Chapter 1

In my past life, my mate rescued an orphan girl from the battlefield of the witch clan—and she gave me a pair of hairbands.

From the moment I put them on, I felt drained of energy day after day. In the end, I contracted a filthy disease. My body rotted from the inside out, and I died.

Only after death did I learn the truth: she had been the lowest-ranked prostitute of the witch clan.

After their defeat, she had used her beauty to bewitch my mate. Once inside our Gem Pack, she performed a ritual exchange—trading bodies and destinies with me.

My mate became obsessed with her body while he let me die in a filthy corner.

After I died, they rolled me into a straw mat and threw me into a mass grave.

Only one person came for me—a lowly slave with no wolf, someone I had once helped at a royal banquet. He snuck out of the palace in secret and buried me.

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the moment she offered me those gem hairbands.

She wanted my alpha bloodline?

Fine. I would give her a body with no wolf.

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"The Alpha has won a great victory. Surely he'll be rewarded with a higher rank."

"Our Alpha returns triumphant. He truly is the pride of our pack."

The guests raised their glasses one after another, smiling toward my mate and me at the head table.

"Alpha Harlan is so blessed—he was gone three months on campaign, and the two luna awaited him faithfully. How enviable!"

Bella Vane had no formal status yet, but hearing herself called "luna" made her eyes gleam with barely restrained triumph. She glided to stand before me, her smile honeyed and sharp.

"Sister, I know how faithfully you've prayed for the Alpha all these months. I made a special trip to the Temple of the Moon Goddess on your behalf and asked the Moon Goddess to bless you with peace. Here—she sent this through me."

She produced a wooden hairband.

"If you wear it, Sister, I'm certain the Moon Goddess will grant the Alpha continued victory and a safe return."

In my past life, I had been overjoyed by my mate's triumphant homecoming—and so moved by Bella's gesture that I let her pin the band into my hair on the spot.

What I never imagined was that this wooden gem hairband was cursed.

The moment it touched my hair, it began swapping our bodies and destinies.

First came the exhaustion—my spirit drained, my body aching in the most shameful places. I called healer after healer, and none could name my ailment.

Meanwhile, Bella seemed to bloom overnight. She glowed. And night after night, she shared my mate's bed.

By the time I finally clawed my way back to consciousness, I was already rotting below. The stench clung to me like a second skin.

Bella stood at my bedside, waving her hand delicately in front of her nose, coiled against my mate like a snake.

"Oh my. It seems the luna has let herself be used and ruined—and caught herself a filthy disease."

Harlan's expression darkened.

"Lock this wretch in the dungeon. Anyone who brings her food or water gets beaten to death."

I tried to push myself upright, tried to speak—but no words came. I could only watch as Harlan turned and walked away without a second glance.

I died in that dungeon.

Until my last breath, I never understood how the mate who had once loved me so tenderly had become this cold, contemptuous stranger.

Only after my soul drifted upward did I learn the truth: Bella had been an enemy spy, a woman sold to satisfy men, defeated in battle. She had seduced my mate with her body and slipped into our Gem Pack under false pretenses.

She had been dying anyway. That gem hairband was her salvation—she used it to steal my identity and my fate.

I raged. But as a soul, I was powerless against her.

The music swelled around me. I blinked back to the present. Bella's eyes flashed with cold venom for just an instant before her expression smoothed into something soft and sweet. She extended the gem hairbands toward me.

"Let me put them on for you, Sister."