Bloom

What did I do?!

McKenna

The rogue was still frozen in the position he'd been in when I stopped time.

Gabby was several feet away now, safely beyond his reach. I'd managed to move her, although I still couldn't quite believe I'd done it.

My eyes travelled across the battlefield.

Warriors stood motionless, caught between fighting and falling. A wolf hung in mid-air, its claws extended. Flames flickered without moving, and leaves remained suspended above the ground.

The entire world was waiting.

Except for Azeo and me.

I looked down at my hands. They seemed perfectly ordinary, which was almost insulting considering what they'd just done.

“I stopped time,” I whispered.

Azeo stood nearby, watching me.

“And moved Gabby,” I added.

“Yes.”

I glanced at him. “You could at least look a little surprised.”

“I am.”

He didn't look it. But then again, Azeo had a remarkable ability to make even the most impossible situations look like something he'd planned.

I turned towards the battlefield again. “How long can I keep this going?”

“There's no way of knowing.”

“Of course there isn't.”

My attention returned to the rogue. Even frozen, his expression made my stomach tighten. He had been seconds away from killing Gabby. If I hadn't acted, I might have watched my only friend die.

A shiver travelled down my spine.

I had done something impossible to save her. But what else could I do?

The question lingered as I examined my hands.

A faint warmth spread beneath my skin.

Then I heard a voice.

Finally.

I stiffened.

It hadn't come from Azeo. It hadn't come from anywhere around me.

It had come from inside.

You can hear me now.

My breath caught.

“Who's there?”

Azeo turned towards me. “McKenna?”

I barely heard him.

I am your wolf.

For a moment, I couldn't move.

My wolf.

After all these years, after the humiliating assessment and the endless whispers about my supposed weakness, she was finally here.

“What's your name?” I asked silently.

Zada.

The name settled somewhere deep within me, familiar despite being completely new.

A strange warmth spread through my chest.

We are awake now, McKenna.

I swallowed. “Why now?”

Our kind awakens differently. Earlier than others.

Our kind?

Before I could ask more, Azeo stepped closer.

“Your wolf has come forward.”

I looked at him. “You can tell?”

“I can see the change in you.”

I studied his face. “You know something about this.”

He held my gaze.

“I'm a Wolf Shifter, McKenna. So are you.”

I stared at him.

The words sounded absurd, yet the strange power moving beneath my skin made it difficult to dismiss anything as impossible.

“A Wolf Shifter?”

“Our kind is rare. Most wolves know us only through old stories. We possess abilities beyond those of ordinary wolves.”

I looked towards the frozen battlefield.

“Such as stopping time?”

“Apparently, yours is particularly unusual.”

I gave him a humourless smile. “That's one way of putting it.”

There was something else I wanted to ask, but the feeling of relief at finally hearing my wolf's voice was already being overshadowed by everything happening around us.

McKayla was still somewhere near the tents. Gabby was safe for the moment, but the attack hadn't ended.

And the rogue was still there.

My gaze settled on him.

“He was going to kill her.”

Azeo followed my eyes.

“I know.”

“He didn't care that she couldn't fight back. She was helpless, and he was going to tear her apart.”

My hands curled into fists.

For years, I'd been the one others considered helpless. I'd been measured, judged and dismissed because I didn't possess the strength they expected. I knew what it felt like to be treated as though I didn't matter.

But Gabby had never deserved any of this.

Something hot and fierce rose inside me.

I wanted the rogue to pay.

The red-gold light began to gather beneath my skin.

McKenna, Zada warned. Be careful.

I barely registered her voice.

The power felt different now. It wasn't simply holding the world still. It was responding to me, gathering around my anger as though it had been waiting for a reason to break free.

“McKenna,” Azeo said, his voice suddenly sharp.

I looked at the rogue.

“He shouldn't get away with it.”

The words had barely left my mouth when the power surged.

The rogue's body jerked.

A sickening crack tore through the silence.

I stumbled backwards as an invisible force twisted him violently. His body was ripped apart in a single horrifying instant.

Then there was nothing.

I stared.

The light disappeared from my hands, leaving only a faint tingling beneath my skin.

For several seconds, I couldn't breathe.

“What did I do?”

Azeo was staring at the remains.

His expression was unlike anything I'd seen before. No arrogance. No amusement. Not even the usual confidence.

Shock.

“That was you,” he said quietly.

I shook my head.

“No.”

“McKenna—”

“No!”

