Chapter 11: The Fire Beneath My Skin
1180 Words
The Fire Beneath My Skin
( Freya – POV)
The moment I heard about the restricted East Gate patrols, I knew Elena was moving.
Typical.
She never wasted time once her ego was bruised—and my reappearance had ripped through her pride like claws through silk.
I stood in the middle of the rogue compound’s underground training chamber, fists wrapped, sweat clinging to my back, heart pounding from another round of hand-to-hand combat. The sharp scent of iron and earth filled the air, grounding me.
“You’re not breathing,” Cain said, stepping back with a crooked grin. “Which means you’re either angry or thinking about killing someone.”
“Both,” I replied, flexing my sore fingers.
Cain, one of the rogue king’s top lieutenants and my personal trainer, chuckled darkly. “Elena again?”
“She’s already blocking routes near the border. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she wants a war.”
“She always did,” he said, tossing me a towel. “But now she thinks you’ve given her a reason.”
I wiped my face slowly, muscles still buzzing from the fight. My wolf was restless beneath my skin. She could smell the danger rising, feel the web of lies Elena was weaving just outside our gates.
But I wasn’t afraid.
Not anymore.
I dropped the towel and stared into the mirror across the chamber. The woman who looked back wasn’t the omega who once cried herself to sleep in the shadows of Moonstone’s cold walls. She wasn’t the weak mate who begged Alpha Kade for love.
She was reborn in exile. Refined through pain. Sharpened by truth.
“Let her move,” I said, more to myself than anyone. “Let her strike first.”
Cain arched a brow. “You planning to play hero now?”
“No,” I said, smirking. “I’m planning to let her bury herself.”
Later that afternoon, I sat on the compound’s high balcony, overlooking the rogue settlement hidden deep within the forest.
The wind whipped through my hair. Below, the rogues were training, rebuilding, surviving. I used to hate this place. Now, it felt more like home than Moonstone ever did.
“Word is spreading,” Iris said, joining me.
I glanced at her—my most trusted ally and one of the few wolves I considered a friend.
“About Elena?” I asked.
“About you,” she said. “Whispers say you were once his Luna. That you were rejected and now walk like a queen.”
“Whispers lie,” I muttered.
Iris leaned against the railing. “Not always.”
I didn’t respond. My eyes were fixed on the distant trees, the same path Kade once dragged me down when he exiled me. I could still remember the cold in my bones that night. The way the guards wouldn’t even meet my gaze.
But now?
Now those same woods couldn’t contain me.
“I have a plan,” I said finally.
“Oh?” Iris turned, intrigued. “Do tell.”
“Elena wants control. She thrives on being feared. So I’m going to make her fear something she can’t predict.”
“Like what?”
“Me,” I said.
By evening, we gathered in the strategy chamber.
Cain, Iris, Luca, and a few other rogue leaders stood around the table. I laid out a map of the Moonstone territory, marking the choke points, the supply lines, the vulnerable outer regions.
“She’s trying to close us in,” I said. “But if we push back now, it gives her reason to label us threats.”
“Then we wait?” Luca asked, clearly agitated.
“No,” I said. “We expose her.”
Cain folded his arms. “How?”
I looked up, voice cold. “I know Elena. She’ll act fast. She’ll send scouts, maybe even stage a fake attack to blame us. But if we plant the right wolves in her inner circle—ones loyal to us—we can intercept her plans, collect proof, and take it straight to the Council.”
“And what if Kade gets in the way?” Iris asked.
My heart twitched. I forced it still.
“Then I’ll deal with him,” I said. “One way or another.”
Later that night, I sat in my quarters, staring at the note in my hand.
Meet me. At the falls. Alone. — K
I didn’t know how the hell he’d gotten a message through. Or why I hadn’t burned it the moment I saw the ink. But there I was, tracing each letter like it meant something.
Like he still meant something.
“Stupid,” I whispered.
And yet… I was already pulling on my cloak.
The falls roared as I approached, the moon casting silver across the water. I saw him before he saw me—Kade, alone, leaning against a boulder like his presence didn’t shift the entire forest.
He looked tired.
Older.
Haunted.
But my chest still tightened when he turned toward me.
“Freya,” he said softly.
I kept my distance. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“I had to see you.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t breathe,” he said. “Not since I saw you again.”
I scoffed. “You should’ve thought about that before you rejected me in front of your entire pack.”
“I was afraid.”
“I was dying, Kade.”
Silence.
The falls crashed between us like a metaphor.
“I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness,” he said. “I don’t even know why I asked to see you.”
“You came for guilt,” I said coldly. “Or maybe for closure. But you’re not getting either.”
He stepped closer. “I came because I still feel the bond. Even now.”
My throat tightened.
“I feel it too,” I admitted. “But I won’t let it chain me again.”
He nodded slowly. “Then let me help you.”
“What?”
“Elena is plotting something,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what yet, but she’s shifting patrols, blocking your paths, spreading rumors.”
“And you’re just now deciding to care?”
“No,” he said. “I’ve always cared. I was just too much of a coward to show it.”
The honesty stunned me.
For a moment, I saw the boy beneath the Alpha. The man I once dreamed about.
“I don’t know what this is between us anymore,” I whispered.
“Neither do I,” he said. “But I’d rather walk beside you than watch you from behind a wall.”
I looked at him, eyes burning.
“Then stay out of my way, Kade. Because if she comes for me again, I won’t be the one who burns.”
He gave a small, sad smile.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
- Writer
