Being the Lycan Queen, Claiming by the Alpha: Read Chapters 1-5

Sienna’s POV

I never thought I’d become one of those girls who lost everything because of a man.

But I did worse. I gave up everything when I had nothing to begin with.

He was my whole world, and I didn’t even belong in his.

Perhaps it was a side effect of the accident or medication, but everything was suddenly too clear.

The hospital bed was too white, the sound of machines beeping was too loud.

The smell of antiseptics accompanied by the stench of defeat that seeped from my own flesh. I could hear and perceive it all.

No, this was different. Something was wrong.

I winced as I adjusted my position on the bed. This wasn’t about the accident or painkillers.

Everything was just too sharp in an unnatural way.

The chirping of birds outside the window. The sound of nurses pushing wheelchairs down the hallway. The tearing pain in my chest—all of it was more vivid than ever before.

No. It couldn’t be.

It hadn’t been long since the last full moon when the awakening of my wolf spirit had failed once again. I didn’t dare to even think of this possibility. Everyone knew I was hopeless.

For five years, I had been the useless Omega of the Blackwood Pack, unable to awaken even the faintest trace of a wolf spirit.

With these thoughts, I sank back onto the bed. I didn’t know how long since I’d been admitted, but I wasn’t in a hurry to leave either.

I had no one back home.

Home?

Right. The pack wasn’t even home.

I wanted to close my eyes and fall asleep, but for some reason, my eyes drifted to look at the large window.

And right there was them. Just right there. The people I played that game of love with. And as though to mock me, they were perfectly in my line of vision.

Under the sycamore tree in the hospital courtyard, Lilith Eldritch was nestled in Kiran Blackwood’s arms.

Kiran—the man I had been chasing for five years. The only man who had existed in my delusionally perfect world.

He was staring down at her with a tenderness in his eyes that I had never once seen directed at me in the past few years.

Lilith tilted her head up at him, saying something I couldn’t hear.

The sunlight outlined her delicate profile, making her look so innocent, so pure.

Strange.

In the past, sighting them together should have made my heart clench with hurt. Now, all I felt was a sick sensation that made revulsion rise in my throat.

Five years ago, when my parents died in a car accident, that was the darkest moment of my life. He was the one who pulled me from the wreckage and brought me to the Blackwood Pack.

His scent had been oddly familiar to me. During the worst moments of my life, it was Kiran who dispelled all my cold and fear.

From that day on, he became the only light in my world. How could I not fall in love with him? It happened too easily. He would comfort me, tell me it was going to get better.

His attentiveness, his presence whenever I was sad, everything about his care made me think that I was special. Big mistake.

My obsession grew so much that I—the daughter of the late Alpha of the Silvermane Pack—willingly stayed in the Blackwood Pack as an Omega for him.

I did his laundry. Cooked for him. Organized his files. And I would have done more.

Everyone around him looked at me with disdain, as if I were nothing more than a beggarly dog.

But I didn’t care.

Because Kiran would occasionally smile at me.

He would lean back on the couch, let me rest my head on his leg, and tell me he could only relax when I was by his side.

Those moments were like a drug, making me addicted, making me believe that this humble love would one day bear fruit.

Looking back now, it all felt ridiculous. A bubble of laughter escaped from my parched throat even as unwanted tears slipped from my eyes onto the pillow, leaving wet marks. To my surprise, it wasn’t a tear of hurt. It was embarrassment. I just felt very foolish.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, my affections for Kiran were dead.

The sound of the door opening snapped my attention.

I immediately closed my eyes and held my breath, pretending to be asleep, just to hear what they would say.

“Sienna?”

Kiran’s voice rang in my ears. I didn’t move, my nails digging deep into my palms.

“Sienna probably still needs rest. We shouldn’t disturb her anymore,” Lilith’s voice followed, so soft and delicate as usual when Kiran was around.

“If it weren’t for you, she wouldn’t even be worth my visit to the hospital,” Kiran said, and I could hear the impatience dripping from his voice.

So, this was it.

I didn’t even deserve a visit from him.

