Chapter 5 - Sienna
The horror of what I had experienced and seen since being kidnapped by Franco threatened to consume me almost daily. But so far, I was still alive. Injured and furious, but alive.
For the first day, Franco stayed in the cabin. He didn’t speak to me, nor did I to him. We just watched each other suspiciously, wondering what the other was planning. He had an excellent poker face and try as I might I wasn’t able to discern anything from his expressions.
When I woke up the next morning, I saw that he had left.
This is my chance to escape, I thought. I refused to allow what I had gone through to define the rest of my life. Getting back to Sparkle Hollow was my only thought. I didn’t care that he was my “mate,” or that we had a bond. I knew from the stories I had been told that it would be painful to be separated from my mate, but I couldn’t imagine anything more painful than being forced to live forever with someone who had force-marked me.
I peered out the window. When I didn’t see anyone watching, I decided to try the front door. To my surprise, it opened easily. Franco had forgotten to lock me inside.
It was broad daylight, so sneaking around wouldn’t do me much good. My best bet was to pretend I had every right to be wandering around the cabins and hope that no one questioned me. If anything, the ugly mark on my neck would protect me from Franco’s pack if they decided to approach me.
I stepped outside quietly and made my way confidently down the cabin steps. From my vague memories of my first night here, I remembered that the other cabins were set up in rows about fifty yards away from Franco’s. There was no point in going toward that area, so I walked toward the forest instead.
I made it just out of sight of Franco’s front door when I spotted a trap in front of me—a trench, dug six feet wide and a few feet deeper, lined with barbed wire. I looked to the left and right, where the crevice extended as far as I could see.
“Shit,” I muttered.
If it hadn’t been for the wire, I could jump the distance, but I had no tools to cut a hole. This trap was clearly meant to keep humans out of the pack’s territory, but unfortunately, it had the double purpose of keeping me inside. The wolves would have no problem scaling the height of the wire, but I wasn’t so lucky.
My only choice was to pick a direction and hope there was a break in the line. I turned right and began my trek. After only a few minutes, I heard a noise in the distance. I crouched down to move closer. There was a bridge over the trench, and at either end of the bridge stood two guards from Franco’s pack. I recognized one of them as the man, Sven, who had killed the rogue two nights ago.
I shuddered at the memory but pushed it down. I needed to focus on my surroundings. Just then, another man joined the group on the close side of the bridge and nodded to Sven.
“Alright, I’m off duty,” Sven said.
“Heading into town?” the other man asked.
“There’s nowhere else to go,” Sven replied crossly.
“Grab me some smokes while you’re there, would ya?”
Sven nodded and walked across the bridge, shouldered through the other two guards, and disappeared over a hill. He wasn’t moving quickly, so the town must not be far.
Between the isolation of the cabins, the rotating guard schedules, traps, and fences, my predicament was looking pretty hopeless. I realized now that Franco hadn’t forgotten to lock me up—he just didn’t need to. There was no way for me to escape. My best chance would be to blend in until I could figure out a new plan. If I could just get into town, maybe I could call for help.
Now that Sven had left, I felt emboldened to walk up to the guards. Franco had said his mark would protect me. Now was as good a time as any to test out that assertion.
“Good morning!” I called cheerily, walking toward the bridge.
The guards puffed their chests out as they turned toward me. Their eyes shifted around, looking for Franco as I approached. They clearly hadn’t been expecting to see their alpha’s new mate today. Not alone, at any rate.
“You shouldn’t be here,” one of the men said roughly. It took me a minute to realize that it was Franco’s beta—the wolf who had brought me to see the second fight. Although I felt uneasy, I did my best to hide it. If they saw me as a threat, they were more likely to make problems for me.
“I was just looking for my mate. Have you seen him?” I asked with a sigh. I wasn’t above playing the damsel in distress if the situation called for it.
“Alpha Franco comes and goes as he pleases,” the other guard answered hesitantly. “It isn’t our business to question his whereabouts.”
“Of course,” I said, widening my eyes to display my innocence. “It’s just that he didn’t leave any food in the cabin, and I just wasn’t sure where I should go…”
“Just head back to the cabins,” Franco’s beta said, more kindly this time. “There’s a mess hall where you can get anything you want. Ask for Clara, she’ll help you.”
I noticed the twinkle in his eye as he spoke the female’s name.
“Is Clara your mate?” I asked.
His cheeks reddened immediately, and I knew my suspicion was correct.
“Ha! He wishes,” the other guard said with a laugh.
“No,” the beta answered. “But maybe someday.”
“I’m sure everything will work out the way it’s supposed to,” I said kindly. “What was your name again?”
“Dylan,” he replied. “Dylan Torres.”
“Thank you, Dylan.” I smiled at him kindly and turned around to head in the direction of the cabins. Maybe I could play matchmaker for him. There were fewer better targets than the beta if I was looking to get in someone’s good graces.
