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I was an ordinary human who got trapped inside a novel as the Luna of a ruthless Alpha. But for seven years, he never marked me, always prioritizing his adopted sister over my life-a woman who had hated me from the day I first stepped into their world. After a car crash orchestrated by that very sister, I lay bleeding on a hospital bed. My husband rushed in, not to comfort me, but to scold me. "Do not be so theatrical over a few scratches. You are terrifying Selene." In his rush to comfort his completely unharmed sister, he snatched my medical consent form and blindly signed it without reading a single word. He unknowingly authorized a lethal transfusion of Lycan-grade blood for my fragile human veins. As the dark blood tore my organs apart like liquid fire, the healers frantically called him to save my life. But he used his Alpha authority to block the hospital's emergency frequency, too busy renting an entire amusement park to celebrate his sister's safe return. I lay there choking on my own blood, listening to my heart monitor flatline. Why did I spend seven years loving a man who would casually sign my death warrant just to play the hero for a traitor? But he didn't know I had made a deal with a cross-dimensional entity-seven years in his world, one death by his hand, in exchange for my passage home. As my soul left that broken body and I woke up perfectly healthy in my original world, my final gift activated-a dead-man's switch, loaded with every dirty secret they thought they had buried. Now, I was free. And he was about to learn that the fragile human wife he threw away had just detonated a bomb under everything he ever owned.
Contents
My Fated Alpha Signed My Death Warrant Chapter 1
I was an ordinary human who got trapped inside a novel as the Luna of a ruthless Alpha.
But for seven years, he never marked me, always prioritizing his adopted sister over my life-a woman who had hated me from the day I first stepped into their world.
After a car crash orchestrated by that very sister, I lay bleeding on a hospital bed.
My husband rushed in, not to comfort me, but to scold me.
"Do not be so theatrical over a few scratches. You are terrifying Selene."
In his rush to comfort his completely unharmed sister, he snatched my medical consent form and blindly signed it without reading a single word.
He unknowingly authorized a lethal transfusion of Lycan-grade blood for my fragile human veins.
As the dark blood tore my organs apart like liquid fire, the healers frantically called him to save my life.
But he used his Alpha authority to block the hospital's emergency frequency, too busy renting an entire amusement park to celebrate his sister's safe return.
I lay there choking on my own blood, listening to my heart monitor flatline.
Why did I spend seven years loving a man who would casually sign my death warrant just to play the hero for a traitor?
But he didn't know I had made a deal with a cross-dimensional entity-seven years in his world, one death by his hand, in exchange for my passage home.
As my soul left that broken body and I woke up perfectly healthy in my original world, my final gift activated-a dead-man's switch, loaded with every dirty secret they thought they had buried.
Now, I was free. And he was about to learn that the fragile human wife he threw away had just detonated a bomb under everything he ever owned.
Chapter 1
Stella POV
The smell of my own blood was thick in the air, a coppery tang that mingled with the sharp, astringent scent of hospital alcohol.
I was lying on a stiff, cold bed in the private hospital owned by the Blood Moon Pack.
To the uninitiated, Blood Moon was merely a name on a stock ticker, a corporate monolith of glass and steel. In the city's deep shadows, however, it was a pack, bound by laws as old and unforgiving as granite.
I was an ordinary human, a creature of fragile bone and fleeting years, never meant to be their Luna. Yet some cruel twist of cosmic logic had tethered my soul to the city's most powerful Alpha.
My vision was a blur of swimming shapes, a lingering consequence of the car crash. It was no simple brake failure; I remembered the sickening lurch as the auto-drive system, a technology I helped design, turned against me with a cold, alien intelligence. I knew precisely who had tampered with it, but my tongue felt like a lead weight in my mouth.
The door was thrown open.
A scent that was his alone, of rain-soaked pine, was tainted by the acrid residue of cheap smoke and the stale sweetness of liquor from the Rogue territory he had just left. It was Kaelen, my Alpha, my husband.
My heart gave an involuntary, painful lurch. The Mate bond, a living thing inside my soul, reached for him, craving the profound quiet that only his proximity could provide.
But his face was a mask carved from stone. I saw the masseter muscle in his jaw twitch, a single, violent spasm, and his throat worked as if he were forcibly swallowing some barbed, indigestible thing. He did not look at the gash on my temple or the crude brace that held my ribs.
His Beta assistant was whispering urgently into his ear.
"Alpha, Selene is cornered at the Rogue bar. The strays are harassing her," the Beta said.
