Claimed By The Packless Alpha

09 Dead End 3

Sienna’s POV

Nyla went quiet after that, but her words stayed with me. I wanted to believe her. I wanted to believe I was more than my father’s plan, more than Darius’s future Luna, more than a womb with a family name attached to it. But I had been raised to know my value. And right now, it felt like my value had been bitten through and left on a motel pillow.

I got home, and as usual, no one was there. The silence of the house made my fear worse. It gave my thoughts too much space. I walked inside slowly and locked the door behind me. The familiar scent of home wrapped around me, and for the first time, it did not comfort me. It felt like I had entered the place where my punishment had been waiting.

I would have to call them.

Maya had offered to come with me, but I could not allow her to receive the effect of their first reaction. It was not her fault. She deserved better. She had lied for me already. She had searched with me. She had sat beside me through two days of panic and dead ends. I would not bring harm to my friend just because my life had fallen apart.

I went to my room first.

My room looked the same. The bed was made. The curtains were drawn halfway. My perfume bottles stood neatly on the dresser like they had not been abused for survival. Everything looked normal. That made me angry. How could a room remain normal when the person who lived in it had changed completely?

I stood in front of the mirror and slowly pulled down my collar.

The mark was still there.

Of course it was.

Deep. Clear. Cruel.

I touched it lightly, and my body reacted before I could stop it. A small shiver moved through me, unwanted and humiliating. I snatched my hand away.

“I hate him,” I whispered.

‘Good,’ Nyla said. ‘Hold on to that. It may keep us from doing something foolish if we ever see him again.’

“If we ever see him again, I might stab him.”

‘Emotionally or physically?’

“Both.”

‘Healthy.’

I pulled the collar back up and took a deep breath.

Nyla dreaded what would happen too. She tried to hide it behind sarcasm, but I could feel her fear. Unlike other wolf families, my father beat. Not always. Not anyhow. But he believed in discipline the way some men believed in prayer. I had seen him do it to my brothers, never to me. He would order them to shift and then beat their wolves. That way, he could inflict pain without leaving human marks. It was a discipline practised by the top families of our pack, quiet and brutal and accepted because powerful families always found polished names for cruelty.

Although my father had never done it to me before, I doubted he would spare me this time.

Not for this.

Not after I had ruined his dream.

My hand shook as I picked up my phone. For a few seconds, I stared at Nolan’s contact. Calling my father first felt impossible. I needed Nolan there, even if he hated me after this. He was my brother. Somewhere under the Gamma duty and family honour, he had loved me once. Maybe he still did.

Maybe that would matter.

‘Do not count on love when pride is in the room,’ Nyla said quietly.

“I know.”

But I called anyway.

Nolan answered after three rings.

“Sienna,” he said. “Where are you?”

“At home,” I replied, and my voice sounded too small.

There was a pause.

“What is wrong?” Nolan asked immediately.

Of course he knew. Nolan always knew when something was wrong. He could hear fear through a phone line like it owed him money.

“I need you to come home,” I said.

“What happened?” he asked, his voice sharpening.

“I need you and Father to come home,” I said. “Please.”

“Sienna, tell me what happened,” Nolan ordered.

My throat tightened. The lie sat ready on my tongue, ugly and waiting. But even now, even after everything, saying it out loud felt like crossing a line I could never uncross.

“Nolan,” I whispered, “I am in trouble.”

The silence that followed was worse than shouting.

Then my brother’s voice came cold and controlled.

“Stay there,” Nolan said. “Do not leave the house.”

I closed my eyes.

“I won’t.”

He ended the call.

I lowered the phone slowly and sat on the edge of my bed. My heart hammered in my chest. The house was still quiet, but not peaceful. It felt like the air itself was holding its breath with me.

‘Well,’ Nyla said after a moment, her voice softer than usual, ‘this is it.’

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

“Yes,” I whispered.

This was it.

The search was over.

The dead end had become a wall.

And now I had to stand in front of my family with another Alpha’s mark on my neck and pray I survived the truth I was about to twist.