Chapter 1

We've all read stories about people dying, waking up in novels as one of the story's characters, and they decide not to follow the storyline because the character's life sucks. They don't want to endure all that pain, so they decide to live as they wish. I've read many of them, but that's what they were: stories, a fantasy. You can imagine my surprise when I suddenly woke up on a bed in a dark and stuffy room, with the sudden urge to gag.

With no time to process what was happening, I rolled to the edge of the bed and let it all out on the floor until my throat burned. Rather than worry and panic about my surroundings, I desperately searched for the bathroom. The distance from the bed to the toilet felt eternal; my feet did not cooperate, and I could hardly keep my eyes open. My head bobbed from side to side, and my heart beat a mile a minute. I had never felt this sick in my life. As I forced my legs to keep moving, bile would sometimes leave my mouth with a burning sensation that it would leave behind.

Once I reached the bathroom, what was left in my system was let out in the toilet. I didn't think it would hurt so much. My throat burned, and I first thought of getting in the bathtub and turning on the shower to cold water. My feet dangled outside the tub while the water hit my face and torso. Looking down at my clothes, I noticed I was wearing a thin spaghetti strap, white shirt, and grey, worn-out skinny jeans. Not only that but my arms were also covered in bruises. Not to mention that the hair strands that fell in front of my face were a wavy, dark brown.

What the hell is going on?

I don't know when it happened, but I must have fallen asleep because once I opened them again, the room wasn't as dark as before. The light was seeping through the bathroom's open door, and I could see a bit of the room from where I was sitting. It was hard to move even an inch, but I raised my arm to turn off the cold water. I can't imagine how expensive this month's water bill might be.

Now, it was time to stand up. It took all the strength I had in me to get up, and even then, my body hurt everywhere. I went to the sink to wash the taste off my mouth. As I raised my head to look at myself in the mirror, the reflection I saw was not mine.

I recalled how I noticed these slight differences in my appearance while I was in the tub, but I was not expecting to have a different face, too. I'm an adult woman, but this face was that of a girl in her late teens. She had long, wavy brown hair and brown eyes. She also had a beauty mark on the bottom left corner of her right eye. All in all, this girl was beautiful, but what surprised me was that she had a black eye, and the bruises I saw on her arm while I was in the tub were just a glimpse of what was really going on. I raised her shirt and couldn't believe my eyes. This girl had bruises everywhere. Not to mention marks around her throat, as if someone had strangled her.

"What the hell happened to you?"

Now, I was quick on the uptake. I died and was reborn in someone else's body. How did I die? No idea. Since the room looked like any modern-day shitty room, with a dresser by the door, a desk by the window, and it had a normal bathroom and toilet, not to mention what this girl was wearing average modern-day clothes, I could only guess I was in the same planet, just a different body. If God decided to give me a second chance at life, couldn't they have turned me into a baby rather than put me in a teenager's body?

I put my extensive knowledge of transmigration and reincarnation novels to work. So I waited a few seconds in hopes of getting the memories from this girl's body since, in most novels that deal with my situation, the main character tends to have the memories of the body they inhabited. But after a few minutes, I was drawing a blank. I guess not everything is like in the books. I'll have to start from scratch.

I decided to look around the room for hints of who this girl was, but I suddenly had a mini heart attack when someone asked, "Who are you?" and no one was there.

Now, I don't believe in ghosts or demons, but I don't mess with them either. Mom always told me if I ever hear something supernatural talk to me, I don't acknowledge them and act like I can't hear them.

Suddenly, there was laughter, "You…you think I'm a ghost…Hahahaha!"

Hold up. If they're not a ghost, why can't I see them? And also, how did it know I thought it was a ghost? Was I talking out loud this whole time? Where is this person? Are they hiding under the bed?

"Since you're acting so surprised, I can only guess you're not a wolf," the voice said.

"Wolf? What do you mean, wolf? Who…who are you? No…where are you?" I ask, sounding more startled than I thought I would.

"Well, to make things simple. Wolf, as in werewolf. My name is Sky. And I'm in your head," she said. My eyes widen in shock.

Oh my God, I'm schizophrenic.

Sky laughed again, "I can't blame you for not knowing. I'm a wolf, more specifically, this body's wolf. Werewolves typically get their wolf after they turn 18, and they can shift, too. You can see us as two separate consciences that share the same mind. I am you, and you are me…"

"Hold up," I interrupt her, "This is too much information for me to take in all at once. You're… you're telling me…this girl is a…a werewolf? Werewolves don't exist. What's next? Are you gonna tell me faeries are real, too?

"They are, though…" she said.

I widen my eyes. Where the hell am I?

"You're in Midnight Moon Pack. In the Saberyn Empire…"

"Hold up," I interrupt her again. I've heard those names before.

"Well, of course, this pack is known as one of the strongest in the Empire. They're also full of bastards, and the Alpha is the worst of all; the son's no better, either. But since they're super strong and loyal to the crown, many packs want to form alliances with them.

"And Saberyn is at war with Theria, but they've agreed on a ceasefire," I added.

Sky said, "Yes."

"HOLY SHIT!" I yelled. Sky was surprised, "Out of all the places to be reborn in, it had to be a book? But not any book; it had to be this book?!" I yelled in a slight panic as I walked back and forth around the small room. My breathing started to become erratic.

"What do you mean by book?" she asked.

