ISLA'S POV
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Kai's power exploded like a bomb going off.
The zip ties holding me snapped like thread. The man with the knife flew backward, slamming into a tree hard enough to crack the trunk. His friends stumbled, their weapons clattering to the ground as they covered their ears.
The Alpha power rolling off Kai was unlike anything I'd ever felt. It pressed down on everything—the air, the trees, even the earth itself. My wolf wanted to submit immediately, to bare her throat and acknowledge him as the dominant force.
I shoved her down hard. I would never submit to anyone.
Kai stood between me and the attackers, his eyes pure gold, his body vibrating with barely controlled rage. He looked feral. Dangerous. Beautiful in a terrifying way.
"Touch her again," he growled, his voice deeper than human, "and I'll rip you apart with my bare hands."
The leader struggled to his feet, blood trickling from his mouth. "Impressive. But you're outnumbered, boy. And that little power display just burned through most of your energy."
He was right. I could see Kai swaying slightly, the wolfsbane still in his system fighting against his Alpha strength.
"Run," Kai said to me without looking back. "Get out of here."
"I'm not leaving you," I said before I could stop myself.
"Isla—"
"Shut up." I stood up, my own wolf surging forward. I might not be an Alpha, but I wasn't weak. "We fight together or we die together."
"How touching," the leader said. "The rejected mate defending her Alpha. Too bad it won't matter."
He whistled. More figures emerged from the woods. At least a dozen this time, all armed with wolfsbane-coated weapons.
We were going to die.
Then I heard it—the sound of wolves howling in the distance. Getting closer.
"Backup," Kai breathed. "Dante must have followed my scent."
The leader's smile faltered. "Kill them. Now."
Everything happened at once.
The attackers rushed forward. Kai shifted, his massive golden wolf form crashing into three of them. I dodged a knife, grabbed a fallen branch, and swung it like a bat into someone's face.
My wolf was screaming to shift, but I held back. In human form, I was smaller, faster, harder to predict. I'd learned to fight dirty during my years alone.
I kicked one attacker in the knee, heard it crack, then drove my elbow into another's throat.
But there were too many.
A fist connected with my ribs. Pain exploded through my side. I went down hard, gasping for air.
The leader stood over me, his knife raised. "Should have come quietly, little wolf."
Kai's roar shook the forest. He left the fight, abandoning his own defense to reach me. The bond screamed between us—his terror, my pain, our desperate need to protect each other.
He took a wolfsbane blade to the shoulder protecting me.
"No!" I screamed.
He shifted back to human, bleeding and shaking from the poison, but still standing between me and death.
"I won't let them hurt you," he said. Blood dripped down his arm. "Never."
Something inside me broke.
This man—this spoiled playboy I'd rejected an hour ago—was dying to protect me. A girl he didn't even know. A girl who'd publicly humiliated him.
The bond surged with something I didn't want to name.
The howling grew louder. Wolves burst into the clearing—at least twenty of them. Dante in the lead, his dark fur bristling with rage.
The Ashford Pack had arrived.
Our attackers scattered immediately, disappearing into the woods like ghosts. The leader paused only to throw something at my feet—a USB drive.
"The truth about your parents," he said. "And the lie you're living with him."
Then he was gone.
Dante shifted to human form, immediately checking on Kai. "Brother, you're poisoned—"
"I'm fine." Kai pushed him away, his eyes only on me. "Isla, are you hurt?"
"You took a knife for me," I whispered. "Why?"
"Because you're my mate." He said it simply, like it explained everything. Maybe it did.
Other pack members surrounded us. Someone handed Kai a shirt. Someone else tried to help me up, but I flinched away.
I didn't trust any of them.
"We need to get you both to the pack doctor," Dante said. "That wolfsbane—"
"Who were they?" Kai interrupted. "What did they want?"
"I don't know." I picked up the USB drive with shaking hands. "But they said my parents were murdered. That someone paid rogues to kill them."
Kai's face went pale. "Isla—"
"They said it was your father." I looked at him, searching his face for the truth. "Did Marcus Ashford murder my parents?"
"I don't know," he said hoarsely. "But I'll find out."
"Miss Monroe needs medical attention," one of the pack members said. "She's bleeding—"
"I'm fine." I backed away from all of them. "I need to go. I need to think—"
"You're in shock," Kai said gently. "Please, just let us help you—"
"Help me?" A bitter laugh escaped. "Your pack might have killed my family, and you want to help me?"
"We don't know that's true—"
"But we don't know it's not!" I was shouting now. "Everything that man said could be real. Your father could be a murderer. And I'm supposed to just trust you because of some bond I never asked for?"
Kai looked like I'd stabbed him. "Isla, please..."
"Stay away from me." I started backing toward the woods. "All of you. I need to figure this out alone."
"It's not safe," Dante said. "Those men could come back—"
"I've been taking care of myself for seven years. I'll manage."
I turned to run, but Kai's voice stopped me.
"I'll find the truth," he said. "Whatever it is, whatever my father did—I'll find it and I'll make it right. I swear on my life, Isla. I'll make this right."
I looked back at him one last time. Standing there bleeding, surrounded by his pack, looking at me like I was his whole world.
A world built on lies and maybe murder.
"Don't make promises you can't keep," I said.
Then I ran.
I made it three blocks before my legs gave out. I collapsed in an alley, my ribs screaming, my head spinning.
The USB drive felt heavy in my pocket.
The truth about my parents. About Kai's father. About everything.
I pulled out my phone with shaking hands and called Riley.
"Isla? Where are you? Everyone's saying—"
"I need you," I whispered. "Please. I need help."
"I'm coming. Where—"
My phone died. Battery finally gave up.
I sat alone in the dark, bleeding and terrified, holding secrets that could destroy everything.
Footsteps echoed in the alley.
I looked up, expecting Riley.
Instead, Sera Blackwood stood there, her perfect face twisted with hate.
"You should have stayed away from him," she said softly.
Then she pulled out a gun.