Burned by My Ex, Reborn as His King's Mate
Seraphina died betrayed. She perished in flames-poisoned by Darius, the fated mate she'd foolishly loved. Her childhood sweetheart, who sacrificed her only to save his mistress.
Reborn five years earlier, Seraphina vows: Never again. No more submissions. No more suffering his cruelty. This time, she'll rewrite her destiny - then she meets Kairos.
The Untamed Alpha King who loathes the mate bond after his own betrayal. Her second-chance mate - a bond that will kill her if she rejects it.
Now, caught between Kairos' relentless pursuit and Darius' desperate attempts to reclaim her, Seraphina faces an impossible choice:
Drown the world in vengeance... or risk her shattered heart on the mate who could either heal her scars or destroy her completely?
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Chapter 3
Seraphina's POV
Those emerald eyes that had once made my pulse race now only stirred revulsion. His touch? A brand of betrayal I would never forget.
"You don't own me, Darius," I said, my voice glacial. "The rejection stands."
"Like hell it does!" His roar shook the crystal chandeliers above us. The scent of his rage-burnt cedar and lightning-filled the space between us.
I didn't flinch. "You made your choice when you brought her into our lives. Did you really think I would just... wait around like some pathetic omega?"
His expression shifted-that calculated softening I knew too well. The same look he'd worn while whispering sweet nothings before the gasoline soaked my wedding gown.
"I had no choice, Sera," he murmured, reaching for me. "She was my second-chance mate. The bond-"
"Then keep your bond." I stepped back, my wolf snarling. "Make her your Luna."
His golden eyes flashed. "There will never be another Luna but you!"
If I hadn't lived through the flames, I might have believed him. But I knew the truth-he didn't want me. He wanted my bloodline. My pack's territory. The power that came with a Luminara at his side.
As if on cue, Vesper inserted herself between us with theatrical timing.
"Please don't fight because of me," she whimpered, those practiced tears glistening like cheap glass. In my past life, this performance had fooled them all-turned me into the jealous Luna while she played the wounded dove.
"I never wanted to take your place as Luna, Miss Luminara." Her voice was honey laced with arsenic. "All I ask is a small corner in Darius's life. I'd be content as the lowest maid in his household, if only I could watch him from afar."
Darius's arms encircled her protectively. "You'll never be a maid," he crooned, his thumb brushing away her crocodile tears. "After all you've suffered? The physician said you need rest."
The script was painfully familiar.
First, she'd ask for nothing but his presence.
Then she'd "temporarily" move into his guest wing.
Finally, she'd be in his bed-while I was out securing his Alpha succession, she'd be securing her position between his sheets.
I would never forget the day I burst into his chambers excitedly with the King's signed decree, only to find them rutting like animals on what should have been our wedding bed. The parchment had slipped from my fingers as his teeth sank into her neck instead of mine.
Not again.
Never again.
"Save the theatrics," I said, my voice colder than a winter moon. "The engagement is over. No one stands between you two now."
Luna Soraya lunged forward, her manicured claws digging into my forearm. "Seraphina, please don't do this!" The scent of her desperation-overripe roses and fear-clung to my skin. "Think of our century-old alliance! You and Darius have been friends since-"
"How curious." I peeled her fingers away one by one. "I don't recall this concern when your son brought his whore to our bonding ceremony."
The silence was absolute.
Alpha Julian turned to my father, his voice ragged. "Bastian, you can't allow this madness!"
My father didn't even blink. "My daughter speaks with my voice." His Alpha power rolled through the hall like thunder, making lesser wolves cower. "The alliance ends today."
And Darius?
The way his golden-boy facade shattered-the raw, unfiltered panic in his eyes-
Almost made the flames worth enduring.
The car ride home was silent except for the steady hum of the engine. My mother's warm hand closed over mine, her thumb brushing gentle circles across my knuckles.
"Are you alright, my darling?" she asked softly.
That was all it took.
Tears I'd held back for lifetimes came pouring out as I collapsed into her embrace, breathing in her familiar scent-honeysuckle and parchment, the comforting aroma of home.
"I'm fine, Mama," I choked out against her shoulder. "Just feeling foolish for wasting so many years."
"You're young, my heart," she murmured, stroking my hair like she had when I was a pup. "This pain will pass."
"Damn right it will," Father growled from the driver's seat, his grip tightening on the wheel. "You're a Luminara. You deserve more than some two-timing Alpha's scraps."
I clung to them both, their love a balm to my wounded pride. But as we crossed into Moonwhisper territory, I couldn't ignore the mixed reactions from our pack members-some relieved, others clearly worried about the broken alliance.
"Will rejecting the mating bond affect relations between our packs?" I finally voiced the fear gnawing at me.
