Page 44 of Forced By the Alpha

“I was going to use a standard curse that would force them to transform on the full moon and remain human for the remainder of their lives, but something more powerful happened instead,” Tom continued. “Seeing all those young faces with their lives ahead of them… I wanted to punish them for what I had lost. Instead of containing their transformation to one night, the spell made their instincts unstable. It cursed them to feel the rage and lust for death that I felt at the moment I cast it.”

Hearing about how deeply affected my father had been by his grief made me pity him in a way that I hadn’t before. Until now, I had felt angry at his choice to lose himself in his loss instead of focusing on his family. I hadn’t realized just how impossible it would have been for him to set his own feelings aside to care for us.

But most of my horror was reserved for the young members of the pack who had their lives and futures rippedfrom them by my father. With a few exceptions, they would have been teenagers or in their early twenties when they were cursed. They had gone down the wrong path and intimidated the wrong person, but he had been old enough to know that there would be consequences for his actions.

“What you did was so wrong, I don’t even have the words for it,” I told him.

He hung his head in shame. I saw a tear glisten in his eyes, but the pity I had felt a moment ago was gone. Instead, I felt a determination to do what I had promised Franco.

“The curse must be broken,” I told him. “I tried to do it on my own and failed. The power was too strong for me to wield alone. I need to tap into your powers so that I can break the curse and set right what you did wrong.”

“It can’t be done,” he whispered.

“What do you mean?”

“Curses like this are permanent. It was born from my grief, and only an equally compelling counter-emotion would be able to break it.”

“Then I’ll find one,” I said with determination.

He looked at me sadly and reached across the table toward me, but I avoided his hand.

“Sienna, you have to understand,” he said. “Magic always comes at a cost. If you try to break this one, it will kill you. The price for this removal is death.”

“That can’t be true!” I shouted. “You can help me. If we do it together, we’ll be strong enough to release the spell.”

“I’m sorry,” he replied.

His voice made it sound like his words were final, but there was no way I was going to give up that easily. Not after everything I had been through—everything my dad had put Franco and his pack through. This couldn’t be the end.

I opened my mouth to argue with him, but the doorbell rang unexpectedly.

“Are you expecting someone?” I asked.

He shook his head as he got up and walked toward the front door with me close behind him.

“Hi, my name is Killian,” the visitor said, introducing himself to my dad. I couldn’t see past my dad in the doorway, but something in his voice told me that there was a new problem. “I believe you know my mate, Leah Smith?”

“Alpha, it’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Tom. Who is this gentleman with you? He looks familiar.”

“We’ve met,” a familiar voice said quietly.

I shoved my father aside and looked past Killian into the icy blue eyes of the man I had been thinking about every moment for the past week.

“Franco,” I whispered. My heart soared. I had hoped to see him again so that I could break the curse, but I hadn’t imagined he would bring himself to the doorstep of the one man he had cause to hate more than anyone else. “Franco,” I said again.

“Hi, Sienna,” he said.

“What are you doing here?”

He held out an open palm, showing my bag of crystals that had been left behind during my escape.

“I thought you might need this,” he said.

Chapter 22 - Franco

I had been nervous about approaching Tom’s door, but Killian had assured me this was where Sienna was staying. As soon as Sienna had come into view, I felt my fears melting away. It didn’t matter that I had stood face to face with the man who had cursed me. It didn’t matter that I was in the middle of an enemy pack. The only thing that mattered was her—and here she was.

The bag of crystals had been in my pocket ever since the day Sienna left the cabin. I carried them with me like a talisman, but it was time they were returned to her.

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