The same man who once held me while I cried over my parents’ death. The same man who let me fall asleep on his couch when the nightmares were too much. The same man whose shirts I had washed a thousand times, whose favorite meals I had cooked until I could make them with my eyes closed, whose smallest needs I had memorized.

Now, he couldn’t even spare me genuine concern.

“Kiran, don’t be like this,” Lilith started again. “She is also your subject, and she truly cares for you. Didn’t you use to like her a lot?”

My breath caught. I waited, every muscle in my body tense.

“That was in the past, and I didn’t like her. She was the one acting pathetically obsessed.” Kiran’s voice softened suddenly, affectionate. “Now, you are the only one in my heart.”

The word stabbed my heart with feelings that made my body feel like it would explode. I wanted to scream, to sit up and demand to know what the hell those five years meant, if they meant anything at all. When he let me rest my head on his lap, when he told me I made him feel at peace, when he smiled at me like I mattered—was I imagining the warmth in his eyes? Was I so desperate that I invented kindness where there was none?

“Sienna is actually a good girl,” Lilith whispered again. If I didn’t know her as much as I did, I would actually believe that she cared about me.

“You’re always so kind,” Kiran said.

My body trembled uncontrollably under the covers.

It turns out, he wasn’t incapable of love. His love had simply never been meant for me.

The girl who stayed quietly by his side, who never asked for anything in return, who loved him so completely she forgot to love herself—that girl didn’t deserve even a fraction of what he gave Lilith so freely.

Bang.

The door closed at last, and silence returned.

I opened my eyes abruptly, sat up, and grabbed my phone from the bedside table.

On the screen was the profile picture of Kiran I had secretly taken.

The sunlight had spilt across his sharply defined face, casting a faint shadow beneath his eyelashes.

I used to think it was the most beautiful sight in the world.

Now, it just seemed absurd.

I opened the photo album, overflowing with countless images of him—eating, working, training.

Over three thousand.

My finger hovered over the delete button for a long time.

Then, without hesitation, I pressed it and the photos vanished one by one, just like the foolish fantasies I had clung to.

Completely gone.

After doing this, I let out a long sigh. I actually thought it would hurt, but there were no tears. My eyes remained completely dry.

So let this one-sided obsession end right here, in this hospital room.

Knock, knock.

A knocking sound echoed.

“Come in.”

It was Doctor Danton, the man who had been caring for me all these years. After I chose to stay in the Blackwood Pack, he was sent by my grandfather to look after me.

“Sienna, how are you feeling?”

He walked slowly to my bedside, his voice filled with concern.

“I’m fine, Doctor Danton. Better than ever.”

I looked up at him, my voice weak but firm. A flash of surprise passed through his eyes, then a relieved smile appeared.

“It seems your emotions have finally returned.”

My heart clenched.

“Emotions… returned?”

“Although your wolf soul awakening failed again, your previous emotional deficiency has started to recover. Before, you couldn’t fully express or even feel emotions the way others could. But this time, even though the awakening failed, it seems to have triggered a gradual return of your normal emotions.”

His words shook me.

So… my foolishness in the past wasn’t innate.

I couldn’t understand complex emotions, so like a child, I mistook gratitude for love, stubbornly believing that Kiran was my destined mate. I couldn’t distinguish between someone who cared and someone who was simply there. I thought dependency was devotion, thought his occasional kindness was love, thought the crumbs he gave me were a feast.

Now, the bird calls outside the window could make me happy.

Kiran’s disgust could make me heartbroken.

Lilith’s affectation could make me sick.

And his words—pathetically obsessed—could hollow me out completely.

“Well, that’s good,” I said softly. “Now I understand Kiran’s true attitude toward me.”

Doctor Danton sat down on the chair beside my bed. “So, what are you thinking now? Do you want to stay in the Blackwood Pack, or…”

“I want to go home.” I cut him off. “Back to the Silvermane Pack.”

Doctor Danton nodded, his smile deepening.

“That’s the right choice. There’s one more thing I need to tell you.” His voice grew quieter, and his eyes struck with a seriousness I hadn’t seen before.

