My Sister Stole My Bastard Prince Husband After Rebirth

On the day I was reborn, back at the royal bride selection, my older sister Amelia immediately claimed Lysander, the husband I'd had in my previous life. He was the serpent King's illegitimate son. Watching her cling to Lysander's arm in wild delight, I knew my sister had been reborn too. In our previous life, Amelia had immediately chosen Draco, the rightful heir. Draco was famously cold. He never once touched her after the wedding, then died in battle in the North less than a month later. Amelia was widowed young and became the laughingstock of the entire shifter world. As the second daughter, I was forced to marry the illegitimate son, Lysander. Once Draco died, my husband Lysander inherited the throne, and I became the kingdom's celebrated Queen. Driven mad by jealousy, Amelia stabbed me to death in broad daylight. In this life, she couldn't wait to claim Lysander for herself. One look at her greedy, self-satisfied smile, and I almost laughed. She had no idea that choosing Lysander was the road to hell. I had earned everything I ever had through my own strength. I had never needed a man! Chapter 1 On the day I was reborn, back at the royal bride selection, my older sister Amelia immediately claimed Lysander, the husband I'd had in my previous life. He was the serpent King's illegitimate son. Watching her cling to Lysander's arm in wild delight, I knew my sister had been reborn too. In our previous life, Amelia, the elder daughter of House Ellison, had immediately chosen Draco Ashford, the rightful heir. Draco was famously cold. He never once touched her after the wedding, then died in battle in the North less than a month later. Amelia was widowed young and became the laughingstock of the entire shifter world. As the second daughter, I was forced to marry the illegitimate son, Lysander. Once Draco died, my husband Lysander inherited the throne, and I became the kingdom's celebrated Queen. Driven mad by jealousy, Amelia stabbed me to death in broad daylight. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the banquet where King Alaric Ashford's two sons would choose their brides. Everyone assumed that as the eldest daughter, Amelia would choose Draco, who held the right of succession. No one expected her to choose Lysander without a second thought. “Everyone knows Prince Draco was born to rule. He needs a woman strong enough to stand beside him. But I'm... I'm not that woman. I only want a kind husband and a peaceful home. I believe Prince Lysander is my soulmate.” Lysander clearly hadn't expected the eldest daughter of House Ellison to choose an overlooked bastard like him. Lysander recovered at once, arranging his face into an awed, lovestruck smile. "Lady Amelia, being chosen by you is the greatest honor of my life. I swear I'll cherish you until my dying breath." Watching the two of them parade their nauseating devotion in front of the room, I nearly lost my dinner. Amelia shot me a provocative look, and in that moment, I knew she had been reborn too. I held her gaze. If only you knew what Lysander really was. "Since Amelia has chosen Lysander, then..." The King raised a hand, silencing the whispers. "Elena Ellison, Draco will be your betrothed." When Amelia had chosen Draco in our previous life, he hadn't offered so much as a polite word. He had simply ignored his new fiancee, turned, and walked away, leaving her alone in the center of the hall. Everyone knew Draco was proud and aloof, never one to spare anyone's feelings. That had been my sister's greatest humiliation in her past life. I braced myself for the same cold dismissal. Instead, Draco crossed the room, slipped off his custom-tailored jacket, and settled it gently around my shoulders. "You'll catch cold dressed like that. I couldn't stand it." Draco's voice was a low, velvet rumble. Then, before the stunned eyes of the entire room, he slowly knelt on one knee and produced a priceless black diamond ring from his pocket. "Elena." He bowed his head and pressed a reverent kiss to my knuckles. "I've waited a long time to call you my fiancee." What did he just say? He'd been waiting a long time? I was still reeling when Draco rose and drew me against him, one arm locked around my waist. The gesture was possessive, almost imperious, yet impossibly gentle. "Father, since my fiancee has been chosen, Elena and I will take our leave." He gave no one time to object. Without even glancing at Amelia's twisted face, Draco swept me into his arms and carried me out of the hall, honoring me in front of them all. I turned to look at Draco's chiseled profile, and my heart pounded out of control. Already, this life was veering onto a completely different path. Chapter 2 I glanced back and found Amelia rooted to the spot. She glared after us, her face warped with jealousy and her jaw clenched hard enough to crack a tooth. Then the fury drained from her face. She thought she knew how this story ended. In our previous life, the northern clans had revolted on our wedding day! As the legitimate heir, Draco had been forced to ride for the front at once. He had left before the vows were even over. A month later, he was dead, and his body had never been found! Amelia had to be laughing inside. Enjoy it while it lasts, Elena. Soon you'll be the pathetic widow! When the time came to prepare for the weddings, Amelia and