Reborn in the Beast Domain: My Moon Wolf's Soothing Power Went Viral

“Useless! Eighteen years of raising her, completely wasted!”

“If she can’t awaken a bloodline this time, we sell her and take the bride price!”

The shrill voice cut all the way up to the second floor. Nerissa Ashford’s eyes flew open. She stared, still shaking, at the old ceiling above her, heart hammering.

The agony of having the last drop of soothing power wrung out of her seemed not to have faded. It lingered at the ends of her nerves, pain so vivid it felt like a hallucination. Nerissa pressed a hand to her racing heart and looked, dazed, around the familiar room.

Hadn’t she been in the underground black market, with researchers draining the soothing power out of her? How had she ended up back in the Ashford house?

She tried reflexively to move, and found she had her slender, straight legs back. The uncontrollable feral form was gone.

Ever since Nerissa awakened her Moon Wolf bloodline, her body had refused to hold any shape but the Moon Wolf’s. She had not seen her own legs in a very long time. Every morning she opened her eyes to the same sight: ugly, festering beast marks, a little worse than the day before.

But now...

Nerissa looked down at her legs, smooth and healthy, and a thought struck her, sudden and absurd—

Could she... have been reborn?

The instant the word crossed her mind, a shiver went through her. She fumbled along memory and found the phone on her nightstand.

She lit the screen at once. The time in the upper left corner read: Imperial Year 2109, March 4th, Wednesday, ten o’clock exactly.

For an instant a low hum filled Nerissa’s mind. She really had been reborn. Reborn on the eve of her awakening.

She knew what came at noon: the Ashfords would send her to the Testing Center for her final bloodline test. If she still failed to awaken anything, they would write her off as a discard and marry her into the Thorn family, to an old man.

In her last life, Nerissa had sat through that final test sick with dread. She prayed as devoutly as she knew how, and the testing stone never lit. Everyone present laughed at her. The Ashfords lost so much face that before they were even home they announced she would be sold into the Thorn family.

Nerissa wanted no part of that fate. So when Silas Vale offered to take her away, she seized it like a drowning woman grabbing the last straw, and agreed to go with him.

What she had not expected was that fate was playing an enormous joke at her expense.

Because the moment she fled the Ashfords in despair, following Silas Vale, she awakened the Moon Wolf bloodline — utterly out of the blue.

A beastkin who awakens a bloodline takes on its traits. For Nerissa, the most striking trait was this: her body became a Moon Wolf.

Silas Vale saw all of it. He soothed her panic with perfect gentleness, and he even contacted her best friend, Camille Leroux, to come and look after her.

At the time, Nerissa had counted herself lucky. Lucky to have met two good people in Silas Vale and Camille Leroux.

Of course, later, after the two of them sold her to the black market together, she understood just how breathtakingly stupid she had been. Meeting those two was the worst luck of eight lifetimes.

The thought of them brought up a hatred so fierce it burned. Nerissa dragged in several deep breaths and forced herself calm.

It was all right. She had been reborn.

In this life, no one had discovered her Moon Wolf bloodline yet. There was still time.

The phone in her hand buzzed. Messages mentioning her were popping up one after another in the [Ashford Family Glory] family group.

[Rosalie Ashford]: @Nerissa Ashford Sis, Mom told me to let you know. If you can’t test out any useful bloodline talent this afternoon, the Thorn family’s bride price gets signed. ~

[Rosalie Ashford]: Honestly, marrying Mr. Thorn wouldn’t be so bad. Sure, you’d be his second wife, but he’s an A-rank beastkin. More than enough for a trash bloodline like yours. ~

[Second Aunt]: Letting her be Mr. Thorn’s second wife is already generous, ha. If she didn’t have that adopted-daughter status, she couldn’t beg her way into a match like that.

[Great-Uncle]: Once the bride price comes in, we can set a portion aside for Rosalie’s awakening fund next year.

[Rosalie Ashford]: Thank you, Great-Uncle~ I’ll work hard and awaken properly. Not like some people, eighteen with no beast form at all~

Nerissa read down the list without expression, feeling nothing.

