Bloom

Time stood still

McKenna

The branches scratched against my arms as I pressed myself deeper into the shadows of the tree. My heartbeat was a drum in my chest, each thud louder than the last. I whispered inside my head, over and over, like a mantra: Please don’t look up. Please don’t look up. I’m invisible. No one can see me.

But the forest had its own cruel humor. A massive black wolf padded to a stop beneath my tree, nostrils flaring. His head tilted, those neon-yellow eyes locking on the branches above. He sniffed the air once, twice, and then his body shifted in a smooth ripple of bone and muscle.

Alpha Azeo.

His human form emerged with a sharpness that made my lungs catch. “McKenna,” he whispered, voice a dangerous low growl. “Where are you?”

My breath froze in my chest. He couldn’t see me—his gaze slid right past me, as if I weren’t there at all. The irony nearly made me laugh. The man who spent years reminding me I was nothing now searched the shadows for me.

I stayed still. Silent.

A rustle deeper in the woods snapped his head around. His body tensed, then with a muttered curse—“f**k”—he shifted back into his wolf. His form expanded, pitch-black fur swallowing the moonlight. But what caught me was the shift in his eyes. Neon yellow flickered to black, and as his eyes darkened, so did the tips of his fur, as though the night itself claimed him.

He bolted toward the party, the earth trembling beneath his paws.

And then came the sound I’d been dreading—growls splitting the air, screams tearing through the night. Wolves shifted mid-air, bones snapping as pack members hurled themselves into the fray. Chaos erupted.

McKayla.

Her fear slammed into me through the bond. My chest squeezed tight. “McKayla, you need to hide!” I shouted through the link.

Her reply was breathless, shaky. I’m hiding… I climbed a tree by the tent. Covered with leaves. They can’t see me, but McKenna—they’ll smell me.

“Hold still. Don’t move.” My thoughts sharpened with panic.

Her mind-voice quivered. Something’s wrong. I’m… I’m shaking. My hands won’t stop.

“What do you mean?” My words were urgent, snapping across the link.

I feel… strange. I don’t know what’s happening to me.

“It’s adrenaline,” I lied, trying to steady her. “Stay calm. Focus on your breath. You’ll be fine.”

I’ll try, she whispered back.

But my own hands were trembling. I couldn’t protect her. I couldn’t protect anyone. All I could do was sit in this cursed tree and watch the world fall apart.

Hot tears stung my eyes. My father taught me how to fight—hours of drills, bruises, lessons hammered into my body. But none of it mattered. Against this many rogues, I was nothing.

Memories slammed into me—our childhood beneath this very tree, laughter echoing as we tumbled in the grass. We were just kids then. No hierarchy. No Alpha, no Beta, no Omega. Just friends. Until the world forced us to grow up. Until I became the disappointment. The exile. The ghost no one wanted.

Anger replaced the tears. My heart hammered faster. Why should I want to save them? They pushed me aside, pretended I didn’t exist. I was nothing to them—so why did it matter?

“McKenna!”

His voice cracked through my thoughts like thunder. Azeo was beneath the tree again, his aura pouring out like molten fire. “Where the f**k are you?!”

I stayed silent.

“I know you’re here. Show yourself.” His command rolled with Alpha authority. It pressed against me like a heavy wind, but… it didn’t touch me. His power slid off me as though I were wrapped in armor.

That startled him. I saw the flicker of surprise cross his face before it sharpened into something else. Calculation.

“You must have discovered one of your abilities,” he said softly, a wicked grin curling his lips.

I stiffened. What the hell was he talking about? I had no abilities. Nothing but invisibility born of being overlooked my whole life. He was wrong. He had to be.

I clenched my jaw and refused to answer.

“Fine.” His grin vanished, replaced by a growl. “Stay here in your pity party. I’ll fight for those you’re too afraid to save.”

Then he was gone, vanishing into the chaos.

I forced my gaze skyward, only to choke back a scream. The battlefield was painted in blood. Wolves—rogue and pack alike—lay sprawled across the ground, lifeless. Their bodies hadn’t even shifted back. My stomach twisted.

“McKayla?” I mind-linked desperately.

I’m still hidden, she whispered back. But McKenna… there are so many bodies. So many dead.

“Stay where you are. Don’t move. No matter what.”

But then—

A scream.

High-pitched. Terrified.

Gabby.

I knew her voice anywhere. My heart plummeted.

I saw her, dragged from the tent by two rogues. One of them circled her like prey, saliva dripping from his jaws. His muscles tensed as he lunged—

“STOP!”

The word ripped from me, raw and desperate, my hand flung out instinctively.

And the world obeyed.

Everything froze.

The rogue hung mid-air, teeth bared, jaws locked in the moment before death. Wolves stilled mid-snarl. Warriors mid-strike. The night itself held its breath.

Only I moved. Only I breathed.

The silence roared louder than the battle ever had.

“What… did I just do?” My whisper cracked in the emptiness.

The branches rustled. Slowly, deliberately, Azeo stepped toward me. No longer running, no longer fighting—just walking, each step unhurried, as if he had all the time in the world. His black eyes locked on me, unblinking.

“How are you moving?” My voice trembled.

His mouth curved into something between awe and menace. “Because I’m not like the others.”

He stopped at the base of my tree. The frozen battlefield stretched behind him, a graveyard locked in stillness. My hand shook against the bark, knuckles white.

“McKenna,” he said, his voice low, almost reverent. “Do you even realize what you’ve done? You’ve stopped time.”

“No,” I whispered. My pulse thundered in my ears. “That’s impossible.”

“Impossible?” His gaze burned through me. “Then explain this.” He gestured at the world around us—wolves suspended mid-strike, blood frozen in the air like crimson jewels.

My breath hitched. Fear tangled with something else inside me, something sharp and electric.

He leaned closer, his hand brushing the trunk of the tree, his presence crowding the shadows. “You aren’t powerless. You never were.” His eyes searched mine, fierce and unyielding. “You are something none of us can understand.”

The air between us cracked, heavy with something I couldn’t name. My throat tightened.

“You’re lying,” I said, but my voice betrayed me, soft and broken.

Azeo’s grin returned, slower this time, darker. “If I were lying, the world would still be moving.”

I swallowed hard, my chest tight.

The battlefield was frozen. My pack was dying. My sister was hiding. Gabby was seconds from being torn apart. And Alpha Azeo—my tormentor, my enemy, my impossible tether—was the only one standing here with me.

Time had stopped. But between us, it had never burned faster.