Sienna’s POV

I braced myself for what he was about to say, but his words still struck me by surprise.

“When your father, Ryan, was alive, he once chose a mate for you.”

Father.

How long had it been since anyone mentioned him aloud? Doctor Danton had always been cautious, like it were a very sensitive topic. He treated me like something fragile, as though the mention of that word would shatter me into pieces.

He didn’t know how much I wanted someone, anyone, to talk about the man who had given up his life for me.

Blurry memories flashed through my mind—my father’s strong arms shielding me during the car accident, his body absorbing the worst of the impact so that I could survive.

“He is the Alpha heir of the Blizzard Pack,” Danton continued. “If you are willing to consider—”

“Thank you, Doctor Danton,” I interrupted softly, shaking my head slowly. “But I don’t want to think about anything related to emotions right now.”

Mate. Affection. Obsession.

Look where all of that had led me. I just needed to gather the broken pieces of what was left of the mess I’d made of myself.

Doctor Danton regarded me with eyes full of quiet understanding and gave me a solemn nod.

“I will arrange for someone to notify the Silvermane Pack to come pick you up. It may take three days.”

“Okay.” I lay back on the bed, closing my eyes.

Three days.

In three days, I would finally leave this place that had bound me in pain for five long years. I would be free from the suffocating weight of the man who would never love me.

***

The next morning, I checked myself out of the hospital. The taxi dropped me outside the pack house which was alive with the sound of warriors training—the clash of fists, the thud of bodies striking the ground, the sharp commands of instructors.

I instinctively wrapped my thin clothes tighter around me, eager to pass quickly through this place filled with memories I wished to forget. All I wanted was to return quietly to the small, simple room I had on the edge of the pack grounds.

But fate had other plans.

By the fountain at the center of the square, I saw him—Kiran Blackwood.

He stood tall beside the fountain, dressed in a finely tailored black suit. His broad shoulders and narrow waist emphasized the natural power in his stance. He was Alpha, the power he radiated had always been more oppressive on a weak omega like me.

In his hand, he held a delicate necklace, fastening it around the neck of Lilith.

Lilith, dressed in a white gown that was far too thin for the winter air, stood with her back to Kiran. Her delicate features lit up with a shy, sweet smile as she tilted her head slightly, basking in his attention.

I froze in place as I looked closer.

That necklace.

It was a crescent moon pendant with a tiny sapphire embedded in the curve. The edges were slightly worn, and the clasp was a little loose because my father had meant to get it fixed but never did.

My necklace.

The words my father spoke before giving them to me echoed in my head, springing tears in my eyes. “For my little moon,”

I’d worn it every day. Through the grief, through the pain, through the endless nights when I couldn’t breathe from missing him and mom.

And I’d given it to Kiran.

Two years ago, during one of those late nights when he couldn’t sleep, disturbed over the territory getting invaded by rogues.

My hand had moved to my neck before I could think. “Here. Keep this. So you’re not alone.”

And now he was giving it to Lilith.

“It suits my attire, doesn’t it? Just let me keep it, will you?” Lilith laughed sweetly, slapping Kiran’s arm playfully.

This was it. I couldn’t take it anymore, anger rose in my throat as I marched towards them.

The tenderness in Kiran’s eyes turned to ice the moment they landed on me. His expression shifted instantly into undisguised disgust and impatience.

“Why are you here?” His voice rang coldly. My fingers lifted to point at Lilith.

“That’s mine!” I snarled.

The fakest expression of fear I’d ever seen flashed across her gaze and instantly, Kiran pulled her closer to his side, possessively.

“She is just borrowing it, no need to overreact,” Kiran spoke and rage blazed within me.

“I gave it to you, not her! I gave it to you not her!” I screamed, “Now, I want it back!” I glared at Lilith who now had tears in her eyes.

“Sienna,” Kiran called, his voice like venom, “I thought your failed awakening would make you finally see reality. You are just an omega who can’t even awaken a wolf soul—why would you ever believe you deserve to stand by my side? It’s just a necklace, no need to create a scene!”

So I was the one creating a scene now?

Before I could even process his cruelty, Lilith’s soft voice floated up from his arms.