Lysander started causing trouble at every turn. Because Draco was busy with official duties and frequently had to visit military camps to deploy troops, he couldn't attend many public events with me. To Amelia, that proved Draco was as selfish and cold as ever, unwilling to grant me even the bare minimum of courtesy in public. A few days later, the shifter nobility gathered for a reception. Amelia curled against Lysander and made sure her voice carried. "Oh, Elena. Alone again?" "Prince Draco doesn't even bother showing up for you? Is it because you don't know how to please a man?" I gave her one cold look and raised my teacup without a word. She took my silence for guilt and grew even more smug, deliberately tugging at her collar to reveal the telltale red marks covering her neck. "What can anyone expect, Elena? You walk around with that frozen expression and not an ounce of feminine charm." "A warrior like Prince Draco must be so disappointed in you. That's why he always leaves you all alone." Her voice climbed higher and sharper with every word, determined to reach the entire room. "Just look at how gentle and attentive Prince Lysander is with me! Tell me, Elena, has Draco even touched you yet?" The social-climbing nobles around her rushed to pile on. "Prince Lysander truly is the perfect husband! He's so devoted to Lady Amelia!" "Exactly. Lady Elena just can't hold on to her man. She deserves to be neglected." "If you can't even keep your own man's heart, you're destined to spend your married life alone!" Their cruelty almost made me laugh. They had no idea that on the night of our engagement, Draco had climbed through my window. Draco, the ruthless heir everyone feared, had crouched beside my bed like a wounded puppy. He took my hand, his expression utterly serious. "Elena, something is stirring in the North. I'm swamped, and I won't be able to see you every day." "My entire guard is yours to command. No one will dare mistreat you!" My heart had skipped when I realized I was the only person he could see. In my previous life, the cowardly Lysander had only ever bullied me to my face while cowering from everyone else. But Draco had put the sharpest blade in my hands and told me to protect myself. I dragged myself back to the present. I looked at the still-arrogant Lysander and Amelia standing before me, and I rose to my feet. Slam! I slammed my palm onto the table. "Amelia, who the hell do you think you are?!" The entire room went silent. Everyone was stunned by the force of my presence. I stared her down. "I am the legitimate heir's fiancee. I am your future Queen! You dare slander me in public? That is an insult to the crown, and you will be punished for it!" Amelia flinched, but Lysander was still trying to put on a brave face, playing the peacemaker. "Elena, Amelia was just being honest. Why do you have such a temper..." "Shut up!" I raised my hand. "Guards!" In the next instant, several of Draco's elite guards appeared out of nowhere and hit the banquet-hall floor with a bone-rattling crash! "Pin these two down!" The guards surged forward. One of them kicked Lysander's legs out from under him! Crash! Crash! A moment ago, Lysander and Amelia had looked untouchable. Now they were pinned facedown on the floor like two beaten dogs! "Let me go! I have royal blood!" Lysander screamed. Amelia's hair was a mess, and she shrieked over and over. "Elena, you psycho! How dare you do this to me!" I looked down at them. "Apologize, Lysander, or neither of you leaves this room on your feet!" Lysander was drenched in cold sweat from the pain. He knew the guards answered only to Draco, and they wouldn't hesitate to kill him. At last, he lowered his head, humiliation burning through him as he forced the words between clenched teeth. "I'm sorry... Your Highness." I smiled without warmth. "Get out!" Chapter 3 Lysander and Amelia fled in disgrace. As she passed, Amelia glared at me through bloodshot eyes and snarled, "Don't get too cocky, Elena! You won't stay on top for long!" They had been thoroughly humiliated, yet deep down they still considered me beneath them. Sure enough, by the next day, rumors that Draco despised me had spread across the entire shifter kingdom! Every street and alley buzzed with gossip. "Did you hear? Prince Draco doesn't love House Ellison's younger daughter at all! He won't even show his face!" "Lady Amelia is the lucky one. Prince Lysander raided the royal treasury for priceless jewels just to make her smile!" "That's right! Prince Lysander even spent a fortune to book fireworks over the entire city, all to surprise her. Now that's true love!" The rumors flew everywhere, painting Lysander as the perfect husband while dragging my name through the mud. I listened to the gossip with complete indifference. I knew every one of Lysander's cheap tricks. He loved playing the devoted husband with other people's money, but underneath it all, he was still a useless fraud. Our two weddings were scheduled for the same day. At the dress fitting and ceremony rehearsal, Amelia finally showed everyone how greedy she really was. She marched into the royal chapel with an entourage and seized the designer gown and jewelry I had reserved! Then she pointed to the raised dais at the heart of the chapel. "The place of honor belongs to us today!" By tradition, Draco and I, as the heir and his bride, were meant to exchange our