Page 32 of Forced By the Alpha

“On the contrary, I wanted to tell you thank you,” he said.

I dropped my defensive posture, realizing I had been reacting out of fear rather than what I had learned about my mate in recent days. Anything that served the pack’s interests was always on the top of his priority list, and I should have known he would be on board with my plan.

“You’re welcome,” I said, feeling awkward now that I realized we were on the same page.

“It means a lot to me that you’re on our side,” Franco said. “I like having you on my team.”

“I’m glad you said that, because this team has some work to do,” I told him.

“What work?” he asked.

“Elise asked for steak and shrimp skewers for dinner, and it’s my night for food prep. Come on, teammate,” I said, punching his arm playfully. “Let’s get you in an apron and see what you can do.”

Chapter 16 - Franco

Even with the threat of our rival pack and the anticipation of each new bloodlust, life in the pack was on an upward swing. Sienna had become an instrumental member of my council. Each day, I was pleasantly surprised by how kind, thoughtful, and wise she was in her position of leadership. She had taken her place in the pack quite well, and I felt it was time to make things up to her. After all, she hadn’t joined me here by choice.

Evening had fallen by the time all my tasks had been completed for the day, and I found Sienna rifling through her stockpile of herbs at the table in our cabin.

“You busy?” I asked her.

“I don’t have to be,” she said. “I was thinking of going out to scavenge herbs, but there’s no rush.”

“Will you come into town with me?”

“What are we going to do?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye.

“I thought it was time I took you out,” I replied. “You’ve been doing so much for everyone else. I want to do something for you.”

We walked into town, enjoying the quiet between us. It was true that Sienna deserved much more than a night out for everything she continued doing for me and the pack, but I couldn’t deny my ulterior motive for asking her out.

The truth was that I wanted to spend more time with her. Every conversation we had seemed to deepen our bond and bring us closer together. Despite her unfortunate lineage, I found myself more drawn to her than ever. I could almost forgetthat her father was the one who had cursed us in the first place while we got to know each other.

We arrived at the bar we had gone to before and discovered it was karaoke night.

“Do you sing?” Sienna asked.

“Not at all,” I admitted. “Do you?”

“Only when no one is listening or if I’m drinking,” she laughed.

“Good thing we’re in a bar, then, eh?”

I ordered us a round of drinks, and we settled into a tiny table in the corner to listen to the locals take turns at the microphone. As time passed, the patrons became increasingly inebriated, singing with much more gusto.

“Woohoo!” I cheered as a middle-aged woman finished her rendition of a popular country song. It hadn’t been sung technically well, but the woman’s stage presence had more than made up for her lack of tune.

“You sure you don’t want to take a turn?” Sienna asked me as she shoved my shoulder playfully.

“Nah, I don’t want to clear the bar out,” I laughed. “You can always go up, though.”

“Oh, no. I don’t need to give you any other reasons to tease me,” she replied.

“I’m the last person who should make fun of someone else. Not after everything I’ve done,” I said seriously.

She put her hand on top of mine gently, the mood between us now more somber than before.

“It wasn’t you,” she told me earnestly. “It was the curse.”

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