Snared Again
Gabrielle POV
"Stay here," Tess grits out.
Blood pounds in my ears, drowning everything else out.
"No way!"
"Gabi, trust me. Please."
I've never seen her look like that – stripped of sarcasm and bravado.
There's no time to argue.
Shapes blur through the glass. Too fast.
"As soon we're out the car, you run," she says. "Don't stop. Not until you're back at Evergreen. Go."
We throw the doors open. The second our feet hit the ground, we know it for certain.
Rogues.
You can tell by the absence of everything that should be there – pack scent, structure. There's just rot and hunger. Something feral that doesn't answer to anyone.
Tess grabs my wrist. "Run!"
We make it two steps. They're already on us.
One lunges for Tess.
She shifts.
Not graceful. Not fluid. Violent.
Bones snap. Skin tears into fur. A roar rips from her throat as my best friend vanishes, replaced by something powerful and furious. A fierce protector.
She collides with the rogue mid-air.
They crash into the undergrowth in a blur of teeth and blood and snapping jaws.
Another rogue grabs for me.
His hand is ice against my skin. Wrong. Repulsive.
I kick. I claw. I rake my nails across his face with every ounce of venom I can muster.
He just laughs.
Actually laughs.
"You're a feisty one," He murmurs, dragging me closer. His nose brushes my hair. "And you don't smell like the rest."
Revulsion crawls down my spine.
His sickening scent coats the back of my throat.
"I could enjoy this," he adds quietly.
Cold seeps to my bones.
“You won't with this one,” a voice says.
Calm. Female. Close.
I twist in his grip.
Pale hair catches the light between the trees.
“Take the wolf first. This one is spoken for.”
My teeth grind together.
The way she looks at me is hungry, certain.
Tess explodes from the bushes again, fur matted with blood, teeth bared. She launches straight at the rogue holding me.
For a heartbeat, I think she'll reach him.
Then a flash of silver, and it's buried in her flank. Tess jerks, a strangled yelp rips from her throat.
The rogue twists the syringe.
Wolfsbane.
Even I recognise the scent when it hits the air. Sharp and poisonous – wrong.
Tess collapses.
Her wolf flickers, fur recedes. Bones reshape and she falls back into herself. Naked and shaking, mud and blood streaking her skin.
“No!” I drop to my knees beside her.
She’s trembles, trying to push up. Her eyes find mine.
"Don't worry," she croaks. "It's not my blood."
Even now, even like this, you can't stop this firecracker.
Another rogue hauls me back before I can reach her. The pale-haired woman steps closer now.
Up close she's worse.
Eerily beautiful. Controlled. Polished like a blade.
“Special,” she murmurs, her eyes fixing on me. Studying me. “Yes. You'll do nicely.”
Tess tries to rise again, but her body doesn’t obey.
The wolfsbane is winning.
My world narrows to the sound of her breathing.
The wolfsbane is winning.
The rogue holding me tightens his grip.
“Take the wolf,” one of the men says.
“And the girl?”
The woman’s gaze never leaves mine. Something in her eyes makes my hairs stand on end.
“Bring her.”
A sharp sting in my neck, and the world tilts. Darkness rushes in.
----
When I come to, the forest feels different. Farther from Evergreen.
Voices murmur somewhere beyond the trees. My head throbs. My wrists burn where they’ve been bound.
One voice cuts through the haze. Familiar – too familiar.
My thoughts scramble, frantically trying to connect what I already know.
Realisation dawns.
I’ve heard it in corridors. Across lunch tables.
I’ve trusted it.
I lift my head. Connor freezes when he sees me awake.
For a moment, he almost looks afraid.
Motherfucker. He knew where I'd be.
He turns to the woman, “You said– ”
One of the men backhands him hard enough to send him sprawling to the ground.
My stomach drops.
“You said you wouldn’t hurt them!” Connor chokes, scrambling to his knees.
The woman laughs.
“Foolish boy, what did you think we were planning with them all, a picnic?”
Her cackle fills the clearing.
“You said I was helping keep the balance,” he spits, “That I’d be rewarded.”
“And you will be,” She replies smoothly. “Once you tie up the girl.”
He hesitates.
Something ugly flickers across his face – regret? Fear?
It doesn’t matter.
He steps towards me and somewhere, deep in my chest, something stirs.
Something that has been waiting.