Episode 13
1221 Words
The Mark of Surrender
Kael stood in the cold, half-shadowed by the trees, chest heaving.
His fingers dug into the bark of a pine, knuckles white, jaw clenched so tight it ached. The night still smelled like her, like heat, skin, and surrender and he hated how much he needed it again.
Not just her body. Her everything.
He had taken her. Devoured her. And yet it hadn’t been enough.
Because he hadn’t marked her.
And if he did…
He didn’t want to know what would be left of her.
His wolf stirred, pacing beneath his skin.
“She’s already yours. What are you waiting for?”
“To keep her alive,” Kael muttered.
“Lying to yourself won’t save her.”
He pressed his forehead against the tree and let his mind drift….
Back to a time before the curse. When his touch didn’t kill. When he still believed love could save him.
He was sixteen. Young and reckless. A Luna’s daughter had captured his heart, soft kisses, stolen glances, sweet dreams of peace. She’d told him he wasn’t a monster.
He’d believed her.
And when the curse took hold... When his first shift overtook him and the Alpha inside clawed free, she died.
By his mark, by his fangs. He hadn’t touched another soul since.
Until Isla.
Until the girl who met his gaze without fear.
Who begged him not to save her, but to stay.
“I can’t,” he whispered to the night.
Back in the cabin, Isla sat in the quiet, fingers tracing the skin just beneath her collarbone, the place his lips had lingered.
She didn’t know why her heart ached. Maybe because she knew he’d run. Again.
The fire crackled behind her, and suddenly, like smoke slipping through her mind—she remembered her mother brushing her hair at the edge of their old bed.
“If you ever feel a pull you can’t explain,” her mother had whispered once, tucking a strand behind her ear, “don’t follow it. Not until you’re strong enough to face what it leads to.”
She hadn’t understood then.
She did now.
She used to dream of wolves—silver-eyed ones, regal and silent, circling her in forests she’d never seen. There had always been one in front, never touching, just watching her.
She used to draw it obsessively.
Until the night of her mother’s funeral.
She’d torn those pages and burned them in the sink. Told herself it was just a child’s imagination.
Now she wasn’t so sure.
She stood and left the cabin, barefoot, her pulse steady with one truth.
She wasn’t following a pull anymore.
She was walking straight toward it.
But when Kael turned, she was already there.
Watching him.
“How long were you standing there?” Kael asked, his voice low.
“Long enough,” Isla said. “To know you’re trying to leave again.”
“I needed air.”
“You needed to run.”
He looked at her, golden eyes flickering. “I hurt everyone I touch.”
“You didn’t hurt me.”
“Not yet.”
She stepped in, placed her hand against his chest. His heartbeat thundered beneath her fingers. “I know what you’re doing. You want me to be scared of you.”
“I should.”
“But you don’t want to be feared. You want to be loved.”
His breath hitched.
“I want to keep you,” he said softly. “I want to lose myself in you. I want to mark you so badly I taste it in my blood.”
“Then do it.”
His hands found her waist. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
“I do. I’m not a child, Kael. I’m not afraid of the beast.”
He growled…low, primal.
Their mouths met in a collision of tongue, and heat.
She moaned into the kiss, grabbing his shirt, pulling it from his skin. Her back hit the tree behind them, and he pressed in close, grinding against her like he was starving for it.
Kael kissed her deeper, his hands sliding beneath her thighs, hoisting her higher against the bark.
But something inside him cracked.
His back shuddered.
Claws pierced his fingertips, tearing the wood behind her.
He pulled back, his eyes wide, glowing. His jaw trembled with restraint. “I need to stop. I…I can’t shift near you.”
She reached for him. “Kael.”
His body was shaking. “I’ll hurt you.”
“You won’t.”
“Isla—” He slammed his fist into the tree, breathing ragged. “Please….step back.”
She didn’t.
Instead, she placed her forehead against his, holding his face in her palms.
“You won’t lose control.”
He shook his head. “I already have.”
“Then don’t fight it.”
Her kiss was soft, slow.
And that undid him more than anything.
He kissed her back, like it was the last decision he’d ever make.
And it was the right one.
Kael’s control shattered.
He kissed her like she belonged to him, every movement raw and desperate. His hands roamed down her body, tearing at fabric, fingers possessive and hungry. Isla gasped as he lifted her, her legs wrapping around his waist, her back scraping the bark as he pinned her high.
Clothes fell in pieces.
She was soft and bare in his arms, panting, lips swollen from his kiss.
Kael didn’t worship, he consumed her whole.
Every thrust was deeper, harder, rough with need, but beneath it, he held her like she might vanish if he let go.
“I need to….” he gasped.
“I know. Do it.”
He kissed her once—so tender it broke the rhythm—and then sank his teeth into the curve of her neck.
She cried out, not in pain, but in surrender.
The world ruptured.
A pulse of magic burst through the clearing—blinding and wild. Trees bowed. Animals scattered. A pressure exploded in Kael’s chest, cracking the invisible cage that had bound him for years.
The curse shattered.
His wolf screamed in freedom.
Kael collapsed on top of her, gasping, her body trembling beneath his.
And then... silence. The real kind of silence.
The kind he hadn’t known in years.
His heart thudded. The darkness in him, the venom of the curse, was gone.
But Isla wasn’t moving.
“Isla?” He brushed her hair back from her face. Her breathing was shallow, her skin glowing faintly silver beneath the moonlight.
“No, no—stay with me.”
He cradled her, rocked her gently. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t know.”
The light inside her pulsed.
And the wind shifted.
A voice—soft and ancient—whispered through the clearing.
“The mark has freed you…”
Kael froze.
“…but she has become like you.”
His blood turned cold.
“No,” he choked out. “No, not her.”
But the glow in Isla’s veins was spreading.
Her heartbeat was steady, but her body… was changing.
He didn’t know what he had awakened.
Only that he couldn’t lose her now.
Not after tasting heaven in her arms.
Not after finally being free.
- Writer
