My best friend murdered me, but I woke up in the body of my enemy’s bride-to-be.

Part 1

I thought I knew what true strength looked like.

To me, it meant never backing down from a bloody fight.

It meant being the first wolf into battle and the last one to retreat.

Every jagged scar on my body told a brutal story of survival.

I fought fiercely alongside my pack against the tyrant Alpha King Dan.

He had ruthlessly stolen our rightful lands and driven us into a miserable exile.

But tonight, my years of physical training meant absolutely nothing.

My best friend Craig touched my shoulder with a warm smile.

He quietly asked me to walk with him away from the celebrating pack.

I followed him into the dark woods without a single question.

This was Craig, my brother in all but blood.

He was my future alpha, the wolf I had pledged my life to protect.

He handed me a silver flask to celebrate our latest victory.

The dark liquid burned going down my throat.

My limbs grew instantly heavy as a strange numbness spread through my veins.

The flask slipped from my trembling fingers and clattered onto the dirt.

He caught my waist as I fell, lowering me gently to the forest floor.

“I’m sorry it has to be this way, pet,” he murmured softly.

Moonlight glinted off the cruel steel knife in his hand.

I couldn’t move or fight as he plunged the blade into my chest.

He stabbed me over and over while humming a quiet tune.

He gently petted my hair while I bled out on the cold earth.

My absolute best friend in the world had just murdered me.

But death didn’t hold me in its dark grip for long.

I woke up feeling like I had been trampled by a stampeding herd.

Silk sheets and heavy velvet curtains surrounded me in a luxurious bed chamber.

Two maids in crisp black uniforms rushed in, anxiously calling me “My lady.”

A haughty woman named Heather swept into the room, reeking of expensive perfume.

She grabbed my face and tearfully called me her precious daughter.

I broke away from her grip and looked in the gilded mirror.

A piercing scream tore from my unfamiliar throat.

Staring back at me was Megan, the delicate omega princess.

She had a fragile heart-shaped face, baby blue eyes, and skin that had never seen a single scar.

I was completely trapped in the body of a weak, pampered omega.

And worse, the maids casually mentioned I was in King Dan’s royal palace.

I was officially engaged to Tyler, the ruthless enemy prince I had sworn to destroy.

I strolled through enemy territory wearing heavy, expensive gowns.

I kept my head down, desperately waiting for a chance to escape.

But then the massive great hall doors suddenly opened.

Craig walked in, carrying something heavy wrapped in bloodstained linen.

He fell to his knees and bowed to King Dan, the very man who stole his birthright.

He offered a gruesome gift to prove his new loyalty to the enemy crown.

He pulled back the linen fabric, and my entire world stopped spinning.

I stared down at my own dead body.

Brenda’s lifeless eyes stared blankly up at the vaulted ceiling.

Craig proudly announced he had hunted and killed the demon wolf himself.

The great room erupted in deafening cheers as they celebrated my brutal murder.

Prince Tyler stepped forward through the crowd to properly inspect my corpse.

I waited for him to gloat over his fallen rival.

Instead, he looked like he had been carved from solid ice.

He didn’t even crack a triumphant smile.

He gently covered my bloodied face with the linen.

He treated his sworn enemy with far more respect than my best friend ever did.

I wanted to scream and tear Craig’s throat out with my bare teeth.

But this fragile new body couldn’t handle the crushing weight of my rage.

I realized right then that I couldn’t run away.

I had to stay here and make Craig pay dearly for his horrific betrayal.

I started training in secret, stubbornly forcing Megan’s weak muscles to adapt to combat stances.

I stalked Craig through the palace shadows and listened to him plot with his spies.

I heard him brag about how easily I had died for him in the woods.

He arrogantly claimed I was his to kill and his to keep.

Those toxic words unraveled everything I thought I knew about my past life.

I wasn’t a respected warrior to him.

I was just a disposable puppet for him to break when he got bored.

Tonight is my grand engagement ball with Prince Tyler.

My supposed mother Heather handed me a bitter potion before I left my room.

She called it a potent heat trigger, meant to make Tyler completely irresistible to me.

I drank it down, secretly planning to use the overwhelming scent to trap Craig instead.

If I could get Craig alone while radiating an omega’s heat, his primal instincts would cross a deadly line.

Then King Dan would have no choice but to punish him for touching the prince’s bride.

But the potion is aggressively tearing through my veins like liquid fire.

The glittering ballroom wildly spins around me as the classical music swells.

Tyler’s intoxicating scent of woodsmoke and warm oak makes me dangerously dizzy with need.

I fiercely force myself to look away from my imposing alpha fiance.

Every brush of silk fabric against my overly sensitive skin sends electrical sparks through my raw nerves.

A soft, needy whimper desperately escapes my parted lips.

I have to find Craig immediately before I lose my mind completely to this artificial heat.

“Lady Megan,” a smooth voice suddenly hits me like a bucket of ice water.

I turn around to find my cold-blooded murderer eagerly watching me.

His golden hair gleams brightly under the sparkling chandelier light.

“Would you honor me with a dance?” Craig asks with a predatory smirk.

His darkened eyes slowly trail over my exposed neck.

He noticeably flares his nostrils, clearly catching my heat-sweetened scent.

This is exactly the dangerous trap I wanted to set.

But every single survival instinct in my mind screams at me to run away.

Clenching my jaw tightly, I slowly place my trembling hand in his.