vows on that dais before he formally took the throne. I stepped into her path. "Put them down, Amelia. What makes you think you deserve the place of honor?" Amelia threw back her head and laughed. "Stop pretending, Elena! Draco doesn't love you. He may not even show up for the wedding! Sitting up there alone will only make you look pathetic, won't it?" I knew she was hinting at how Draco had left during the ceremony in our previous life because of the war. Lysander stepped forward, wearing his favorite peacemaker's mask. "Elena, my brother has never cared for pomp. Amelia does, and I intend to give her the best. Be gracious and give us the dais." The nobles around us joined the nauseating guilt trip. "Come on, Lady Elena. Prince Lysander loves Amelia so much. Just let them have it!" "Prince Draco doesn't even care about you. Why cling to the seat of honor? Be the bigger person!" Faced with this kind of guilt-tripping disguised as politeness, even the guards couldn't draw their weapons over it. Amelia's smug grin said she was certain I had no choice but to cave. "Who dares steal my woman's place?!" A deep voice rolled through the hall. Draco strode into the hall! The room fell dead silent! No one dared breathe. The nobles who had been pressuring me dropped straight to their knees. Amelia's face went white. Lysander's legs nearly gave out. "D-Draco, Your Highness..." Draco didn't even look at them. He walked straight to me. The lethal warrior's expression softened the instant he faced me, his eyes filling with warmth. "Elena, I'm sorry I'm late." With a wave of his hand, his guards brought forward an enormous crystal chest. Inside lay a gown of shimmering crystal silk and a sapphire parure so brilliant it stole the breath from my lungs! Beside it, the set Amelia had stolen looked like rags! "I wasn't with you these past few days because I went to the polar ice fields myself to gather the materials for this gown." Draco cast a dismissive glance at the dress Amelia clutched in her hands, contempt written all over his face. "How could that piece of trash ever be worthy of my woman?" Amelia stared from my radiant new gown to the one in her hands, jealousy burning so hot her eyes seemed ready to bleed! The comparison ground her pride into the dirt! Then Draco turned his glacial stare on Lysander, every word a promise to protect me: "And the place of honor? Neither of you deserves it!" "A bastard too cowardly to set foot on a battlefield thinks he can covet the High King's throne? Hold your wedding at the bottom of the steps. Don't taint the place Elena and I will stand!" His words flayed Lysander and Amelia alive. Neither dared answer; they slunk off to the side. Every rumor that Draco despised me shattered in that instant! I watched Draco standing in front of me, shielding me with everything he had. He cared for no one else, yet somehow he had saved every ounce of tenderness for me. Looking at his handsome face, lined with a trace of exhaustion, I suddenly remembered how he had died on the battlefield in our previous life. I made myself a silent promise: Draco, I will not let that fate take you again! Chapter 4 The long-awaited wedding day finally arrived. In our previous life, Draco had been called away to war at the last moment, leaving Amelia with a rushed, joyless wedding. The humiliation had haunted her through both lives. So this time around, armed with her knowledge from rebirth, she was determined to have the grandest wedding imaginable. She screamed and sobbed until Lysander emptied his accounts and borrowed from loan sharks, all to stage the most extravagant wedding in the kingdom and crown her its most dazzling bride. Her diamond-encrusted gown and white carriage did draw gasps from a few lower-ranked shifters. Amelia basked in it, then shot me a triumphant look. "Elena, do you see this? This is what a woman's wedding should look like! What can Draco give you? All that brute knows is how to fight." The instant the words left her mouth, the deafening thunder of engines split the sky! A fleet of helicopters plunged toward the grounds, nearly flipping Amelia's white carriage! Then a motorcade of Maseratis pulled up to the ceremony hall entrance. The lead door opened, and Draco unfolded from the car. He wore a custom dark-gold suit that made him look every inch a King. Ignoring the stunned crowd, he crossed to me and gently took my hand. The sheer wealth and authority behind his entrance left every guest speechless! Beside us, Amelia and Lysander's spectacle looked like a cheap carnival act. The smile on Amelia's face crumbled, and she dug her nails into her palms with jealousy. The ceremony had barely begun when history repeated itself: war had broken out in the North. As the kingdom's warlord and rightful heir, Draco had to abandon the wedding and ride for the front at once. But this time, Draco didn't walk away without looking back the way he had before. He turned to me, conflict and raw reluctance filling his eyes. His hand tightened around mine. "Elena... I don't want to leave you now." He cared about me. He couldn't bear to leave me facing an unfinished wedding alone. Just then, a sneering voice cut in. "Draco, if you and your bride are so desperately in love, why not stay here with her?!" Lysander jumped at the chance, gloating openly. Amelia piled on at once, making sure everyone heard. "Exactly! It's only