Chapter 1

My sister, Molly, and I were taken in by a remote Appalachian "Totem-Kin" community after our parents died. It was a strange place, built on a strict hierarchy. A man's worth was his "Clarity," his connection to his totem animal spirit. Alpha was a myth, Beta was elite, Gamma was average, and Delta was the lowest.

A woman's value was simpler, and crueler. It was judged by the rank of the children she could bear.

The community council presented all the single men for us to choose from. It was our only chance to secure a future.

In my first life, my sister chose the community's most prized bachelor, a powerful Beta-ranked wolf-kin. She was so proud. But her pride turned to ash when she gave him five children, and every single one was only a Gamma. The wolf-kin, his status threatened, was enraged. He cast her and her children out into the unforgiving wilderness. No other man would take her.

I, on the other hand, had listened to Molly's "kind" advice. "Choose Ryan Fowler," she'd said. "He's a Beta, but his rattlesnake totem makes him less demanding."

She was wrong. He was demanding in ways I could never have imagined. But our children... I gave birth to ten children, and every one of them was a powerful Beta. The community started to call me a blessed woman. Ryan was named the council's successor, all because of me.

Molly' s envy became a poison. A literal poison. She fed it to my ten children, one by one. As they lay dying, she dragged me to the edge of the highest cliff in our territory and pushed me. The feeling of falling, the sharp rocks below, the sight of my sister's smiling face shrinking above me-it was the last thing I knew.

Until I woke up.

I was standing in the great hall again, on the day of the choosing. The air was thick with the smell of pine and nervous sweat.

My head was still spinning, the phantom pain of my broken body a ghost on my skin. Before I could even process what was happening, I saw her.

Molly.

She was clinging to Ryan Fowler's arm, her fox ears twitching with excitement. She looked at me, and her eyes held a triumphant, knowing gleam.

She remembered. She was reborn, too.

She thought she was stealing my destiny. She had chosen the man who, in our last life, made me a matriarch. She believed she had just secured her own rise to power.

But I knew the truth about Ryan. And I knew something she didn't. The future wasn't set in stone.

This time, when she gave birth to his children, they wouldn't be Beta. They would be "unreadable." Worse than the lowest Delta. A curse upon their bloodline.

My turn would come. And this time, I would not be the trusting, gentle Gabby. This time, I would survive.