Chapter 1
Sierra's POV
"Arghhh!" I heard my roommate's scream coming from the house. I flung the gate open and rushed in to meet a mess.
Our one-room-apartment wasn't the fanciest or neatest but this was unbelievable. The tv was broken along with the other worthless properties we owned, glass shatters scattered around the weak floorboard, all in all, a total mess.
I saw Kelly knelt on the floor at gunpoint. I looked up to see three men dressed in black, their leader held the gun while the others held baseball bats. My bag fell to the ground as I recognized them at once. My loan sharks. They had found me.
"Where's my money?" The leader's voice thundered across the room. I shivered. I was truly f****d this time around.
He pushed Kelly aside and headed towards me, the gun pointing straight at me. I could feel the pressure rising against my tiny bladder. Sweat dripped down my neck in painful suspense.
"I… I…" I stuttered. My brain could barely process this scenario. How the hell had they found me in this damned village?
But immediately the gun mouth or whatever touched my pretty cleavage my mouth began to run. "Tomorrow!" I exclaimed. "I'll get your money tomorrow, I swear it on my parents' grave!"
"I don't give a f**k about your damned parents' grave!" He retorted angrily, the gun moved, another shiver. "I want my money. Cos the next time I'm here, you ain't gon be seeing jus this. Imma paint this house red, so your spoiled, rich sister could see how pretty your blood looks."
He removed the gun from my chest, leaving along with the others and my heart collapsed back into my chest where it belonged.
"What the f**k, Sierra?!" Kelly yelled immediately as they left.
"I know, I know. I f****d up. I'm sorry," I tried to calm her down.
"This isn't a matter of sorry. I almost died!" The fumes from her ears were evident enough to make me pick up my bag and head out the door immediately.
"Where are you going?" She asked.
"To my sister. To fix this mess," I simply said.
"You know she won't give you any more money, right?"
"She'd have to or she'll end up using that money for a burial by the weekend."
***
I stopped the taxi once I got to the front of Sienna's company building and got out. I stood for a moment to gaze at the magnificence of this building. Sienna had really put an effort into this life of a thing and made hers a dream. If only I had the same opportun…
"Screech!!" I heard the loud screeching of tires 5 feet away and turned to see a fancy car headed towards me, I ducked immediately and landed on the ground.
The driver got out of the car and held his hand out for me. "Are you okay?" His deep voice asked. My heart thumped harder and a strong scent filled my nostrils.
"Am I alright?... Am I alright??!" I asked ludicrously, standing up on my own. "How about 'I'm sorr…'?" I stopped when my eyes met a powerful set of green eyes. I looked carefully at the glorious creature standing before me. Magnificent…
"You should be the one apologizing, who on earth stands in the middle of a parking lot like a homeless person?" He retorted, disgust written over his hardened face.
I scoffed, "Homeless? For your information, this is my family's company and since you're already here you could've finally experienced how wealthy people live." I rolled my eyes. "But unfortunately, you won't be allowed in so I guess you'll never know."
"Excuse me? Do you have any idea who I am?" He clenched his eyebrows in 'fake' surprise.
"A bad driver who borrowed a car he clearly can't handle," I insulted, "If you don't know how to drive, why do you even bother?" Adrenaline rushed through my veins. Every part of me was willing to pour all of my frustrations on this pompous god, sorry, gorilla.
"If you cannot walk properly, why not stay in the shack you probably crawled out from?" He clapped back. I gasped in defeat.
"If you have no manners, why not do everyone a favor by shutting up?" I wasn't backing down so easily.
He opened his mouth to speak then sighed. "I'm not wasting time on peasants like you." He turned to enter his car and drove off.
I had clearly won this one. "Takes one to know one!" I shouted after him.
I grinned as I savored my victory before I remembered why I was here. I immediately ran into the building. I caught sight of Shae, Sienna's receptionist and gave an exasperated sigh. This was gonna be harder than expected. She faked a grin at me and I faked a wider one right back.
"I want to see my sister…" I hurriedly said and slid past her into the office before she could grab my waist and do all that tussling like the last time I was here.
I sighed with relief as I made it in before I met the deadly glare of my twin sister. "What're you doing here?" She asked coldly as she sat behind her executive table. My heart fell to my stomach. This was never easy.
"Umm…", was all I could produce from my vocals.
"Money… right?" She looked at me with repulsion. My stomach twisted with anger. "My money. You want more of it, right?"
I swallowed my anger. "The loan sharks, they're back."
"Did you at least explain to them how you wasted their money?"
"This isn't a joke, Sienna. They brought guns!"
"Neither is coming to take my money for your silly mistakes!"
"Going to college is never a mistake"
"Not when you dropped out in sophomore year, throwing all that money out the window."
I took a deep breath. "Maybe if I had been able to pay for it with mum and dad's money then I would've been able to graduate!"
"Well, too bad they gave it to me. They probably knew how you were gonna waste it anyways."
"That's enough, Sienna. I've been through a lot already. They gave you EVERYTHING and left me with nothing!" I yelled with tears rolling down my cheeks. "You don't even know how wretchedly I've lived ever since they died."
"I'm not the one who killed them. You don't blame me for that. You know well who to blame." She shrugged without a care in the world.
"The Lycan king." My fists clenched at the mention of his name. The anger rose up to my throat.
"Exactly, go yell at him. Maybe he'll give you some money too, if you beg hard enough."
"Sienna!"
"I have a meeting in 5. Get… Out!" She looked me right in the eye. I turned around and walked away, wiping the tears off my cheeks. My heart broke into a million pieces as I walked out of the building.
Suddenly, a man hurriedly brushed against me, falling me to the ground. My heart skipped a beat.
"Not again!" I complained bitterly.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Sierra!" He said. I looked up to see him, a blonde-looking celebrity, except he wasn't a celebrity. This was Louis, Sienna's best friend since highschool.
"Louis…" I started but he cut me off.
"Sorry, kinda in a hurry now." He dismissed me hastily. I rolled my eyes, what a lover boy. But why was my heart running marathons? Why did his scent linger in my nose?
"Sierra, what's with you today?" I muttered to myself and headed to the parking lot to clear my head.
When I reached my car I slid to the ground, spending the next one hour wondering what to do next. I couldn't return empty-handed. I had nowhere left to hide. I was most probably gonna die tomorrow, along with Kelly. Hopelessness had successfully consumed me when a strange man approached me.
"Ms. Sienna, everyone's been searching all around for you. I have urgent business." He said hastily, grabbing papers from his briefcase.
"Sorry, you have the wr…"
"Here, this is the 100-million-dollar contract. You'll need to sign…" Everyother thing he had said after that had seemed to fade away into the distance.
"100…wh…what?" I stuttered in disbelief, sweat dampening my clothes.
"The 100-million-dollar contract we spoke about yesterday. The Alpha insisted we wrap it up asap."
"The Alpha? What's this deal about?" I asked.
"...I don't understand, Ms. Sienna. We spoke about this just yesterday and I told you war is upon us, Alpha Maxim can't afford to waste more time. We need to seal this marriage before the worst happens."
"Wait… war? What war?"
"The war against our pack and Juronia, of course."
"Juronia…? Isn't that the lycan kingdom?"
"Of course, miss." He looked at me, his eyebrows creasing in confusion.
"Hold on… you said something about marriage. Marriage to who?" The pieces were slowly starting to come together but I wasn't comfortable with the picture it was about to form.
"To the Lycan king himself, of course." He stated innocently with no idea about the strong impact these words were about to cause in my life.