Page 25 of Forced By the Alpha

“Easy,” Franco cautioned, catching me in his arms. “Have you been using magic today?”

“Only a little, in the library,” I admitted. I didn’t want him to think he was making me nervous, but now that I was alone with him and beginning to carry out my plan, I could feel my heart beating faster.

“Hmmm,” he replied, delicately fingering a loose strand of hair and twirling it between his fingers. I hadn’t realized that my high ponytail had been loosened by our make-out session earlier today. I removed the elastic band and shook my hair out, doing my best to be sultry and seductive as I did so.

“You told me earlier that I was yours,” I said quietly.

“And I meant it,” he replied.

“You also said I wasn’t off the hook.”

I looked down to the ground and back up into his eyes, utilizing a technique I had seen other women use countlesstimes. The line I was walking was a fine one. I needed to seduce him to get what I wanted, but I couldn’t make my plan too obvious.

To my delight, it worked.

Franco cupped my cheek with one hand delicately. I inhaled softly at the contact as he leaned toward me. His hand traveled down my face, neck, breast, and side until it joined his other hand on my waist. Each point of contact felt electrified, and my eyesight narrowed until I felt like I was falling into his blue eyes. He moved closer to me, and I felt myself melting into him as our lips touched.

I wanted more of him. Needed more, to access my power.

My hands inched under his shirt, caressing the hard muscles of his abdomen. I grasped his waistband and searched for the button that would undo his burgeoning erection. This was hardly romantic or special for our first time, but there was no time like the present.

“Sienna,” he chuckled. “Stop that.”

“I don’t want to stop,” I breathed.

“Let’s just take this slow. We have time.”

“Not enough time,” I pointed out.

His hands stilled my exploration, and he eyed me with suspicion. “What do you mean?” he asked.

I realized I had started to give myself away, and I tried to backtrack. “I just meant that there’s no reason to wait,” I said. “We’re mates. You said I’m yours, so make me yours.”

My attempts were unsuccessful. Somehow, Franco guessed at my ulterior motives.

“This is about the curse, isn’t it?” he accused. “Of course it is. When I said there must be another way, you snapped that there wasn’t. But there is. This is the other way of unlocking your power, isn’t it?”

He tossed my hands away from him in anger and turned his back on me without a word.

“Franco, wait!” I cried. “I can explain.”

“No need,” he said over his shoulder. “I understand everything just fine.”

I struggled to compose myself at his rejection as he disappeared out of sight. I wasn’t sure where he was heading, but wherever it was, he didn’t want me to accompany him.

I needed a distraction, and with my final plan going up in smoke in front of my eyes, there was only one place I could get it.

“Back to the library,” I muttered.

Chapter 12 - Franco

The fact that Sienna thought she could trick me into having sex with her grated on my psyche. It wasn’t that I didn’t want it to happen, but the idea of her doing it just to have a chance at breaking the pack’s curse didn’t sit right with me. If I were to take her, it would be because she wanted it, not because she felt like she had to. I had never coerced a woman into sleeping with me, and I didn’t intend to start with my mate. We didn’t even know if her plan would work, in any case.

That she would take the word of some old book as law and decide to seduce me made me feel a rage I couldn’t quite explain.

The thoughts and feelings that swirled in my mind were so foreign to me that I hardly recognized myself. Just a week ago, I probably would have taken her up on her offer, but not now. What I wanted was for her to seduce me because it was what she desired. Things had changed for me. I had shared my past with her, and had felt myself opening up and trusting her with the future of my pack.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting her to feel something for you,Blizzard interjected into my thought spiral.

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