My voice broke.

I'd wanted to stop him. I'd wanted to protect Gabby. I hadn't wanted to destroy him.

I looked at my hands again, horrified.

They had done it so easily.

One moment, the rogue had been standing there, alive and ready to kill. The next, he was gone.

“What if I can't control it?” I whispered.

Azeo didn't reach for me.

“Then we'll have to find out how to control it before you use it again.”

I looked at him, tears gathering in my eyes.

I didn't want to be feared. I didn't want to become the very thing that made others afraid to stand against me.

Most of all, I didn't want to hurt someone simply because I couldn't control my emotions.

You wanted to protect her, Zada said gently.

I closed my eyes.

“That's not enough.”

No. But it is where we begin.

I drew a shaky breath and forced myself to look up.

Azeo was still watching me. Whatever he had expected to find when my power awakened, I suspected this wasn't it.

“You knew I was different,” I said.

“I suspected it.”

“And you knew I might have abilities?”

“I knew there was something unusual about you. I didn't know what it would be.”

I looked away.

There was a time when those words might have made me feel special. Now they only reminded me of the price I'd paid for his suspicions.

“I still haven't forgiven you,” I said.

“I know.”

He didn't try to defend himself.

For once, I was grateful for the silence.

I turned my attention towards the frozen battlefield. The world looked almost beautiful like this, suspended in a moment that should never have existed.

But beneath that stillness was danger.

My sister was out there. Gabby was behind me. The pack was fighting for its survival.

I needed to understand what I could do before time started moving again.

The warmth beneath my skin hadn't disappeared completely. It pulsed faintly, like a second heartbeat.

I looked down.

“Zada?”

I'm here.

“Can you help me control this?”

We will learn.

It wasn't much of an answer, but it was the first one I'd received that didn't come from someone who wanted to decide my future.

I breathed slowly, concentrating on the strange sensation inside me.

For a moment, I felt the world beyond my body. The stillness, the suspended movement, the countless moments waiting to continue.

Then the sensation shifted.

Something else pulled at me.

I lifted my head.

Azeo was watching me, his expression suddenly intense. His eyes had changed, the darkness in them giving way to something deeper.

I felt it too.

A strange pull beneath my ribs, as though an invisible thread had tightened between us.

I frowned.

What was that?

The sensation grew stronger. My attention kept returning to him, even though I had no desire to stand closer.

Zada went silent.

Then she spoke one word.

Mate.

I stopped breathing.

No.

I looked at Azeo.

He hadn't moved, but his expression had changed completely. The shock in his eyes was no longer about my power.

He knew.

“Is it true?” I whispered.

His answer was barely audible.

“Yes.”

The world seemed to tilt.

My mate.

Of all the wolves in existence, it had to be him.

The Alpha who had helped bring about my exile. The man who had watched me suffer, knowing more than he had ever been willing to tell me.

I looked away, trying to make sense of the pull that seemed to have appeared from nowhere.

Part of me wanted to move closer.

The rest of me wanted to run.

“I don't understand,” I whispered.

“You don't have to understand everything tonight.”

I turned towards him. “And I don't have to accept it just because you do.”

“No.”

His answer was immediate.

That surprised me more than it should have.

He took a small step towards me, then stopped when I stiffened.

“I won't force you, McKenna.”

I wanted to believe him. But trust wasn't something he could simply ask for, and a bond wasn't going to erase what he'd done.

“Good,” I said. “Because we're going to have a lot to talk about.”

A faint, almost disbelieving smile touched his face.

“I imagine we are.”

A tremor passed through the ground.

I turned sharply.

The leaves began to move.

The flames flickered, and somewhere in the distance, a wolf's growl broke through the silence.

Time was returning.

Azeo's expression hardened. “Stay close.”

I gave him a look.

“Don't start giving me orders.”

For a brief moment, his eyes softened.

Then the world moved.

The battlefield erupted back into sound. Growls, snarls and screams filled the air as the fight resumed exactly where it had stopped.

I turned towards Gabby.

She was still where I'd left her, away from the rogue's reach.

McKayla was somewhere near the tents.

And I was standing in the middle of a battle with a power I couldn't explain, a wolf I'd only just met and a mate I wasn't sure I wanted.

I had spent my entire life waiting for the pack to discover that I was more than they believed.

Now they might finally see it.

I only hoped I would survive long enough to understand what they were looking at.

Because one thing was certain.

I was no longer the weakling they thought they knew.