The Worst of It

Reborn

Isla POV

I can't stop myself from falling. As I try to find my bearings, and flap my wings. I hear the pack below gasping. They all know I'm about to fall to my death, my wings feel as if they're on fire. I don't understand why I can't use my wings. I suddenly hear my mother's voice in my head,

"Shift into your wolf, my child. This isK all the help I can give you. If your father finds out I even contacted you, I will meet the same fate."

I listen to my mother's words and shift into my beautiful snow-white wolf. The pain finally goes away. I try once again to flap my wings, as I am inches from my death I am finally able to use them. Instead of landing, I take flight high above the trees. I feel free, with the wind in my fur and feathers the wind tickling my wings like a million little kisses. I start to turn around and head back to the pack, almost afraid of what they'll think. I didn't realize they had all shifted. By the time I land, they are all bowing to me. To say I'm shocked is an understatement. I've never been bowed to, not even as a princess in the heavens. I was always ridiculed and beaten, even though I've done nothing to deserve it. I can feel my power growing as they bow to me. Is this what my mother feels when the wolves pray to her? I truly don't understand anything in this world. There are so many questions running through my head, it's almost dizzying.

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King Asher's POV:

The rest of the pack follows me as I chase after her out under the midnight sky. I am left in pure awe as she starts glowing. Onyx is prancing around in my head, making me very confused.

As her glow gets brighter, she starts floating up into the sky, confusing me more. Was she the cause of the bright light crashing down? It makes sense as she was near the crash sight. I was so lost in thought that I was startled when I heard a loud boom accompanied by a flash so bright it felt like a moment of daylight. At that moment, I realized my questions were answered. She was behind the bright light this morning, and she is either a direct decedent of the moon goddess if not the goddess herself.

With my prior question answered, many more came crashing into my mind.

I see her falling, making my heart race. I can feel her fear. 'Why can I feel her fear?' I asked Onyx. 'There is a very simple answer to that, Asher, and that I cannot tell you just yet.

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Isla’s POV

My paws touch the earth so gently it feels unreal. Every wolf—large, small, alpha, omega—drops to their knees with heads lowered so deeply their snouts brush the soil. The air buzzes with reverence, and my heart begins pounding so hard it stings.

Why are they doing this?

Why me?

I’m nothing but a banished disappointment.

The moonlight wraps around me like warm silk, but it only tightens the ache in my chest. My wings fold in close, feathers trembling from how overwhelmed I am, and my wolf presses uneasily against my mind.

“They think we are something sacred,” she whispers.

I swallow. Maybe they’re wrong.

Then I see him—the man from earlier, the king. His wolf stands at the front of the pack, massive and shadow-dark, with eyes like burning gold fixed entirely on me. The moment our gazes collide, a sharp current shoots through me. Warm. Heavy. Too intimate.

I stumble back.

His wolf takes a step forward.

Something pulls at me. Not physical. Not magical. Something deeper—like a string tied to my ribs is being tugged gently by a force I don’t understand.

My breathing quickens.

“What is this…?” I manage to whimper through the link with my wolf.

She stays quiet.

Too quiet.

Terrifyingly quiet.

Instead, she murmurs one thing, soft as a falling feather.

“Fated.”

My heart slams against my ribs.

“No,” I choke. “No, no, I can’t… I can’t have a mate. Not here. Not now. Not after everything.”

My voice fractures in my own mind.

Wolves lift their heads slightly as the king shifts back into his human form. The sight almost knocks the breath out of me. Power radiates off him in waves, but it’s not the kind that reminds me of my father. It doesn’t suffocate—it… steadies.

He approaches with slow, careful steps, as if he’s afraid I’ll bolt. He should be. I want to run. My pulse is loud enough I swear the entire pack can hear it.

When he reaches only a few feet from me, he lowers his head in a subtle bow.

A king.

Bowing.

To me.

My throat tightens painfully.

“Who are you?” he asks softly, voice pulling me in like a warm tide. “And what are you?”

I flinch back at the last question.

Of course.

That’s what everyone wants to know.

Not who—but what.

My wings curl inward protectively. “I don’t know,” I whisper. “I don’t know anything except that I don’t belong here.”

His eyes soften strangely, but before he can speak, a sharp burning shoots through my chest. My wolf yelps inside my head. I stumble, wings flaring out instinctively, feathers scattering light into the trees.

Gasps ripple through the pack.

A glowing crescent mark blooms over my heart like molten silver. It pulses once… twice… syncing perfectly with his heartbeat.

His eyes widen.

Then narrow.

He knows.

He knows what this means.

Mate.

Bond.

Fate.

“No…” I breathe, stepping backward until my hind legs shake. “No, please—don’t say it.”

He doesn’t.

But the look on his face says everything.

The mate bond slams into me with the force of a hundred storms. My knees buckle, and my wings snap open in panic. Everything spins—trees, moon, wolves, the king—blurring into one overwhelming mess of new senses and raw emotion.

My mother’s voice echoes faintly in my mind, fading like dust on the wind.

“You were never meant to be ordinary, Isla.”

Then the ground rushes toward me. My wings fold involuntarily, and the world darkens as the bond surges too strong, too fast, too much.

The last thing I hear before darkness claims me is his voice—close, desperate, and painfully gentle.

“Don’t you dare fall again.”

And then I do.

Darkness swallows me whole.