She tugged gently at his sleeve and whispered sweetly, “Kiran, don’t say things like that. Sienna will be hurt. It’s just a necklace, I will hand it back to her”

Then, breaking free from his embrace, she walked toward me.

A strong, almost sickly herbal scent clung to her, invading my nose and making me nauseous.

She feigned sympathy, her tone dripping with false kindness.

“Here,” she said, unclasping it, holding the necklace delicately between her fingers. “You can have it back.”

Something in her eyes made me hesitate.

A glint of cruelty and a barely concealed smirk that I knew all too well.

But I waved it off, I just wanted my necklace back, and I took a step forward.

“Oh!” Lilith gasped suddenly, her fingers loosened, and the necklace began to fall.

Toward the fountain.

My heart stopped, if it fell through to the bottom, I’d never retrieve it.

No.

I lunged forward, my hand outstretched, desperate to catch it before it hit the water.

My fingers were inches away when all of a sudden…

“Ahhh!”

Lilith screamed, her body twisted as she staggered backwards.

I saw it in slow motion—the way she deliberately let herself fall, the triumphant curl of her lips hidden behind her expression of shock.

She crashed into the fountain with a massive splash, cold water spraying everywhere.

The necklace disappeared into the water with her.

“Lilith!” Kiran’s roar thundered through the air, nearly bursting my eardrums.

He rushed to the fountain, leaping in without hesitation to pull Lilith’s trembling, soaking body into his arms.

“Kiran… I-I’m so cold…” Lilith’s frail voice trembled as she coughed weakly, her entire body quivering.

Water dripped from her hair, her white dress clinging to her skin. She looked up at him with wide, tear-filled eyes, the perfect picture of a victim.

“I was trying to give it back to her…” Her voice broke on a sob. “I was trying to be kind, to return what meant so much to her, and she—she lunged at me. I got scared and slipped…”

Gasps rippled through the crowd as more and more pack members gathered around and their disdainful glances burned into my skin.

“Did you see that?”

“Lilith was trying to give the necklace back and she still attacked her!”

“Such violence over jewellery…”

“I always knew she was obsessed, but this…”

Their voices burned into my mind as Kiran lifted Lilith out of the fountain, fury radiating from his entire being.

He stripped off his coat and wrapped it carefully around her, holding her as if she were made of glass. My eyes scanned the fountain, but I couldn’t locate the necklace. She had used my father’s neck as a prop in her performance.

Kiran’s blazing eyes locked on me, and I’d never seen such hatred in them before.

“Are you so jealous of her that you’d attack her even when she was trying to give you what you wanted?”

His voice was devoid of warmth, only ice and disappointment cutting into me as he spoke again. “Sienna, you despicable Omega. I used to think you were merely irritating, but I never expected you to be so malicious. So violent.”

“I didn’t attack her,” I said, my voice rising defensively with the injustice of it all. “The necklace was falling, I was trying to catch it before it hit the water—”

“Enough! I saw you lunge at her. We all did. Lilith was being generous, trying to return something to you out of the kindness of her heart, and you repaid her with violence.” He snarled rising to his feet while Lilith still clung onto his arms.

“So this is what it comes down to?” He laughed, cold and cruel. “You caused a scene, attacked my mate over something as intangible as a piece of jewellery?”

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. Grievance and rage welled up inside me, nearly choking me.

I looked at him, then at the woman holding his arms—the one still pretending to be pitiful while smiling inside.

And suddenly…

Sienna’s POV

I laughed.

The sound scraped out of my throat until my vision blurred, my chest heaved and the whole place fell into a thick silence where everyone looked at me like I’d finally lost it. Maybe I had.

When I finally stopped, I could look at him. What had gotten me so obsessed with such a scumbag?

“Kiran Blackwood, put away your self-righteous attitude. I don’t even want to look at you right now. You make me sick” I spat like even his name left a bitter taste in my tongue.

It was near comical when Kiran’s face went rigid and shock flickered across his features before it hardened into something uglier.

Anger.

At least that made both of us now.