Kaelen's jaw tightened again. Selene was his adopted sister, a Beta he treated with the delicacy of spun glass.
"The paperwork," Kaelen snapped, his voice directed at the Pack Healer who stood, half-hidden, by the bed. "I have matters to attend to."
The Healer held a clipboard with hands that trembled. "Alpha, the Luna has lost a great deal of blood. She requires a transfusion immediately. This consent form..."
Kaelen snatched the pen. He did not so much as glance at the paper.
In his mind, it was just another routine field-hospital form-he had signed dozens for wounded soldiers. A transfusion for a werewolf was a trivial matter. His thoughts had already sprinted ahead to Selene, trapped and terrified among the Rogues.
He scrawled his name across the bottom.
"See to her," Kaelen ordered, shoving the clipboard back at the man. "I have to retrieve Selene."
"But Alpha, the specifics of the transfusion..." the Healer began, his voice thin with dread.
Kaelen was already turning toward the door.
"She is my Mate," Kaelen said, his voice flat, devoid of any inflection. His gaze passed over me, a pair of eyes made distant by a forced, unnatural vacancy. "She will endure. Handle it."
He walked out. He left me bleeding on a cot to rescue a woman in no real danger.
A cold, toneless voice echoed in the quiet architecture of my mind. It was the System-a cross-dimensional terminal that had bound itself to my soul seven years ago. I had made a pact in a moment of absolute despair: one lifetime in this novel's world, ending in death by the male lead's hand, in exchange for passage back to my own reality. The contract was ancient, its terms absolute.
"Host, fatal error detected in prescribed medical procedure. The Alpha has authorized a lethal transfusion protocol. If accepted, termination will occur in 72 hours. This fulfills the mission requirement: death by the male lead's hand."
I stared at the water-stained ceiling tiles. Seven years of this chilling indifference. Seven years of watching him choose her.
"Do it," I whispered to the Healer.
"Luna, please," the Healer begged. "Allow me to double-check the specifications..."
"The Alpha has signed," I said, my voice a hollow reed. "You will follow your Alpha's orders."
The Healer swallowed, a dry, audible click, and connected the blood bag.
The moment the dark, heavy Lycan blood entered my human veins, a silent, roaring fire detonated within me.
It felt like swallowing molten lead. My bones began to ache with a deep, grinding pressure, as if they were being pulverized.
I gasped, my fingers digging into the thin mattress.
An hour later, the door opened again.
Kaelen walked in. Selene trailed behind him.
She was wearing a tight, crimson dress, entirely unscathed. She carried with her the same cheap perfume of smoke and spilled liquor.
I let out a low groan as another wave of heat seared my blood.
Kaelen frowned. He released Selene's arm and stood over my bed.
"Cease that noise, Stella," he said.
I looked at him, my eyes wide with a pain that had no voice.
"I command you to be silent."
He used the Alpha's Command. It was an absolute, crushing power that compelled obedience.
Though I was human, the Mate bond made me susceptible. It felt like a great, invisible weight pressing down on my chest, squeezing the very air from my lungs.
I could not make a sound. I could only choke on my own breath, silenced.
Selene stepped forward, dabbing at her dry eyes with the back of her hand.
"I am so dreadfully sorry, Stella," she sniffled. "I only wanted to test the Pack's new anti-collision software on your car. I never imagined you would actually crash."
Behind her hand, her lips were curved into a smile.
Kaelen sighed and stroked Selene's hair. "It is of no consequence, Selene. You were merely curious. A werewolf's vehicle is built to withstand far more. Humans are simply too fragile."
He looked at me, his expression clouded with annoyance. "You see? She has apologized. Offer her a smile, Stella. Do not be so theatrical over a few scratches."
I forced myself to speak, pushing the words past the crushing weight of his Command.
"What if I die, Kaelen?" I whispered.
His eyes flashed with a sudden, hot anger.
You threaten me with your death? Now? Because I went to the aid of my sister? His voice was a lash inside my head, transmitted through our Mind-Link.
You are poisoning me, I thought back, knowing the words would be meaningless to him.
You are pathetic, he replied.
Then, I felt a violent, wrenching sensation in my mind, as if a rusted hinge had been torn from its frame. He had severed our Mind-Link. He had shut me out completely.
He turned, put his arm around Selene, and walked out of the room.
The System's voice returned, dispassionate as a clock. "Countdown initiated. 71 hours and 59 minutes remaining."
Seventy-two hours. Just enough time to set the world on fire.
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