Second Chances: Bound by the Moon
Alpha Ashton's life fall apart when his fake girlfriend Melanie dies from a miscarriage. With no way to prove his innocence, Ashton escapes into the wild and pleads the Moon Goddess for a second chance. He wakes up in the past with no memory of what happened.
But James, a quiet human boy who had a crush on Melanie, remembers everything. Convinced he's been sent back to save her, he's determined to win her heart before Ashton can.
What James doesn't know is Ashton isn't chasing Melanie but he's quietly battling the bond that pulls him toward James, his mate.
Chapters
Share
Chapter 4
James scrambled for his phone on the nightstand, knocking over a half-empty water bottle in the process. His fingers fumbled with the screen, unlocking it on instinct. Instagram. Story tab. Melanie.
There it was, a photo she'd posted an hour ago. A blurry shot of her morning coffee with some indie song lyrics layered on top. She was alive. Real. Breathing.
She was here.
It still didn't feel real. After everything, after all that had happened, seeing her smile again, even just on his phone screen, felt like something sacred. Like a second chance.
But there was no time to sit with that.
James bolted upright, heart thudding fast. He needed to move. Now. Today wasn't just any day. It was the day. The day it all went wrong last time. The day he'd hesitated. The day Ashton got to Melanie before he could even open his mouth.
Not again.
He pulled on his clothes in a rush, barely managing to comb his hair before dashing out to the kitchen.
"You got ready so quickly," his grandmother said with a smile, placing a plate of pancakes on the table.
Hurriedly sitting down, James wolfed the meal down without a word. Every bite felt like chewing on air, but he forced it down. He couldn't afford to be late. Not today.
"I made extra pancakes. Share it with Cole too," his grandma said, sliding a small box into his bag. Her smile faltered when he barely acknowledged it. And he was already tying his shoelaces and running out the door.
The morning air bit at his cheeks as he sprinted toward the bus stop. Sweat beaded at his brow despite the chill.
I won't let him take her this time.
He reached the stop, breath ragged, only to find a small group of students already waiting. No bus yet.
His eyes drifted across the street, and his stomach turned.
The flower shop.
It stood just like it did that day, neat and unassuming, a small chalkboard sign propped outside reading Fresh blooms today!
He remembered it so clearly. That day, the way he'd run into the store, palms sweating, picking out the reddest rose they had. He'd missed the bus. Had to take the next one.
By the time he got to school, Ashton was already there. Already standing in front of Melanie. Already smiling.
Already winning.
James clenched his jaw and looked away from the shop. No rose this time. Ashton didn't have flowers.
But Ashton didn't need anything. He had charm, and money, and girls who practically begged for his attention.
And James wasn't Ashton.
But that was okay.
He didn't need to be better than him. He just needed to be faster. This wasn't about impressing Melanie anymore. It was about protecting her. From him. From what she didn't know.
From what he did.
The bus screeched to a stop in front of him, and the doors wheezed open. He got in, body bumping against the wave of other students cramming inside. Elbows jabbed at his sides. Someone's bag hit his back. But he held on tight to the metal bar, eyes fixed ahead like a soldier heading to war.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. He didn't need to look-he knew it was Cole. Texting him if he was really going through with it. If he was actually going to confess to Melanie. He remembered this part too well. He had read that message while waiting for the next bus. So this time, he didn't check it.
The only thing that mattered now was getting there before Ashton did.
The ride felt like forever. When the school gate finally came into view, James was already pushing through the crowd, heart climbing into his throat.
Then he saw it.
A sleek black car parked at the students' parking.
Ashton's car.
He was already here.
"No, no, no-" James broke into a sprint, lungs burning, legs screaming with each step.
His backpack slammed against his spine as he tore down the path toward the main entrance. The hallway loomed ahead like the mouth of a beast, inevitable, and full of the past.
He couldn't let it happen again.
This time, he would get there first.
This time, he would save her.
You may also like
9.2
Her Bestie's Brother
She only came over to spend time with her best friend-
not to run into her infamous senior brother, the campus playboy everyone warned her about.
Every time she saw him, she felt nothing but disgust.
How could someone who had a sister he adored still treat girls like toys?
But when he walked into the house with a group of girls trailing behind him, her frustration finally snapped-
and she cursed him out without caring who heard.
Then came the day they all hung out, played too much, drank too much...
and the night spiraled into something neither of them ever expected.
A reckless moment.
A passionate night.
A mistake-or something else?
Now, she can't stop asking herself:
Will this change the way she sees him?
And more dangerously... will this change him?
7.7
They took everything from her. Her freedom, her pack, and her name.
Sofia Fletcher has survived four years of slavery, a mate who rejected her for her own stepsister, and the kind of cruelty that teaches you never to hope. She has one rule left: trust no one.
Then Draco walks into an auction house and takes her.
He doesn't bid. He doesn't ask. He simply crosses a room full of bowed heads because when the most powerful being alive enters, everyone drops their eyes, and he takes her home.
He is an Alpha King like no other. Werewolf. Vampire. Demon king. Dragon slayer. Immortal. And he has been searching for Sofia for years, because she is the one thing in his long, terrible life he cannot walk away from.
