Forced By the Alpha (Sparkle Hollow Wolves #7)

Chapter 18 - Franco

“You can?” I asked. “How do you know?”

“I felt it—my magic. I’m going to try to access it again,” Sienna explained.

I could see from her expression that whatever had occurred had pained and exhausted her. As much as I wanted the curse broken, I worried that she wouldn’t be able to accomplish it in her current state.

“I think you should rest,” I said.

“There’s no time,” she argued.

Sienna got up from her seat on the couch and walked to the kitchen, where she opened the cupboard and began pulling out various implements.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Grabbing tools to focus my powers,” she said.

She dragged two wooden chairs into the center of the room and sat them down, facing them just far enough apart that our knees wouldn’t touch.

“Sit here,” she commanded, pointing to one of the chairs as she began arranging white pillar candles in a circle around them. As I sat down, she began to light the candles. Then she went to grab the rest of her supplies from the kitchen.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Positive,” she said with a reassuring smile.

It seemed there would be no arguing with her about delaying her attempt, so I gave in to her orders. She sat in the chair opposite me, placed a bowl on the floor between us, and lit a small bundle of herbs.

“Vetiver and wormwood,” she explained. “I’m burning them to encourage the curse to uncross you. Then I’ll recite a spell while channeling the energy I felt earlier.”

“Do you need me to do anything?” I asked.

“Just stay in the circle. I don’t want to have to reach out too far with my magic,” she explained.

She was quiet for a moment as she waved the incense from her herbs around in a circle and closed her eyes. After nine turns, she placed it in the bowl and held her hands toward me, palms out.

“I bring you forth from the curse and hold you to the light,” she intoned.

Her voice broke as her face contorted into the same pained expression as earlier. She clenched her teeth against the pain and took deep breaths as her face slowly relaxed.

“How bad is it?” I asked, concerned that she was pushing herself too far.

“Bad,” she said. “I’m going to try again. I only got half the spell out.”

“We don’t have to do this now,” I reminded her as her eyes closed once more and she held her palms out to me.

“I bring you forth from the curse and hold you to the light. Let your future be bright. Be gone, dark of night,” she said. Her eyes pressed together tightly as she opened her mouth to finish the final words, but instead, she let out an ear-splitting scream and hunched forward.

“Sienna, stop this,” I said, reaching out to comfort her. “We can find another way.”

“Shut up,” she hissed.

She sat up and began again. “I bring you forth from the curse.” Her voice was strong, but I could sense the pain emanating from her as she broke out in a sweat. “I hold you to the light.” Her voice was wavering. I knew it was taking everything in her not to scream or cry. “Be gone, dark of night! So mote it be!”

Her final lines were a shout—the only sound she could make while experiencing the agony of the magic coursing out of her. She fell forward into my arms, shaking from exhaustion and torment.

“It’s not working,” she sobbed into my chest.

“That’s it. We’re done,” I ordered. I pulled Sienna up and began moving out of the circle, but she frantically tried to stop me.

“No! I can do it. Let me try one more time,” she begged.

“Absolutely not,” I demanded. “I refuse to watch you continue harming yourself to save me. We don’t know what the effects might be if you keep going.”

“Exactly! We don’t know what the effects might be. The spell could be filtering out to the entire pack when I focus on you. I could be on the verge of ending the curse for good. Isn’t that why you brought me here in the first place?” Sienna asked.

“Not like this,” I said.

I carried her out of the circle as she fought against me and placed her unceremoniously on the couch. As soon as I set her down, she jumped back up.

“You can’t stop me from doing this,” she said vehemently.

“Watch me,” I argued.

I blew out the candles and grabbed my phone to text my second. If I was going to prevent Sienna from continuing her attempts at breaking the curse, I would need backup.

SOS. Come to cabin immediately. Bring the chains.

I texted him quickly as Sienna took advantage of my distraction to hold her hands out again and recite her spell.

“I bring you forth from the curse…”

“STOP!” I shouted, lunging for her and pinning her hands to her sides. “I can’t lose you! Don’t you understand?”

Tears streamed down Sienna’s cheeks, either from the pain the incantation caused or my pleading shout. Minutes passed as we stood like that, neither of us backing down from our intentions.

A loud rap on the front door caused us both to whip our heads toward the sound. Dylan had arrived.

“Alpha? Can I come in?”

His voice sounded afraid, but I didn’t have time to deal with his emotions right now. Not when my own had been thrown into chaos. The hope I had felt when I thought the curse might be lifted had been immediately crushed by fear at seeing Sienna in agony. She had been right: this was what she was brought to the Forsaken Shadows pack to do. But now that I had seen the consequences, I couldn’t allow her to go through with it.

“Yes,” I told him.

Dylan opened the door and poked his head inside. He looked shocked as he glanced between Sienna and me, and even more so when he saw the state of the room. The chairs had been knocked down during our struggle, and some of the candles had been tipped. Wax had melted onto the floor, and smoke had filled the air around us.

“I brought the chains,” he said, holding out his gloved hands to show the thick shackles made of silver and iron.

“Bring them here,” I told him. “Sienna’s magic is too strong. It needs to be contained.”

“No, it doesn’t! Don’t listen to him, Dylan,” Sienna begged.

Dylan walked toward us hesitantly, glancing between us once again. In truth, I was sickened by the thought of tying Sienna up. The chains had been created with the intent of imprisoning her father, not her, but since she refused to stop, I felt I didn’t have a choice.

“This is for your own protection,” I reminded her.

“You’re making a mistake,” she said tearfully. “Please, just let me keep trying. I know I can do this.”

“Enough, Sienna,” I said. “Dylan, please shackle her hands and feet.”

He placed the cuffs around her wrists while I held her still. Once they were in place, I sat her back down on the couch so Dylan could place the restraints on her ankles as well. The length was enough that she could still walk, but she would have to do it slowly. I needed her powers to be cut off, not her movement.

“You have free reign in the cabin, but you’ll be locked inside,” I told her.

“This is ridiculous,” she pointed out. “Franco, you’re better than this.”

There was nothing more for me to say to her, so I turned my back and ordered Dylan to follow me outside. Her words had cut me deeply. I wished it were true that I was above keeping my mate in chains, but it clearly wasn’t.

“Alpha, what in the world is going on?” Dylan asked. “I thought Sienna was one of us?”

“She still is,” I explained. “Tonight, her magic grew exponentially, and she isn’t thinking clearly. She is trying to perform a spell that she doesn’t have the power for, and it’s hurting her. This is the only way to keep her—and the pack—safe.”

“How long are you going to keep her like that?”

I sighed. I didn’t have an answer to his question, but that wasn’t something I wanted to broadcast. Things would be bad enough when the pack found out that I had imprisoned Sienna in our cabin. Everyone had gotten used to her being a part of their lives, even if they knew her true purpose here.

“Until I have a better solution,” I told him. “It won’t be forever.”

“Whatever you say, boss,” Dylan agreed. I could tell that he was still confused by what had happened in the cabin, but he knew better than to pry.

Now, all I needed was to find another plan for breaking the curse before Sienna found a way around the magical dampeners I had fitted her with.

Oh, is that all? my wolf asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Would you prefer I let her kill herself? I snapped.

He growled but didn’t respond. Neither of us wanted Sienna harmed. There had to be another way to end this.