1 Step into the Pit
Year 8089
Seraphyne Lycanwood has always been having doubts about fortune-telling, palmistry, and name-reading.
Yet, her family's elders insisted on examining her name and birthdate character, exploring her future with a laundry list of predictions, from her lifespan, health, and career to even minor matters like potential marriage partners and compatibility rates.
When she was much younger, they predicted something quite strange. She has a lucky streak of romance blossoming primarily in the hands of men.
As the years rolled by, from age fifteen to thirty-one, Seraphyne got involved in numerous passionate affairs.
Sixteen years of vibrant love stories had etched themselves into her memory, each with a distinct charm, any of which could be written into a romantic novel individually.
But there was one love story that remained bittersweet.
In this final chapter of affection, her boyfriend's grand plan was to propose amidst the breathtaking beauty of Jökulsárlón, a glacial lagoon bordering Vatnajökull National Park in southeastern Iceland.
Tragically, an accident occurred during their journey, cutting her life short before Seraphyne could even reach the hospital.
Fate seemed to play a miraculous hand.
Was Seraphyne undeniably fortunate?
Or perhaps she was destined never truly to meet her end?
Was love like a game to play?
Or was she the player who got played terribly?
Astonishingly, her own reflection was replaced with an identical person, same face, same name, and possessed the same birthmark.
However, this woman is NOT HUMAN!
Without waiting for a long time, the fog that kept her confused cleared up slowly. Disclosing an unexpected secret that she had, in fact, stepped into the pages of a novel. The lines between reality and fiction became blurred, and Seraphyne found herself in a narrative beyond her imagination.
Coincidentally, Seraphyne Lycanwood had planned to take an extended vacation leave before stepping into an unforeseen adventure. The flight to her destination felt like an eternity of boredom.
On the way, she remembered her sister's persistent pestering, which finally led her to open a recently published romance novel her sister downloaded before she left.
The book was explicitly a werewolf-themed tale targeted at teens and new adults found on an online platform called Celestine. And her sister never forgot to ask her to write a book review on the forum.
For an adult like Seraphyne, the story didn't hold much allure.
The heroine of the book, while introverted, displayed remarkable intelligence. The story revolves around the encounter between the 'gentle human' transfer student and the Alpha's son.
This romance is a forbidden love story.
It's another typical blend of an Alpha werewolf heartthrob and a fragile school nerd. The plot wove through various misunderstandings, which became the foundation of their beautiful love story.
From classic werewolf-human pursuits to fighting battles together and promising weddings.
Truthfully, Seraphyne wasn't particularly drawn to such cliché werewolf teen fiction. Fortunately, her sister's novel wasn't lengthy, comprising just a few hundred thousand words in total.
But what she could never have anticipated was that one day, she would somehow become a part of this very story.
'Thank the heavens above, I'm not dressed as the heroine!'
It's as though fate, too, found it unjust to plant her thirty-one-year-old soul within a high school setting. She wasn't cast as the heroine, nor was she a schoolgirl skilled in battles of attraction and intrigue. Instead, she found herself in the role of the hero's stepmother.
The novel delves into complicated details about the families of both main characters.
The hero's father, an Alpha of the Bloodmoon Pack, the second largest werewolf pack in the country, was a self-made business executive who launched his enterprise during his university years. In just over five years, he surged from humble beginnings to a place on the rich list, becoming a model of successful entrepreneurship and a fearsome Alpha leader.
While his mother, the daughter of an elite household, loves art more than anything else. Her passion for little sentiments and emotional cravings overpowered her will to replace people in her life. She could have been the ideal wife and mother, but she's selfish enough.
So, the hero's parents weren't united in harmony.
Their peaceful divorce when he was eight left him in a single-parent household, receiving material compensation without the warmth of familial bonds.
The father-son relationship lacked closeness, leaving both without the comfort of affectionate ties.
On the other hand, the heroine was adopted by an old grandma.
