Called by the Alpha
Gabrielle POV
Something has changed.
The rogues feel it too.
They stagger back, their earlier confidence gone, eyes flicking between the witch and me as if waiting for orders. 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.
Not yet.
The witch isn’t looking at them. She’s staring at me, refusing to break eye contact.
“You can't be undone,” she whispers.
The earth beneath our feet trembles.
“Hold her!” she suddenly screeches.
One of the rogues lunges forward.
He never reaches me.
The moment his hand closes around my arm, something inside me surges.
The necklace at my throat vibrates violently.
Then it cracks.
The bindings inside me shatter as the chain splits in two and falls to the ground.
Pain explodes through my body as something vast and wild surges forward to take their place.
My knees slam into the dirt.
A scream tears from my throat as my spine arches violently.
“What is happening?” one of the rogues snarls.
The witch doesn’t answer.
Her eyes are wide now.
Not curious anymore – afraid.
My skin burns. Every nerve in my body ignites at once.
The forest crashes into my senses in a wave so powerful it steals the air from my lungs.
I can smell everything.
Wet soil. Rotting leaves. Blood. Fear – not mine.
My heart slams against my ribs like it’s trying to break free.
“Stop it!” the witch snaps.
As if I’m doing this on purpose.
My fingers claw into the dirt. The ground trembles beneath my palms.
Another surge tears through me and I gasp as my bones begin to shift beneath my skin.
The sound is wet.
Brutal.
Wrong.
“Silver,” the witch orders suddenly. “Now!”
One of the rogues rushes forward with the blade.
Too slow.
Something inside me has broken free.
The pain fractures into something else.
My body moves before my mind can catch up. I rise. Not like before.
Stronger.
Bigger.
The rogue with the blade hesitates.
Just for a second, but it’s enough.
A growl tears from my throat – deeper than anything human – reverberating theough the earth. The sound sends the nearest rogue stumbling backward.
“Stop her!” someone shouts.
Too late.
The forest opens in front of me like it’s been waiting.
And suddenly I’m running.
The ground flies beneath me.
Faster than I have ever moved in my life. Faster than I should be able to move.
Branches whip past.
The wind tears through my skin – no.
Through fur.
Through something deeper I don’t yet understand.
Behind me, shouts erupt.
They’re chasing.
Good. Come away from Tess.
I can hear them. But they’re already fading. Aleady falling behind. Because the forest knows me.
The land bends beneath my feet. And something is pulling me forward.
A force deep in my chest.
Hot.
Unavoidable.
The faster I run, the stronger the pull becomes.
Until it’s no longer just instinct.
It’s certainty. .
He's coming.
My skin tightens. Every instinct I’ve ever ignored suddenly wakes up at once, all of them pointing in the same direction.
Him.
I should be afraid – I’m not.
Suddenly vines twist around my legs and I stumble, crashing hard to the forest floor.
The witches scent clings to magic tightening around my ankles.
But I barely notice.
Because he's close. I feel it in my bones.
The wild power inside me begins to settle, shrinking back beneath my skin.
Bone and muscle twist again, pulling me back into myself, into my body.
My breath catches as the forest tightens around me. Unlike the dream, this feels different.
Safe.
The trees bend inward like sheltering arms. Like the land itself is hiding me until he arrives.
Warmth spreads through me, low and unfamiliar, a quiet traitorous pull humming beneath my skin..
Then I see him.
Molten eyes glimmer through the shadows.
For a moment, the world shrinks to just us. The breeze slows. The trees lean in.
When his gaze lifts and finds mine, something inside me stutters.
I tremble. Not from fear, but something baser.?
He steps fully into view, and my world tilts. Not metaphorically.
The shadows break across his shoulders, broad and unmistakable. The air shifts with him.
My knees weaken.
My pulse deepens instead of quickening, as if my body recognises something ancient and powerful – and bows before my mind can argue.
And somehow, impossibly, I know one thing with terrifying certainty.
He feels it too.