Isla's POV
Roman's Beta—a friendly woman named Maya—shows me to a small guest room with an actual bed, clean sheets, and a window that looks out over the forest.
"It's not much," Maya says apologetically. "But it's yours for as long as you need it."
I almost cry. After eighteen years in a storage closet, this feels like a palace.
"It's perfect," I whisper. "Thank you."
Maya smiles and leaves me alone, saying dinner will be ready in an hour. I sink onto the bed, my whole body shaking as the adrenaline finally wears off.
I did it. I actually escaped.
My wolf is quiet inside me, exhausted from the first shift and the long run. But I can feel her there—a warm presence I've waited my whole life to meet. She's strong and fierce and nothing like the "weak omega" everyone told me I was.
We're not weak, she confirms in my mind. We never were.
"Then why did my wolf come so late?" I ask out loud, not caring if I sound crazy talking to myself. "Why did I have to wait eighteen years?"
My wolf doesn't answer, but I feel her confusion. She doesn't know either. It's like something was blocking her, keeping her trapped until today.
I made sure—
Celeste's words echo in my mind. "Your wolf came out. That's impossible. I made sure—"
Made sure of what? That my wolf wouldn't come? But how could Celeste possibly stop a wolf from emerging? That's not something anyone can control.
Unless...
A knock on the door interrupts my thoughts. "Come in," I call, expecting Maya.
Instead, Roman enters, his expression serious. "We need to talk."
My stomach drops. "Is it Kieran? Did he—"
"No, it's not about Kieran." Roman sits in the chair across from my bed, studying me carefully. "It's about what he said before he left. About the Royal Moon Pack."
I blink, confused. "The what?"
"You don't know?" Roman looks surprised. "The Royal Moon Pack. They ruled this entire region eighteen years ago until Alpha Dominic Blackthorn—Kieran's father—overthrew them. It was bloody. Brutal. The entire royal family was murdered."
Horror crawls up my spine. "That's awful, but what does it have to do with me?"
Roman leans forward. "Kieran seemed to think it has everything to do with you. He told me to ask you about your real parents."
"My real parents are Beta Thorne and his wife," I say automatically, but the words feel hollow. They never loved me. Never wanted me. What if there's a reason?
"Are they?" Roman asks gently. "Because you don't look anything like them. You don't act like them. And that power you showed today—that's not normal omega power, Isla. That's Alpha-level strength. Maybe stronger."
My hands are shaking. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying maybe you should ask yourself why your family treated you the way they did. Why they kept you weak and hidden. Why your wolf came so late." Roman's eyes are kind but serious. "Sometimes the truth we're running from is the truth we need most."
Before I can respond, alarms start blaring throughout the pack house.
Roman's on his feet instantly, his whole body going tense. "Stay here," he orders, already heading for the door.
"What's happening?" I ask, fear making my voice shake.
"Border breach. Multiple wolves, moving fast." Roman's eyes flash amber. "Lock the door. Don't come out until I come back for you."
He's gone before I can argue, and I hear shouting outside, wolves howling, the sounds of chaos erupting through the peaceful pack.
My wolf stirs, agitated. Danger. Something's wrong.
I go to the window and look out. In the distance, I see wolves fighting—Roman's pack members against strangers in black. They move like shadows, fast and deadly, and they're heading toward the pack house.
Toward me.
They're here for us, my wolf realizes with horror. They're hunting us.
But why? I'm nobody. Just a rejected omega who ran away from home.
Except maybe I'm not nobody. Maybe that's the whole problem.
The door to my room explodes inward.
I scream and dive behind the bed as a massive grey wolf stalks into the room, its eyes glowing red—a sign of dark magic. Not a normal wolf. An assassin.
Run! my wolf screams.
But there's nowhere to run. The window's too high. The only exit is blocked by the monster advancing on me.
The grey wolf shifts into a man—scarred, cold-eyed, holding a silver knife that gleams with poison. "Isla Thorne," he says, his voice like gravel. "The lost princess. Alpha Dominic sends his regards."
Princess? What is he talking about?
"You have the wrong person," I gasp, pressing against the wall. "I'm not—"
"You're exactly who we're looking for." The assassin moves closer, raising the knife. "The last heir of the Royal Moon bloodline. Can't have you growing up and taking back what Alpha Dominic stole, now can we?"
The words don't make sense. Can't make sense. But the knife moving toward my throat is very, very real.
I close my eyes, waiting for the end.
Instead, I hear a roar that shakes the entire building.
