Chapter 41 — The Fire Within
The dampness in the air was constant—pressing into Giselle’s skin like a second layer of filth she couldn’t scrub away. The rogue camp was a far cry from the pack she had only just begun to call home. Days had bled together since she’d been dragged across the border and thrown into this makeshift prison of rotting wood and rusted metal. Her wrists were raw from the iron cuffs that had once bound her to the post, and though they’d loosened their grip, she still felt their weight.
The stone beneath Giselle’s body was cold, but she hardly noticed anymore. The damp walls of her cell wept with condensation, the air thick with mildew and the faint stench of blood. Every breath burned her throat. Every hour dragged like a lifetime.
The rogue wolves weren’t gentle. Her meals—if they came at all—were little more than scraps of meat and moldy bread shoved through the bars. The only light came from a small, grated window high up the wall, and it did little to push back the gloom.
She sat curled in a corner of the tiny cell they kept her in—walls barely holding together, the only source of light a slit between the slats near the roof. Her wolf had gone eerily quiet since the abduction, pacing occasionally, but more often silent in her grief. The connection between them throbbed with tension.
Her wolf paced inside her mind, tail lashing with frustration.
‘We should’ve shifted the second we smelled him. Fought our way out.’
‘And been torn apart? There were too many. We were surrounded.’
Her wolf snarled. ‘Then we should’ve died fighting. Instead, we are trapped in here like animals.’
“I didn’t know it was a trap,” Giselle whispered aloud. Her voice sounded foreign after so many days without speaking. “I thought... I thought Rowan had sent help.”
Her wolf growled low in response, not at her, but at the memory. ‘We should’ve known better. The pack never trusted us. Why would they start now?’
“But Rowan does,” she said fiercely, clutching her knees to her chest. “He’s probably tearing the woods apart looking for me.”
Silence.
It wasn’t doubt that filled her wolf’s lack of reply—it was fear. Even Giselle could feel it: the terror that this time, they might not be found. That whatever bond fate had tried to weave between her and Rowan might not be enough.
Giselle didn’t say anything else. She leaned her head against the stone wall and closed her eyes, forcing her shaking hands to still. She’d been doing that a lot lately—pretending to be strong when all she wanted to do was collapse.
But it wasn’t just about her anymore. Her mother. Her sister. Rowan.
Rowan. His name felt like a prayer on her lips.
She thought of his voice calling out in the distance. Of the fierce look in his eyes when he saw her held by the rogue leader. Of the promise he’d made in the way he moved, the way his body fought through the sea of enemies to reach her.
‘He’ll come,’ her wolf said, suddenly quiet.
“He might already think I betrayed him,” Giselle whispered back, voicing her biggest fear out loud. “They’ll all believe I escaped to lead them into a trap.”
Her wolf growled softly. ‘He knows us. He feels us. He’s our mate.’
She wanted to believe that. But each passing day chipped away at her hope.
Giselle bolted upright, heart pounding. But it wasn’t the scar-faced rogue leader this time. It was one of the newer sentries—young, eyes a little too wide, trying to seem tougher than he was.
“You’ve got food,” he muttered, dropping a wooden bowl of something brown and soggy near the doorway before stepping back out. No words beyond that.
She didn’t touch it.
Instead, she leaned against the wall and stared through the wooden slat at the dimming sky outside. It would be night soon. The full moon had passed, and she hadn’t been able to feel its glow on her skin. Her wolf whimpered deep within, desperate for even the sound of wind rustling through trees.
‘You think he’s still looking for us?’
Giselle closed her eyes. “I have to believe he is.”
She thought of Rowan’s golden eyes, the way his voice had cracked with emotion the last time he held her. He was out there—she could feel him like a thread tied to her chest, taut and straining. If she focused hard enough, it felt like he was tugging on it.
Suddenly, footsteps returned. This time, heavier. Intentional.
The door groaned. Giselle snapped to attention as the heavy iron lock clicked and the rogue leader strolled inside. His face, scarred from a lifetime of battles, twisted in amusement as he dragged a chair into the center of the room and sat.
“Enjoying your stay, darling?”
She didn’t respond.
“I have to say,” he said smoothly, “you’re stronger than I expected.”
Giselle kept quiet still, her jaw clenched.
He studied her, his eyes gleaming with something cruel. “You know, your Alpha is making this too easy. All that fire, all that loyalty... and yet, not once has he asked us for terms. He’s too proud. Too desperate.”
Giselle stared off at the distant wall as if he wasn’t speaking to her, trying to keep her runaway heart under control from his words.
“You don’t look so brave now,” he spits out on a chuckle. “Still clinging to the hope that your Alpha will come crashing through the trees to save his little rogue mate?”
“He’ll come,” Giselle said through gritted teeth. “And when he does—”
“When he does,” the leader cut her off, “you’ll be right here. And I’ll have my claws at your throat. That kind of leverage? It’ll break him.”
She lunged forward, teeth bared in a snarl, only for the chain on her ankle to yank her backward against the wall.
The leader only chuckled. “Good girl. That spirit will serve me well when I’m Alpha of that precious hidden pack of yours.”
“You’ll never set foot in our pack,” she spat. “Even if you kill me, Rowan won’t bend.”
He crouched beside her then, face level with hers. “I don’t need him to bend. I just need to crack him. Slowly.”
“You’ll never break Rowan.”
“Oh, we’ll see.” His smile faded. “It’s only a matter of time. And when he comes, you’ll be standing by my side.”
She spat at his feet. “You’ll have to kill me first.”
His grin returned. “You’re fiery. I like that. Makes the chase more fun.” He stood and turned to leave. “Rest up. Tomorrow we test your loyalty.”
The door slammed shut.
Giselle dropped her head into her hands, shaking with rage and fear.
“I can’t do this much longer,” she whispered to her wolf.
‘Yes, you can. You’re not just surviving for yourself. You’re surviving for him. For your family.’
She nodded slowly, breathing through her panic. “We have to be ready. If he comes, we have to help him.”
‘We will. We’ll tear them apart.’
And in that moment, something inside Giselle shifted. The pain, the fear—they didn't vanish, but they became fuel. Tomorrow, they’d test her loyalty. But she would bide her time. Endure.
Because when the time came, she would make sure Rowan knew the truth.
And she would burn this place to the ground.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