an uprising in the North. What can a few feral clans do? Even if they breach the border, only lowborn commoners will die. How can their lives compare to a royal wedding?" She raised her voice deliberately, trying to use flattery as a weapon. "Prince Draco would give his life for Elena. How could he possibly abandon his bride on their wedding day? Am I right, everyone?" The shifters around them traded uneasy looks and began to whisper. If Draco stayed for me, the realm would brand him a coward, and he would lose the people's trust for good! Amelia's trap was vicious! "Shut up, you fool!" I spun on Amelia and cut her down with my voice! My voice echoed through the entire great hall, and everyone held their breath. I looked at her and Lysander as if they were vermin. "The people of the North are citizens of this kingdom too! Without them bleeding at the border, would any of you be standing here in gold and jewels, celebrating a wedding?" Amelia went pale. "You... stop acting so noble!" I didn't spare her another glance. I turned and looked straight into Draco's eyes. I cupped Draco's face in both hands and raised my voice. "Draco! Our wedding can wait. The kingdom cannot!" "You are the rightful heir and the greatest warrior this realm has ever known! You have a duty. Your battlefield is in the North, and your blade belongs at the enemy's throat!" I held his gaze. "I am already your wife and your future Queen! I will never ask you to betray your principles for me. Go. I will stand with you through whatever comes." The truth was, every part of me wanted to ride into battle at his side! But Draco's death in our previous life had not been an accident! I had to remain in the capital, secure his position, and hunt down whoever had plotted against him. My declaration rang through the hall like a battle cry. Even the old King rose from the place of honor, pride and astonishment shining in his eyes. Draco's eyes reddened. He pulled me into his arms and kissed me hard on the lips. "Wait for me to come home." Chapter 5 Draco vanished into the North, and soon all word from him ceased, exactly as it had in our previous life. At the worst possible moment, the aging King collapsed and slipped into a coma. With Draco missing and the realm leaderless, the court had no choice but to name Lysander acting regent. Lysander and Amelia finally dropped their masks. With Lysander holding the reins, Amelia became more arrogant and vicious than ever! As the days without any word from Draco stretched on, the nobles who had once fawned over me gradually began to freeze me out. But I couldn't have cared less. A month later, the report came from the front: Draco had fallen in battle! The entire capital erupted. Amelia was beside herself with delight. In our previous life, Draco's death in the North had widowed her young and made her the laughingstock of the shifter world. Now she was certain I was about to inherit the same misery! One day, while I reviewed intelligence reports in my study, Amelia swept in with a pack of fawning courtiers. "Well, look at our mighty future Queen. Have you been hiding in here sobbing?" Amelia stopped in front of me, savage triumph blazing in her eyes. One of her lackeys hid a coy laugh behind her hand. "Lady Amelia, why call her Queen? With Prince Draco dead, she has no rank at all! The court will cast her out any day now!" Another man chimed in. "Exactly! Prince Lysander is regent now, and the people adore him. Soon the true King and Queen will be Prince Lysander and Lady Amelia!" Amelia lifted her chin and stared down at me. "No matter how hard you fight, Elena, you will always be nothing! You swaggered around under Draco's protection before. Let's see what you can do without him!" I remained in my chair, watching her petty triumph with icy amusement. "Are you done?" I picked up my tea and took an unhurried sip. "Then get out of my room." "You still dare talk back?" Amelia slapped the cup from my hand. "Elena, the old King is dying. They're almost ready to pull the plug! This afternoon, the Council of Elders will name Lysander King, and I will become the most powerful woman in the realm! As for you, I'll grind you so far into the dirt you'll never crawl out!" A cold smile touched my lips as I watched her, so certain she understood everything. She believed choosing Lysander had put her on the road to glory. She had no idea it led straight to hell. That afternoon, the royal court convened. The old King lay on a padded divan beside the throne, each breath a struggle. Every noble in the capital had been summoned. Lysander stood at the center of the hall. Amelia clung to his arm, beaming with barely contained excitement. "With Father too ill to rule and my brother fallen in defense of the realm, I, Lysander, must accept this burden for the sake of stability..." He could barely contain his excitement as he addressed the court. Amelia could wait no longer. She wheeled toward me and shrieked, "Elena! The new King is about to take the throne! Kneel, you cursed widow, and bow to your King and Queen!" Every eye swung toward me, full of ridicule, pity, and malicious delight. Amelia trembled with anticipation, ready to savor the pleasure of grinding me into dust. She was already savoring her coronation when the impossible happened. A low, velvet voice rolled through the hall. "I'm not dead yet. Who dares force my woman to kneel?!"