Chapter 1 CHAPTER 1

Ophelia’s POV

I died reading a werewolf romance novel at 3 AM on a Tuesday.

Pretty pathetic, right? But that's literally what happened. One second I was lying in bed, eyes burning from staring at my phone screen, totally invested in whether the Alpha would finally confess his feelings to the Omega. The next second—nothing.

Just... gone.

No dramatic life flashing before my eyes. No tunnel of light. No choir of angels. Just instant blackness, like someone flipped a switch.

And now I was... somewhere. Nowhere? I couldn't tell.

It was dark. Like, really dark. The kind of darkness where you can't even see your hand in front of your face—not that I could tell if I still had hands. Did I have hands? Was I even... me?

"Okay, Ophelia, don't freak out," I muttered to myself. Or tried to. Did I have a mouth? "This is fine. Totally fine."

It wasn't fine.

"I mean, I wasn't that bad of a person, right?" I continued talking to the void. "I recycled sometimes. I was nice to dogs. I only lied about finishing my homework like... sixty percent of the time. That's gotta count for something."

The darkness didn't answer.

"So this can't be Hell," I reasoned. "Hell would have, like, fire and screaming and probably my aunt Linda. This is just... nothing. Maybe I'm in a coma? Yeah, that's gotta be it. I'm totally in a coma right now, and the doctors are probably freaking out, and Mom is—"

My chest tightened. Mom.

Oh god, Mom was gonna find me. She'd walk into my room to wake me up for school and find her daughter dead in bed, phone still in hand, surrounded by empty energy drink cans.

"No, no, no," I whispered. "She's gonna blame herself. She's gonna think it's her fault for not making me go to bed earlier. She's gonna—"

I couldn't finish the thought. The guilt hit me like a truck.

"Okay, Ophelia, get it together," I told myself firmly. "This is probably just a really weird dream. A super realistic, terrifying dream. If I just close my eyes and count to ten, I'll wake up and everything will be normal."

I closed my eyes. Or at least, I think I did. Hard to tell in complete darkness.

When I opened my eyes again, there was light.

Soft, silver light that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. It wasn't harsh or blinding—more like moonlight filtering through clouds.

"Okay, this is new," I said slowly, looking around.

I looked down at my hands, flexing my fingers. They looked normal. I was wearing the same pajamas I'd died in—oversized t-shirt and shorts with little cartoon cats on them.

"Ophelia."

I jumped about three feet in the air. The voice was soft and feminine, but it seemed to echo from all directions at once.

"Who's there?" I spun around, heart pounding. "Look, if you're Death or the Grim Reaper or whatever, I just wanna say I'm really sorry about all the times I joked about wanting to die. I didn't actually mean it, I swear!"

"Peace, child."

The silver light grew brighter, coalescing into a shape. A figure emerged from the glow—a woman, tall and ethereal, with long silver hair that seemed to float around her like she was underwater. Her eyes were the color of moonlight, and when she smiled, I felt like I was being wrapped in the world's softest blanket.

"You are not dead," she said gently. "Well, technically you are. But not permanently."

"I... what?"

"Allow me to introduce myself." She dipped her head slightly. "I am the Moon Goddess."

I blinked. Once. Twice.

"The... Moon Goddess."

"Yes."

"Like, from the werewolf novels?"

"The very same."

I stared at her. She stared back, patient and serene.

"Okay, I'm definitely dreaming," I said finally. "Or having a really weird dying hallucination. Is this what happens when you die reading trash novels at 3 AM? Your brain just short-circuits and makes up fantasy crap?"

Moon Goddess's lips twitched. "I assure you, this is quite real."

"Sure it is." I crossed my arms. "Next you're gonna tell me werewolves are real and I'm the chosen one or something."

"Actually, yes. That's precisely what I'm about to tell you."

I laughed. It came out kind of hysterical. "No way. Nope. This is insane. I'm insane. I finally cracked from lack of sleep and now I'm having a psychotic break."

"Ophelia, please—"

"My mom always said I needed better sleep habits! She was right! I should've listened! Now look at me, making up Moon Goddesses and—"

"OPHELIA."

Moon Goddess's voice didn't get louder, but suddenly it was all I could hear. The silver light pulsed, and I felt a wave of calm wash over me, cutting through my panic.

I took a shaky breath. "Okay. Okay. I'm listening."

"Thank you." Moon Goddess stepped closer, and the space around us seemed to shift. Suddenly we weren't in empty darkness anymore—we were standing on what looked like a platform made of solidified moonlight, floating in a star-filled void.

"What you need to understand," Moon Goddess began, "is that the world you knew—your world—is just one of many."

She waved her hand, and suddenly I could see them. Countless threads of light, stretching out in all directions like a massive, glowing spider web. Each thread pulsed with energy, and I somehow knew that each one represented a different world, a different reality.

"These are the timelines," Moon Goddess explained. "Infinite possibilities, infinite worlds, all existing simultaneously."

