Page 37 of Forced By the Alpha

“Sienna, stop this,” I said, reaching out to comfort her. “We can find another way.”

“Shut up,” she hissed.

She sat up and began again. “I bring you forth from the curse.” Her voice was strong, but I could sense the pain emanating from her as she broke out in a sweat. “I hold you to the light.” Her voice was wavering. I knew it was taking everything in her not to scream or cry. “Be gone, dark of night! So mote it be!”

Her final lines were a shout—the only sound she could make while experiencing the agony of the magic coursing out of her. She fell forward into my arms, shaking from exhaustion and torment.

“It’s not working,” she sobbed into my chest.

“That’s it. We’re done,” I ordered. I pulled Sienna up and began moving out of the circle, but she frantically tried to stop me.

“No! I can do it. Let me try one more time,” she begged.

“Absolutely not,” I demanded. “I refuse to watch you continue harming yourself to save me. We don’t know what the effects might be if you keep going.”

“Exactly! We don’t know what the effects might be. The spell could be filtering out to the entire pack when I focus on you. I could be on the verge of ending the curse for good. Isn’t that why you brought me here in the first place?” Sienna asked.

“Not like this,” I said.

I carried her out of the circle as she fought against me and placed her unceremoniously on the couch. As soon as I set her down, she jumped back up.

“You can’t stop me from doing this,” she said vehemently.

“Watch me,” I argued.

I blew out the candles and grabbed my phone to text my second. If I was going to prevent Sienna from continuing her attempts at breaking the curse, I would need backup.

SOS. Come to cabin immediately. Bring the chains.

I texted him quickly as Sienna took advantage of my distraction to hold her hands out again and recite her spell.

“I bring you forth from the curse…”

“STOP!” I shouted, lunging for her and pinning her hands to her sides. “I can’t lose you! Don’t you understand?”

Tears streamed down Sienna’s cheeks, either from the pain the incantation caused or my pleading shout. Minutes passed as we stood like that, neither of us backing down from our intentions.

A loud rap on the front door caused us both to whip our heads toward the sound. Dylan had arrived.

“Alpha? Can I come in?”

His voice sounded afraid, but I didn’t have time to deal with his emotions right now. Not when my own had been thrown into chaos. The hope I had felt when I thought the curse might be lifted had been immediately crushed by fear at seeing Sienna in agony. She had been right: this was what she was brought to the Forsaken Shadows pack to do. But now that I had seen the consequences, I couldn’t allow her to go through with it.

“Yes,” I told him.

Dylan opened the door and poked his head inside. He looked shocked as he glanced between Sienna and me, and even more so when he saw the state of the room. The chairs had been knocked down during our struggle, and some of the candles had been tipped. Wax had melted onto the floor, and smoke had filled the air around us.

“I brought the chains,” he said, holding out his gloved hands to show the thick shackles made of silver and iron.

“Bring them here,” I told him. “Sienna’s magic is too strong. It needs to be contained.”

“No, it doesn’t! Don’t listen to him, Dylan,” Sienna begged.

Dylan walked toward us hesitantly, glancing between us once again. In truth, I was sickened by the thought of tying Sienna up. The chains had been created with the intent of imprisoning her father, not her, but since she refused to stop, I felt I didn’t have a choice.

“This is for your own protection,” I reminded her.

“You’re making a mistake,” she said tearfully. “Please, just let me keep trying. I know I can do this.”

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