CHAPTER 385: CHAPTER 385: SECOND LIFE

Trevor had known about Asier; even without the memories of Yerofey, the man was one of the greatest rulers of Saha. He didn’t know if he wanted to know the rest. In his world, Asier had a queen, Calista, a dominant omega who matched his strength and temper, a woman praised by historians as his equal and the mother of his heirs. There was no mention of Yerofey in their life or any rumor about clandestine love between the two rulers.

Trevor guessed that in that last life, Yerofey had given up on Asier. Perhaps he had stepped aside willingly, choosing the empire over himself, the legacy over the memory of what they once shared. Perhaps that was his way of loving him, by letting him go, by ensuring that Saha and Palatine would live even if their love did not.

He sat back slowly, the rain’s rhythm flattening against the glass, in sync with Lucas’s soft breathing. His free hand reached to Lucas’s head and played with his soft, blonde hair, the strands slipping between his fingers like silk. The warmth there grounded him, making him feel alive, real, and vulnerable in a way that eternity could never be.

He turned his eyes to the writing again.

"I ended my first life after killing the alphas and those who sold me into slavery. It was ugly, but I don’t remember much. I didn’t want to. Pain becomes background noise when you’ve lived long enough. I’m not going to go into detail about my lives; only what’s important. I’ve tried to write them before, but this time... I don’t care if you believe me."

Trevor exhaled slowly. That line, ’I don’t care if you believe me,’ carried a sort of exhausted truth he had only ever seen in Lucas. He, too, had once written his memories and then turned away from them, refusing to relive what survival had already cost. Trevor had thought he understood the pain. He had been wrong until the memory of their lost child surfaced, a wound Lucas had never remembered but Trevor started to carry.

He brushed his thumb over the tablet, continuing.

"The second life was easier. Or maybe it only seemed that way because I knew what was coming. I was reborn with all the memories of the first, every mistake, every betrayal, every scream I had swallowed. So I did what any sane person would do. I hid what I was."

"I let the world think I was a quiet prince, harmless and forgettable. I masked my scent, suppressed every instinct, and watched others fight over crowns that meant nothing. But when I met him again, everything I had buried came undone. Asier.

The soldier with purple eyes and white-blonde hair and hands built for creation. He did not remember me, but I remembered him. And that was enough."

The script had tightened on the screen, as though written with trembling restraint.

"This time, I didn’t wait for him to find me. I chose him as my mate. I told him what I was. I let him mark me, and the bond that formed between us was unlike anything the researchers could ever measure. We built Saha from dust and war, while Palatine was rotting under the nobles’ grasp. Saha was more than an empire; it was a promise between us and for our future. How naive I’ve been thinking that it was our second chance. He ruled the world outside; I ruled the one within him.

Dominant omegas are interesting beings, keeping the madness of dominant alphas at bay while fighting with their own. I should have trusted him more."

Trevor’s throat constricted as he read the next line.

"The bond made us unbreakable, but strength attracts envy. The four dominant alphas, those who once belonged to me in the first life, found their way into this one. They wore the same names and faces and wanted the same thing as before. They wanted their dominant omega to be shared again. They remembered the taste of my blood, even if they didn’t know why."

"They came to Saha under the guise of allegiance. They swore loyalty to Asier, to our vision, to the new kingdom that would outshine the old. And for a time, I believed them. I should have known better. Old chains have long shadows."

The ink grew darker, lines pressed hard into the page.

"They waited until the bond anchored fully, until Asier and I were one, our pheromones and breath bound through mark and vow. I trusted them as friends this time, I thought that the previous life was just the worst time for all of us. The moment Asier was away from me, they struck. They killed me first, thinking it would break him. It didn’t. I survived enough to see how it destroyed him instead. I remember his scream. I remember his fury. I remember the world burning."

Trevor’s pulse had slowed to something faint, barely there.

"That was the second life, the life where I chose love and built power beside it. The life where I was marked by him, loved by him, and killed by the ghosts I thought I had left behind. A perfect circle of cruelty. I never blamed him for what followed.

How could I? I would have done the same. Let the world burn when my mate is hurt, when the future is stolen from us."

The next words came slower, uneven, as if written between breaths.

"I remember the fire. Not the kind that devours cities, but the one that eats through the soul. Asier tore the kingdom apart. He hunted them, one by one, until the sand itself smelled of ash and blood. He didn’t stop until their names were erased from every record, every lineage, every whispered prayer. He called it justice. I called it mourning."

"He buried me beneath the foundations of Saha’s first palace. My mark was sealed in the stone beneath his throne so that no one could claim the title without carrying my memory under their feet. He never remarried. The world called him ruthless. I called him mine."

Trevor’s eyes stayed fixed on the words, even when his vision blurred. The air in the room felt heavier, thick with something he couldn’t define as love, grief, or an echo of both.

"That was the second life. The life where I was not a victim, only a man who dared to believe that love could survive power.

It didn’t. But it became legend."

The screen dimmed for a heartbeat before revealing one final line, smaller, written as if Yerofey had whispered it rather than written it.

"In the next life, I didn’t choose love first."

Trevor closed the tablet without moving for a long time. The rain outside had softened into a steady hush, a rhythm that could almost be mistaken for breathing. Lucas slept soundly against him, unaware of the storm that had just passed through a dead man’s memories.

Trevor lowered his head until his lips brushed the crown of Lucas’s hair and placed a soft kiss.

The thunder rolled far off, muted and distant, like the echo of a promise made centuries ago.