Page 12 of Forced By the Alpha

I bent down, placing my hands on the back of the seat in a pose reminiscent of the one I had used during our first encounter. Her breathing hitched. She was clearly intimidated by me, but there was another emotion buried in the sound she made. Excitement.

That won’t do,my wolf said.We need her to feel trapped if she’s going to tell us the truth about what it would take to break her father’s curse.

Stop distracting me, I snapped at him.

He growled at my rudeness, and I couldn’t blame him. If anything, he was the one keeping me on task. It was this witch who was distracting me from my true purpose.

“I’m not lying,” Sienna breathed, her voice trembling slightly.

“Don’t make me torture it out of you,” I warned, clenching my hands on the back of her chair. The flimsy plastic began to contort in my hands, and I saw her wince at the sound of its imminent destruction.

“I swear,” she whispered.

But a moment later, her expression changed from fear to one of concern. The sudden change unsettled me.

“What?” I demanded.

She reached up and grasped my face in her hands, turning my head to inspect it. Her touch startled me, and I backed away from her quickly. Unfazed by my retreat, Sienna stood up and grabbed my arm.

“What are you doing?” I asked again. I attempted to brush her hands away, but she was relentless.

“Inspecting you for injuries,” she said, lifting the hem of my shirt. “Why does it look like you’ve been in a fight? I didn’t notice right away because you were talking about something else, but your hair is a mess and your clothes are ripped. Is this blood?”

“It isn’t mine,” I assured her.

“Are you injured?”

“Of course not,” I scoffed, but a moment later, I felt myself soften toward her. Just moments ago, I had beenintimidating her, but here she was, showing genuine concern for my well-being.

What kind of woman would care whether her captor was hurt? I thought.

Don’t let the witch trick you, Blizzard replied.She isn’t worried about us. She’s just looking for weaknesses she can exploit.

His words rang with truth. It was highly probable that the daughter of the man who cursed me would look for ways to further my humiliation. But there was something about the way she moved. Something in her eyes told me this wasn’t a trick.

“Whose blood do you have on you?” Sienna asked.

“There’s another pack living near here,” I explained. “They haven’t taken kindly to the Forsaken Shadows pack settling in their area—even though we are clearly outside of their territory.”

“So, you attacked them?” she asked.

“No,” I said tersely. “They keep attacking us. They want to drive us out of the area because they think we’re trouble. Even though we have never encroached on their land by a single footstep.”

The look of concern remained on Sienna’s face, but I couldn’t gauge what she was thinking. Most likely, she wished the other pack had been successful in their attempts to force us into exile once again.

“If I had been hurt, what would you have done?” I asked.

I had thought Sienna would have been wishing for my death, but there was no malice in the way she was looking at me now. Her expression reminded me of the look one might give a child who had just asked an inane question.

“Heal you, of course,” she answered.

There was no lie in her eyes—she meant it.

“I order you to leave the library and go back home,” I said, utilizing my alpha tone to ensure her cooperation.

She frowned. “Why?”

From her tone and her immediate compliance with my order, I knew it wasn’t an insolent question. She wanted to know what had changed within the past few moments.

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