Chapter 77 – Bound by Blood
The taste of copper still clung to Giselle’s tongue as she lifted herself to her knees, the ache in her side a brutal reminder of Rowan’s rejection. The ballroom spun slightly, shadows of warriors and broken chairs blurring at the edges of her vision, but her focus narrowed to the stage.
To *him.*
Rowan was on his knees, framed by chaos. The crowd was a mess of stillness and panic, as though no one knew what to do now that their Alpha had been attacked—and hadn’t immediately struck back.
Giselle’s gaze locked on Rowan.
He was *struggling.*
She could see it in the way his body trembled, the way his hands clutched at his head like he was trying to hold something in—or *keep something out.*
And then… *her*.
Rhea.
She slithered up behind him like a snake in silk, her arms wrapping around his shoulders, her lips brushing his ear. Whispering.
Giselle’s wolf surged forward with a furious growl, shaking her body with its intensity.
*No.*
The sound burst from her chest, not just as a growl but as a warning—a challenge.
Rhea's hands did not belong on *her* mate.
The possessiveness of her wolf flooded her system, drowning the pain, the bruises, the lingering damage from the spell. She surged to her feet, her legs barely cooperating, but her will overriding the weakness.
‘Mine!’ Aeris roared inside of her.
Her mate was in pain. His memories clouded. His soul fractured. And she would not stand by while Rhea continued to poison him with her lies.
She took off toward the stage, her heartbeat pounding like war drums in her ears.
But she didn’t make it far.
Thick arms grabbed her from either side, wrenching her back mid-stride. She let out a wild snarl, thrashing as pain flared through her shoulders from the harsh grip.
“Let me go!” she screamed, her voice breaking as claws tried to form from her fingertips. But her body hadn’t fully healed—not yet. Not enough to fight off two elite guards.
They held her in place like a prize animal, presenting her humiliation for the entire pack to see.
She strained forward anyway, her breath coming in short bursts, her eyes never leaving Rowan.
“Rowan!” she cried again.
But he didn’t look at her.
He was too busy fighting his own war—one she felt in the mate bond like a constant throb in her chest. She could *feel* his suffering, his confusion, like knives scraping against her ribs. His magic and hers were colliding, tangling, *remembering.*
“Let me go! He needs me!” she shouted again, twisting hard enough that her knees nearly buckled.
The guards didn’t loosen their hold.
A flicker of motion to her left—Charlie, fighting like hell to break through the line of guards. Luther’s roar echoed across the room. Even Beta Kalen was pushing forward now, carving a path toward her through the chaos.
But they were all too far away.
And she didn’t have time.
Rowan’s body had begun to convulse.
He clutched his head tighter, his spine arched in agony, his jaw clenched as a strangled roar escaped from deep in his chest.
‘He’s breaking!’ Aeris cried in her mind. ‘We have to help him! We have to—’
Giselle twisted again, putting all of her energy into one last desperate lunge. But the guards tightened their grip, yanking her back so hard her breath caught in her lungs.
Still, she *fought*.
She couldn’t let him suffer.
Couldn’t let Rhea finish whatever dark spell she’d wrapped him in.
Couldn’t let their bond die in front of the entire pack.
“Please,” she gasped through clenched teeth, not knowing who she was begging anymore. The guards. The Moon Goddess. The universe itself.
She could hear her own heartbeat and Rowan’s overlapping in her ears. Thundering. Matching.
And then Rowan’s voice cracked the air like lightning. Not words, just a raw sound of *pain*—and something inside of her *shattered.*
Aeris snarled again in her mind, her presence stronger now. ‘We have to reach him. Before she breaks him completely.’
Giselle’s body trembled, pain screaming through her limbs as she sagged in the guards’ arms.
But she wasn’t giving up.
Not now.
Not ever.
Rowan was her mate.
And no one—*no one*—was taking him away from her.
Boots pounded the marble floor behind her. “*Move!*” Kalen’s voice roared above the chaos like a clap of thunder.
Giselle's heart leapt at the sound, her head whipping toward the crowd just in time to see Beta Kalen burst through the guards like a force of nature. His shoulders were bloodied, his knuckles bruised, but his eyes burned with determination and fury.
He snarled at the two men holding her, his chest rising and falling with each breath. “Unhand her. Now.”
The guards stiffened but didn’t move. “She attacked the Alpha,” one of them said. “She’s a threat—she needs to be punished.”
Giselle could barely believe her ears. *Punished?*
Her entire body trembled with emotion—grief, rage, desperation.
Kalen stepped forward, his eyes narrowing. “Do you even hear yourselves? That is your Alpha’s mate you're holding like a criminal!”
Still, the guards hesitated, casting glances at each other. The words hung heavy in the air—Beta or not, Kalen had stood against the Elders tonight. And Giselle… until recently, she’d been branded as a rogue.
Their loyalty faltered.
And in that moment of doubt—*she moved.*
Drawing on the last reserves of her strength, Giselle tore herself from their grasp, her body screaming in protest but her spirit unyielding. She staggered forward, then straightened, pulling herself to her full height, eyes blazing.
The ballroom seemed to still as power rushed through her veins, ancient and wild, pulsing like a storm beneath her skin. Her wolf surged with her, howling in unison.
“You want to punish me?” she said, her voice steady, echoing with Luna command, with Alpha-born blood. “I’m the one who came back to save him—*while you stood by and watched him fall apart.*”
The guards froze, stunned by the energy radiating off her.
Giselle stepped forward, the force of her presence pressing against the room like a storm tide.
“He is breaking. Right there. On that stage,” she growled, pointing to where Rowan knelt with Rhea draped over him like a curse. “And if you don’t get out of my way this second, he will be lost forever—and you’ll be the ones who let it happen.”
Silence fell over the guards. A shift in the air—uncertainty, fear… obedience.
They stepped aside.
All at once, the noise of the room returned—shouts, scrambling warriors, Elders arguing somewhere in the distance—but it no longer mattered.
Giselle surged forward, eyes locked on the broken man on the stage. Her mate. Her future.
And she would *not* let anyone steal him away.
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