Alpha's Reborn Mate

CHAPTER 2 : REBIRTH

Samirah was in pain when she died.

All the talk about easy deaths and 'you won't feel anything when you die' were absolute bullshit. No matter the method, gentle or horrible, it hurt just the same.

Pain was a tangible thing in the last moments of her life. A few breaths were left and if it was up to her, she'd end then early to get rid of the pain. As destiny would have it, she did die a horrible death.

She remembered dying surrounded by people who wanted her to be in hell. It was very real. Yet, right now it seemed like an exceptionally horrible nightmare.

In the back of a lecture hall, Samirah touched her stomach, poked her arm and felt her head. Everything was normal. She wasn't bleeding. There were no signs of wounds on her arms. She didn't have a fever either. Her hair was short, reaching right under her shoulders as it did in her teenager years.

There had to be a glitch in the Matrix. Or else why would she be sitting in the lecture hall, surrounded by her peers who later spat at the mention of her name?

Her ears gained clarity. Faint chatter could be heard under the roaring words of the professor. The one next to her accidentally elbowed her. The faint pain abruptly brought to reality.

"Samirah, do you have an extra pen?" The girl next to her asked in a soft whisper. Samirah turned to her in a daze. She remembered the girl.

Her name was Alice. Her hair was usually tired into a messy hairstyle, eyes always down cast. And her sense of existence was so low that no one would notice her even if they were next to her. Which was why Samirah did not remember her much.

Samirah sat next to her for an entire year in school but they never spoke to each other. That was eight years before her death.

"Yeah," Samirah handed her the pen she was holding. Alice smiled brightly and whispered, "Thanks! I'll return it to you after the test!"

It was the first time she had spoken to Alice. Her eyes were a beautiful honey color and her smile was very bright. How did she not get noticed for so long? Samirah had a fleeting thought.

Samirah nodded without thinking. A test was least of her concerns. Her heart was pounding as if someone was agressively drumming on it.

Her eyes were soaking in her surroundings in hopes to find a clue of what was happening. How come she was back here? Why was anyone saying anything? Didn't they hate her?

Samirah once again turned to Alice and gently patted her shoulder. Alice looked up.

"Um, can you tell me the date?" She asked. Alice was taken aback by the question. She didn't think anyone in their class could forget the day.

With a soundless chuckle, Alice answered, "1st December 2023. Our last test for the semester. You forgot?"

Samirah shook her head, "No, just making sure I got it right. Thanks."

Alice waved the pen, "No problem."

Samira stared at the clean sheet on her desk, a million emotions were creating a havoc in her head. She was back? Eight years before her death. She was 18 years old. When everything had yet to go wrong. When Samirah could still change her destiny.

Replacing the anxious beating of her heart was a rush she never felt before. It was exhilarating. Exciting her body into an uncontrollable tremble. She wanted to run out of the lecture hall and scream at the top of her lungs that she was back!

Samirah had no idea how it happened or what led to this but it mattered very little to her. In the end all she knew was that the chance that was impossible to have was finally in her grasp. She'd be an i***t to let it go.

"Samirah, write." Alice's whisper cut into her ears, bringing her back from her thoughts. Samirah stared at the sheet of paper with questions on it.

She hadn't written anything yet and neither was she in the mood for it. Essentially, Samirah was a good student. Not at the top in her grade but surely in the upper middle. Previously, she could have easily written this paper. But how could she do the same now?

Her mind was playing the cruelty of the next eight years. She didn't remember her fourth semester syllabus!

Hence, Samirah spent the next hour trying to guess her way through the paper and ran out of the hall after submitting it. She didn't have many friends during school and similarly didn't have any plans for the last day of exams.

Thinking about her parents at home, she took a detour to waste as much time as possible. She wanted to feel the taste of living once again. When you die once, living feels like a luxury. The things that she didn't think we're important were sudden making her eyes heat up with tears.

Samirah was on the sidewalk along the pack house of her pack (Forest Ridge Pack) when her phone buzzed. She took out her phone and scoffed at the callers name.

Samirah didn't have many friends, that was true. However, it was impossible to be alone through years of schooling. Samirah found that friend in Thea.

And that's what led to her demise in the end. Samirah cursed the night they met and when she decided that Thea was that one person she could call a friend for the rest of her life.

Samirah ignored the call, put her phone on silent and went to a park. She brought an ice cream and sat on a bench where sunshine was falling in abundance. This was living. She craved it the most when she ran out of her last breath.

As Samirah savoured the taste of her ice cream, she thought about what to do next.

It was already December, which meant she had to think of her future plans after graduation in a month. However, as she sat there, she couldn't help but think about her previously lived eight years. Where did she go wrong? If she had to blame, she'd blamed herself for that one evening when she met Alan. She was only thirteen when they met.

Alan in her memory of that evening was the perfect man. Brave and lovely. Samirah had joined her school for a summer camp activity outside the pack. She accidentally slipped into the river and nearly drowned. Alan had saved her back then. He wasn't from her pack.