Mother's laughter was like wind chimes. "Have faith in our strength, little wolf. Our pack is far more powerful than you realize."
I forced a smile, but memories surfaced unbidden-Darius's systematic weakening of Moonwhisper in my past life, his political maneuvers disguised as romantic overtures. There were threats coming that they couldn't yet imagine.
Noticing my tension, Mother cupped my face. "Tell us what's truly troubling you."
So I did.
The words spilled out in a torrent-the betrayal, the flames, my gruesome death at my own mate's hands. By the time I finished, Father had pulled the car over, his knuckles white on the steering wheel.
"I'll skin that bastard alive!" he roared, his alpha aura making the windows vibrate.
Mother's tears fell silently, her delicate frame shaking with suppressed rage.
"Dad, it was just a dream," I lied, swallowing hard. If this was their reaction to a hypothetical, what would they have done seeing my charred corpse in reality? I couldn't imagine.
I was here now, I told myself. Alive.
Thanks to the Moon Goddess's mercy.
And I would not waste this second chance.
***
The moon cast silver streaks across my bedroom as I kissed my mother's cheek. "I'll be fine," I lied, squeezing her trembling hands.
The worry lines around her eyes deepened-she still saw the little girl who had crawled into her bed after nightmares, not the woman who had survived actual flames. "Remember, we are next to you. Always."
I nodded, sending her out after giving her another hug. When the door finally clicked shut, I collapsed against it.
'Lily?'
Silence.
The bond between us-usually a vibrant, humming connection-felt frayed and thin. I reached inward, searching the shadowed corners of my mind where my wolf usually waited.
When she finally appeared, my breath caught.
Gone was the proud, golden-furred beast who had raced through moonlit forests with me. Before me crouched a spectral version of herself, fur dull and patchy, eyes dimmed to pale amber.
'Sera...' Her voice was a whisper of wind through dying leaves. 'It hurts...'
A chill ran down my spine. Rejecting Darius hadn't just broken our mating bond-it was killing my wolf.
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7.1
The last thing I remembered was the blinding flash of my starship crashing. But instead of a rescue crew, I woke up tied to a wooden post, surrounded by hostile beastmen.
My universal translator kicked in just in time to hear their priestess, Chelsea, declare that I was a cursed demon who ruined their hunt. To save the clan from winter starvation, I was to be burned alive.
The flames were already blistering my legs, and jagged stones hurled by the crowd gashed my forehead. I barely negotiated a three-day reprieve to find them food, venturing into the deadly primeval forest.
I found a massive supply of wild potatoes and even gained the protection of Bronson, a terrifyingly powerful saber-toothed tiger beastman.
But Chelsea wouldn't stop.
She labeled my food as poisonous, tried to sentence me to starve in a penitent's cave, and when my agricultural knowledge proved her wrong, she invoked an ancient law. She incited the tribe's savage warriors to fight over me, turning me into breeding property.
I was a scientist offering them endless food, yet their primitive ignorance and one woman's vicious jealousy kept pushing me toward a brutal end. I was terrified, completely powerless against their monstrous physical strength.
As five ruthless challengers drew their bone axes to claim me, I begged Bronson to leave me and run.
Instead, he pulled me against his scarred chest and kissed me fiercely in front of the entire clan.
"She is my mate," he roared, unleashing a soul-crushing aura. "Anyone who wants her, come at me together."
9.2
Clara was drowning in student debt and barely making rent when she downloaded a fantasy mobile game to escape reality.
Inside the game, an exiled prince named Alex was freezing to death. Pitying him, she spent her last few dollars on microtransactions to fix his shelter and cure his poison.
But the game was far too real.
Every time she paid, the prince reacted. When she complained aloud about going broke, the in-game army suddenly halted, as if the prince had heard her voice.
Then, the terrifying real-world consequences hit.
Clara woke up to find her water glass and a box of Kleenex had vanished from her locked bedroom overnight.
She frantically searched the tiny apartment, her heart pounding in her chest.
She thought she was losing her mind. Had she thrown them out in her sleep? Was there a stalker hiding in her home?
How could physical objects just disappear into thin air behind a deadbolted door?
Until she looked at her nightstand.
Sitting exactly where her missing items used to be was a glowing, weightless crystal cup that defied all logic.
And on her laptop screen, the exiled prince was carefully holding her Kleenex box, offering a mountain of real gold on an altar.
She hadn't just downloaded a mobile game; she had opened a cross-dimensional trade route with a desperate future king.
9.7
Some chains are forged in iron.
Others in desire.
Sebastian Kol has existed for six centuries. Cursed to burn alive in his own skin every night he transforms into a beast even he cannot control. He wants one thing. Freedom. And after five centuries of searching, a prophecy finally gives it a name.
