Re-birth: The Beginning after the End - Chapter 32: TESTING BODY LIMITATIONS

Ethan's head throbbed violently as he opened his eyes, his vision hazy and unfocused. A dull ringing filled his ears, drowning out his thoughts.“What’s happening…?” he thought, his mind sluggish, struggling to catch up with reality. One moment, he was asleep—or at least, he thought he was—and the next, searing pain forced him awake.His vision swam, shapes blurring together in a disorienting mess. But then, muffled noises filtered through the haze—frantic, panicked sounds. Someone was trying to scream, their voice smothered, choked by something.A cold shiver ran down his spine.As his sight gradually sharpened, Ethan's breath hitched.He was on all fours, looming over someone. A girl.Her body twisted and writhed beneath him, ropes biting into her wrists and ankles. Her mouth was gagged, muffling her cries. Her wide brown eyes, brimming with fear and fury, glared up at him.Ethan's body locked in place, his blood running cold.“What the…?” His mind reeled, thoughts slamming into each other in chaotic disarray. “What kind of bizarre dream is this?”Panic clawed at his chest. His breath came in ragged, uneven gasps as he scrambled backward, only to realize his limbs felt sluggish, uncooperative, like they didn’t belong to him.“Is this… is this some kind of twisted fantasy I never knew I had?” A sickening thought slithered through his mind, making his stomach churn.The girl's frantic squirming slowed for a moment, her gaze flickering with confusion as she took in his expression—his trembling hands, his wide, horrified eyes. But the fear returned just as quickly. She struggled harder, her body arching, her muffled screams rising in pitch.Ethan wanted to speak, to say something, anything, but before he could force out a word, a glowing blue window materialized before his eyes.His breath caught.A translucent, hovering screen?“What…?”Lines of glowing text scrolled across its surface.---[System Activated…][Host Confirmed.][Simulating Previous Data…]Ethan awakens in a mysterious world, shackled by a curse that clouds his judgment and drives him toward choices he never wished to make. Burdened by guilt and responsibility, he must navigate the fallout of his actions while unraveling the truth behind the curse—and his place in this enigmatic new reality.

“I, Dominic Cherith, reject you, Inez Sinclair, as my mate. A lying, traitorous tramp like you has no right to become my mate and the Luna of this pack.”As a half shifter, Inez Sinclair had hoped and dreamt of the day when she would meet her mate for the first time. However, the dreamy fantasy turned into her hellish nightmare when her ex-best friend and mate rejected her in front of the pack.To cap it all, he did it with a trash can turned upside down on her head.The reason? She had betrayed him, but Inez had no idea about this unknown betrayal that he spoke of.After years of endless torment, this rejection was the final blow that broke the camel’s back. Inez finally came to face the reality that she had been ignoring for years.Her best friend was gone, and in place of him stood a fiend who looked at her as if she was his worst enemy.But what truly broke her was the last betrayal of her mate.Withholding the last fragments of their mating bond, Dominic slept with another shifter—a shifter she despised and loathed, causing Inez to feel every bit of pleasure he gave the woman. Hear every sigh and moan through their mating bond.The impact broke her and left her wolf half dead.Not wanting to waste any more time with the awful bastard, Inez was prepared to run away from the pack, even if it meant to die as a rogue or live between humans where the fanatics could kill her for being a shifter.Only if she knew that Dominic blamed her for the death of his sister Abertha.And he caught her stealing the Tears of Sirens in the surveillance recording—the magical remedy that could bring the dead back to life!Ironically, Inez was part siren.Something she never relayed to anyone in the pack, not even Dominic for shifters took sirens as their slaves, tormenting them in hope that they would shed Tears of Siren. The endless torment only brought one thing to sirens: Death.She swore to never let anyone find out about the truth—that was until she ran into Killian Sokolov, an Alpha Lycan shifter.A man of sheer masculinity and charm and an unknown anger packed in ice so thick.With his slick lies, he could win the heart of any woman but refuses to leave her alone after finding out that Inez was part siren.But as a part siren, why would Inez steal the Siren’s tears? And if she didn’t steal them, whom did Dominic see in the surveillance recording?As secrets unfolds and boundaries set in stones disappear –Would Inez and Killian give love a second chance, letting go of their past? And to what lengths would Dominic go if he found out the truth?Will Killian be able to heal her broken heart before all is lost?

Joanne Smith, weighed down by significant debt and humiliated by Jeffrey Winchester's cruel rejection just a day before their wedding, transformed her life into that of a multi-millionaire entrepreneur, allowing love to fade into memory.Joanne had one rule in life: money first, emotions later. She built an empire from the ground up, balancing her booming logistics company with the peace of her family farm.When a rugged stranger shows up, desperate for a place to stay, Joanne reluctantly takes him in as a paying guest. But little does she know, he’s not just any guest. He’s the man who brutally rejected her years ago, the one she’s long since forgotten.And he remembers everything differently.Now, living under her roof, he’s fueled by the sting of his own downfall and a hunger for revenge.Will the truth tear her world apart—or bring a reckoning neither of them saw coming?Join me on this incredible journey to find out!I will provide daily updates, and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Please consider leaving a review and supporting me with GTs, Power Stones, and gifts.I hope you enjoy this story as much as I enjoy writing it!

As a human, I should be miles away from any large shifter event. Especially the annual Mate Hunt.A hunt for mates. Doesn't that sound barbaric? Yeah, it's as bad as it sounds.Several packs in the area gather as their newly minted adult wolves shift. Females are let into the woods first and are given an hour's head start, just before sundown. Then it's time for the males, ostensibly thrown out to hunt down the scent of their fated (or chosen) mates.It isn't an event for the faint of heart, and it's definitely no place for someone who can't shift. So why the fuck am I here, running my little human heart out, chased by what sounds like an entire pack of wolves? Great question. I don't know, either.But I'm here.Surrounded by howls fueled by the thrill of the hunt.Feet bleeding. Lungs freezing.I am so fucked.----R18. Dark themes, including but not limited to: Murder, attempted murder, a stack of dead bodies, betrayal, mild sociopathy, an ML who appears to bathe in red flags despite his favorite color being green, an unwarranted hatred of blueberry muffins, and pillow thievery.