He was on a trip with his own school as it was popular spot for field trips. However, after they met each other, Alan made frequent trips all the way to forest ridge to see her. Eventually, he transferred over to forest ridge to continue his studies. That's when they got even closer.

The way he carried himself was graceful, his looks were exceptional and his care towards Samirah was dangerously misleading. At that time Samirah didn't see the calculations behind those smiles and sweet words. At the moment Samirah couldn't relate with herself of the past. Because she couldn't think of that face without feeling thoroughly disgusted.

Mates and lovers were a thing of the past. Pure mates were rare and the legacy of werewolves were left behind in dusty books and history lessons. The packs mingled with humans and left behind their backward mindset of discrimination between people.

Just like any other werewolf of her generation, Samirah also didn't hope to find a pure mate as they were legends at most. She found Alan to be the perfect partner for her. He liked her, she liked him. What else would they possibly need inorder to live a good life?

Now, Samirah realised that loving someone wasn't enough to live. It makes you kill and gets you killed sometimes.

Alan and Samirah got together without the consent of her guardians after they turned eighteen. Her aunt and uncle had already arranged a partner for her by then. Samirah didn't even bother knowing who it was. Because in her opinion, they were always selfish and did whatever they wanted without asking for her opinion.

They took over her parents properties as soon as they died and raised her as an auction item who could be sent over to anyone who bid higher.

They didn't treat her badly or abused her. But Samirah grew up with the feeling in her heart that that they took everything from her and isolated her. It gave birth to a deeper emotion of estrangement. Alan was the only one who cared for her then and naturally he became the man she put first in her heart.

However, thing started to go wrong right when she agreed to run away with him. She stole money from her uncle's safe, ran away with Alan and went rogue as she cut off the pack seal from her skin. Alan didn't do it and fearing that he'd feel pressured, she didn't force him either.

That false sense of freedom was a sweet poison.

Samirah lived with Alan in a rented apartment. Thea was the only person she was in contact with. She'd come to visit and stay overnight sometimes. Samirah took up jobs to support them.

Samirah was willing to work hard and provide so that Alan could chase his dreams. Alan was the third son was an Alpha and wanted to fight for the Alpha position. Samirah did her best to support him. However, just as they got there, she found that it was Alan alone who had succeeded.

Alan had taken her to the banquet after he got the Alpha position, and was left behind. She found them behind the curtain by the kitchen, locking lips. Thea finally shed her pretense. They had always been pretending in front of Samirah. Using her to build a path for them.

They made her fight everyone, made her work harder than she did for herself, made her a traitor to her own pack while they remained stainless. What did she get in return? Betrayal and shame.

She was accused of being the adulter when she wanted to expose them. Alan cried in front of everyone, saying that he had found Samirah with someone else and Thea comforted him. Then he smoothly revealed the veil over their relationship and announced that Thea was his pure mate.

The mases were driven by the Alpha's pitiful appearance. Samirah became the person despised by everyone. She had turned her back on forest ridge back then, and this time they did the same.

With no one to fall back on, Samirah was afraid to move. She wanted to fight back but they kept piling up blames on her back, made her a killer in front of people. They trapped her so tightly in their games that it was impossible for her to escape.

In the end she died in an attempt to run away. She felt the shame of being a prey as they hunted her down. The wounds weren't there but the pain was still fresh in her mind.

The ice cream melted between her fingers and dropped on the green grass, turning it sticky. Samirah was lost in the memories of past. When she snapped back to present, the sun was already about to set. Golden hues covered the sky. It was getting late.

Samirah threw away the soggy cone and washed her hands with tap water.

"Samirah!" A soft voice called her from a distance. Samirah paused and turned. Alice jogged towards her with a leashed dog. When they reached her, the dog barked at Samirah, then sat down and refused to budge.

The dog glared at Samirah with it's savage eyes, as if it wanted to tear at her. Samirah smiled and waved at the dog, adding to it's agitation.

Alice saw their interaction and laughed, "He likes you!"

"Really?"

"Yes. I'm helping my neighbour with her dog. He rarely likes people," Alina looked through her sling bag and found the pen that was lended to her in the morning. She handed it to Samirah.

"Thanks for the pen."

Samirah stared at the pen for a few seconds. Her fingers clenched around the slim and slightly warm body. She tried very hard to remember wheather this happened previously. Even after combing through her memories, Alice did not appear in it.

"No problem. How was your test?" Samirah asked in an attempt to start a small talk. Alice was a cheerful person with lots of interests. When Samirah took the initiative, she wasn't to be left behind.

Alice and Samirah spent an hour together, talking about trivial things. Samirah learnt a lot about Alice in that one hour. And she dared to say that she gained a friend. Only time would tell the authenticity of the friendship. For now Samirah was content with having at least one person to look for even times would get hard.

Thea was already thrown out of the list. In her place was Alice.