The Sting
Luca POV
My wolf paces beneath my skin, restless and agitated, claws scraping to get out. The bond between us still thrums like a live wire. I can still feel the warmth of her mouth. The way her body fit against mine like she had always been meant to be there.
Mine.
The word had left my mouth before I even realised I was thinking it.
I drag a hand through my hair and force air into my lungs.
I have ruled this pack for years without losing control. Without letting instinct make decisions for me.
And yet the moment I touched her, everything shifted.
I glance toward Gabrielle.
She’s a few steps away now, arms wrapped around herself, staring out through the trees like she’s trying to put distance between us without actually running.
My wolf hates it.
Every instinct in me screams to close that space again. To pull her back against me and make sure the entire forest understands exactly who she belongs to.
But the expression on her face stops me.
Hurt.
The realisation lands ugly and hard.
She thinks the moment between us meant less than it did. Because of what I said.
"You’re not human after all."
The words replay in my head and I grimace.
Idiot.
I step forward. “Gabrielle.”
She stiffens at the sound of her name. “Don’t,” she says quietly.
“That’s not what I meant.”
She lets out a brittle laugh that sounds nothing like amusement. “Really?” she asks, still not looking at me. “Because it sounded pretty clear.”
I take another step.
“Gabi, please.”
My breath catches as I wait for her to turn.
Then a sharp crack of branches splits the silence.
My attention snaps toward the tree line instantly. Rowan emerges first, walking fast, his jaw set hard.
Tess is limp in his arms, and everything in me goes cold.
Gabi spins.
“Tess?”
The panic in her voice rips right through me.
She runs to them before I can stop her.
You said she was conscious, I snap through the link.
She was, Rowan grits back. Then the wolfsbane hit harder. She needs the healer, not your temper.
I can’t contain the snarl that rips from my throat.
Tess’s head lolls weakly against Rowan’s shoulder, her skin too pale beneath the smears of dirt and blood. Wolfsbane lingers faintly beneath the copper tang of blood and damp earth.
“She’s breathing,” Rowan says immediately, before Gabrielle can spiral. His voice is clipped, controlled. “She absorbed too much wolfsbane, but she’s breathing.”
Gabrielle’s face drains of colour.
“No, no, no—”
“She’s alive,” I cut in, stepping forward. “Look at me.”
Her eyes snap to mine.
For one second, all I see in them is fear. She’s shaking, and the sight of it does something vicious to my chest.
“She’s alive,” I repeat, lower this time.
Her throat works hard. “Then why isn’t she waking up?”
Silence.
“We need to move,” Rowan says sharply, not unkindly, but with enough force to cut through the rising panic. “Now.”
My eyes flick to the trees beyond him, senses sharpening.
The forest feels wrong.
Too charged.
And beneath it all, there’s still that lingering hum in the ground.
Faint now – but not gone.
The earth hasn’t settled since Gabrielle shifted.
That alone is enough to make the back of my neck prickle. But there's also the scent of witches. I thought I noticed a hint of it earlier on Gabi, but it's stronger on Tessa.
And the witches being here?
That’s worse.
Far worse.
Because they should never have been anywhere near our land. Not now. Not after all these years. The last time they stepped this close to pack territory, people died.
And tonight, they were waiting in the dark like they already knew exactly where to look.
A cold thought slides down my spine.
What if they weren’t just here for opportunity? What if they were here for her?
Rowan meets my gaze over Gabrielle’s head.
He felt it too.
I know he did.
His expression hardens almost imperceptibly.
Not here.
Message received.
Gabrielle reaches out shakily and brushes Tess’s hair back from her face. “You're okay. Everything will be ok,” she whispers, like she’s trying to convince herself if she says it enough, it might be true.
“Gabrielle,” I say, softer now.
She doesn’t look at me.
“I need you to get dressed.”
Her head jerks up at that, disbelief flashing through the fear.
“What?”
I crouch and pick up the clothes Rowan dropped near the tree line without taking my eyes off her.
“We need to get Tess back to the healer. Dr Thorn doesn’t need you both naked.”
Her mouth parts slightly.
Anger flickers beneath the panic. Good.
Better anger than collapse. I hold the clothes out to her. For a second, she doesn’t take them.
Then she snatches them from my hands and turns away sharply.
I make myself look away while she dresses.
Mostly.
My wolf is deeply unimpressed by that decision.
Rowan adjusts Tess more securely in his arms and steps closer to me.
Then quietly, “You felt it.”
Not a question.
I keep my eyes on Gabrielle when I respond. “Yes.”
Rowan exhales slowly. “That wasn’t a normal first shift.”
No shit.
The force of her pull had practically dragged me from the building before my mind had caught up.
I finally look at him.
His expression is grim now. Serious in a way that strips every trace of humour from his face.
“The ground moved,” he says. “The trees moved.”
I don’t answer.
Because if I do, I’ll have to say it out loud. And if I say it out loud, it becomes real.
Rowan’s jaw tightens. “If the wrong people felt that surge...”
“I know.”
He glances toward Gabrielle.
She approaches us then, murmuring softly to Tess. Reassuring her even though Tess can’t hear it. Her voice is barely above a whisper.
My chest does something unpleasant.
That complicates things, he says through the link.
He’s right.
If the witches felt what happened tonight, then standing here wanting her isn’t helping her.
It’s wasting time I don’t have.
Gabi turns back around then, suspicion tightening her expression as her eyes flick between us.
“What?”
Neither of us answer quickly enough.
Her shoulders stiffen.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
I open my mouth, then close it again.
Because there are too many answers to that question, and not a single one of them will help her right now.
Rowan shifts Tess higher in his arms. “We’ll talk when she’s stable.”
Gabrielle’s face hardens instantly.
“You’ll stay with Amara,” I say. “She’ll explain what she can.”
The hurt on her face is immediate. Far worse than anger.
“And you?” she asks quietly.
The question lands exactly where she meant it to. My throat tightens. Because what she’s really asking is:
Are you coming with me?
Everything in me roars yes.
Every instinct. Every pull. Every brutal, possessive, irrational part of me.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
But Rowan is still beside me.
Tess is still unconscious.
The forest still tastes wrong.
And all I can think about is roots exploding from the ground and witches stepping onto my land for the first time in eighteen years.
If they came for Gabrielle tonight, then every instinct dragging me toward her is a distraction I can’t afford.
I need answers.
I need to know why they were there.
And I need to know before they come back.
So instead, I say the thing that feels like swallowing glass.
“No.”
Her face goes still.
Like something inside her quietly gives way.
My wolf loses its mind.
Mine. Mine. Go after her. Fix it. Touch her.
But I force myself to stay where I am. I can't let this bond make decisions for me before I understand what kind of danger she’s in.
Gabrielle lifts her chin.
“Right,” she says.
One empty word.
Rowan starts toward the pack lands without another word. Gabrielle follows close beside him, one hand pressed lightly against Tess’s arm the entire time.
I stay where I am for half a second too long. Long enough to watch her disappear between the trees. Long enough to feel the bond pull so hard it nearly brings me to my knees.
Rowan’s voice hits my head a second later.
You’re doing the right thing.
I stare after her.
The bond burns.
It doesn’t feel right.
But that doesn’t change the truth.
Because for the first time since becoming Alpha, there are two things inside me at war.
The part of me that wants to tear the world apart to get back to her…
And the part of me that knows if the witches wanted Gabrielle badly enough to step onto my land, then wanting her this much might be exactly what puts her in their hands.