Isla lay with her head against Kael's chest, feeling his strong heartbeat and hearing his breaths that were rough and uneven.
For a brief moment, his hands stayed a bit too close to her lips.
Her heart skipped, the air buzzing with a sultry charge, like sparks from her own lightning.
Kael's touch rough, never tender seared her waist, his fingers clinging tight, a hungry tremor revealing his raw, unspoken longing.
Isla tilted her head, her storm-lit eyes locking onto his, electric and searching.
Kael's jaw hardened, his face a mask of restraint, but a raw, forbidden spark in his gaze, hunger, maybe, or a deep ache he couldn't hide.
Her breath hitched, voice barely heard"What's that look, Kael? You want me… or does it hurt to want me this much?"
His fingers tightened at her waist, a low growl escaping him. "Isla," he rasped, voice thick with need, "you're tearing me apart. Wanting you… it's a fire I can't put out."
She stepped closer, her body brushing his, heat pooling where their skin met. "Then don't," she murmured, lips hovering near his. "Let it burn."
"You shouldn't…" she said softly, her voice breaking.
Kael didn't respond. His thumb brushed her ribs just once, as if his own body betrayed him, before he pulled away, dropping her onto the forest floor like she'd burned him.
"Don't confuse survival with affection," he muttered, turning his back to her. "You are a weapon, Isla. Nothing more."
Still, Isla could feel the lingering warmth from his touch, his rough voice echoing in her chest like a fire.
Days turned into weeks, then years. Kael's training was unforgiving, each hit harder than the last, each task designed to shatter her spirit and bones. Yet, Isla held strong.
Her body toughened under his relentless drills muscles where there had once been only weakness. Each scar became a story etched in flesh
The mark of arrows dodged too late, the traces of claws endured, the burns from lightning storms she summoned but couldn't quite control.
Then there was Morien. Unlike Kael, who taught through brutality, Morien's lessons were wrapped in riddles.
"Storms begin in silence before they roar," he told her one twilight, his voice resonating in the cavern as shadows flickered on the walls.
"Silence feels like death," Isla spat, fists tight.
"Exactly," Morien grinned, his crooked teeth glinting in the firelight. "Death gives rise to storms. And storms, my child, will reshape the world."
Isla despised him then. Resented his riddles, hated Kael's cruelty, and loathed herself for feeling so vulnerable when the storm inside her refused to erupt.
But she learned to sharpen her hate into strength.
Years later, she stood at the edge of a frozen stream, staring at her reflection.
She hardly recognized the girl looking back. Her once-dark hair now streaked with white, each strand touched by lightning. Her stormy eyes shimmered with silver.
She appeared older, tougher, yet somehow other worldly.
Not an omega. Not a discarded outcast.A weapon Kael appeared beside her, as silent as ever.
His reflection loomed in the water, tall and shadowy. She glanced over at him.
"You've turned me into something I no longer recognize," Isla said.
Kael's lips curved, not quite a smile. "Good. The girl you were wouldn't have survived. This version does."
But when his gaze lingered too long on her reflection, Isla felt that familiar phantom warmth from years before.
It was Morien who finally broke the silence of their exile.
One night, he gathered them by the fire, the flames crackling like bones.
"It's time," he announced, his voice heavy with finality, sending a knot to Isla's stomach.
"Time for what?" she asked.
"The prophecy," Morien said. "The Snowveil has awakened. Steel has been forged.
Now, the storm must return to its origin. The Crescent Pack awaits."
Isla clenched her jaw. She hadn't heard that name in ages, Crescent Pack.
The place where she was born under a shroud of eclipse. The place that had cast her out like dirt.
"No," she said, her voice shaking but resolute. "I will not return to the wolves who abandoned me. Who watched as I bled."
Kael's expression was unreadable as he glanced at her.
"You think this is about revenge?" Morien's laughter was low and bitter. "Child, storms are bigger than your pain.
The Hybrids are stirring. Shadows that threaten both wolf and witch alike.
You're not going back for them. You're going back to save the world."
Isla's fists trembled. "The world didn't care when I was dying."
Finally, Kael spoke. "This isn't about care; it's about survival. Refuse, and you'll doom us all."
Time warped. Days turned to seasons, seasons to years.
Isla sparred with Kael until her bones rattled. She wrestled with Morien's riddles until they carved themselves into her dreams.
In silence, she cried, screamed in storms, and laughed only rarely, when lightning split the sky in her name.
She was no longer the shattered omega. She was steel.
Yet her heart remained tangled. Kael kept his distance, yet his silence echoed louder than his commands.
His hands brushed against her when they shouldn't, and his eyes had a way of revealing what he thought she wouldn't see.
And Isla despised herself for noticing.
On the morning they left the mountains, the air quivered.
Snow settled on Isla's cloak as she descended with Kael and Morien by her side.
The land lay stretched before them, vast and harsh, until the scent of wolves hit her, sharp as old poison.
Her heart pounded against her chest. Her scars throbbed with ghostly pain.
She could almost hear the jeers, the taunts of "useless omega," the laughter as her body was left to decay.
But she wasn't the same girl they had discarded.
Her hair streaked white like frost. Her eyes, infused with storm, glimmered faintly in the twilight.
With each step, the air hummed around her.
Kael said nothing, yet his presence loomed. She could feel the weight of his gaze.
Morien murmured at her side, "The storm has returned."
The Crescent wolves were the first to see her. A hunting patrol froze at the sight one dropped his bow, another stumbled back, murmuring prayers to the elements.
Word spread quickly. By the time Isla stepped into the heart of Crescent territory, the entire pack had gathered. Their gasps rose in a wave.
Then he appeared in Aiden Now the Alpha. Stronger, broader, his authority radiating like heat.
His emerald eyes, those very eyes she once thought held her salvation locked onto hers.
The bond flared. Savage. Unavoidable.
It slammed into her chest, stealing her breath. A rush of heat, pain, longing, and rage all at once.
She staggered, clutching her ribs, as the mate-bond seared through her.
And Aiden he flinched, too. His jaw clenched, hands curling into fists, yet his eyes burned with recognition, desire, torment.
Behind him, Selene's face contorted with fury.
"No," Selene hissed, her voice dripping with venom. "No! It can't be her!"
The pack murmured like leaves stirred by a storm. Isla stood tall, every scar on her body a testament to her fight.
Kael walked behind her, his presence both a shadow she resented and one she craved.
Aiden took a step closer. "My….. "