"Before that, how on earth are you not freaking out?" I ask, still panicking, "If I were you, I'd yell at you to return to your body and give this girl back to you."

"Don't get me wrong. I'm as surprised as you are, but if it wasn't for you, Emma and I wouldn't be here anymore," Sky said. I looked down and saw an empty bottle of pills on the side of the bed, right next to all the vomit.

"What happened?"

Sky seemed to contemplate whether to tell me, but I needed to make sure, 100%, that this was the book I read not too long ago and, if it was, how far along I was.

"When our mate told us that he didn't want us and beat us into silence about our bond. Emma and I were in despair. His wolf wanted us desperately, but his human side was fighting the bond. The beatings she received got even worse after that. He seemed to get off on hurting us. But the beatings weren't the worst part; the worst was his not properly rejecting us, so our bond was still there. We were in constant pain due to his infidelity. I tried to tell her it would be okay, that we'd figure something out together. Still, she got worse when last night he commanded us to sit in his room and watch as he made love to his girlfriend and emptied himself inside her," Sky said, saddened.

I remembered this scene from the book. It happened about a week or two after the "rejection." Although Emma contemplated taking her life, she never went through with it.

"Again, you're saying weird things. What do you mean by you remember? You're not Emma. And what's this about a book?"

"Can you not read my mind?!" I asked loudly. It's such an invasion of privacy.

"What invasion of privacy?! We're the same person!" she said. I cringed.

"You're doing it again!" I said. My breathing became slightly erratic.

"Okay. Okay. Okay. Calm down," she said. Trying to slow my breathing back to normal made it hard for me to breathe and hurt my chest.

"Ah!" I whined.

"Take it easy. We haven't healed yet," she said.

"Oh really? I didn't notice," I said.

"Sarcasm, nice," she said. I growled. I quickly covered my mouth. Did that sound just come out of me?

"Am I really a werewolf?" I asked. I could hear Sky chuckle.

"Yeah," she answered. I sighed. Suddenly, the pain in my chest returned, and now my sides started hurting. She must have gotten one hell of a beating this time.

"Courtesy of none other than Jessica and her posse," Sky said. I kind of remember that incident.

"And Emma's mate stood there and watched with a smile on his face?" I asked. Sky said yes. "Aren't werewolves supposed to heal quickly?"

"Yes, but Emma is very weak due to…"

"Malnutrition and daily beatings. Yeah, I know. Didn't think it was this bad, though," I finished the sentence for her.

"You've been pretty strange since we met. You don't know that werewolves or faeries are real, but you know about the Kingdom's political struggles. You don't know Emma, but you know what she's gone through. Who are you, really?" Sky asked me. I don't think I can hide this from her. Should I just spit it out? She might think I'm crazy, though. But there's no way I could lie to her; she's in my head.

"Girl, spit it out already. What's crazy is this situation. I don't think anything you say can be crazier," Sky said.

Wanna bet? I thought.

"Yeah, go ahead," she answered. I cringed. Still can't get used to the mindreading.

"Well, long story short, my name is Marie, I'm 28, um… one moment I'm me, and then next I'm in this girl's body…My world is similar to this one, the only difference being that there's no such thing as werewolves or magic. Also, Kingdoms aren't a thing any more; most places are run by democracies now, and kings and queens are basically just celebrities," I said. Sky didn't say anything. What I've just said sounds impossible, insane even. I wonder if she'll laugh at me.

"I won't laugh. I can tell you're not lying. We're the same person after all," she said, "Anyways, your situation has magic written all over it," Sky paused for a moment and added, "But, none of this explains how you know Emma."

"Well…um…in my world, there's this pretty successful novel about a girl named Emma, who went through everything you just mentioned. In the novel, the male lead is Emma's mate, who plans on keeping Emma around as his mate while mating Jessica so the pack can remain strong. Long story short, Emma runs away, joins a new pack, and becomes a warrior; here enters the second male lead; the mate goes around the whole Kingdom looking for her, finds her, apologizes, stuff happens, redeems himself, second male lead goes away, they get married, the end."

Sky didn't say anything.

"I know it's hard to believe, but…"

Sky suddenly cuts me off and screams, "Are you f**king kidding me?!" That bastard beats us, breaks our hearts, and commits infidelity, and we still end up with him?!" Her sudden outburst shocked me, but it felt like I had a comrade who also agreed that the ending was total garbage.

"Well, the novel explains that he actually loved Emma since they were kids, but he joined in on the bullying because he was worried the pack would do far worse things to her if he wasn't around, and he wanted to keep her close, so she didn't have to be in contact with other pack members, that way lowering the cases of beatings, as well as keeping her away from unmated males," I said. Acting like I was defending him to see how riled she would get.

"That…that f**king as*hole! That f**king bastard! That f**king fu*k! We can f**king take care of our f**king selves and f**k off, see us suffering? He participated in beating us even after finding out we were mates, and he obviously enjoyed watching us in pain. At the same time, he f**ked that sl*t of a she-wolf called Jessica. What the actual f**k! Emma has been treated like a f**king sl*ve since she was a kid! And he has the f**king audacity to like us? F**k that!" To say Sky was furious would be an understatement.

"I know!" I yelled back, "That's total bullshit," I added, chuckling. Sky took a deep breath and calmed down before she asked, "So, what are we going to do?"