She is a rich lady who loves to travel to different places. When she saw the heroine on her doorstep in the middle of a stormy night, she couldn't help but feel pity for the child. So, she raised her without missing anything.
One day, the old woman settled near the Bloodmoon pack's territory and sent the heroine to Renacimiento Cenizas Academy. The heroine then meets her birth parents, who are powerful and extraordinarily rich. She was destined to fulfill fate's will and lived happily.
But before that, some events happened in the hero's home.
During the year when the male lead reached the age of seventeen, his father decided to tie the knot once more.
Fanatical readers were pleased by the fact that while the father might not be the most likable person around, he certainly wasn't confused about his decision.
Unlike some tales, he didn't introduce a stepmother into the hero's life in jeopardy, nor did he allow another person to disrupt his son's life. In common stepmother stories, the father's character would also undergo a transformation after marrying the person, but the Alpha stayed true to his principles.
The unfortunate newcomer to the story was the stepmother, who was dismissed to the shadows as a mere silhouette in the grand narrative.
Her appearances were so scarce that she could be considered the epitome of a background figure.
Even when the pack's household bustled with activity, the pack's Luna and the Alpha's mate still remained isolated.
Seraphyne found herself genuinely calm in the character's portrayal, full of emptiness.
The moment Seraphyne took on the role of another person, her subsequent fate became understandable to her. Yet, this stepmother character was oddly devoid of detail, much like a blank canvas.
She was thinking about the stepmother having secret identities.
'It must be possible, and it's a fantasy world after all.'
It was as if the author, or perhaps Seraphyne's own sister, had purposefully withheld information, driving her to near-madness as she attempted to piece together the gaps. She also tried to recall those scenes where the stepmother appeared in the book to wave her presence.
One certainty remained amidst the fog of uncertainty.
Bloodmoon's Alpha displayed no inkling of affection for his current wife. It was an emotional landscape Seraphyne could almost taste despite its minimal description.
'Very bitter!'
The Alpha was described as passionate about all things except love.
Had Seraphyne not met her untimely end while en route to that fateful marriage proposal, she'd be screaming her grievances to the heavens.
How could she possibly accept the notion of stepping into the grave when she hadn't even savored enough of life's romantic intricacies?
Yet, echoes of the fortune-tellers' words whispered within her head.
"Keep your distance from men and embrace the gift of life."
In a matter of moments, she transitioned into a mode where love seemed like a distant memory, and all worldly desires vanished into thin air.
The longing for the mundane aspects of life, like love, no longer held sway over her.
This is being cruel to oneself by hiding emotions in the most concealed part of the limbic system. There was a debate between the heart that feels and the brain that controls emotions. Yet science tells us that the brain decides everything and the heart only functions to pump blood and keep you alive.
Considering all this, she engaged with an unanticipated choice, assuming the role of a married individual, lying flat, so to speak.
'I'll be happy as a salted fish.'
The whirlwind of existence had carried her to a place where resisting her new identity felt futile.
But she's not married to anyone BUT THE ALPHA!
After Seraphyne's unexpected crossing into this bewildering futuristic fantasy world called Sitnalta, three days have slipped by in a daze.
She lacked some sleep in thinking about future events. Many things had been deciphered in this short span, propelled by the pressing weight of her odd situation. Yet, amidst the revelations, she could also hear her inner struggle.
The knowledge that she was not human remained engraved in her thoughts.
She is a hybrid, a union of both werewolf and vampire essence.
It was as if a storm raged within her, tugging at the fabric of her understanding. The realization gnawed at her. She was an entity beyond her known norms, simultaneously belonging to two dangerous antagonistic races.
'I'm also a product of a forbidden love?'
The mingling of these supernatural aspects made her question her place within the narrative she now inhabited.
Would her hybrid nature lead to acceptance or rejection within this world?
Would it stir fear or fascination?
These uncertainties coiled around her like misty tendrils.
A shroud veiled her path forward.
'Did the Alpha know?'
