Chapter 235 235
Sabine POV
I’d already been shown the hospital, the training grounds, and the school but only ever from a distance. Now we were in what I thought was some kind of security centre. At least, that’s what it seemed like. It didn’t have iron bars separating each cell the way movies always show, but it still carried the same suffocating weight.
Jail vibes.
I wasn’t really listening anymore. My head felt full, buzzing, crowded with too much information. I was overwhelmed so much so that all I wanted was space. Time. A moment alone to think.
“If rogues attempt to enter our land, they’ll remain here until we can verify their identity. Then, depending on their reason for entering”
“Rogues?” I interrupted, my voice thin. My head was spinning.
Damien might as well have been speaking another language. The terminology meant nothing to me each unfamiliar word stacking onto the next until I couldn’t keep up.
I think I was in shock. That had to be it. My legs kept moving, but I wasn’t sure what was actually controlling them. They felt weak, unsteady, like they could fold beneath me at any second.
Then my senses detonated.
Coffee. Cinnamon.
My mouth watered instantly as the familiar scent wrapped around me. Where was that coming from?
“I’ve got you.”
Maurice’s voice was right at my ear, barely more than a whisper. His hands came around my waist, steady and firm, holding me upright when I hadn’t realised I was swaying.
“Damien, she’s struggling,” he said sharply. “We’re done.”
“Wait one more section,” Damien insisted, fingers already flying as he typed a code into the keypad. A door slid open with a mechanical hiss.
“Damien.” Aurélie’s warning was low, almost a growl.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m testing a theory,” he replied calmly.
I walked past him, Maurice’s hand shifting to my lower back as he guided me through.
I hated this section immediately.
The air was colder here. Damp. It smelled wrong like rust and old blood. My stomach twisted as dread curled deep in my chest.
What was this place?
“Trust me,” Damien murmured to Maurice as he moved ahead again, securing the door behind us.
These cells looked exactly like the ones in movies.
Bars. Chains. Stone walls that seemed to swallow sound.
We kept walking farther and farther and Maurice was doing more than guiding me now. He was practically carrying me forward. If he’d lifted me into his arms, I wouldn’t have protested.
A groan cut through the silence.
Pain-filled. Raw.
We stopped in front of a cell guarded by four men.
Four men with swords.
Who uses swords these days? This wasn’t medieval times.
The groaning continued as one of the guards unlocked the cell door. My heart pounded violently in my chest.
Who was inside?
Why was someone being kept like this?
Then it clicked.
“Oh my God…”
I knew him.
“Stéphane?” I gasped, breaking free and rushing into the cell.
I dropped to my knees in front of him. He was chained to a chair, his head slumped forward, skin mottled with bruises and split open wounds. Blood dried dark against his clothes.
“Sabine?” He barely lifted his head, eyes fluttering open.
I reached for him instinctively, my hand going to his head to check the damage
A chorus of growls snapped through the air behind me.
I spun around, fury flooding my chest. “What have you done to him?”
The realisation hit me then sharp and painful.
This was why Father had kept me in the apartment.
This was what my brother was capable of.
No wonder he’d wanted me safe.
“This man threatened my family,” Aurélie said coldly. “He kidnapped my children. He chained me up. Shot me in the chest with a poisoned bullet. You know him…” Her eyes narrowed. “Which means you know Geneviève.”
The warmth she’d shown earlier was gone.
Frozen.
“Yes,” I said, standing slowly, straightening my spine as I faced them. “I know Geneviève. How do you?”
“She’s from this pack,” Aurélie replied. “And she isn’t welcome here, Sabine. Neither is anyone allied with her.”
“He’s hurt,” I said, my voice softer now, desperate. “You need to do something.”
I searched for the woman I’d seen that morning the one who’d smiled at me. She wasn’t there.
“You think because I’m a female Alpha I’ll go easy on him?” Aurélie snapped. “If anything, I’d be harsher than Damien. He knew exactly what he was doing. And he knows the punishment.”
Her eyes were ice as she turned away.
Damien followed her without a word.
I watched them leave, half-expecting Maurice to go with them but he stayed. He leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, his gaze locked on me.
“Please,” Stéphane groaned. “You have to help me, Sabine. Help me get out. Your father wouldn’t want you here.”
I didn’t look at him.
My eyes were fixed on Maurice.
“Bee,” he said quietly. “I want you to leave.”
The calm in his voice scared me more than the anger ever could. The air around him felt heavy thick with something painful and restrained.
“What about you?” I whispered, the question stealing the breath from my lungs.
“I’ll follow you shortly.”