Marked By The Alpha Who Buried My Old Pack

Chapter Three: Ten A.M.

Sienna Cole POV

I woke to pounding on my bedroom door.

"Sienna, why are you still in bed?" my dad shouted, throwing it open.

I blinked, confused for a second about where I even was. Then it hit me training.

"What time is it?" I gasped, already scrambling upright.

"You're late! Already off to a great start," he groaned, disappearing back down the hall.

I yanked on the first clothes I found in my suitcase, sprinted down the stairs two at a time, nearly knocking Grandma over in the kitchen, and bolted out the front door before she could finish yelling something after me about breakfast.

"He's going to be furious," Nova muttered as I ran.

"You could've woken me up," I snapped back at her, lungs already burning.

"I was busy."

"You're a wolf who lives in my head. Doing what exactly?"

She went quiet, which was answer enough. By the time I reached the pack house, my lungs were on fire and at least thirty wolves were already training in the yard. I skidded to a stop at the edge of the group, scanning the crowd of unfamiliar, scarred faces.

A throat cleared directly behind me. I spun around fast and nearly slammed straight into a wall of muscle.

My eyes landed on a face I somehow already knew belonged to Alpha Ronan Vale, even though we'd never once met. His eyes were a deep gold-brown, and right now they were locked completely on me, unreadable and cold.

"Didn't I say not to be late?" His voice was low and hard, without a trace of patience anywhere in it.

"From the look of things, sleep was clearly the better choice this morning," Nova muttered somewhere inside my head.

Before I could stop myself, the words fell straight out of my mouth. "I'm not great with rules."

His jaw tightened visibly at that. He was well over six feet tall, and I had to tip my head all the way back just to hold his stare without looking away first.

"We'll have to fix that," he said coolly, studying me like a problem he intended to solve.

"Good luck," I said, and immediately regretted the words the second they left my mouth.

"Are you actually trying to get us killed on day one?" Nova groaned loudly in my head.

"You're the one who wanted to insult him first," I muttered back at her under my breath.

"What's your name, pup?" Ronan asked, voice still rough.

"Sienna. And yours?" I asked, already knowing the answer perfectly well.

"Your Alpha," he said flatly, clearly unimpressed by my attempt to play dumb about it.

"Obviously," I said, letting my smirk widen just enough to watch his eyes flash with irritation in response.

He turned away to address the group instead. "Attention, everyone. Sienna decided today was optional. Unfortunately, we no longer have a spare partner available for her."

My stomach sank instantly. I already knew exactly what was coming next.

"I'll be her partner myself," he announced.

Kellan shot me a look of pure panic from across the training yard before reluctantly turning back to his own opponent.

I turned to face Ronan fully, and against every ounce of good sense I still had left, I let my eyes travel briefly over him as he pulled his shirt off for training. His chest was scarred and solid underneath, and I hated how hard it suddenly was to look away from him.

"Close your mouth," he said without even glancing over at me directly.

I rolled my eyes and got into position across from him. He came at me fast, faster than Grady ever had in a full year of training, but instinct kicked in before panic ever had the chance to. I ducked low, rolled sideways, and used his own size against him exactly the way Grady had drilled into me a hundred times over. I even managed to land briefly on his back once before he threw me clean off.

"You're fast," he said, sounding almost genuinely surprised by it.

"I am. You hit hard," I shot back, already catching my breath hard.

By the time training finally ended, my whole body ached in places I didn't even know could ache before today. He stopped me before I could slip away, arms crossed tight over his chest, studying me like I was a puzzle he still hadn't fully solved.

"Did you learn something today?" he asked, voice still cold.

"Yeah," I said, meeting his stare directly. "Your nose twitches right before you throw a punch."

Something flickered gold in his eyes at that, just for a second. "Are you always this disobedient, or is this some kind of special occasion just for me?"

"It's one of my better qualities," I said, turning on my heel before he could think of a response.

Kellan caught up with me halfway across the yard, still shaking his head. "You really told the Alpha good luck? On your first day?"

"It slipped out," I admitted, wincing at the memory of it.

"Nothing slips out around here without consequences, Sienna. People get punished for less than that."

"Well, I'm still standing, aren't I?" I said, though privately I wasn't entirely sure why I hadn't been.

Grady's training had prepared my body for pain, but nothing had prepared me for the strange thrill that had run through me every time Ronan's eyes locked on mine. I pushed the thought away hard, telling myself it meant nothing at all.

I collapsed onto the couch back home, groaning loud enough to startle my dad awake from his recliner.

"I see you survived," he said, eyeing me carefully.

"Barely," I muttered, gratefully accepting the cookie Grandma handed me without even needing to ask for it.

"Don't be late tomorrow," Kellan smirked from the kitchen doorway, "or it might happen again."

I groaned into a couch pillow, already dreading whatever tomorrow had waiting for me. Somewhere underneath the dread, though, a small and stubborn part of me was already looking forward to it.