I turned to Lilith. She was still holding onto his arm, trembling theatrically, she looked shocked as well.

I smiled at her, plastering her fake expression back at her.

“Lilith Eldritch, next time you put on a performance, find somewhere without surveillance cameras.”

Her face went white for a second before her usual victimized mask slipped back into place.

“You dare!” Kiran growled in his Alpha voice, and red veins stood out at his temples.

The Alpha presence slammed into me, pressing down on my chest until each breath felt like dragging stone into my lungs. If I had a wolf, it probably would be worse, but I didn’t. Perhaps it is for this reason that I felt no fear even when he stood over me like some kind of deity delivering judgment, his eyes blazing with self-righteous fury.

“I saw it with my own eyes! You attacked her. You’re cruel, Sienna. Violent. You hurt a packmate.” His arm tightened around Lilith, and she buried her face against his chest with a soft whimper. “As Alpha, I have the right to punish you.”

Punish. I met his gaze challengingly, and for another split second, that shock passed across his face again.

“You will stay in this fountain overnight, let the water cleanse that filthy heart of yours!”

The crowd around us went silent and then the whispers started again.

“Overnight? In winter?”

“She just got out of the hospital—”

“Even an Alpha wouldn’t survive that—”

I stared at him. At this man I’d loved for five years. This man I’d given everything to. This man who’d held my hand through my nightmares and now he wanted me to freeze to death in a fountain.

Over a lie.

I laughed again but it was quieter this time. Almost to myself.

“Fine.” The word came out from my lips even though I barely felt it move.

Kiran blinked, like he’d expected me to beg. To throw myself at his feet and promise to be good.

But I was done begging.

I turned around slowly, the faces of the crowd blurred together—shock, pity, disgust, morbid curiosity. I saw none of them clearly.

My eyes were fixed on the water and then I jumped in.

It was fucking cold.

Like a thousand needles driving into my skin, burrowing deeper with each second.

I kept going deeper until I was waist-deep now. But I didn’t stop even though the cold was biting my flesh cruelly.

I started to search for it, desperately and I could see it resting near the edge of the fountain basin, the silver chain tangled around itself, the sapphire winking up at me through the water.

I sank deeper into the water, my fingers were already numb, clumsy as I reached for it..

I closed my fist tighter around the necklace, feeling the shape of it press into my palm. Proof that I’d survived this and that some things couldn’t be taken from me, no matter how hard they tried.

This was mine, even if nothing else was.

I met Kiran’s gaze across the water. It’s already over, those days when we comforted each other and I thought it meant something.

“Brother! What are you doing?” The familiar voice cuts through the silence.

Talia.

She burst through the crowd, her face going sheet-white when she saw in the freezing cold water. Her eyes filled with tears, her hands shaking as she pointed at Kiran.

“Are you out of your mind? Sienna just got out of the hospital! Do you want her to die?”

She whirled on him, trembling with rage I’d never seen from her before.

“It’s her own fault,” Kiran said emotionless. Like I was nothing more than a disobedient dog. “She needs to learn some manners.”

“Manners?” Talia’s voice shook. “What kind of manners require throwing a recovering patient into ice water in the middle of winter?”

“Talia, don’t blame Kiran.” Lilith’s voice drifted over, soft and pained. “It’s my fault. I know Sienna doesn’t like me, but I didn’t expect…” She pressed her face into Kiran’s chest, her shoulders shaking with delicate sobs. “I didn’t expect her to react so violently over something as small as a necklace.”

The way she said it like I was the monster.

Kiran’s expression hardened further. His arm tightened around Lilith protectively, and when he looked at me again, there was nothing in his eyes but ice.

“Shut up!” Talia spun on Lilith, rage blazing in her face. “Just shut up!”

Without another word, she plunged into the fountain.

The splash sent water flying and droplets hit my numb face, but I barely felt them anymore. Everything was going numb, including my fingers. My toes. My thoughts as well.

Talia grabbed my arm. Her grip was warm as she hauled me toward the edge of the fountain.

“Let’s go,” she said urgently, grabbing a jacket from someone close by and wrapping it around my shoulders. The fabric was warm and I wanted to cry from the relief of it.