Back at the cabins, I easily located the dining hall and walked inside. There were plenty of people milling about eating, drinking coffee, playing board games, and relaxing together. Everyone was in a good mood today, which was a stark contrast to the last time I had seen them.
It only took a moment before I saw a woman in her early twenties who could only be Clara. Her short blond hair was covered in a baseball cap as she bustled around in the kitchen, clearly in her element. I walked up to the kitchen counter just as she placed down a pan of cinnamon rolls.
“Help yourself,” she said kindly to me. “They’re fresh from the oven.”
“They smell delicious,” I told her.
In my haste to find an escape, I hadn’t thought much about food, but now that I was faced with a full pan of gooey, frosting-covered rolls, I could hardly think of anything else.
She passed me a plate and a fork, nodding at me to grab one before turning around to get a mug of coffee for me as well.
“Oh my god,” I moaned as I took a bite. “These are heaven.”
“I’m glad you like them. You’re the alpha’s mate, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. Are you Clara?”
“The one and only,” she said with a smile.
“Beta Dylan said I’d find you here,” I explained. “I was out wandering around looking for food, and he took pity on me.”
“I’m glad you found your way,” Clara said with genuine warmth. “Most of us spend a lot of our time here when we aren’t working. Feel free to hang out as long as you like.”
I thanked her and took my plate and cup to find a place to sit. The “mess hall” was more like a combination of a dining room and a living area. I was reminded of a sleepaway summer camp I had attended as a child.
There were no formal dining areas, only folding tables and chairs scattered throughout the room, punctuated with informal seating around the edges. A few well-worn couches flanked an empty fireplace, a circle of office chairs presided over one corner of the room, and a pile of beanbags sat empty in another. Makeshift bookshelves had been constructed out of two-by-fours and cement blocks, on which sat an assortment of reading materials and games. Clearly, entertainment was a communal resource in the pack, and none of the furniture had been chosen for looks or function—only availability.
At first, the room seemed dirty and unkempt, but the longer I looked at it, the more I realized that the pack took pride in their belongings. They may not have much, but what they did have, they took care of.
And I didn’t have to sit alone for long. Clara was the first to come and talk to me, and when she had to go back to work, a few others took her place. I didn’t have anywhere else to be, so I stayed in the hall while a trickle of pack members made my acquaintance. They were far more accommodating than at our first introduction, and while I wanted to believe it was genuine, I knew that they couldn’t be trusted.
After a few hours, my suspicions were solidified. With each passing hour, I could feel everyone grow more restless and agitated. The once-peaceful game of chess at the table across from me turned into an argument, and a couple began bickering near the fireplace.
“What is happening?” I muttered to myself.
“The curse is happening,” a voice said from my right.
I jumped out of my seat, not realizing anyone had been close enough to hear me, and turned to see who it was.
“Franco,” I said.
“You need to get back to the cabin,” he replied, eyeing the pack’s uneasy behavior. “Unless you want to see more of the violence you witnessed the other night.”
I shuddered at the memory, but I had no intentions of going anywhere. Franco’s story about the pack being cursed was still unbelievable to me. I wanted to see it for myself before I made up my mind.
“Not happening,” I said petulantly.
“Suit yourself.” Franco took a seat in the chair I had just vacated and waited silently.
In only a few minutes, everyone seemed to snap. They became unrecognizable to me from the obliging, happy people I had seen before. Even Clara, who had been kind and gracious to everyone, was affected.
“Who touched the coffeemaker?” she screamed.
“It isn’t yours! It belongs to everyone!” another woman shouted.
Clara growled and took an aggressive step toward her. She launched herself forward and tackled the woman to the ground, ripping the coffee cup from her hands as she did and smashing it on the floor by her head.
“Aren’t you going to stop them?” I asked Franco, horrified by their behavior.
“No,” Franco answered, and I detected a note of sadness in his voice. “In the beginning, I tried to temper their anger and violence, but we realized there was no point. The bloodlust continues until it’s been satiated. No interference from me will change that.”
“So you just let them beat each other up?”
Franco shrugged. “We all try to channel it as best we can. You’ll see.”
The room devolved into chaos as petty fights turned into real ones, and arguments were moved outside to avoid damaging the dining hall. Franco and I followed them, watching the disarray. The atmosphere was alive with sparks of electricity and darkness. There was something deeper at work here. Some form of magic that seemed to permeate the very air we were breathing.
“You feel it, don’t you?” Franco asked.
“I feel something,” I told him. “But just because there’s magic at work doesn’t mean your story about my father is true.”
“It is true,” he growled.
I looked into his eyes and saw that the same darkness that had consumed his pack was beginning to affect him as well. I may be protected from his wolves, but something told me that protection wouldn’t extend to Franco. I may not be able to prove my father’s innocence right now while Franco was affected by the bloodlust, but I vowed that I would find a way.
“I think I’ll go back to the cabin now,” I told him quietly.
He nodded tersely and turned his back to me.