Page 40 of Forced By the Alpha

“You don’t want to go to your place?” Leah asked, and I shook my head.

Leah knew all about the falling out I had with my dad. Her confusion at me wanting to see him right away was fully justifiable, but I didn’t think I was ready to tell her—or anyone—the whole story about what I had learned from Franco. Not until my dad had a chance to explain himself.

The van pulled up into the driveway of my childhood home. Killian opened the door for me to get out.

“I’m going to go to the pack house and see if Alpha Lex can put my guys up in guest rooms for the day,” he said. “I don’t think any of us have the energy for a drive back to Pinedale today. But I’ll come back to check on you in a little while.”

“Thanks, Killian,” I said.

He squeezed my shoulder gently, and I was reminded of my oldest brother, Sebastian. They were both men of few words, but when it truly counted, they were always there for me.

With a pang, I realized that I hadn’t seen my siblings in far too long. We used to be so close, but everyone had grown up and moved on. Once all of this was over, I vowed to reunite our family.

The lights were all off inside the house, so I grabbed the spare key from underneath the mailbox and unlocked the door.

“Dad?” I called loudly as I went inside.

All was quiet as I closed the door behind me and flipped on a light switch. I walked from room to room, calling for my father, but the house was empty. Upstairs, I was rifling through his desk to see if I could find a clue to his whereabouts when I heard the front door open and close.

“Dad?” I shouted again, scurrying down the stairs.

“Sorry, Sienna, it’s just me,” Killian said. “Evander isn’t here?”

I was surprised he had remembered my father’s name, given that I hadn’t mentioned it more than once.

“No,” I replied. “I shouldn’t be surprised, I guess.”

“Want me to take you home?” he asked.

“I’m going to stay here,” I said. “He’ll come back eventually, and we really need to talk.”

“Whatever you need,” he said. “I’ll let Leah know. She’s worried sick about you. We all have been.”

“I’m alright,” I assured him.

“You’re strong,” he agreed. “But I feel terrible that you had to go through all of that. I’m furious at Franco for takingyou. I don’t want to pry, but I overheard what you told Leah in the car. What did you mean when you said Franco didn’t kidnap you because of me?”

“That’s actually why I need to talk to my dad so badly.”

“What does this have to do with him?” Killian asked.

“You’d better sit down,” I sighed. “It’s a long story.”

Chapter 20 - Franco

“What do you mean you couldn’t catch them?” I roared at the trio of wolves standing before me. They had just returned from a chase across the territory, following a van that contained Sienna and my half-brother.

“It’s not their fault,” Sven said, defending his underlings. “There was no warning—no one even saw them come in. By the time we saw Sienna escape, they were already at the van.”

I howled at the loss of my mate, knowing deep down that it was all my fault. If I hadn’t locked her up, she wouldn’t have felt the need to run away. It had taken ten minutes for the wolves who had seen the van to find me and relay the incident to me. By that time, there was no way to catch up with her.

“We’re sorry, Alpha,” one of the guards said.

All three were hanging their heads in shame. There was no use in me chastising them further. They had done their duty. It was I who had failed the pack.

“Go back to your posts,” I told them.

“What do you wanna do, boss?” Dylan asked. “Should we put a group together and go after her?”

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