowd, and extended my hand.

"I choose you."

Chapter 1

Clarice POV:

The Pack House smelled like a locker room doused in cheap cologne and desperation. It was Mating Ceremony day, the Super Bowl of our calendar, where wolves supposedly found their soulmates.

For me, it felt like walking to the gallows.

I stood on the edge of the velvet carpet, hands trembling. Not from nerves, but from phantom agony. I knew the script. Jacob, the Silver Moon Alpha heir, was about to claim me.

In my last life, that claim was a death sentence. *I remembered the locked doors, the bruises that never healed, and the cold realization that to him, I was just a defective incubator.*

"Father, please!"

A shrill scream cut through the ceremonial drums. The crowd gasped. I looked up, heart stalling.

Bella. My younger sister. The family's golden goose.

She threw herself at Elder Thomas's feet, her designer dress crumpling. Her eyes were wild, desperate.

"I can't let Clarice marry Jacob!" Bella shrieked, her voice bouncing off the vaulted ceiling. "We... Jacob and I... we've already been together! We're in love!"

Dead silence.

I stared at the back of Bella's head. *In my previous life, Bella had turned her nose up at Jacob. She'd married a wealthy Fox shifter, only to seethe with jealousy when I became Luna. She saw the crown, the jewels, the title. She never saw the blood I scrubbed off the bathroom tiles.*

*She's been reborn, too. And she thinks she's stealing