Reborn From Ashes The Lycan Regent's True Mate

Adelaide POV:

I spent my entire life striving to be the perfect adopted daughter of the Fields family and a worthy mate to Collin, our future Alpha.

But right before our ascension, I was thrown into the pack's darkest dungeon, falsely accused of treason.

My stepsister Ashley and adoptive mother Eudora came to gloat, watching coldly as silver chains seared my flesh to the bone.

"You were always just a placeholder, a tool to be used and discarded," Eudora sneered.

They told me my loyal brother was locked away, and my innocent best friend was burned to ash. Then, my mate Collin walked in, proudly confessing that he had planted the fake evidence. He did it all just to secure his Alpha title and make Ashley his Luna, slaughtering every warrior who defended me.

As the silver poison drained my life away, the hatred inside me coiled like a monster. Why did they take me in just to break me? Why was my absolute devotion rewarded with such a brutal betrayal?

Opening my eyes again, I wasn't a decaying corpse on a cold stone floor.

I was back in my fourteen-year-old body, on the exact night of the Summer Solstice.

The very night my "family" first plotted to drug me and send a brute into my bedroom to ruin my reputation.

This time, I neutralized the sedative, looked at my trembling, traitorous maid, and smiled.

"Now, I'm going to give you a chance to live."

***

The silver burned.

It was a cold fire, seeping from the chains around my wrists and ankles, straight into my blood. Every breath was a struggle, tasting of rust and the damp stone of the dungeon. My lungs felt like they were collapsing.

My wolf whimpered, a faint echo in the back of my mind. The poison was silencing her, killing us both from the inside out.

A grating screech of metal against stone broke the silence. The heavy iron door of the dungeon swung open.

A sliver of light pierced the darkness, landing on my bare, shackled feet. I forced my head up, my vision swimming. Two figures stood silhouetted against the light.

One wore a flowing dress, its delicate fabric a cruel joke in this filthy place.

My heart clenched. I knew them.

My stepsister, Ashley Carson, and my adoptive mother, Eudora Todd.

Ashley glided into the cell, her face a perfect mask of sweet concern that didn't reach her eyes. She looked down at me, a predator admiring her trapped prey.

"Oh, sister," she cooed, her voice like honey laced with arsenic. "You look so pathetic."

I tried to lunge, a useless, desperate movement. The silver chains bit deeper into my skin, searing my flesh. A choked gasp of pain was all I could manage. My skin sizzled where the metal touched it.

Eudora remained by the door, her arms crossed. Her gaze was distant, as if she were looking at a piece of furniture she was about to discard. There was no love, no pity. Nothing.

Ashley knelt, her expensive silk dress brushing against the grimy floor. She pulled out a lace handkerchief and made a show of dabbing at a smudge of dirt on my cheek, her touch filled with revulsion.

"Don't waste your energy," she whispered, her smile widening. "Collin will be the Alpha soon. And I will be his Luna."

The words hit me harder than any physical blow. Collin. My mate. The man I was supposed to lead this pack with. It all clicked into place. The accusations of treason, the falsified evidence—it was all a lie. A stepping stone for their ambition.

"Why?" The word was a raw scrape from my throat.

Eudora finally spoke, her voice as cold and hard as the dungeon walls. "Because you were never worthy."

She stepped forward, her shadow falling over me. "Did you really think Donovan Fields adopted you out of kindness? You don't deserve the Fields name. You are not one of us."

My mind went blank. All my life, I had strived to be the perfect daughter, the perfect warrior, worthy of the family that took me in.

Eudora's words were relentless, each one a hammer blow to the foundations of my identity. "Ashley is the future of this family. You were always just a placeholder. A tool to be used and discarded."

I remembered all the years of subtle digs, the constant comparisons. "Adelaide, why can't you be more like your sister?" "Adelaide, you're too aggressive for a future Luna." It was never about making me better. It was about breaking me.

Ashley leaned in, her breath warm against my ear as she delivered the final blows. "Your brother, Burke, tried to defend you. Collin had his warrior status stripped. He's locked away in the northern cells."

My heart fractured. Burke. My loyal, protective older brother.

"And your best friend," Ashley continued, twisting the knife. "That little healer, Celena. Accused of using forbidden magic to aid your 'rebellion'. They burned her this morning."

Celena. Her bright laughter, her fierce loyalty. Gone. Turned to ash because of me. Everyone who had ever stood by me, punished for their love.

My vision began to blur at the edges. The silver was winning. My life was draining away, second by second.

Eudora bent down, her face close to mine. Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, meant only for me. "Because your bloodline is tainted. It comes from a worthless, nameless Rogue."

That was it. The final piece of their cruel puzzle. The reason I was never good enough. It was a lie woven into the very fabric of my existence.

A laugh bubbled up from my chest, a broken, hideous sound. Blood trickled from the corner of my mouth. I met their eyes, my green irises no longer filled with pain or despair, but with a hatred so pure it felt like it could burn down the world.

For the first time, I saw a flicker of unease in their faces. They had wanted to break me, but they had created a monster instead.

They turned and left, their footsteps echoing in the sudden silence.

The iron door slammed shut, plunging me back into absolute darkness.

My breathing hitched, then slowed, then stopped.

But the hatred did not die. It lived. It grew. It coiled in the darkness, a promise of vengeance waiting to be born from my ashes.

—