ISLA'S POV
I land hard in the grass, my ankles screaming from the two-story jump. But I don't care about the pain. I can't care. Because upstairs, Rowan Blackwood is pounding on my bedroom door, and every second I waste is a second closer to him breaking through.
I grab my backpack from where it landed and run.
The forest behind our house is dark and thick with trees. I've walked these paths a thousand times during the years I spent invisible, wandering alone while my family enjoyed pack runs without me. Now I'm grateful for every lonely hour I memorized these trails.
My wolf wants to shift. She's screaming inside me, confused and hurt. She doesn't understand why we rejected our mate. To her, Rowan is everything—safety, home, completion.
But I'm not just my wolf. I'm also Isla Grey, the girl he tortured for years.
Behind me, I hear shouting. My father's voice booms through the night: "FIND HER!"
They're coming after me.
I push my legs faster, ignoring the branches that scratch my face and arms. The mate bond pulls at my chest like a fishhook lodged in my heart, trying to drag me back to him. Each step away from Rowan feels like walking through quicksand.
Just get to the bus station. Just get away.
My phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out while running, nearly tripping over a root.
Seventeen missed calls. All from numbers I don't recognize. And one text message from an unknown number:
"Isla, please. We need to talk. Don't run. - R"
I throw my phone into the bushes. They can track phones. I should have remembered that earlier, but my brain is fuzzy with pain from the rejection and the bond fighting against itself inside me.
The trees thin ahead. I can see the road—the one that leads to the bus station three miles away. I'm going to make it. I'm actually going to—
Someone steps out from behind a tree, blocking my path.
I skid to a stop, my heart dropping into my stomach.
It's not Rowan.
It's worse.
Celeste stands in front of me, her perfect blonde hair glowing in the moonlight. Her face is twisted with rage I've never seen before. She's shaking, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.
"You," she hisses. "You ruined everything."
I try to step around her, but she moves with me, blocking my escape. Behind me, I can still hear voices getting closer. I'm trapped between my sister and the search party.
"Celeste, move. I'm leaving. You can have him. You can have everything."
"I don't want him now!" Her voice cracks, and for a second, I see tears in her eyes. But they're not sad tears. They're angry ones. "Do you know what you've done? The humiliation? Everyone in that room saw my fiancé discover his mate bond with my worthless little sister!"
"I rejected him," I say, trying to keep my voice steady. "The bond is broken. You can still marry him."
"It doesn't work that way, you idiot!" Celeste takes a step closer, and I smell something strange on her. Something chemical and wrong. "You rejected him, but he didn't accept. Do you know what that means? The bond is damaged but not broken. He'll never be able to fully bond with anyone else. Not even me!"
I didn't know that. My stomach twists with guilt before I push it away. This isn't my fault. I didn't ask for any of this.
"That's not my problem," I say, trying to sound braver than I feel. "Now move."
Celeste's laugh is sharp and cruel. "You think you can just walk away? Start a new life? Be free?" She pulls something from her pocket—a small glass vial filled with dark red liquid. "Mother gave me this years ago. Just in case the family embarrassment ever became a real threat."
My blood runs cold. "What is that?"
"Wolfsbane extract. The concentrated kind." Celeste uncorks the vial, and the smell burns my nose even from several feet away. "One drop would make you sick for weeks. The whole vial? You'd lose your wolf forever. You'd go back to being the pathetic, powerless nothing you were meant to be."
My new wolf howls in terror inside me. I just got her. Just discovered I'm not broken. And now my own sister wants to take that away.
"You wouldn't," I whisper.
"Wouldn't I?" Celeste's smile is vicious. "You took everything from me, Isla. My fiancé. My future as Luna. My perfect life. Why should you get to have a wolf when you were never supposed to have one in the first place?"
She takes a step forward, holding the vial up like a weapon.
I take a step back and bump into something solid.
Arms wrap around me from behind, pinning my arms to my sides. I smell pine and winter air—Rowan's scent, burned into my brain by the mate bond.
"Let her go, Celeste," Rowan's voice rumbles against my back.
I struggle, but his grip is iron. The mate bond screams with joy at his touch, even while my brain screams at me to fight.
"Why?" Celeste demands. "Why do you care? She rejected you! She doesn't want you!"
"I said. Let. Her. Go." There's a growl in Rowan's voice now—an Alpha command that makes even my wolf want to submit.
Celeste's hand trembles, but she doesn't lower the vial. "If I can't have you, no one can. Especially not her."
Everything happens at once.
Celeste throws the vial at my face.
Rowan spins me around, putting his back to the vial.
The glass shatters against his shoulder blade.
Rowan screams—an awful, agonized sound that makes my knees weak. The wolfsbane burns through his shirt, and I can smell his flesh burning. He collapses, taking me down with him.
"ROWAN!" I hear my father's voice, and suddenly people are everywhere—pack members, my parents, all of them rushing toward us.
But I'm frozen on the ground, staring at Rowan. His face is twisted in pain, and there's wolfsbane burning into his skin, and he's looking at me with those silver eyes that are filled with so much hurt it steals my breath.
"Why?" I whisper. "Why did you do that?"
His hand reaches up, touching my cheek. The mate bond surges between us, stronger than ever because he saved me. Because he took poison meant for me.
"Because you're mine to protect," he gasps. "Even if you hate me. Even if you run. You're mine."
My father and other pack members pull me away from him. Someone is already working on his wound, trying to neutralize the wolfsbane. Celeste is being restrained, screaming about how it's not fair, how I'm ruining everything.
But I can't look away from Rowan.
And the worst part—the absolutely worst part—is that a tiny piece of me is starting to wonder if rejecting him was the right choice after all.