Leilani Ravenwood.
She carries the mark of the moon goddess on her skin and a prophecy that brands her as his salvation. Her blood silences his beast, and her touch sets him on fire.
In the worst possible way. And in the best possible way.
Furious at the hold she has over him, Sebastian takes her, strips her of everything, and bends her world until it breaks, determined to own what the goddess dared to use against him. What follows is dark and consuming. A monster who has never met his match, and a woman who proves to be it.
But Leilani Ravenwood does not break easily. And somewhere between the hatred and the hunger, the punishment and the pull, the ancient beast begins to suspect the terrible truth.
The woman born to be his salvation may already be his undoing, his poison and cure wearing the same skin.
And he is running out of reasons to care.
9.5
As a highborn succubus, I somehow managed to starve myself to death-thanks to my obsessive cleanliness and ridiculously picky appetite.
When I opened my eyes again, I had transmigrated into Vivian Hartwell-the long-lost "real" daughter with a tragically cursed fate.
I had barely been taken back into the Hartwell family before they forced me to attend a so-called "death matchmaking" event in Kingsford-on behalf of Natalie Hartwell, the fake heiress-to meet Damian Blackwood, the infamous "living reaper."
Rumor had it Damian was brutal and bloodthirsty-every woman who'd ever been involved with him either ended up dead or driven insane.
At the event, over a hundred socialites were trembling on their knees, silently praying they wouldn't be the one chosen.
Just as Damian let out a cold smirk and reached to pick his unlucky victim, I took a deep breath from the back of the crowd.
The scent emanating from him was a rare, potent masculine essence-something encountered perhaps once in ten millennia.
For a painfully picky succubus like me, this was nothing short of salvation.
I kicked aside the girl blocking my way, my eyes practically glowing as I threw both hands up. "Pick me! Hurry, pick me!"
7.3
For a thousand years, the Vora beastmen have been cursed by a madness-a burning sickness in their blood that only one thing can soothe: the legendary 'Blood-Blessed,' a human female whose very scent is a living cure.
When a virus wiped out nearly all females, their desperate hunt for this mythical girl turned into a brutal conquest. They crushed our fallen human kingdoms, reducing us to breathing meat under their cruel "Livestock Codex."
To save my little sister from being branded for their elite breeding auction, I took her place in the male-only death draft.
Disguised as a boy, I was thrown into a pitch-black labyrinth, a living sacrifice meant to feed their ultimate nightmare: the feral, half-dragon Mad King.
He tore our steel cage apart like wet paper. I pressed my back against the freezing wall, watching in horror as he slaughtered the screaming men around me.
He ripped the filthy coat from my body, exposing my true gender. As his crimson eyes locked onto my throat and he opened his jaws for the kill, my rage burned away my fear.
I was a pureblood heiress of a dead empire, but I would not die cowering like an animal. I gripped a shard of glass, ready to aim for his eye.
But as he lunged, the glass sliced my palm. The moment my blood hit the air, the legend became my reality. The sweet, intoxicating scent that flooded the dark wasn't just my pheromones-it was the living cure.
The terrifying, apocalyptic tyrant froze mid-strike. He dropped his massive body to his knees, his fangs retracting as he gently, desperately licked my bleeding hand.
His chaotic red eyes darkened with an absolute, world-ending obsession as he pulled my fragile body against his burning chest.
"Mine."
I was meant to be his final meal. They called me the Blood-Blessed. He called me his Queen.
9.2
I woke up suffocating in the dark, only to find my mind trapped inside a tiny, plump, and entirely uncoordinated body.
A cold, mechanical voice echoed in my brain, announcing that I was dead in my original world and had transmigrated into a corporate revenge novel as the six-month-old illegitimate daughter of Edward McClure, the story's ruthless villain.
The system mercilessly outlined my doomed fate. Tonight, my cold-blooded father would abandon me to a state orphanage. By age two, he would officially sign my rights away, leaving me to die miserably at the hands of human traffickers. Outside my nursery, I could hear his terrifying footsteps approaching, his voice devoid of any human warmth as he debated throwing me out like garbage. I was completely helpless, trapped in a baby's body, staring up at a man who looked at me with pure, visceral disgust.
Why did I have to be reborn as the tragic cannon fodder of a tyrant destined to put a bullet in his own head? How was I supposed to win over a severe germaphobe when my unequipped infant reflexes made me literally pee and vomit all over his pristine Tom Ford suits?
"Your ultimate mission is to prevent Edward McClure's self-destruction. Step one: Survive tonight's abandonment crisis."
Hearing the system's terrifying ultimatum, I swallowed my adult panic, forced a pool of pitiful tears into my large eyes, and reached my chubby little hands toward the monster.