A massive black wolf crashes through the window in an explosion of glass and fury. Kieran.
He slams into the assassin, knocking him away from me. They hit the opposite wall hard enough to crack the plaster, teeth and claws flashing as they fight.
"Run!" Kieran's voice fills my mind, clear despite the rejection. "Isla, RUN!"
But I'm frozen, watching in horror as more assassins pour into the room. Three, four, five of them. Too many. Even an Alpha can't fight that many at once.
Kieran's going to die protecting me.
The girl who rejected him. The girl who told him she wanted nothing to do with him.
He's going to die anyway.
NO! my wolf roars.
Power explodes from my body—raw, untrained, desperate. Golden light floods the room, and the assassins scream as it burns them. Not killing them, but pushing them back, giving Kieran room to breathe.
I don't know what I'm doing. Don't know where this power is coming from. But I can feel it pouring out of me like a dam breaking—eighteen years of suppressed strength finally unleashed.
"Isla!" Roman bursts into the room with Maya and other pack members. They crash into the assassins, and suddenly it's chaos—wolves and humans fighting in close quarters, blood and screams and the sick sound of bones breaking.
I'm still glowing, still pouring out power I don't understand, when Kieran shifts back to human form in front of me. He's covered in cuts and bruises, bleeding from a dozen wounds.
"Are you okay?" he gasps, and his eyes are full of something that looks like terror. Not for himself. For me.
"Why did you come back?" I demand, tears streaming down my face. "I rejected you! I told you to leave me alone!"
"Because they're here to kill you!" Kieran shouts over the fighting. "My father sent assassins to finish what he started eighteen years ago! You're not just Isla Thorne—you're Isla Thorne of the Royal Moon Pack. You're the rightful heir. You're—"
An assassin lunges at Kieran from behind.
I don't think. I just react.
My hand shoots out, and golden light blazes from my palm like a weapon. It catches the assassin mid-leap and throws him across the room so hard he doesn't get back up.
Everyone stops fighting. All eyes turn to me.
"What..." I stare at my hands, still glowing with power I shouldn't have. "What am I?"
Kieran's expression is full of regret and something else. Pride, maybe.
"You're a queen," he says quietly. "And I'm the fool who helped destroy your kingdom."
The remaining assassins retreat, dragging their wounded with them. Roman's pack doesn't chase—they're too busy staring at me like I'm a bomb about to explode.
Maybe I am.
Roman approaches carefully. "Isla, we need to talk about what just happened."
But I can't focus on him. Can't focus on anything except Kieran standing there bleeding, having risked his life to save mine despite everything between us.
"You knew," I whisper. "You knew what I was, and you came to warn me anyway."
Kieran nods. "I owe you a thousand apologies, Isla. A thousand lifetimes of making things right. But right now, I need you to understand something very important."
"What?"
His ice-blue eyes meet mine, intense and desperate. "My father won't stop. These assassins were just the beginning. He'll send armies if he has to, because as long as you're alive, his stolen throne is at risk."
"Then what am I supposed to do?" I demand, feeling hysteria rising in my chest. "I don't know how to be a queen! I don't know how to fight! I just learned I have a wolf today!"
"You learn," Roman says firmly. "We teach you. We protect you. We help you become what you were always meant to be."
"And me?" Kieran asks quietly, looking at Roman. "I know I don't deserve it, but let me help protect her. Let me fix what my family broke."
Roman and I exchange looks. This morning, I was nobody. Now I'm apparently royalty being hunted by a corrupt Alpha, with my rejected mate begging to be my bodyguard.
Before either of us can answer, Maya bursts back into the room, her face pale.
"Alpha Roman," she gasps. "We have a bigger problem."
"What now?" Roman demands.
Maya's eyes find mine, full of fear. "Celeste Thorne just arrived at our borders with Alpha Dominic and fifty warriors. They're demanding we hand over Isla, or they'll consider it an act of war."
My sister. My father's murderer. An army.
All here for me.
"How long do we have?" Roman asks grimly.
"They're giving us one hour to decide." Maya swallows hard. "After that, they attack."
I look at Kieran, whose face has gone white. At Roman, who's calculating odds he might not survive. At the pack members who've already been hurt protecting a girl they just met.
One hour to decide if I'm worth dying for.
One hour before everything changes forever.
And somewhere in the distance, I swear I hear my sister's laugh—cold and cruel and way too familiar.
I made sure—
What did you make sure of, Celeste?
And how long have you known what I really am?