Chapter Four

The dress they brought her was simple. Dark green. Long sleeves. No embellishment. Sienna put it on without comment. It fit well enough. Someone had remembered her size from five years ago, or they had guessed correctly.

At six-forty a different scout knocked and waited in the hallway. She followed him downstairs.

The main hall had been cleared for the gathering. Low lights. A long table near the windows. Two chairs set slightly apart at the head—Lucas’s usual place and the one beside it. Elena stood near the fireplace with a small group of senior wives, her posture perfect, her smile fixed.

Conversation dipped when Sienna entered. She kept her steps even and her face neutral. The bond registered Lucas before she saw him. He stood near the far doors speaking with two of his enforcers. When he turned, his eyes found her immediately.

He crossed the room without hurry.

“Stay at my side,” he said quietly when he reached her. “Do not engage unless I speak first.”

Sienna met his gaze. “I’m not here to make speeches.”

“Good.”

The front doors opened. The Black Hollow Alpha entered with three of his own. He was older than Lucas by a decade, broad through the chest, hair shot with grey. His name was Calder. Sienna remembered him from the edges of old meetings. He had always watched the Silver Ridge pack the way a man watches a fence line for weak spots.

Calder’s attention landed on Sienna within seconds. His eyebrows rose a fraction.

“Blackwood,” he said. “I see you’ve made changes.”

Lucas’s hand settled lightly at the small of Sienna’s back. The contact was brief, but the bond reacted as if he had pressed harder.

“This is Sienna Hale,” Lucas said. “She is under my claim.”

Calder’s gaze moved over her with open interest. “The same Sienna Hale you rejected in front of half the region?”

A few nearby conversations stopped completely.

Lucas did not look away from Calder. “The same.”

“Interesting choice.” Calder smiled without warmth. “I would have thought the matter settled.”

“It is settled,” Lucas said. “On my terms.”

They moved to the table. Lucas guided Sienna to the chair at his right. Elena took a seat farther down, her expression carefully composed. Calder sat across from Lucas. His men remained standing.

Talk turned quickly to border markings and a recent dispute over hunting rights along the eastern ridge. Sienna listened without speaking. She tracked the shifts in Calder’s tone, the way his eyes returned to her more often than the conversation required. Lucas answered each point with short, precise statements. His thigh rested close enough to hers that she could feel the heat of him through the fabric of the dress.

Halfway through the discussion Calder leaned back in his chair.

“I heard a rumor,” he said. “That the rejection was never clean. That the bond lingered.”

Lucas’s fingers tightened once around the edge of the table, then relaxed. “Rumors are common.”

“Some rumors explain why a man would bring back a woman he once discarded so publicly.” Calder glanced at Sienna again. “Especially when he already has a Luna.”

Elena’s fork paused against her plate.

Sienna kept her voice mild. “If you have a question for me, you can ask it directly.”

Calder’s smile widened. “Straightforward. I like that. Tell me, then—did he force the claim, or did you come back asking for it?”

The room went very quiet.

Lucas spoke before Sienna could. “That is not your concern.”

“It becomes my concern if instability in Silver Ridge starts spilling across the border.” Calder’s tone stayed conversational. “A rejected mate returning with unresolved bonds has a way of creating problems. Packs notice. Other Alphas notice.”

Sienna felt the tension coil through Lucas’s body beside her. She placed her hands flat on the table and looked directly at Calder.

“The only instability I see is a man who travels to another pack’s territory to poke at old wounds,” she said. “If you’re worried about borders, talk about borders. If you’re here to test Lucas, you’re wasting everyone’s time.”

Calder studied her for a long moment. Then he laughed once, low and short.

“She has teeth now,” he said to Lucas. “That changes things.”

Lucas’s voice dropped. “We are finished discussing my personal arrangements. The eastern ridge will be marked again by the end of the week. Your hunters will stay on your side. Mine will do the same. That is the agreement.”

Calder held his gaze, then gave a small nod. “As you say.”

The rest of the meeting stayed strictly on territory lines. When it ended, Calder and his men left without further comment. The main hall slowly emptied. Elena disappeared upstairs without looking at either of them.

Lucas remained seated until the last of the pack members had gone. Only then did he turn his head toward Sienna.

“You were told not to engage.”

“He was talking about me like I wasn’t in the room.” She kept her tone even. “I decided to correct that.”

Lucas watched her in silence. The bond carried a low current of something that was not purely anger.

“He will use this,” he said. “Word will travel.”

“I know.”

“You just made yourself a larger target.”

Sienna stood. The green dress settled around her legs. “I was already a target the moment I crossed the border. The only difference is that now they know I won’t sit quietly while they discuss me.”

Lucas rose as well. For a second they stood close enough that the bond hummed between them like a live wire.

“Go back to the east wing,” he said. “I have calls to make.”

She held his gaze a moment longer, then turned and walked toward the stairs. Behind her she heard him speak quietly to one of the enforcers who had remained.

“Double the border patrols tonight. And keep someone on the east wing door.”

Sienna did not look back.

Upstairs, the lock turned behind her again. She sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the dark window. The gathering had done exactly what she expected. The pack had seen her. Calder had seen her. The story of the rejected mate who returned under a forced claim would be moving through neighboring territories before morning.

She pressed her palm lightly against her sternum, where the bond still pulled.

Lucas could lock doors and issue orders.

He could not stop what had already started.