She was the Ashfords’ adopted daughter. When she was small, they had treated her well enough. But as she grew and still failed to awaken the slightest bloodline talent, they grew impatient, and then contemptuous. They moved her into the worst room in the house, made her work alongside the maids, and beat and humiliated her at the slightest excuse.

That was why, in her last life, Nerissa had been so determined to get out. She knew the Ashfords would throw her away without a flicker of hesitation, and then squeeze every coin of principal and interest out of the investment they had made in her.

Nerissa was done with the Ashfords. Even knowing she would awaken the Moon Wolf bloodline soon, she had no wish to stay another day.

If the Ashfords had not one scrap of family feeling for her, why should she stay and use her Moon Wolf soothing power to make them rich?

Did they deserve it?

She looked at the phone. Her eyes went cold.

But the first order of business was this: how to leave the Ashfords safely.

She could not possibly go with Silas Vale. But if she did not leave with him, she would awaken in the small hours of the night.

The worst of it was that the awakening would release soothing power she could not control. Beastkin were keenly sensitive to soothing power. The entire Ashford household would feel it the instant it happened, and they would lock her down tight.

And she would not be able to stop herself from shifting into Moon Wolf form, which would make escaping the Ashford house — already difficult — nearly impossible.

So she had to get far away from the Ashfords before the Moon Wolf bloodline awakened, and find somewhere safe enough to awaken.

Which raised the question: who, as things stood, had both the power to take her out of the Ashfords’ reach, and the trustworthiness to be relied on absolutely?

She turned it over and over. Only one person came to mind—

The Imperial Marshal, Lucian Draven.

As far as Nerissa knew, Lucian Draven suffered from a severe case of beastkin Rage and badly needed soothing power to treat it. If she proposed a deal, there was a good chance he would take it.

Beyond that, during her time in the underground black market, she had heard more than once about Lucian Draven cracking down on the illegal trade there. Clearly he was no friend of the black market.

Most important of all, by pure chance she had once seen Lucian Draven’s private number. She had even spoken a few words to him on that call.

On the phone, he had told her he was about to break up the underground black market, and that she should hold on a little longer.

But she had not lived long enough to see him come.

They drained the last drop of soothing power out of her. She died in an underground laboratory. Just before the end, she thought she heard the laboratory doors blown in...

If there was anyone left in the world worth trusting, Nerissa could think of only one name: Lucian Draven.

The phone sounded again. Nerissa came back to herself and saw it was a message from Silas Vale.

[Silas Vale]: Your bloodline test is this afternoon. Nervous?

That dead bastard. Nerissa swallowed down the hatred boiling up in her, smiled coldly, and typed out the same line she had sent in her last life: [I’m so nervous. What if I still can’t test out a bloodline?]

Silas Vale replied, still dripping with devotion: [It’s okay. Even if you never awaken a bloodline, I’ll love you just the same.]

Nerissa nearly laughed out loud. Love me, and then sell me into the underground black market?

He talked a beautiful game. Talking beautifully was all he could do.

Nerissa was certain Silas Vale did not love her the way he claimed. Why he had approached her at all, she still had never worked out.

And she was past caring. Men that rotten and that false — once she found her chance and grew strong enough, she would grind them into the ground.

Face cold, she typed a line: [Boohoo, I hope I test out a bloodline QAQ]

She closed the chat and opened the dialer.

There was no time left. It was ten now. Before long the Ashfords would take her communication devices and put her in the car for the Testing Center. If she wanted to reach Lucian Draven, this was her best chance.

She dialed the number she remembered.

The line rang. Her breathing quickened, and her heart began to race.

Would Lucian Draven even pick up an unknown number?

Would he believe a word she said? Would he agree to a deal?

Too many unknowns. But she was weak and had no power to protect herself, and the only thing she could do was gamble.

Three rings. Then the other end picked up.

A low male voice came through, carrying the cold restraint she remembered: “Hello?”

Nerissa drew a deep breath. Her voice came out calmer than she had expected.

“A deal, Mr. Draven?”