As most great stories in history, this one begins on a stormy night in Seattle. A very pregnant and terrified Lorene Castiel and her husband Larry rushed through the streets of the city and to the nearest hospital, desperately trying to make it there in time before their unborn daughter came into the world in the front seat of their car. In the blink of an eye, however, the officer and his wife were struck by a drunk driver, rendering Lorene unconscious and Larry dead.
Fast forward 16 years to find Isla Castiel, brunette bombshell in training -- the striking image of her mother and father combined, angrily packing her bags and stuffing everything she owend in them. From the day her father died until now, Isla was blamed for his death and her mother had never forgiven her. Even the quiet resentment of what happened that night was palpable when Isla was a mere child. She tried. Everyday of her life, Isla tried to be a good daughter, to make up for something she wasn't old enough to understand. The older she got, the more resentful her mother became, and the more she pushed Isla away. Halfway through her sophomore year, Isla had finally reached her breaking point. A face to face screaming match with her mother ending in the three words and eight letters she always feared hearing the most.
If it wasn't for the generosity of her extended family, Isla knew she would find herself without a proper home, with nowhere to go, and with no real chance of survival. Her mothers sister, Dinah, offered a helping hand a place to crash while Isla figured things out. They had spent countless hours and days attempting to reason with Lorene, but the truth was, Isla was never going to go home. There was never going to be a day when that door opened and her mother welcomed her back with open arms. After the proper emancipation papers were signed and dated, Isla was officially no one's. Dinah and Ted kept their door open for her and more often than not, she'd find herself curled up on their couch at the end of the day. She lived with them throughout the rest of high school and was able to experience having a family in a way her mother had never shown her.
Once high school was over, Isla had plans to move forward and go to college, but she was focused on helping her uncle run his boxing gym and her aunt with her flower shop. Teddy Wilde, a former heavy weight boxing champ ran a run down, battered gym in the outskirts of the city. There were months when it was almost impossible to keep the electricity on, or the doors open, but the community needed a place like Wildecat to stay open. The afterschool program they offered kept kids off the street and out of trouble, and brought in people looking for help. As a former detective, Ted knew all too well what closing the doors of his gym would mean for the community. With Isla's help, they kept it on the ground. They integrated new aspects into the gym, ones other gyms couldn't offer, and it became more than just a boxing gym, it became a full blown community center. It became Isla's sole purpose to see it thrive and to give back to the man that took her in.
At the age of 20, after nearly four years of helping out at Wildecat in Seattle, she was offered the opportunity to open a sister center on the East Coast under the same name. Family of Ted's had heard of the great success the center had brought to the area surrounding Seattle and they offered to fund a new project in the heart of Boston if the family was interested.
Having taken courses between her time at Wildecat, Isla jumped at the opportunity to help open the new center. Her eager and bright mind full of ideas on how to expand and make it into something bigger than they could have imagined. With a business degree in one hand and plans for the new gym in the other, Ted and Isla set out to Boston and began building their dreams from the rubble up, combining their visions and ideas into one of the cities most prominent martial arts training centers. They were easily recognized as a team and their excellent community work from back west had brought plenty of inquiries from all over the greater Boston area. It was no time at all before this branch of Wildecat had blossomed into what it is now, one of the most impressive training centers on the east coast. Something Isla and Ted have both been proud of for a very long time.
It goes without saying that when a presence as large as Isla's enters a city, people notice. Although she had always kept to herself, more focused on her work than anything else, the attention she was grabbing hadn't gone unnoticed by her. She knew, and she used it to her advantage, too. Isla's guile and intrigue caught the attention of some well known names in the business, and before too long, she was under contract and fighting professionally.
It took a while to get used to the traveling and constant attention, but eventually Isla soaked it all in and reveled in the fact that only a handful of years ago, she was a motherless orphan and now she was on the rise and known for being one of the toughest fighters in the country. Between the ages of 23 and 26, Isla had fallen in love with a college professor and the two eloped, marrying after a very quick romance. The marriage had officially ended a year after the two of them adopted a Vietnamese orphan.