"Like parallel universes?" I asked, trying to wrap my brain around it.

"Essentially, yes." Moon Goddess focused on one particular thread, and it zoomed toward us. "This is Aravorn—a world where werewolves are real, where packs rule territories, and where I am worshipped as the supreme deity."

The thread expanded, becoming a window into another world. I could see forests and mountains, medieval-looking villages, and—holy crap—actual werewolves. People who could shift into massive wolves, their eyes glowing in the moonlight.

"Okay, that's actually pretty cool," I admitted.

"It was," Moon Goddess said softly. "Until recently."

The image shifted, and my stomach dropped. The same beautiful landscape, but now it was... wrong. The forests were withered and dark. The villages were in ruins. And the werewolves—their eyes weren't glowing with natural light anymore. They were blood red, and the wolves looked twisted, corrupted.

"What happened?" I whispered.

"The timeline is breaking," Moon Goddess said grimly. "A dark force has infected this world, twisting fate itself. If it's not stopped, Aravorn will fall into eternal darkness—and the corruption will spread to other timelines. Including yours."

I tore my gaze away from the horrifying images. "That's... that's awful. But what does it have to do with me?"

Moon Goddess turned to face me fully. "Everything. You, Ophelia, are uniquely suited to fix this."

"Me? I'm a sixteen-year-old who just died from staying up too late! What could I possibly—"

"The moment of your death created a connection," Moon Goddess interrupted. "Your soul's frequency resonated with Aravorn's timeline at the exact instant it began to fracture. This happens perhaps once in a trillion deaths across all timelines."

She created another visual display, showing my moment of death as a bright spark colliding with the damaged thread of Aravorn's timeline.

"Your consciousness pierced through the dimensional barrier at that precise moment," Moon Goddess continued. "You became entangled with Aravorn's critical nodes. In essence, your very existence can now serve as an anchor point—a way to stabilize the collapsing timeline."

"But that's just random chance," I protested. "There's nothing special about me!"

"Perhaps the timing was chance," Moon Goddess conceded. "But your preparation was not."

"Preparation? What preparation?"

Moon Goddess smiled. "All those werewolf novels you read. Every story, every trope, every piece of pack dynamics and werewolf lore—you absorbed that information. Your mind created neural pathways, frameworks for understanding this world's rules. You have, quite literally, pre-loaded the data necessary to navigate Aravorn."

I opened my mouth. Closed it. "You're telling me my trash reading habits actually matter?"

"Precisely. Your brain has been training for this task without you realizing it. You understand pack hierarchies, mate bonds, territorial disputes, the significance of the full moon—all of it."

I had to admit, that was kind of mind-blowing. "Okay, but still—why would I want to help? No offense, but this sounds super dangerous, and I'm, you know, dead."

Moon Goddess's expression turned knowing. "Think of your mother, Ophelia."

My chest tightened again.

"Right now, in your world, she's about to discover your body," Moon Goddess continued gently but firmly. "She will blame herself. She'll spend the rest of her life wondering if she could have saved you, if she'd only checked on you one more time."

Tears pricked my eyes. "That's not fair."

"No, it's not. But I can offer you a choice." Moon Goddess's voice softened. "Help me fix Aravorn's timeline, complete the tasks I set before you, and I will return you to your world. Your body will revive. Your mother will find you breathing, alive. It will seem like you simply fell into a deep sleep."

"You can do that?" Hope flared in my chest. "You can bring me back?"

"I can. But only if you succeed." Moon Goddess's gaze was steady. "This is no small task, Ophelia. The corruption runs deep, and the danger is very real. You could fail. You could be trapped in Aravorn forever, or worse."

"What's the alternative? I stay dead?"

"Yes."

I looked back at the image of corrupted Aravorn, then thought about my mom finding my body. About her crying at my funeral. About her living the rest of her life with that pain.

"What do I have to do?" I asked quietly.

Moon Goddess's smile was sad but approving. "The corruption centers around one individual—a young wolf named Ryan. He is the son of an Alpha King, and darkness is eating away at his soul. If he falls completely, the entire world falls with him."

Another image appeared—a teenage boy with black hair and sharp green eyes. Even in the vision, there was something fierce and guarded about him.

"Your mission is to purify the dark wolf shadow within his soul and guide him toward the light. Change his fate, and you'll restore the proper timeline. Save Ryan, save Aravorn, save you."

"Cool, cool. Super vague and metaphorical. Love it," I muttered.

"You won't be alone," Moon Goddess assured me. She raised her hand, and the silver light gathered beside her, taking shape.

A massive wolf materialized—or half-materialized. It was semi-transparent, made of moonlight and mist, but still clearly a wolf. Its fur was silver-white, and its eyes were the same luminous color as Moon Goddess's.

The wolf looked at me and snorted.

"Great, another kid," it said in a deep, distinctly sarcastic voice.