Kieran's POV
I shift mid-run, my wolf taking over because he's faster, stronger, more desperate than my human form could ever be.
Find her. Protect her. FIX THIS.
My wolf's thoughts blend with mine until I can't tell where he ends and I begin. All that matters is Isla's scent—pine and vanilla and something wild that makes every instinct scream MINE.
Except she's not mine. She made that crystal clear.
The forest flies past in a blur. I've been tracking her for hours, following the trail of her unique scent mixed with fear and power. She's fast for a brand-new wolf—faster than she should be—but I'm faster. I'm an Alpha. I've been training since I could walk.
I'm gaining on her.
What are you going to say when you catch her? a small voice in my head asks. Sorry for years of torture? Sorry for destroying you? Sorry for being the worst possible mate fate could have given you?
I don't have an answer. I just know I can't let her disappear into the world alone, hunted by my father, carrying secrets she doesn't even know about yet.
Her scent changes direction—she's crossed into new territory. Not neutral land. Someone's pack.
Silverpine.
Roman Ashford's pack. The Alpha who accepts rogues and outcasts, who built his reputation on protecting wolves that other packs throw away. Of course Isla would run here. Of course she'd find the one Alpha in the region who might actually help her.
I should be relieved. She's safe. Protected.
Instead, jealousy burns through my chest like acid.
I burst through the treeline and skid to a stop.
Isla stands there in human form, wearing someone's oversized shirt, her silver hair wild around her face. She's talking to Roman Ashford—tall, powerful, too handsome, standing way too close to my mate.
Not your mate anymore, I remind myself. She rejected you.
But my wolf doesn't care about technicalities. He sees another Alpha near our female, and he wants blood.
"ISLA!" The name rips from my throat before I can stop it, part howl, part human desperation.
She flinches like I've struck her, and the sight makes me want to throw up. When did I become someone she's afraid of?
You've always been that person, my conscience whispers. You just never cared before.
Roman steps between us, his posture protective but not aggressive. "You need to leave, Blackthorn."
"Not without talking to her." I shift back to human form, not caring that I'm naked. Modesty doesn't matter when your entire world is falling apart. "Isla, please. Just five minutes. Let me explain—"
"Explain what?" Isla's voice is cold, but I can hear the tremor underneath. "Explain why you made my life hell for years? Explain why you called me worthless and weak and pathetic every chance you got? Please, enlighten me, Kieran. I'm dying to hear how you justify torturing your own mate."
The words hit like physical blows. "I didn't know!" I shout, desperate. "I didn't know you were my mate! I didn't know you were—"
I stop myself just in time. Can't tell her about the royal bloodline. Not here, not like this, with Roman listening to every word.
"Didn't know I was what?" Isla demands, taking a step toward me. Roman's hand on her arm stops her, and the sight of him touching her makes my wolf snarl. "Finish the sentence, Kieran. What didn't you know?"
I can see the documents in my mind—the birth certificate, the murder records, the truth about who she really is. She deserves to know. But if I tell her now, my father will know I went through his safe. He'll know I'm defying him.
And he'll come after Isla even harder.
"I didn't know you'd shift," I lie, hating myself more with each word. "I didn't know you had a wolf. I thought—"
"You thought I was nobody worth respecting?" Isla's laugh is bitter. "Well, congratulations. You made sure I felt that way every single day."
"That's not—" I take a step forward, and Roman growls low in warning.
"She's under my protection now, Blackthorn," Roman says firmly. "You need to leave."
"I'm not leaving without her." My Alpha power rolls out instinctively, a challenge I don't mean to issue but can't take back.
Roman's power rises to meet mine, and suddenly the air is crackling with tension. Two Alphas facing off, and Isla's caught in the middle.
"Stop!" Isla shouts, and both of us freeze at the command in her voice. Since when does she have command voice? "Both of you, just stop!"
She looks at me, and her golden eyes are filled with something worse than hatred. Disappointment.
"I rejected you, Kieran," she says quietly. "That means you don't get to follow me. You don't get to make demands. You don't get to act like you have any claim on me whatsoever."
"The bond—" I start.
"Is broken!" Isla's voice cracks. "I shattered it. It's done. Whatever you think you feel, whatever your wolf is telling you, it doesn't matter. I want nothing to do with you."
Each word is a knife to the chest. "Isla, please. You don't understand. My father—"
"I don't care about your father!" she screams, and power radiates from her in waves that make the trees shake. "I don't care about pack politics or Alpha duties or whatever excuse you're about to use! You hurt me, Kieran! For YEARS! And now you show up acting like we're supposed to be together just because of some stupid cosmic coincidence?"
"It's not a coincidence," I whisper. "Fate doesn't make mistakes."
"Then fate is cruel," Isla says, and tears stream down her face. "Because the worst person in my life is apparently the one I'm supposed to love? That's not fate. That's punishment."
The words destroy me more thoroughly than the rejection did.
"I'll make it right," I promise desperately. "However long it takes, whatever I have to do—I'll make it right."
"You can't." Isla wipes her tears away angrily. "Some things can't be fixed, Kieran. Some damage is permanent."
Roman puts his arm around Isla's shoulders, and my wolf howls in rage. "Time to go, Blackthorn. You've said your piece. She's made her choice."
"This isn't over," I say, looking only at Isla. "I know you don't believe me. I know you have no reason to trust anything I say. But I swear on my life, Isla—I will prove to you that I've changed. I will prove that I'm worthy of a second chance."
"I don't want your second chance," Isla says tiredly. "I just want you to leave me alone."
She turns away, letting Roman guide her toward the pack houses in the distance. Every step she takes away from me feels like dying.
Let her go, Roman's voice enters my mind through Alpha-to-Alpha connection. If you care about her at all, give her space to heal.
Did your father destroy her parents? I send back, watching his reaction carefully.
Roman's steps falter for just a second. What are you talking about?
Ask her who she really is, I say. Ask her about the Royal Moon Pack. Then ask yourself if my father will really let her live in peace, or if he'll come to finish what he started eighteen years ago.
I shift back to wolf form and run before Roman can respond, leaving them both with questions I don't have the courage to answer properly.
But as I race back through the forest toward Crimson Hollow, my phone buzzes in the bag I left at the border. I shift back and check it, my heart pounding.
Another message from the unknown number: Your father just sent assassins to Silverpine. You have thirty minutes to warn her. Choose wisely—your father's approval or your mate's life.
My blood runs cold.
No. No, no, no.
Dad wouldn't. He couldn't. Isla's just a girl. She doesn't even know who she is yet.
But the documents flash in my mind. The murdered royal family. The stolen throne. My father built his power on lies and bloodshed.
Why would he stop now?
I don't think. I just run—back toward Silverpine, back toward Isla, back toward the girl I've hurt who will probably never forgive me.
But at least she'll be alive to hate me.
My wolf pushes harder, faster, as the minutes tick away.
Twenty-eight minutes.
Twenty-seven.
Please let me be fast enough.
Please let me be enough to save her, even if I can never have her.
The forest blurs past as I race against time, against my father's evil, against the fate I helped create.
And in the distance, I hear the howls of wolves that don't belong to Silverpine Pack.
The assassins are already here.