Campaigns
1075 Words
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
SIENNA
Power was never about screaming.
Sienna learned that early. The girls who screamed lost. The girls who smiled and decided who got included, who became invisible, which rumours survived long enough to do damage were the ones who won.
She had spent three years at Lunadora pack and built that kind of power, brick by brick, and she was not going to watch a human girl dismantle it in days.
Because she saw it clearly now.
The way Jace watched Violetta. The way he'd stepped into that gym and threatened to go to Mrs Linda without a second's hesitation. And then that grin; that wide, genuine, completely unguarded grin when Violetta threw her comment back at her in the corridor.
Sienna had seen Jace smile a hundred times. She had never seen him smile like that at anyone.
That was the real danger. Not Violetta herself.
She sat in her room that night and thought about the hookups last year. The times Jace had come to her and she'd thought it was building toward something.
The way he'd pulled back after and gone back to being civil and distant like none of it meant anything.
She'd waited. She'd been patient. She'd told herself he just needed time.
And now he was grinning in corridors at a human girl who'd been here for two days.
Her teeth pressed together.
She wasn't going to do anything obvious. Obvious left evidence and evidence was the enemy of deniable.
She's going to do small manipulations. Structural ones. The kind that accumulated without leaving a single fingerprint.
Practice the next morning started at six.
Sienna was there at five-thirty. She always was.
The girls filed in one by one and Sienna greeted each of them with the warmth she reserved for mornings when she needed the room on her side.
Violetta walked in last and Sienna clocked the way she carried herself... chin up, shoulders back, like she'd made a decision on the way here about how she was going to enter a room.
She must be feeling proud after her smart mouth in front of Jace.
Sienna smiled at the group. "Morning everyone. Did you sleep well?"
A general murmur of yes.
"Good." She clapped once lightly. "Because today we're trying something new."
She pulled out the assignment chart.
She'd redesigned it the night before. A new lift sequence, unannounced, introduced now as though it had always been the plan.
And in the base position, supporting the heaviest girl on the squad... she'd written Violetta's name. She announced it in the pleasant voice she used for things that were designed to be impossible to argue with directly.
Violetta looked at the chart. Then at Sienna.
She said nothing and instead moved to position.
Sienna watched from the front as the lift went up. Violetta's arms shook through the last two seconds. Everything wobbled. Her jaw was tight and her legs were trembling with the effort of it.
Nothing dropped.
Sienna kept her expression completely neutral.
After practice the girls moved to the benches to collect their things. Sienna straightened her clipboard and watched from the corner of her eye as Susan walked past Violetta's bag on the bench and knocked her water bottle clean off without slowing down.
It clattered across the floor.
Violetta's head came up. "Why did you do that?"
Susan turned slowly, eyebrows raised. "Sorry, are you talking to me?"
"Yes. Why did you knock my bottle on the floor?"
Susan looked at the bottle and then back at Violetta with the expression of someone who found the question barely worth addressing. "Because I didn't like it on that spot. Throw it in a bin. That's where it fits. Same as humans among wolves."
Sienna stepped between them smoothly before Violetta could respond, her voice dropping to something that sounded almost kind. "Don't pick a fight, Violetta. Susan will beat you into a pulp and I'd hate to watch that happen."
Violetta looked at both of them.
Then she picked up her bottle, held Sienna's gaze for exactly one second, and walked out.
Sienna watched her go.
Still no c***k. Still no tears. Still that same infuriating composure.
She turned back to the room and began rearranging the formation chart for the final session: reorganizing the partnerships so nobody was paired with Violetta twice.
After that she pulled out her phone.
"Right, I'm making a squad group chat. Everyone give me their number."
She went around the room. She collected every number. She did not ask for Violetta's. She didn't look in her direction. She just moved on to the next girl like the omission was an oversight rather than the entire point.
Practice ended and the gym emptied.
Susan and Jessica lingered by the door while the last girls filed out. Susan folded her arms, leaning against the wall. "She's not cracking, Sie. Nothing's landing."
Jessica nodded. "We need to hit harder."
Sienna looked at them both for a moment. Then she held out her hand. "Give me your phone, Jess."
Jessica handed it over.
Sienna opened PackLink and navigated to the anonymous posting feature. She typed cleanly and without hesitating.
*FUNNY HOW THE HUMAN SUDDENLY HANGS AROUND THE POPULAR*
She posted it. Then she handed the phone back to Jessica. And took Susan's phone and typed the comment underneath.
*Some people know exactly how to social climb.*
Jessica's lips curved. "That's going to blow up."
"I know," Sienna grinned.
That night she sat on her bed with her laptop open and created an anonymous account, nothing traceable back. She uploaded the blurry photo she'd had one of the girls take that morning of Violetta stepping out of Jace's car and paired it with the screenshot someone had posted the day before of Jace standing up for her at practice.
She typed the caption: *Some humans adapt to wolf society FAST.*
She posted it and set the phone face-up on the bed and watched.
The comments came within minutes.
*Who is she even*
*Jace Calloway?? Really??*
*Classic social climber behaviour*
*She's obviously using him*
*Someone needs to tell her where she actually stands*
Sienna watched the notifications stack up. Her expression stayed smooth and unbothered. She reached for her tea and took a sip and thought about tomorrow's practice formation.
Her phone buzzed.
Susan: *WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU SIE, THE PARTY HAS STARTED AND GUESS WHAT JACE IS HERE WITH VIOLETTA*
- Writer