If it weren't for the volatile and physically abusive relationship between she and her husband, Isla never would have gone back to the gym to work in a new self denfese program, integrating it into what they had already taught and going to the BPD for referrals. In three years time, Wildecat became not only the most prominent martial arts training gym in Boston, but home to the best womens self defense classes, taught by Isla herself.
Finding that being a mother, a trainer, and traveling to fight was exhausting, Isla cut her contract to focus on her life at home. Without a father, her daughter only had her to look up to and Isla knew more than well enough that she needed to be a bigger figure in her child's life. Until she was old enough to go to school, Isla brought her daughter to the gym with her every single day, and over the years, Cynthia Lee has become more or less the mascot of Wildecat. At the end of her sixth grade year, the decision to send Cyn to boarding school was made and she will be attending Sparhawk School until she graduates.
It's been mostly smooth sailing since moving to Boston. In early 2013, the decision to hand down ownership to the orignal Wildecat gym was made and Ted and Dinah moved to Boston permanently to be more involved with all of what Isla has built. In her spare time, Isla began helping her aunt at her newly relocated flower shop, and together they opened Sherwood Florist, a shop that Isla is particularly attached to thanks to her clever play on words.
Twice since Isla's first marriage has she found herself in time consuming relationships. The first came to a disastrous halt on the night of the rehearsal dinner when she and ex-husband, Craig Windrow, decided re-marrying wasn't going to fix their previous problems with one another. More recently, her early 2015 marriage to entrepreneur Oliver Greene had turned out to be what she had waited her entire life to find. Although she had never wanted the cookie cutter lifestyle, their relationship had given her a new hope towards the future. He had turned out to be one of the most sincere and amazing people she had come to know throughout the years and over the last year, they had been through hell and back together.
Most recently, the two celebrated finding out that Isla was pregnant, despite having many difficulties getting pregnant in the past with her ex-husband. The two couldn't have been happier together and they announced it at their public wedding ceremony in May. A month and some change later, they found out that the pregnancy was unsuccessful and they began to drift apart. It was in July when they decided to finally call it quits, and in September, Isla finally asked for a divorce.
Until she moved to boston, Isla had long, jet black hair. In an attempt to reinvent herself, she cut it and began bleaching it. Her transformation had given her a sizeable confidence boost and she was no longer the sweet and mousey girl-next-door type. As Isla began to come into herself as she got older, she had a much stronger personality and her presence was hard to ignore as she made a name for herself in her chosen career.
is a big fan of roller derby and skates for the local team, babes of prey. her derby name is dita von sleaze.
She claims to be a 'natural born fighter' and it was her uncle Ted that believed in this. Ted was a well known local boxing legend and champion, and he taught Isla all she knows. He gave her an outlet for her aggression and taught her how to focus and project it in the right manner. It was on her own accord that she expanded her interests and found herself studying multiple forms of martial arts, including judo, savate and krav maga. these days, she holds multiple belts and multiple titles in a handful of martial arts.
when isla was a happily married 25-year-old, she and her now ex-husband, craig, adopted a five-year-old vietnamese orphan after two years of struggling with infertility. it was love at first sight for isla, however, craig felt left out and dejected which would lead to their inevitable demise. isla has fought tooth and nail to give their daughter a family and a life that wasn't available to her and makes sure her daughter always comes first. although the couple split up during the following year, they have patched up their friendship and even tried re-marrying in 2014.
Isla has a very strong maternal instict, which is partially why she feels so strongly about teaching self defense. This extends beyond work and spills into her home life, as well. She's very selective about the friends she keeps, especially those she keeps close, because she knows how easily she can wear herself thin when it comes to being overly nurturing and caring for other people.
Wildecat is Boston's most well known centers for self defense and mixed martial arts training. Isla began teaching her first self defense classes following her own domestically violent relationship. To this day, the BPD refers women who have found themselves in domestic disputes to her for classes