She turned back to Kiran, fury still warring in her expression.

“Brother, you’ll regret this.”

Kiran didn’t even look at us. He was too busy soothing Lilith, who was still crying prettily into his chest.

“It’s okay,” he murmured to her. “She won’t dare bother you again.”

I stopped.

Talia looked at me, confused, but I needed to do this. One last time.

“Kiran Blackwood.”

My voice came out steadier than I expected. Maybe it was the cold. Maybe it was the numbness spreading through me. Or maybe it was just that I’d finally run out of things to feel.

He glanced over. Barely. Like I wasn’t worth his full attention.

“You’re right,” I said. “I won’t dare anymore.”

I took a breath and let it out slowly.

“From now on, I won’t dare to love you.”

Murmurs of surprise threaded through the crowd.

“Sienna…” Talia called my name, fear and grief mingling in her tone.

I didn’t glance at Kiran again. Talia half-dragged me away. I was soaked through, my teeth chattering, but my eyes burned with an uncommon brightness. That public humiliation had severed the last fragile thread tying me to the past.

Through the blur of faces, I spotted Doctor Danton. He stood at the edge of the crowd, his face lined with worry. When our eyes met, he shook his head slowly. Sadly.

And something clicked in my mind.

My father.

The mate he’d chosen for me before he died.

The Alpha heir of the Blizzard Pack.

I stopped suddenly and Talia stumbled, trying to support my weight.

“Talia. Don’t take me back.”

I said and she looked at me, seeming confused.

“Take me to Doctor Danton. Now. Immediately.”

Sienna’s POV

I told Doctor Danton that he could help me pass a message to my grandfather—that I was willing to accept the mate my father had chosen for me, the heir of the Blizzard Pack’s Alpha.

Doctor Danton patted my head.

“Good girl. The Silvermane Pack will arrive at the Blackwood Pack in two days. You can talk to your grandfather in person then. When it comes to emotions, don’t make impulsive decisions out of anger.”

After Doctor Danton had driven away the lingering chill in my body, Talia led me back to the most remote cabin in the pack.

The moment I stepped inside, I felt suffocated.

Every corner of the room whispered of the past.

Everywhere I turned, I saw shadows of Kiran.

Photos hung on the wall. The girl in them smiled brightly, her eyes shining with a love so thick it was suffocating. The man beside her wore an indifferent expression, as if he couldn’t even bother to pretend.

On the table sat a wooden carving of Kiran’s face.

The bookshelf was lined with books he had read, still marked with his notes.

Even the air carried the scent of pine—Kiran’s favorite.

I stood in the middle of the room, struggling to breathe.

“Sienna, are you okay?” Talia’s voice pulled me back to reality.

I shook my head, walked to the bedside table, and picked up the small wooden box resting there. Inside were several sparkling memory crystals, neatly arranged.

This was the traditional way werewolves preserved their most precious memories. For others, these crystals contained joy. For me, they were filled with pain.

“What are these?” Talia leaned in curiously.

“My ‘masterpieces’ from the past five years,” I said bitterly.

I picked up the first crystal. Its icy surface numbed my fingertips. Silver light flowed in my palm, and the image inside slowly became clear.

It was the scene of me confessing to Kiran for the first time.

Seventeen-year-old me stood nervously in front of him, holding the lunch I had made.

“Kiran, I made this. Would you like to try it?”

My younger self’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.

But Kiran didn’t even glance at it. He walked past me without a word.

Behind him came Lilith’s giggling voice.

“Some people just don’t know their place.”

Others joined in, mocking me. My face burned with shame.

The image in the crystal ended abruptly.

I clenched my fist.

The second crystal was from my eighteenth birthday.

I had secretly prepared a cake for Kiran, wanting to share that special day with him. But when I found him in the hallway, he was holding Lilith in his arms.

She wore a pale pink dress and whispered something into his ear. And Kiran smiled.

It was a gentle expression I had never seen before.

I stood in the shadows, holding the cake as tears fell, dripping onto the cream.

My vision blurred.

The third crystal. The fourth. The fifth.

