Bloom

Time stood still

Azeo

She thought I wanted her banished.

I had given the elders the words they needed. I had allowed them to believe I considered McKenna Rochester useless. When the decision came, I had stood there and let her look at me as though I were the enemy.

Perhaps I was.

The prophecy had followed me for years.

She will be overlooked, discarded, a shadow among the strong. Yet within her, flame and storm will awaken. She will either unchain you—or unmake you.

I had searched old records, questioned those who remembered things the rest of the world had forgotten, and studied every account that might explain what it meant to be unchained. None had given me an answer.

McKenna had scored 0.5. No recognised gift. No strength worth measuring. Nothing the elders valued.

Yet something about her had never fit the report.

I had hoped severing her from the pack might force whatever lay dormant inside her to surface. I had not known what would awaken, or what it might cost her.

My wolf had not forgiven me.

She is hurting.

“I know.”

You did this.

“I know that too.”

I had no excuse that would make the pain I caused her disappear. She had not asked for this. I could only hope the truth would eventually give her a reason to understand.

But if I had been wrong, I might have pushed her into a danger she was not ready to face.

And if I had been right, keeping her sheltered might have left her powerless when the moment came.

I watched her leave the hall, carrying the weight of my decision without knowing why I had made it.

For now, she would have to leave thinking she was alone.

I could only hope that, when the truth finally came, she would still be alive to hear it.

And that I would have earned the right to stand beside her.

McKenna

The night air was cool against my skin as I stepped away from the hall.

Behind me, music played beneath strings of fairy lights. Laughter drifted across the grounds, as though nothing had happened. As though I hadn't just been severed from the only home I'd ever known.

I wanted to run until the noise disappeared.

My bag was near the carriages. I kept to the shadows, avoiding the visiting wolves and their guards. Rogues were known for their bitter, smoke-like scent. An unfamiliar smell near the gathering could earn me a challenge—or a fight I had no chance of winning.

I reached my bag and slipped the strap over my shoulder.

Then my necklace warmed against my skin.

McKenna, honey, just wait by the border for me.

My mother's voice sounded through the connection.

Mom, are you out of your mind? The guards will smell me and kill me. You know that.

Honey, you don't smell like the other rogues. You have no scent at all. I don't know why, and I don't know if anyone else has noticed. But I need to give you a proper goodbye.

No scent?

I didn't have time to question it. If anyone discovered I was still nearby, I could be dragged back to face the elders—or worse.

I'll go to the hill near the border, I told her. The one we agreed on if anything ever happened.

Good. Stay hidden until I reach you.

I moved through the trees, my bag bumping against my side. A small, reckless part of me felt almost excited.

McKenna against the world.

It sounded better than McKenna the weakling.

The hill came into view, and I slowed. Something was wrong. The sounds from the gathering had changed. The laughter had thinned, replaced by sharp voices and the hurried movement of feet.

My mother appeared between the trees.

“Something is wrong,” she whispered. “Hide.”

A rustle came from beyond us.

I climbed the nearest tree, using the same tricks I'd learned as a child to escape the taunts and rough hands of stronger wolves at the training ground. I settled among the branches and pulled my bag close.

Dozens of dark wolves moved through the trees below.

Rogues.

A warning shout rose from the gathering. Warriors sprinted towards the border, shifting as they ran.

Then the first clash came.

The sound carried through the woods: snarls, bodies striking the ground, and the cries of wolves caught in the fight.

I gripped the branch beneath me.

I should warn someone. I should do something.

But what could a wolf with a score of 0.5 do against a rogue army?

I thought of my father. My mother. McKayla.

I might have hated the pack for what it had done to me, but I didn't want my family dead.

And McKayla was still there.

McKenna? Her voice reached me through the bond we had never understood. Where are you?

Near the hill. Are you safe?

I'm hiding beside a tree near one of the tents. I can hear them fighting.

Stay there. Don't move unless you have to.

A sharp cry cut through our connection. Then another voice shouted, and the bond wavered.

I looked towards the gathering.

A huge black wolf stood beneath the tree line, his coat so dark it seemed to swallow the moonlight. His eyes were an unnatural neon yellow.

He lifted his head.

For one terrible moment, I thought he was looking straight at me.

Then he shifted.

Azeo stood naked among the trees, his expression hard as he scanned the shadows.

“McKenna, where are you?”

I pressed myself against the trunk and held my breath.

His gaze passed over me.

He couldn't see me.

A branch snapped somewhere to his left. He turned sharply, swore, and shifted again. His yellow eyes flickered black. The tips of his fur darkened, and he raced towards the sounds of the fight.

I remained still until he disappeared.

Then I heard the screams.

