Alpha Damon (Sienna) novel Chapter 49

Sienna:

His words stuck with me.

They played in my head on repeat, as if telling me that this was something that was never going to change, that it was something that he wanted to be the way that it was. That he did not want it happening again.

We grew up.

I knew that. I wasn’t naïve. I wasn’t clinging to some childish fantasy that things could go back to how they once were. I was in clinging on the fact that the two of us can go back to running around the forest without no care, not worrying about the problems that were occurring around us, not having any responsibilities. It was just the two of us, against all the odds.

But did that mean we couldn’t at least try? Did that mean that we couldn’t at least try to be friends, or at least try and make a moment out of it? The two of us had a child together, and yet here I was being treated as if I was nothing but a weakling.

Did growing up mean that everything between us had to turn into bitterness and distance? Did it mean that we couldn’t at least try and find a sense of peace between the two of us?

I sat on the stone bench near the training fields, Isla resting in her bassinet beside me. The crisp evening air brushed against my skin as I let my thoughts drift.

I didn’t expect Damon to go back to the boy I once knew, the one who used to sneak food from the kitchen just because I had missed dinner, the one who used to challenge me to races even when he knew I would lose. And yet he would let me win sometimes, just to make me know that it was possible for me to win. Even if he was to be an alpha now, he was the man who was challenging me. To try and make things right, and I knew that I was never going to be able to do that. I was never going to be able to stand against him. I was not stupid. And yet he treated me as if I was, and that was not something that I could easily digest.

But was it too much to hope that he could still be someone I could trust?

A flicker of movement caught my attention from the corner of my eye.

I turned my head slightly and found the pack’s Beta watching me from a distance, his arms crossed over his chest.

Ethan. 1

His gaze was unreadable, but he didn’t look away when I caught him staring. Instead, he walked toward me with steady, purposeful strides.

I straightened, unsure of what to expect.

Ethan had always been quiet around me. He was one of Damon’s most trusted men, and while I had seen him watching me on more than one occasion since my return, he had never spoken directly to me.

Until now.

“I don’t like what you did,” he said without preamble. “And I think that it’s very stupid that you chose to do it the way that you did.”

I frowned. “What I did? I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

He didn’t elaborate.

But I knew what he meant. I was well aware of what he was talking about, and yet here he was, standing in front of me as if I was nothing but some kind of foolish woman in front of him.

I had left. I had run from the pack, from Damon, from everything that once bound me to this place.

And I had come back, though not by choice.

“I think that you know very well what I’m talking about. You just don’t want to find it in yourself to acknowledge your mistake and to acknowledge that what you did would have harmed you and your daughter. Is it greed or is it your ego?”

The warmth of his breath lingered for just a moment before he pulled back, stepping away as quickly as he had approached.

He didn’t say another word.

Didn’t wait for a response.

Didn’t explain.

He simply turned and walked away, leaving me sitting there, my heart pounding in my chest, my fingers gripping the bassinet a little too tightly.

I should have said something.

I should have backed away from him. I shouldn’t have allowed him to do that.

I should have stopped him, asked him why, told him that I didn’t understand what he meant, that I didn’t know what to make of the way he looked at me, the way he spoke to me like I was someone worth something.

But I didn’t.

I let him go.

And for the first time since returning to the pack, I found myself being at a complete loss for words…