Unclaimed Bonds

Chapter 15

The First Crack

Sienna arrived on a Thursday afternoon like she belonged there.

Lila was crossing the main hall of the pack house when the front door opened and the familiar, sharp-sweet scent of her stepsister drifted in on the cool air. She stopped so abruptly that Talia, walking half a step behind her, nearly collided with her back. Sienna stood in the entryway in a cream-colored coat that looked too expensive for a border visit, dark hair perfectly arranged, expression arranged into something that almost resembled remorse.

Two Silver Ridge betas had escorted her from the boundary. They looked unhappy about it. Ronan appeared from the direction of his study before anyone could speak, his presence filling the hall with quiet authority.

“Sienna Blackwood,” he said. His voice was level. “You weren’t invited.”

Sienna’s smile was careful and small. “I know. I asked for permission at the border to speak with Lila. Your wolves were kind enough to bring me this far. I won’t stay long.”

Lila’s wolf surged under her skin, lips peeling back from teeth that were still human. The broken bond gave a hard, ugly throb. She had not seen Sienna since the night in the guest room—since the image of her stepsister straddling Kane had burned itself into the back of her eyes. Standing in the same space with her now felt like pressing on a bruise that had never fully healed.

Ronan glanced at Lila. The question in his eyes was clear: *Your call.*

Lila forced her voice to stay steady. “Five minutes. In the front sitting room. Then she leaves.”

Ronan nodded once. “Talia, with them. Door stays open.”

The sitting room was a formal space near the front of the house that rarely got used. Sienna sat on the edge of one of the leather chairs without removing her coat, hands folded in her lap like she was posing for a portrait of regret. Lila remained standing. Talia took up a position near the open door, arms crossed, expression blank but watchful.

Sienna spoke first. “You look better than I expected.”

“Don’t.”

Sienna’s mouth tightened, then smoothed again. “I came to apologize. What happened that night… it got out of control. I never meant for you to walk in. I never meant for the bond to break the way it did.”

Lila laughed once, short and sharp. “You never meant for me to walk in. That’s the part you’re sorry about.”

“I’m sorry for all of it.” Sienna leaned forward slightly, eyes wide and earnest in a way Lila had seen her use on teachers, on Marcus, on anyone she needed something from. “Kane was already drifting. The mate bond with you was making him reckless. I thought if I could pull him back—if I could remind him of what he was risking—things might stabilize. I didn’t know it would destroy everything.”

The lie was smooth. Almost elegant. Lila could see the shape of it clearly: Sienna as the concerned older sister, trying to protect the pack’s future from a disruptive new mate bond, accidentally causing tragedy. It was the kind of story that would sound reasonable to anyone who hadn’t been standing in the doorway that night.

“You were in his bed,” Lila said flatly. “Naked. Moving. Don’t dress it up as concern for the pack.”

Sienna’s expression flickered. For a second something colder showed underneath the remorse. Then it was gone. “I made a mistake. A terrible one. I’ve spent weeks dealing with the fallout. Kane barely speaks to me. Marcus looks at me like he’s still deciding whether to exile me. Your mother won’t stay in the same room with me. I came here because I need you to know I never wanted you hurt like that.”

Lila’s hands curled into fists at her sides. “You need me to know? Or you need me to forgive you so the story gets easier to tell back home?”

“Both,” Sienna admitted, and the small honesty almost made the rest worse. “The packs are talking. Your running to Silver Ridge made everything louder. If you and I can be seen reaching some kind of peace, it might calm things down. Kane might finally stop tearing himself apart. Marcus might stop looking at me like I’m a problem he has to solve.”

There it was. The real reason, polished and presented as concern for everyone else. Lila felt something cold and clear settle in her chest.

“You’re not here for me,” she said. “You’re here to manage the damage to your own position.”

Sienna’s smile thinned. “I’m here because someone has to try to fix the mess. You’re living under another Alpha’s roof with a broken bond. Kane is losing control. The longer this stays raw, the more dangerous it gets for everyone. Including you.”

“Get out.”

“Lila—”

“Get out of this house.” Lila’s voice stayed low, but her wolf was so close to the surface she could feel the scrape of it in her throat. “You don’t get to sit here and rewrite that night into something almost reasonable. You don’t get to use Kane’s guilt or my mother’s stress or pack politics as leverage. Leave.”

Sienna stood slowly. The remorseful mask had slipped; what remained was cooler, more assessing. She looked at Lila for a long moment, then at the open door where Talia still waited, then back again.

“You’re choosing him,” Sienna said. “The Silver Ridge Alpha. Over your own family. Over any chance of putting this back together.”

“I’m choosing not to let you stand in front of me and lie.”

Sienna’s mouth curved into something that was not quite a smile. “He’s patient, isn’t he? Ronan Vale. The quiet one who waited years. Be careful, Lila. Men who wait that long usually want something specific in return. And broken things are easy to shape.”

Talia shifted at the door. Lila didn’t look away from her stepsister. “You have nothing left to say that I need to hear.”

Sienna held her gaze a second longer, then walked out of the sitting room with the same composed grace she had arrived with. The front door opened and closed. A moment later Lila heard the low voices of the betas escorting her back toward the border.

The silence that followed felt scraped raw.

Talia spoke first. “She’s gone. Officially off the territory in the next ten minutes.”

Lila nodded once, not trusting her voice. The broken bond was throbbing in hard, uneven pulses. Her wolf wanted to run, to chase, to make the threat leave in a more permanent way. She forced herself to stay still until the urge passed.

Ronan found her still standing in the middle of the sitting room several minutes later. He took one look at her face and closed the door behind him, giving them privacy.

“She tried to rewrite it,” Lila said without preamble. “Made herself the concerned sister who went too far. Said she was trying to protect the pack from a disruptive mate bond. Then she suggested you’re only being patient because broken things are easier to shape.”

Ronan’s expression didn’t change, but something in his eyes hardened. “Did you believe any of it?”

“No.” Lila let out a slow breath. “But she’s good at it. The version she told would sound reasonable to almost anyone who wasn’t there. And she’s going to keep telling it.”

He crossed the room and stopped in front of her. “She’s not wrong about one thing. The longer this stays unresolved between the packs, the more dangerous it becomes. But that doesn’t make her version of events true, and it doesn’t give her the right to walk into my house and try to get under your skin.”

Lila looked up at him. The new bond pulsed warm and steady in contrast to the old, jagged ache. “She wanted to plant a crack. Between me and you. Between me and any chance of staying here without doubt.”

“Did it work?”

“No.” The answer came easily. “But I hate that she thought it might.”

Ronan lifted a hand and brushed a loose strand of hair away from her face, the gesture careful and deliberate. “People like Sienna look for soft places to press. You’re allowed to be angry that she tried. You’re also allowed to notice that the crack didn’t take.”

Lila leaned into the touch before she could stop herself. The broken bond still hurt. The memory of the guest room doorway still lived behind her eyes. But Sienna’s carefully crafted lies had not landed the way they were meant to. The foundation Lila had been slowly building in Silver Ridge—quiet mornings, steady presence, the absence of demand—had held.

“She’s going to keep pushing,” Lila said. “From a distance if she has to. Through Kane. Through my mother. Through anyone who will listen to her version.”

“Then we deal with it as it comes,” Ronan said. “One attempt at a time. You’re not alone with it anymore.”

The simple statement settled something restless in her chest. Lila closed her eyes for a moment and let the new bond’s warmer pulse push back against the old pain. When she opened them again, the sitting room looked less like a place where a crack had been attempted and more like a place where one had failed.

Sienna had come to plant doubt.

She had left with nothing.