Claimed By The Packless Alpha

08 Dead End 2

Sienna’s POV

I stopped walking.

Maya turned to me. “What is the matter, Sienna?”

“The number is switched off,” I whispered.

Her face fell.

“I can’t reach him,” I said, and the tears came again before I could stop them.

Maya pulled me into a hug right there outside Moonfall Motel, and I clung to her like a child.

“Don’t cry,” Maya said softly. “We still have plan B. If we cannot find him, then we have to lie.”

I tried to laugh because I knew she was trying to make me feel better, but the sound came out broken and pathetic.

‘Plan B being lying our way into a family explosion,’ Nyla said. ‘Very comforting. Very peaceful.’

I closed my eyes. “I can’t do this.”

“You can,” Maya said. “Because you have no choice.”

That was the problem. I had no choice. I had been raised in a world where choices were things men discussed over my head, and now even the one reckless choice I had made for myself had become a weapon against me.

Maya pulled back and wiped my cheek with her thumb.

“Let us check out the construction site,” she said. “The apartment is located there anyway. If anyone asks, we are working on the project.”

The construction site.

The Westmere Project.

The fake excuse we had given my family so I could stay with Maya for two days. We were supposed to at least pass there, make it look believable, maybe take pictures, maybe pretend our lie had legs.

But I was exhausted.

“I am not up to it, Maya,” I said, shaking my head. “I just want to go back to your house and keep scrolling through social media.”

Maya looked like she wanted to argue, but she only sighed and nodded. “Okay.”

We returned to her house, and I went straight back to the computer. I searched again. I searched the number. I searched Kael’s name with different spellings. I searched nearby packs. I searched rogue rumours. I searched every stupid thing my mind could think of. Nothing. It was like he had appeared out of nowhere, claimed me, and vanished back into whatever dark hole he had crawled from.

I did not eat. It was not deliberate. I was too worried and scared to feel hungry. Maya tried. She brought food and placed it beside me. I ignored it until it went cold. Then she took it away without saying anything because sometimes friendship was knowing when words would only make things worse.

Kael was shady. There was no other way to explain it. He might be a criminal. A fugitive. A rogue. Maybe worse. No normal person avoided leaving traces so cleanly. No normal man paid cash, used only one name, left a switched-off number, and did not take the number of the woman he had claimed.

Now I understood why he had not taken my number.

He had not wanted me to call him.

He had not wanted me to find him.

That thought made my chest ache.

I had a feeling the phone would never come on, but I kept trying anyway. Every few minutes, I dialled. Switched off. Switched off. Switched off. Each time, my hope died a little more.

‘You know staring at the phone will not bully it into working,’ Nyla said after the fifteenth try.

“I know.”

‘Then why are we doing it?’

“Because it is either this or crying again.”

‘Call him again then.’

So I did.

Two days passed like punishment.

Our search adventure finally came to an end, not because we found Kael, but because time ran out. We looked for him everywhere we could. We visited bars and clubs. We asked questions carefully. We stalked Moonfall Motel for two nights like desperate fools, watching people come and go while hoping he would appear again with that stupid face and those stupid teeth and that stupid mark I could not stop touching.

He was a no-show.

It was as if he had come to that club specifically for me, done what he wanted, and left.

Slowly, painfully, I began to accept the truth.

I had to lie.

There was no other way out.

We were unable to visit The Westmere Project because of the problem, but that did not matter anymore. The project had only been an excuse. A thin excuse, but an excuse all the same. As morning came on the third day, I realised time was up. I had dinner with Darius that evening, and I needed to tell my family the concocted story before then so they could help me deal with Darius and his family on the matter.

I was not looking forward to it.

I was afraid as hell.

I knew my father and Nolan could be extreme. I dreaded what they might do to me if they found out I had gone out, got drunk, and wasted my life away. I had blown the one shot at becoming Luna and giving Alpha pups to the strongest bloodline my family could reach. My father’s dream had always been to upgrade our status, and I had done the unthinkable. I had pissed it all away in one night with a man I could not even find.

‘Well, when you put it like that, it sounds terrible,’ Nyla said.

I sat on Maya’s bed with my hands folded in my lap. “It is terrible.”

‘Yes, but there are softer ways to say it.’

I laughed bitterly. “You? Talking about softness?”

‘I am emotionally complex.’

“You are emotionally rude.”

‘Still alive though.’

Maya packed a small bag beside me, even though I had told her she did not need to follow me home. She kept moving around the room like movement could stop fear from catching up with us.

“I can come with you,” Maya said for the tenth time.

“No,” I replied.

“Sienna.”

“No, Maya.”

She turned to face me. “You should not face them alone.”

“I need to,” I said quietly. “If you come, they might turn on you first. They might blame you for covering for me. I cannot let that happen.”

She frowned. “I already covered for you.”

“I know. And that is enough.”

Maya came to sit beside me. “You are not protecting me by going alone. You are just making yourself easier to break.”

That sentence hurt because it sounded true.

Still, I shook my head.

“It is not your fault that I got into bed with him,” I said. “You have done a lot already. You agreed to corroborate the story. That is more than enough. I do not want to drag you down with me.”

Maya’s eyes softened, but she did not look happy.

“You are my best friend,” she said.

“And that is why I want to protect you,” I replied.

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

Then she hugged me tightly.

“If they hurt you, call me,” Maya whispered.

I almost laughed because what exactly would Maya do if my father and brother decided to punish me? Storm the Vale house in heels and threaten a retired Gamma with interior decoration samples?

Still, I hugged her back.

“I will,” I lied.

I left Maya’s house sluggishly. Every step felt heavy. On my way home, all I could think about was my father’s reaction. Gideon Vale’s face when he saw the mark. Nolan’s anger. Darius’s disgust. The silence that would come before everything broke. I hated Kael for what he had done to me. He had ruined my life and gone on with his. This was wicked and cruel. I could never forgive him for this.

Then my mind started running wild.

Maybe I could appease my family and Darius’s family somehow. Maybe I could offer to bear Darius’s pups with no commitment since that was the reason they were joining us together in the first place. Maybe he would accept that. Maybe once it was over, I could give up the babies and leave town. Maybe I could become the shameful woman who lived far away and never came home for family dinners.

The thought made me sick.

But fear made desperate things look reasonable.

‘Absolutely not,’ Nyla snapped.

I paused on the pavement.

“What?”

‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘We are not offering our body like a compensation gift because men built plans around us without asking.’

I swallowed hard.

“That might be the only way...”

‘No, Sienna,’ Nyla said, and for once, there was no sarcasm in her voice. ‘You made a mistake. A very large, very fragrant, very bite-shaped mistake. But you are not livestock. You are not paying them back with pups.’

My eyes burned.

“I ruined everything.”

‘You ruined their plan. There is a difference.’

I wiped quickly at my face before anyone passing by could see me crying on the road like a madwoman.