Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
ASHER
T his is not how I envisioned revealing my true self to Isla. My plan was for Isla to gently acclimate to our world, to unveil the magic at a pace she could absorb without losing her mind. Yet here I am, forced into this revelation by circumstances spiraling beyond my control. My mother’s preemptive disclosures already pushed the boundaries, and now, I find myself doing exactly what I didn’t want.
Though my primary goal remains unchanged: I cannot—and will not—lose Isla again.
“I didn’t think you’d venture this far out, but of course, you always defy expectations,” I admit with a reluctant grin, trying to inject a lighter tone into the unfolding drama.
“But that wolf and the other… How did you…make them go away?” Her stammering is only going to get worse the longer I wait. I know this, but it doesn’t make the words I say next any easier.
“He was a young wolf who thought you were an intruder,” I explain with measured calmness. “Once I set him straight and made sure he knew you weren’t to be bothered ever again, I let him go.”
Her face drains of color, her eyes widening in disbelief. “You told a wild animal to leave me alone? Are you serious?” The skepticism in her voice isn’t to be missed.
“That’s not what he is.” The weight of my next words feel like a boulder in my throat. “He’s one of my wolves, part of my pack.”
Confusion etches her features as she takes a hesitant step back. “What are you talking about?”
I steel myself against the surge of emotions threatening to overwhelm my composure. “We’re wolf shifters, Isla. Part human, part beast, but far from wild.”
Laughter bursts from her, sharp and disbelieving. “That’s a joke, right? I’m going back to my room now.” She turns to leave, the dismissive gesture a knife to my chest, but now that we’ve started this conversation, there’s no ending it until she understands.
I block her path, urgency bleeding into my voice. “You need to hear this, Isla.”
“No.” Her denial is flat, resolute. “I need to be here for four weeks as promised, take my—Grayson and go. I’ve already learned too much. I don’t need to know more.”
I hear the words leaving her mouth, but as I gaze into her eyes, a flicker of curiosity battles the defiance staring back at me. She’s intrigued, despite herself. “Please, just listen. We are wolf shifters, and so are you.”
Her laughter is a dark melody that fills the space between us. “You’ve lost your damn mind. I’m not a werewolf. Hell, I’m not even going to admit you are when things like this are supposed to only exist in fiction.”
My face scrunches in confusion. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, but we don’t wear our wolves. We shift into them. They are us. And you can deny this all you want, but I’m telling you the truth.”
“I didn’t mean…” She pinches the bridge of her nose. “Never mind. Whatever the truth is, I’m not that .”
“You might not remember who you once were, but don’t lie to me and tell me that you just happened to enter this forest.” My tone is firm, unyieldingly seeking the truth only she knows. “You were called to these trees. You might have even felt like running or shifting without realizing it.”
She bites her lower lip and looks over my shoulder instead of directly at me. I got something right, at least. Hopefully enough that she’s maybe even accepting fragments of the truth I’ve shared.
Keeping my voice calm, I instinctively reach for her, cupping my palm around her bicep until she flinches, and I let go. “I’m sorry.” She glances down at her arm, then back up at me before I add, “Not for that, but for you having to find out this way. I’m not lying to you, Is. This is who we are.”
“Reincarnated wolf shifters?” Her words are barely a whisper before she seems to find her strength. “There’s no way I wouldn’t know if I were a wolf. I’m sure there are…signs.”
The grimace that graces her face makes me smile. I don’t know what she’s imagining, but I would love to. Though she’s wrong about one thing.
“You were reborn to Earth,” I explain, keeping my words gentle and clear. “There is no magic there, which means your wolf has been suppressed for—” I’m at a loss for words as I realize that if she’s continually been reborn to Earth all this time that her poor wolf has been locked away for five centuries.
Not only does my heart break for her inner animal, but my own howls within my mind. Isla isn’t just the other half of my soul—she’s his too—and knowing that his mate has been trapped? There are no proper words to describe that grief.
“For what?” Isla asks, encouraging me to finish my sentence and at least seeming more intrigued about what I have to share.
“Since you died the first time,” I tell her. Though another thought occurs to me. “Do you ever have vivid dreams about places you’ve never been to but that seem almost too real?”
She shakes her head and I’m not surprised, but I at least had to try. If she’d dreamt of any of her past lives like the children born here do as they begin to mature, then it might have given us some much-needed answers.
“You’re not lying to me, are you?” she asks, rubbing a hand over her chest, her expression mingling confusion and realization. “This is all real, I’m not stuck in the world’s longest dream, and…”
Her eyes close and I want to say something to fill the silence, but I wait for her to find her words, to finish what she was going to say.
“I once lived here.”
That’s not what I was hoping for her to confess, but it’s a start.
“Yes, to all of that,” I tell her sincerely, noticing that the small cut on her cheek hasn’t healed yet. Though the deeper one caused by the young wolf—who was so distracted by Isla’s new scent that he didn’t realize his alpha was coming for him—on my forearm is barely a pink mark.
