Claimed By The Packless Alpha

06 Dinner Date 2

Sienna’s POV

Small bites were served while we waited for my father. The food looked beautiful, expensive, and completely impossible to swallow. I tried anyway. I picked at it and listened as Nolan and Darius spoke about pack matters, training numbers, border patrols, and other things that made me feel like I was sitting inside a life already planned for me. Darius tried to include me. He really did. He asked about books, music, house preferences, even colours I liked for interior decoration. I answered politely, and he listened. That surprised me. I realised I had nothing real in common with him. He seemed to realise it too. But he still tried. And, annoyingly, I found that cute.

‘If you spend time with him, you might fall in love,’ Nyla said.

I stiffened. “Do not,” I warned her silently.

‘I said might. Relax.’

“I am mad at you.”

‘For what?’

“For allowing Kael nobody to claim us.”

Nyla hissed. ‘Do not blame me. You had full control. I was in the back watching you grind on trouble like it was a life goal.’

I almost choked on my orange juice. Darius looked at me closely.

“Wolf matter?” he asked.

I froze. How did he know?

“Yes,” I admitted carefully. “How did you know?”

“I can sense your wolf,” Darius said. “Aleksei can sense her. They will be mates after all.”

His wolf. Aleksei. My stomach turned again. They will be mates after all. Every time Darius spoke about the joining, my guilt dug deeper. Nyla went very still, and I knew she felt it too. The impossibility of it. The wrongness of sitting there pretending our future was still open when another Alpha’s claim had already closed the door.

My father finally arrived. Gideon Vale walked in with his usual air of importance, apologising to Darius as he approached the table. He claimed he had been in a meeting with the former Alpha, so his lateness was automatically excused. My father could keep an Alpha waiting and somehow still make it sound respectable. The moment he sat, his eyes moved to me. His nose twitched. My blood went cold.

“Sienna,” he said sharply, “why do you smell like that?”

I swallowed. Before I could speak, Darius smiled.

“It’s okay, Gamma Gideon,” Darius said. “I love the scent.”

My father relaxed a little. I released a quiet breath.

‘Darius is saving us and does not even know from what,’ Nyla said.

I hated how sad that sounded. They ordered food, and I tried my best to act normal. I smiled when I was supposed to smile. I answered questions. I laughed lightly at the right moments. I kept my collar in place and my neck straight. Dinner felt like torture wrapped in polite conversation. When the meal ended, Darius turned to me.

“Would you take a walk with me in the garden?” he asked.

My heart sank. Alone? With him? In the garden? Where he could stand close enough to smell me properly? I wanted to say no. I could not.

“Of course,” I replied.

As we stood, I signalled Maya with my eyes. She understood immediately. She was to ask Nolan on my behalf if I could spend two days helping her with the interior decoration project her family was working on. We needed the excuse. We needed those two days to find Kael. Darius placed his hand at my lower back and guided me out toward The Lantern Garden.

The garden was beautifully lit. Soft golden lights hung from the trees, and the path was lined with flowers. The night air was cool, carrying the faint scent of blossoms and expensive privacy. The sitting area had been cleared too. Darius had gone all out for tonight. He had bought the entire evening, both inside the restaurant and outside in the garden. Under normal circumstances, I might have been impressed. Under normal circumstances, I might have let myself enjoy it. But under normal circumstances, I would not have Kael’s mark hidden beneath a turtleneck.

Darius held my hand as we walked. His palm was warm. His touch was careful but firm. Alpha touch. Confident. Certain. It was not unpleasant. That made everything worse. We reached a bench, and he asked me to sit. I sat with my legs together, trying not to look as stiff as I felt. Darius sat beside me and drew me close. My body went rigid. He noticed.

“Do not worry, Sienna,” Darius said gently. “I am willing to wait and move at your pace. Your father told us you are a virgin. I do not mind getting to know you before we move to the next level.”

I almost died from shame. Virgin. That word sat between us like a clown with a knife. Nyla went silent. For once, she had no joke. I looked at Darius with fear and guilt in my eyes, and he must have misunderstood the look because his expression softened. He leaned in slowly. My mind screamed at me to pull away. My body did not move fast enough. His lips touched mine. I let him kiss me.

At first, it was gentle. Careful. His breath was sweet, and his hand settled lightly against my waist. Then his tongue brushed mine, warm and slow, and something in my body responded before I could stop it. Soon, the kiss deepened. Darius was an Alpha. I understood that properly now. His presence was overwhelming. His touch made it easy to forget why I should resist. Maya’s mother had once said an Alpha’s attention could wrap around a woman until she forgot her own name. She was not lying. If not for the lies, the fear, and Kael’s mark burning like a secret on my neck, I might have let Darius take more than a kiss from me in that garden. But I had no feelings for him. Not real ones. All I felt was lust, pressure, and the terrible ache of knowing this could never happen now.

‘I hate to interrupt this scandal,’ Nyla said, her voice dry, ‘but we are currently kissing our almost-mate while wearing another Alpha’s mark. This is how people get killed in dramatic ways.’

I pulled back slightly, breathless. Darius looked at me with concern.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes,” I lied quickly. “I just still feel a little unwell.”

He brushed his thumb over my hand. “We do not have to rush anything.”

That made me feel worse. He was being kind. Kindness was harder to survive than cruelty sometimes. I knew he would reject me when he found out. He might settle for Brianna from the Kappa family. If not her, he might have to take a mate from a Gamma or Delta family in Ironbridge Pack. But no one liked Alpha Viktor Draven, and mating into Ironbridge could create political complications. Packs did not like merging unless power demanded it. I had messed everything up. Not only for myself. For my family. For Darius. For everyone who had built plans around my obedience.

“Would you like a private date?” Darius asked.

I blinked at him. “What?”

“A private date,” he repeated. “Just us. No family. No formal dinner. I would like to know you properly before the joining.”

I did not know how to answer. I was already in too deep. Everything would have gone according to plan if not for Kael. Even the virgin part could have been explained away if I had been bold enough. Maybe I could have blamed it on a very enthusiastic imaginary collection of toys. Darius might not have cared. But the mark had doomed me.

“When?” I asked against my better judgement.

“Three days from now,” he said.

I nodded. Three days. That was good. By then, I would have either found Kael or confessed everything to my family. Either way, three days gave me space. Darius tried to kiss me again, but I avoided letting it go too far. I blamed my headache and stomach upset. He was understanding, which made me feel like a worse person. Then we returned to the restaurant.

To my surprise, my father agreed that I could spend two nights with Maya. He did not agree easily, of course. Gideon Vale did not do anything without checking it from every angle like betrayal could be hiding under a chair. He called Maya’s parents to confirm that there was truly an interior decoration project. There was, so they did not lie. I simply did not need to sleep at Maya’s house to help with it. Darius thought it was exciting.

“You will decorate our home when we move in together,” Darius said warmly.

I smiled. My throat tightened. Our home. There would be no our home. Not after this. His sweetness did not fool me completely. I knew part of why he was soft with me was because I was pretty, suitable, and meant to be his Luna. Darius was not soft with everyone. People feared him for a reason. He did not rank second among the strongest Alphas because he gave everyone warm smiles and garden kisses. I would not want to catch him on a bad day. And that was why I dreaded what was coming.

Because sooner or later, Alpha Darius Hale would know the truth.

And when that happened, I did not know if there would be anything left of me to save.