Book 1: Chapter: 12 Sienna

I felt like such a cowering bitch, but my mind was fried from the woods.

I felt like I’d been drugged and whatever my attacker was about to do, I was powerless to stop it.

The shadow reached down and began to engulf me, but I stopped fighting back as I felt a familiar embrace.

“Sienna,” my dad’s voice whispered softly. “Calm down, sweetheart. Here, I brought you a robe. Let’s get you inside.”

His fingers ran through my fur, and everything started to feel normal again. He placed the robe over my shivering wolf form, and I shifted, collapsing into his arms.

“What happened? Were you attacked?” he asked, concerned.

Was I? I honestly wasn’t sure, but it felt like my mind had just waged some kind of war.

I wondered if this had something to do with Aiden running off with his pack. They must have been connected. I couldn’t think about it too hard right now, or I’d probably pass out.

“I’m okay, Dad. I just need some rest. It’s been a long, weird night,” I replied.

Aiden My office was starting to feel like a prison cell. I was more restless than ever before, but I couldn’t run off without someone noticing Josh and I had been to the spot where the patrol had lost the roamer’s scent, but I was unable to uncover any clues as to where it had gone.

I admit that it didn’t look good for me to come up empty-handed, but the only alternative was lying to Josh and the four soldiers, and I was already doing more of that than I’d like.

It wasn’t abnormal to have a stranger cross into Pack territory, but the inexplicable scent and subsequent disappearance had everyone who knew about it rattled.

So far it was just me, Josh, Jocelyn, Nelson, Rhys, and the four soldiers.

I made the last group vow their silence until we could figure out who this intruder was and where it was heading.

To be cautious, I dispatched small details of guards to any place or person that I thought was important.

Whatever it was, we would be ready when it surfaced, and hopefully we’d be powerful enough to confront it.

When we were alone, Josh folded his arms indignantly. “Well?” he asked. “Are we just going to sit here in the Pack House and wait?”

“What else would you suggest? I can’t send everyone combing through the woods if they don’t know what they’re looking for. We don’t even know what we’re looking for.”

“Well, whose fault is that?” mumbled Josh as he began to pace his usual path in my office.

“Yours, technically,” I replied, dryly. “It falls on the Beta to keep our borders secure.”

“You don’t need to remind me what my job is. I did exactly what I was supposed to. When it was clear we were dealing with something new, I went to find you. You’re the one who’s forgetting his duties.”

“Stop talking in circles and say what’s on your mind,” I said, growing impatient.

“You’re compromised, Aiden. An alpha at full strength would have been able to track the roamer.” Here we go again. His persistence was beginning to wear on me.

“You said yourself we don’t know what we‘re dealing with,” I replied. “If it’s powerful enough to mask its scent, of course it makes my powers look diminished by comparison. Or is this still about Sienna?”

“I lost control of my Haze. It was temporary.”

“My point exactly. You lost control. That’s never happened to you before. If what you told us is true, why aren’t you honest with her? You’re wasting her time and yours. If you let things carry on like this, one of you is going to get hurt. You need to be at your strongest now more than ever. I’m not just saying this for the sake of the Pack, Aiden.

I’m speaking as your friend.”

“I hear your concern, but I’m going to do it my way.”

Josh let out a growl and slammed his fist against my desk. “Damn it, Aiden, we could be under attack right now, and all you care about is some girl. A girl who’s refusing your advances so far.”

“Careful, Josh.”

“The point is, Aiden,” Josh fumed, “we were this close tonight to uncovering something new. I know you scented what Iscented. Not human. And not werewolves.

So if it is something new, what are its strengths? What are its weaknesses? Does it even have weaknesses? I feel like you’re not taking this threat seriously enough.” I was just as concerned as Josh, but I couldn’t show it. A gulf of power still sat between us.

For a moment, I thought of what my brother Aaron would have done. If he were here. A tinge of pain surged through me, and I pushed aside that memory.

There was no time to think of the past when the present was this dangerous.

“The thought of this roamer being something new crossed my mind, but there is nothing to do except wait. Whatever it is, the last thing I want is to make it feel threatened. If it is peaceful, want it to stay that way. Like you said, w have no idea what this roamer’s powers could be.”

“And if it hasn’t come here on peaceful business?”

“It would have attacked us by now if that weren’t the case. It likely masked its scent to avoid confrontation.”

“Or it’s preparing for a surprise attack.”

“That’s enough of your theories, Josh. Go check on the patrols and let me know if you hear any new intelligence.”

“As you wish, my Alpha. Remember, you have a job outside of getting this girl to sleep with you.”

I offered no reply, dismissing Josh with a simple nod. He was right to be concerned, though. Ever since I’d marked Sienna, my head was clouded with desire.

I had never denied my Haze this long, nor had it ever been as strong as it was when I was near her.

Perhaps if I spent a few days away, I could rebalance myself. This roamer was a welcome distraction.

Sienna I was sitting alone in the dark when! heard a knock on my door. I sat up and removed the headphones from my ears. “Come in,” I said.

“Good, I thought you might have already fallen asleep,” said my father, gently closing the door behind him. “Do you mind if I take a seat?” he asked, pointing to my bed.