Could it be possible that something went wrong with my mate’s reincarnation and she’s no longer one of us?
That’s a question I don’t know how to answer, but no matter, she’s still mine . I feel that in my soul and nobody can tell me otherwise. I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure she’s not only okay with what she’s learned, but that she decides to stay for the right reasons, not because I’ve forced her hand.
Ripping a piece of fabric from the sleeve of my shirt, I hold my hand out. “May I?”
Her fingers press to her cheek, coming back with a spot of blood on the tips. “Oh. Um, sure.”
I do my best to hide my surprise that she didn’t just take the cloth from me, but I’m sure I have her shock over the information I’ve revealed to thank for this moment.
With the utmost gentleness, I dab at her cut before applying the slightest pressure. She only winces once and I swear my heart is going to burst out of my chest when she leans into my touch.
“So warm,” she mutters with her eyes closed. The words are so quiet that I don’t think she intended for me to hear them, but she likely also doesn’t know about wolf shifters’ advanced hearing.
It’s been too long since we’ve shared this closeness, felt the whispers of our shared connection, too long since I’ve openly gazed upon my mate.
The sight of her standing before me, seemingly unguarded for the first time since her return—her long lashes casting shadows on her cheeks, her lips slightly parted in a breathless moment—stirs memories long suppressed. Each detail of her face etches itself deeper into my mind, surpassing every recollection I’ve had in the passing years.
Braving her wrath, I let my gaze wander while she seems to be otherwise occupied with her own thoughts. Her sweater cloaks her curves, yet my hands remember the silkiness of her skin, the way she used to arch into my touch, whispering my name in the quiet of the dark.
Fuck . I need to stop. She’s not ready for this and I know I could quickly lose control with her, if only she’d let me back in, and I’m perilously close to overstepping.
When I pull my touch away, the cut is no longer tinged with red, but just a bright, pink line that should heal fine, even by human standards.
Her eyes flutter open, and she takes a step back, likely realizing just how close we’ve become. Her voice, barely above a whisper, breaks the intimate spell. “I should probably get back.”
Despite the pang of her words, I seize the moment. “Would you first mind if I showed you somewhere else that you might enjoy visiting?”
We’re close enough to the cave that we used to call our own that I begin to wonder if her subconscious was taking her there all along.
Her shudder saddens me. Though not half as much as her next words do. “I don’t think I’ll be leaving my room again.”
“I’m so sorry, Isla,” I tell her sincerely, staying close. “I should have sent word out to the whole pack about your arrival, but I was trying to keep—I just wasn’t thinking. They all know now and I promise that you’re perfectly safe going wherever it is that you might want to explore.”
She swallows thickly. “How do they know ‘now’?”
I tap my head and smile. “A wolf perk. As the Alpha King, I can speak with my people all at once or individually to them. Though they have to be on the island for my words to reach them. It’s the same between mates, but just between other pack members.”
“So, you’re, like, a telepath?”
My head shakes and I chuckle. “No, I’m a wolf shifter with certain abilities thanks to my heritage, passed down from the gods who created us.”
Now, she chokes and her cheeks flush once more. “You’re a god?”
I should probably stop speaking, but the fact that Isla isn’t running away from me encourages me to continue. “Yes and no. I’m a wolf shifter first and foremost, but my spirit was created by the gods and enhanced before my birth, marking me as a future king. So, technically yes, I’m a god, but I don’t normally associate that title with myself.”
She snorts and rolls her eyes. “Right. I’m sure the younger version of yourself used that to your advantage quite often with the ladies.”
This time, I don’t hesitate to intrude on her space. If Isla believes nothing else, she needs to know my next words without a doubt in her soul, words that I can no longer keep to myself, even if I know they may be too much and too soon for her to hear.
“There has never been anyone other than you, Isla.” My face is only inches from hers as she presses against a tree and I reach to cup my hand around her neck, stroking my thumb over her skin, reveling in the way her flesh pebbles beneath my touch. “You and I were written in the stars, born on the same day, destined for one another from the very beginning. The day you went missing, I lost half of my heart. I thought I would go insane—literally—without you and without knowing what had happened. No one could stop me from searching every crevice of our worlds for you, not for over one hundred years.”
My touch presses nearer to her skin as I watch her eyes slowly glaze over, but still, I continue. “You could have remained gone for the rest of my existence and I never would have replaced you as my mate, not for any reason, not for anyone. So, no, I’ve never used being a god to my advantage. I never had a reason to, not when my heart was already spoken for the moment we were born.”
Isla blinks several times and I expect her to do something, even if that’s pulling away from me, but she remains in place and just says, “Okay.”
I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not, but I do know that no matter what happens next, Isla is going to make me work to earn her love again. Though she better be prepared because there’s no holding back anymore.
Not now that she knows who we really are.