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Chapter 10
As the plane began its ascent, Isla sat by the window, watching the pack she once called home shrink into nothing.
Not a flicker of nostalgia crossed her heart.
Only relief.
For the first time, she was truly leaving the place that had never once felt like hers.
Even as a child, she’d dreamed of escape. She’d always known–Regis and Viviana treated her more like a tolerated stranger than a daughter. In every way that counted, Arabella was the chosen one.
For a while, she tried to convince herself maybe she wasn’t really their child. Maybe that’s why they couldn’t love her.
But no. She was their biological daughter. Arabella’s little sister.
Which only made it worse.
Because there was no excuse–no tragic secret, no switch at birth. Just the cold, simple truth: they didn’t love her.
She was born for one reason–to save Arabella’s life. A stem cell match. Nothing more.
Some nights, she wondered if Arabella hadn’t needed a donor, would she even have been born at all?
As for Rhett… once, she’d thought he was her light. Her miracle.
She’d loved him long before the accident. Not because he was powerful or admired—but because he was the only one who made her feel like she mattered.
He’d looked at her like she wasn’t invisible. Like she wasn’t just a shadow behind her sister.
And that had been enough for Isla to fall, completely and hopelessly.
But now… he truly believed the one beside him was the girl he’d once loved.
No matter what Isla said. No matter how many times she tried to tell him the truth. He refused to see her.
The plane hit a patch of turbulence. The cabin rattled, sending a jolt through her.
Her injuries from the crash still ached, dull but constant. She drew in a sharp breath.
She was healing, slowly. But ever since the night Arabella pushed her into the icy river–snuffing out the spark of her wolf for hours- her body hadn’t been the same.
The cold had seeped into her bones, into something deeper than flesh. Even on dry, cloudy days, her wolf stirred uneasily beneath her skin. As if it remembered drowning. As if the cold still lingered inside.
She pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders, but it didn’t help. Still cold.
She was about to ask the flight attendant for another when a soft voice broke through
“You can take mine.”
Isla turned, surprised to see the man seated beside her offering his blanket
“I don’t need it,” he added.
His voice was warm, smooth. The crisp white shirt he wore made him look almost too polished, too serious. A black mask covered most of his face–but his eyes…
Those eyes were unnaturally striking Sharp. Hypnotic.
“Thanks,” Isla murmured, accepting the blanket.
Chapter 10
Wrapped in its added warmth, her body finally began to relax. The exhaustion caught up with her, and her eyelids drifted shut.
A while later, a voice crackled over the speakers.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll be landing at Koorana International Airport in approximately thirty minutes. Current ground temperature is…”
The announcement roused her.
She blinked, disoriented, realizing she’d been asleep for nearly two hours. Her back and legs ached from sitting so still.
By the time they touched down and she’d collected her luggage, she pulled out her new phone.
The screen lit up–blank. No messages. No missed calls. Just a hollow kind of silence.
Not that she expected anything different.
www
She could disappear off the face of the earth, and the world would keep turning. No one would notice. No one would care.
That thought didn’t sting anymore. It felt like freedom.
This was a new place. A clean slate.
Whatever came next–she’d face it on her own terms.
And the past?
It could rot.
Chapter 10