The attack had reached the gathering.

I climbed down and moved closer, keeping behind the trees. I could see wolves fighting in the open, bodies scattered across the ground. The pack was losing.

Azeo moved through the chaos like a force of nature. His wolf tore into one rogue, then another. When he shifted back, the air around him seemed to shimmer with heat, like molten fire.

I wanted to hate him. It should have been easy.

Instead, I kept looking for McKayla.

I'm still here, she sent, her thoughts shaking. I can see the tent. Someone's coming.

Stay hidden.

Gabby's out there.

The name stopped me.

Gabby was my only friend in the pack. An omega like me, she had never been much of a fighter. Her strength lay in plants, medicines, and knowing what could heal a wound when everyone else had given up. She could identify remedies most wolves wouldn't recognise, but the training ground had never been kind to her.

People overlooked her, too. Her small frame, dull brown hair, freckles and glasses made it easy for the stronger wolves to dismiss her. They never seemed to notice how beautiful she was—or how much she understood what it meant to be underestimated.

She had never treated me like I was worth less because of my score.

What happened to Gabby? I sent.

The rogues have her. One dragged her away from the tent. Her glasses fell, McKenna. She can't see properly.

My stomach tightened.

I spotted them through the trees. A rogue had Gabby by the arm and was dragging her across the ground. She stumbled, reaching blindly for her fallen glasses. The rogue pulled her away before she could find them.

Another wolf circled closer, teeth bared.

Gabby was going to die.

Azeo appeared beside me.

“Come out,” he commanded.

I flinched at his sudden presence but didn't move.

“McKenna.” His voice sharpened with Alpha authority. “Now.”

Nothing happened.

His eyes narrowed. He knew the command should have forced me to obey. I could see the realisation settling over his face.

“What are you?” he murmured.

He looked towards the battlefield. “You can hide here and watch them die, or you can help one person.”

My anger rose hot and immediate.

“You think I owe them anything?”

“No.” For once, his answer came without mockery. “But you need to decide what you owe yourself.”

“Did you know this would happen?” I demanded. “Is that why you let them throw me out?”

His jaw tightened.

“I didn't know the rogues would attack.”

It wasn't an answer to everything I'd asked, and I knew it.

Before I could press him, Gabby screamed.

The rogue holding her shoved her to the ground. She scrambled backwards, unable to see clearly, while the other wolf advanced.

I saw the fear on her face.

I saw the friend who had sat beside me when everyone else left me alone. The girl who had shared food with me, laughed with me, and never once called me weak.

I couldn't stand there and watch her die.

“STOP!”

I threw out my hand.

The world stopped.

A rogue hung in mid-stride, claws suspended above the ground. Leaves froze in the air. A wolf's snarl died without sound. Even the firelight seemed caught in place.

The silence was so complete that I could hear my own heartbeat.

I stared at my outstretched hand.

“What have I done?”

Azeo stepped past me.

He was moving.

His eyes had turned black, and he looked at the frozen battlefield with an expression I couldn't read.

“You stopped time,” he said.

“No.” I shook my head. “That's impossible.”

He gestured towards the motionless wolves. “Look around you.”

“I didn't mean to!”

“I know.”

I backed away from him. “How can you move?”

“Because I'm not like the others.”

“That explains absolutely nothing.”

For the first time since I'd met him, Azeo looked almost uncertain.

“You aren't powerless, McKenna. You never were.”

“Then why didn't you tell me?”

“Because I didn't know what you could do.” He paused. “I suspected there was something inside you. I came here because of what I'd learned, but I didn't know what it would be, or when it would awaken.”

“What you'd learned?”

He looked at me, and I saw the answer he wasn't giving me.

“You knew enough to let them sever me from my pack,” I said. “You let me believe I was nothing.”

“I did.”

The admission struck harder than a denial would have.

“You used me.”

“Yes.”

I hated that he hadn't try to make it sound noble. He said it as it was.

My gaze shifted to Gabby. She was frozen on the ground, her hand stretched towards the place where her glasses had fallen. The rogue's claws were inches from her.

“I don't care what I am,” I whispered. “I need to save her.”

“Then learn to control it.”

“How?”

“Feel the moment you stopped. Hold on to it. Don't let go until you're ready.”

I looked at my hand. Fear pressed against my ribs,beneath it something answered—something vast, warm, and frighteningly alive.

The world had listened when I told it to stop.

Could I make it listen again?

I drew a trembling breath and turned back towards Gabby.

The battlefield was frozen. My pack was dying. My sister was hiding. Gabby was seconds from being torn apart.

And Azeo—my tormentor, my enemy, my impossible tether—was the only one standing here with me.