Unbound
Gabrielle POV
Tess is shaking. The wolfsbane is muting her system, trapping her wolf. I can smell it more strongly now, sharp and bitter in the air.
"We need something from you," The woman says calmly, turning her gaze to me. "It won't hurt... much."
"Fuck you!" Tess shouts, bounding forwards. "No one messes with my bestie."
Her claws burst out. It’s all she can manage with the poison in her system.
The woman simply flicks her fingers towards Tess and two more rogues emerge. They round on her then. My heart stops at the sinister gleam in their eyes.
She swipes furiously, catching one right across the face.
Blood spurts out.
“You bitch,” he spits, blood spraying the dirt as he forces her down to the ground.
She resists, struggling against her captors.
"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way," the woman says with a sigh.
"Either way, we will have what we want."
I notice the strange gleam in her expression, the unsettling pallor of her skin.
There’s something unnatural about her stillness. Too composed. Too cold. I struggle to clear my mind, to make sense of what I am seeing, when–
"You're a witch." Tess bellows out.
That pulls her attention from me.
"Congratulations, there is a brain behind that beautiful face."
“Hold her still,” the witch continues, calmly.
One of them grabs Tess’s jaw and forces her head back.
My stomach drops. What are they going to do to her?
“Stop,” I say.
My voice comes out smaller than I want it to.
No one listens.
Silver glints in the witch’s hand. A thin blade, narrow and deliberate. Meant to hurt. Everyone knows a wolf's weakness for silver.
Tess sees it.
Her eyes flick to mine – glassy but fierce.
“Don’t,” she rasps.
The blade presses into the wound already torn into her side.
Tess screams. The sound rips straight through me.
Deep in my chest, something starts to strain.
Somewhere faint I hear Connor is crying.
“I didn’t know,” he keeps saying. “I didn’t know they’d bring rogues. They said they just wanted to talk to her – they said she was special– ”
As my fury builds, something starts to crack. Simmering beneath the surface.
I gasp.
The necklace at my throat burns.
“Interesting,” the witch murmurs.
Another twist of the blade.
Tess chokes on a cry, her body jerking against the rogues holding her down.
“Stop!” I shout, lunging forward.
Hands slam into my shoulders, forcing me back to my knees.
“Easy,” one of the rogues says lazily.
The witch doesn’t even look at me.
“She needs motivation for the draining.”
Tess is breathing hard now, trembling violently.
“Gabi…” she forces out.
Her voice is barely there.
“Don’t give them anything.”
The blade presses deeper. Tess goes limp.
My world tilts at that.
All the bitterness I’ve ever swallowed surges up.
Too weak to save her. Too human to help.
Never enough.
The burning at my throat spreads, racing down my spine like wildfire through dry grass.
The forest rushes into me all at once.
Every heartbeat. Every breath. Every living thing.
My vision blurs.
The air around us feels wrong. Heavy. Like the forest itself is holding its breath.
The witch suddenly goes very still.
“Wait,” she says quietly.
The rogue holding me tightens his grip. “What?”
The witch’s eyes lift slowly to me.
Confusion flickers there. Fear.
Then something sharper. “Something is wrong.”
The pressure inside my chest spikes. My necklace vibrates against my chest.
Pain explodes through my ribs.
I scream.
It feels like something is breaking apart inside me.
Not bones.
Chains.
Invisible things I never knew were there splinter and crack like ice fracturing across a frozen lake.
The necklace sears against my skin.
The air surges outward in a violent rush.
Leaves scatter across the ground though there’s no wind.
The rogues stagger.
The witch’s eyes go wide.
“No,” she breathes.
My hands slam into the dirt.
The earth beneath my palms feels alive.
My heartbeat is too loud.
Too fast.
Too big for my body.
Something ancient stirs under my skin.
Waking.
Tess lifts her head weakly.
“Gabi?” she whispers.
I look up.
The witch stares at me like she’s just realised something terrible.
“What have you done?” one of the rogues growls.
I shake my head slowly.
Because I didn’t do anything.
The bindings inside me shatter.
And something vast and wild surges forward to take their place.
And for the first time since they grabbed us…
I’m not one in danger.