His fated mate.
Sofia wants nothing to do with him. She is an Omega the lowest rank in pack society with a dangerous secret buried in her blood, and a past that left scars no one is allowed to touch. Draco is patient, possessive, and impossible to ignore, and the mate bond humming beneath her skin is beginning to feel less like a curse and more like an answer.
But Sofia's secret is the kind that gets witches killed. And Draco's world is full of enemies including the brother who wants to destroy him, and the father who will use anyone to take back what he lost.
Falling for the Alpha King was never the plan but fate has it's own plan.
8.3
When Eli is forced to enroll at Blackwood Academy, he thinks it is just another remote boarding school. But on his first night, he realizes the terrifying truth.
This school is a prison.
Trapped in endless, deadly time loops, students are forced to complete cruel, supernatural trials. Ghosts, cursed hallways, hidden rules, and unspeakable creatures hunt them after dark. The only way to stay alive is to solve mysteries, earn credits, and obey the academy's twisted commands.
No one remembers how they arrived.
No one has ever graduated.
No one leaves alive.
Eli must team up with other desperate students to uncover the academy's century-old secret. If they fail, they will be trapped in the nightmare forever.
At Blackwood Academy, survival is the only exam.
7.2
Elara Vex had everything-a flawless ice core, the title of prodigy, and a place at the pinnacle of the High Tower. But in one brutal night, it was all ripped away. Her mentor tore the core from her chest. Her fiancé drove a sword through her back. Her own sister smiled as she bled out on the cold marble floor.
When Elara wakes, she's years in the past, mere hours before her core is scheduled to be stolen. This time, she won't be anyone's sacrificial lamb. She shatters her own core with forbidden blood magic and forges something far more terrifying in its place-a bottomless, ravenous Chaos Core that devours magic itself.
Now, branded a worthless cripple and cast into the deadly Abyss, Elara is pulled from the darkness by the outcasts of Elysium Academy-a school for heretics, psychopaths, and everything the Tower despises. Under the tutelage of a reclusive principal who knew her murdered mother, Elara will master her forbidden power and uncover the Tower's darkest secrets.
When the Five Academies Ranking Tournament arrives, Seraphina Vex stands in the arena, draped in white saintess robes, ready to claim ultimate glory. She doesn't know that a ghost from her past has clawed her way back from hell. She doesn't know that Elara is coming-and this time, the prodigal sister isn't asking for mercy. She's bringing chaos.
9.5
I was the heiress to a real estate empire, celebrating my engagement to Douglas at our Manhattan penthouse.
But when I stepped into the master bedroom, I caught him sleeping with my best friend, Krystle.
Before I could even react, Douglas forced me to sign away my family's entire trust fund.
He held up a tablet and forced me to watch a live feed of my parents being burned alive in our Hamptons estate.
"The fire hasn't reached the main house yet, sign it and I'll call them off," he lied.
As soon as the ink dried, he beat me to the ground and locked me in the soundproof study.
He poured twenty-three-year-old whiskey on the carpet and dropped a lit cigar.
"You could have walked away with nothing, but alive," he sneered.
He left me to burn to death while he and Krystle went back to our engagement party to drink champagne.
As the flames melted my skin and my bones shattered against the bulletproof glass, I couldn't understand it.
How could the man who promised me forever brutally exterminate my entire family just for money?
But I didn't die in that fire.
Three years later, with a reconstructed face and a new identity as the mysterious global designer Alice Moreau, I returned to New York.
Watching Douglas and Krystle flaunt the wealth they stole from my family's ashes, I smiled behind my black veil.
It was time to make them pay with everything they had.
7.3
Ciel Miller opened her eyes to the blinding lights of a Manhattan ballroom, realizing she had been reborn on the exact night her life was ruined.
On the stage, the billionaire patriarch of the Chavez family was proudly announcing her engagement to his arrogant grandson, Harry.
In her past life, Ciel had blindly accepted his outstretched hand. That single step plunged her into a suffocating marriage filled with public humiliation and psychological torture, slowly draining her life away until she died. Harry had treated her like a pathetic stray dog, flaunting his absolute ownership while systematically destroying her.
Now, as the polite applause echoed, Harry extended his hand with a sickening smirk, waiting for her to lower her head and submit.
Instead, Ciel stood perfectly rigid and publicly rejected him in front of the entire New York elite.
Harry's face drained of color, while his family quickly mocked her.
"This is a cheap, embarrassing trick to get his attention," his sister sneered.
Harry's arrogant smirk crawled back. He fully believed she was just throwing a childish tantrum to make him jealous, convinced she was absolutely nothing without his wealth and status.
But Ciel looked at the man who had killed her in her past life with freezing disgust.
Then, she turned to the powerful patriarch and dropped a bombshell that left the entire ballroom gasping for air.
"If the family insists on taking care of me, I will marry into the Chavez family."
"But I want to marry the comatose war hero. I want to marry General Deacon Chavez."
She would rather spend the rest of her life with a "vegetable" than wake up next to a monster.