“Not at all,” I replied.

He used to be quite trim when my parents met-my mom had showed me pictures -but growing older, marriage, and two daughters had added a few pounds to his frame.

When he plopped down beside me, my mattress wheezed under the new load.

“I wanted to talk about earlier tonight,” he began, shifting his gaze between the floor and my face.

“I know your mother is excited that you’ve partnered with the Alpha for the Season.”

“That’s the understatement of the “That’s the understatement of the century.” I sighed.

“Yes,” he said chuckling, “she isn’t very discreet, is she?” There was a brief silence before he continued. “Your mother told me about how you ran out of the house earlier today, and…well, I thought you might need someone to talk to about everything that’s been going on.”

“Dad” “Now, I know I’m not a werewolf, and I can’t understand exactly what you’re going through, but I’ve been around long enough to know that showing up to the house in wolf form isn’t normal. Do you want to talk about what happened tonight?”

Out of all the people in my life, the last one I expected to pour my heart out to was my dad, but he was right. My head was a mess, and I needed to let some of it out.

I picked at my comforter, not sure how to start.

“Something happened at dinner tonight that, well…it feels like now that I’ve been marked by the alpha, everyone has these expectations. Whether it’s Mom or my friends or members of the Pack, whom I don’t even know, they all want something, and no one has cared to ask me what I want.”

My voice started to shake, and I could feel the tears building in my eyes.”I feel like I’m losing control, and I don’t like it.”

Finally saying it aloud came as such a release, like a thousand-pound weight was lifted off my chest.

The tears burst from my eyes and went streaming down my cheeks. My father pulled me close and let my face drip all over his shoulder.

“It’s okay,” he said, rubbing my back. “It’s perfectly fine to feel the way you do.” “No, it’s not,” I choked out. “I’m a dominant. Dominants don’t let stupid things like this get to them.”

I didn’t usually call myself that.

I knew, deep down, that it was true, that I had a dominant streak that was unable to be tamed. It was the reason I’d been so successful at resisting the Alpha’s advances so far.

But saying it out loud almost made it less real. Like it cheapened the truth.

Perhaps I was just fooling myself and my nature was to be yet another submissive shewolf who did as she was told.

But then my dad put a hand under my chin and forced my eyes to meet his.

“I don’t think what you’re feeling is stupid, Sienna,” he said. “And dominant or not, everyone has a heart.”

The nice part about having a human dad was that he was much more sentimental than Mom and Selene, or any werewolf for that matter.

Normally, we wolves would look down on this as a sign of weakness, but at the moment, I was happy to have him there.

“You know, when we first brought you home, I could tell right away that you were special. You had this confidence about everything you did, even as a baby. Watching you grow up, I’ve seen that confidence manifest in everything from how you carry yourself to your art. Having a cry doesn’t take that away from you, Sienna. You’re still the strongest werewolf I know.”

“You wouldn’t think that if you’d seen what happened tonight.”

“Do you want to share?”

“All that matters is that I made a fool of myself. I never want to see him again. I wish he’d never marked me, Dad. I wish he had just left me alone.” A fresh round of tears poured from my eyes.

“Did you ever think that maybe he couldn’t leave you alone? That maybe he saw the same beautiful, powerful woman I do and was so overcome with emotion that he had no choice but to mark you?”

“You have to say something like that. You‘re my dad.”

“I’m serious, Sienna. You’re not a coward, so don’t let him turn you into one. Like your mother says, he could have any woman in the Pack, but he chose you. Remember that. You don’t need him. He needs you.”

The flash of headlights flooded through my windows as a car pulled into the driveway. My dad and I looked outside to see Selene stepping out of her car.

We weren’t expecting her, and she seldom dropped in unannounced like this. We both went downstairs to greet her.

My dad opened the door before she had a chance to knock and wrapped her up in a big hug that only dads know how to give.

“To what do we owe this pleasure?” asked Dad, opening the front door wider. “Is everything okay?”

Selene was in her pajamas and had a duffel bag in tow. It was apparent she’d left her place in a hurry.

“Jeremy got a call from the Pack House and had to go into work. It’s something big. He didn’t give me any details, other than it involved a breach at the border. The last time this happened, the Pack went into lockdown. Sorry for showing up unannounced like this, but I knew I’d feel safer over here than alone in the apartment.”

Breach at the border? Lockdown? This had to be something serious.

The Alpha only put the Pack in lockdown when there was a serious threat and he had to impose martial law. And why was! hearing about this from Selene?

Did Aiden not care about my safety?

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that I was only a piece of meat to him, and a disposable one at that, apparently. Asshole.

The mysterious woman from the clearing still swam around my head. Could she have anything to do with this?

For a moment I thought I should tell Aiden I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that I was only a piece of meat to him, and a disposable one at that, apparently. Asshole.

The mysterious woman from the clearing still swam around my head. Could she have anything to do with this?

For a moment I thought I should tell Aiden what I’d seen, but if he didn’t think it was necessary to keep me informed, I would keep him in the dark too.

Besides, the prospect of seeing him, especially after what happened tonight, rattled me.

I wasn’t about to make the first move. If he wanted to talk, he’d have to come find me.