Chapter Three

Morning came grey and quiet.

Sienna woke to the sound of someone setting a tray outside the door. She waited until the footsteps left before she stood. Her clothes from the day before were still damp at the seams. She washed her face in the small bathroom, ran wet hands through her hair, and left it.

The bond sat lower today, a constant pressure rather than a sudden strike. She tested it the way she might test a bruise. It answered immediately. Lucas was somewhere in the main part of the house. Awake. Aware of her in the same distant way.

She did not touch the food.

An hour later the lock turned. A different scout stood in the doorway—older, expression carefully blank.

“Alpha wants you downstairs.”

Sienna followed without comment. The east wing hallway was empty. When they reached the main stairs she felt the shift in the air. Conversations stopped. A few wolves in the open living area turned their heads. She kept her eyes forward and her shoulders easy.

Lucas stood near the long table in the dining hall. Elena sat to his right, spine straight, hands folded too neatly in her lap. Three senior pack members occupied the other chairs. None of them looked comfortable.

Lucas’s gaze found Sienna the moment she entered. The bond pulled once, hard, then settled into a tight line between them.

“Sit,” he said.

She chose the empty chair at the opposite end of the table instead of the one closer to him. One of the older males—Harris, she thought—shifted in his seat.

Lucas did not comment on the distance. “The pack will be informed this morning that Sienna Hale has returned under my protection. She will remain in the east wing for now. No one approaches her without my clearance.”

Elena’s fingers tightened around each other.

Harris cleared his throat. “With respect, Alpha… the last time she was here—”

“I remember the last time,” Lucas said. His voice stayed level. “This is not a discussion.”

Another senior, a woman named Mara, glanced between Lucas and Sienna. “The bond?”

Silence stretched for a second too long.

“The bond is active,” Lucas said. “That is all that needs to be known.”

Sienna watched their faces. Surprise. Calculation. In Elena’s case, something sharper and less controlled. No one asked the question that sat in the middle of the table: why force a claim on the woman he had publicly discarded.

Lucas ended the meeting with a short nod. Chairs scraped. The seniors left first. Elena lingered.

“Lucas,” she said quietly. “We need to talk about this. Privately.”

He looked at her. “Later.”

Elena’s mouth pressed into a thin line. She stood, smoothed her skirt, and walked out without glancing at Sienna again.

When the room was empty except for the two of them, Lucas finally spoke.

“You will eat.”

Sienna leaned back in the chair. “Is that an order or a suggestion?”

“Both.”

She studied the set of his shoulders. The control was still there, but it cost him more than it used to. She could feel the effort through the bond like heat under skin.

“People are already talking,” she said. “You felt it when I walked in.”

“I can handle talk.”

“Can you handle the truth when it starts circulating again?”

Lucas walked the length of the table until he stood a few feet from her chair. The bond tightened with every step. Sienna kept her hands loose on the armrests.

“You came here with a purpose,” he said. “I want to know what it is.”

“I told you last night.”

“You told me you came to finish something. That is not an answer.”

Sienna stood. The movement brought her closer than she intended. She did not step back.

“Five years ago you decided I was not enough in front of everyone who mattered. You don’t get to demand explanations from me now.”

His eyes darkened. For a moment she thought he might reach for her. The bond flared in anticipation. Instead he exhaled slowly through his nose and looked past her toward the windows.

“There will be a gathering tonight,” he said. “The neighboring Alpha from Black Hollow is coming to discuss border issues. You will attend. You will sit where I place you. You will not leave my side.”

Sienna raised an eyebrow. “So I’m a statement now.”

“You’re under my claim. That is statement enough.”

She almost laughed. The sound came out quiet and dry. “You rejected the claim once. Forcing it again does not make it clean.”

Lucas stepped in. Not enough to touch. Enough that she had to tip her head slightly to hold his gaze.

“Clean was never the point,” he said.

The words settled between them. Outside, a vehicle engine started in the distance. Inside, the bond pulsed once, heavy and unwilling to be ignored.

Sienna kept her voice steady. “I’ll attend your gathering. I’ll sit where you put me. But don’t mistake compliance for surrender.”

Something flickered across his face—frustration, or maybe recognition. He stepped back first.

“Be ready by seven,” he said. “Someone will bring clothes.”

He left through the side door that led toward his office. Sienna remained standing at the end of the long table until the sound of his footsteps disappeared.

The dining hall felt larger without him in it. She walked to the nearest window and looked out at the wet grounds. A few younger wolves were already moving toward the training area, casting glances at the main house as they went.

Word was spreading.

She pressed her fingertips lightly against the glass. The bond still hummed under her skin, a constant reminder that distance no longer meant separation.

Tonight the pack—and at least one neighboring Alpha—would see her standing at Lucas’s side.

She planned to make sure they also saw that she was no longer the woman who had once accepted a rejection in silence.