Each one tore open another wound in my heart.

I saw myself praying in the middle of the night, only to wake each morning still believing. I could feel the girl in those memories breaking her heart again and again.

The pain I had buried for five years rose like a tidal wave, crashing over me and dragging me under.

“Sienna!” Talia caught me as I swayed, her voice trembling. “Stop looking!”

I shoved her away, fury burning in my eyes.

“No! I want to see it all! I want to see how stupid I was!”

The last crystal contained my whispered prayer before the wolf-soul awakening ritual:

Moon Goddess, if Kiran is truly my destined partner, please let my wolf soul awaken. I am willing to give up everything if only I can be with him.

“This woman was truly a fool!”

A strangled cry ripped from my throat as I poured every ounce of strength into crushing the crystals.

Kiran’s POV

The flames in the fireplace flickered, crackling softly.

The air was thick with the scent of pine and snow—Lilith’s unique fragrance.

A soft body climbed into my lap.

Lilith’s warmth seeped through her thin robe as her lips pressed against mine, hot and eager.

Heat stirred low in my abdomen, and I pulled her closer, kissing her fiercely.

She responded with equal passion, her slender fingers trailing across my chest, teasing every inch of skin.

But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t fill the inexplicable void gnawing at my heart.

Suddenly, Sienna’s face flashed in my mind—her clear eyes, the way her lashes trembled when she looked at me.

The heat inside me surged uncontrollably.

“Kiran…” Lilith moaned softly.

I snapped out of it, staring down at the woman beneath me. Her face was flushed, her dazed eyes filled with desire.

I closed my own eyes, forcing myself to quicken the pace, desperate to banish the image that didn’t belong there.

The room filled with the sound of ragged breathing.

Lilith’s nails raked across my back, leaving shallow red marks.

“Faster…” she begged.

I gritted my teeth, moving mechanically, almost mindlessly.

Then the door burst open with a furious crash.

Lilith gasped and shrank against me, eyes wide with panic.

I yanked the blanket up quickly, shielding her trembling body in my arms.

Kiran’s POV

Talia stood in the doorway, chest heaving, eyes bloodshot. She stared at me with a fierceness that made the air between us crackle. I lay shirtless on the bed, Lilith half-covered beneath the blanket in my arms.

A wave of scorching heat hit me — the anger released by her wolf, Ember. The air seemed to warp; the temperature rose sharply.

Talia’s voice was low and full of disgust as she spoke, word by word. “Kiran, you make me sick.”

Lilith trembled in my arms, quietly sobbing. “It’s all my fault. If it weren’t for me, you and Talia wouldn’t be in such a bad relationship.”

I frowned and looked toward my sister in the doorway. “It’s not your fault. Blame Sienna.”

I pulled the blanket up, fully covering the two of them.

In a cold voice I snapped, “Talia, what the hell are you doing?”

“Me? Going crazy?” Talia seemed to find the idea amusing; she pointed at me, her finger trembling. “Kiran, you’re a complete scumbag!”

“You brought Sienna into the pack. You knew she was naïve about emotions, yet you led her on.” Her words came faster, harsher. “You were hurt by Mother, so you went to Sienna for warmth — you enjoyed her devotion and obedience. And now you’re here, fooling around with this… this woman!”

“Shut up!” My anger flared. The Alpha pressure in me rose and pressed toward Talia at the door.

Her fury, however, overrode any fear of me. She didn’t back down. “You’re still the same,” she sneered. “When you’re hurt, you use your Alpha pressure to suppress me.”

The heat around her continued to climb. Ember — her fiery wolf appeared faintly behind her, glaring at Lilith with golden, animal eyes.

“I’m not the little girl you used to bully,” Talia said. The words trembled, but she held them like a shield.

“Ah!” Lilith screamed, grabbing my arm tightly. “Kiran, save me! Her wolf is about to lose control!”

“Talia!” I pushed more Alpha into my presence, trying to clamp down on the surge. The pressure bore down on her like a mountain, meant to steady and restrain.

But Talia didn’t yield. Ember’s power exceeded my hold. The flames in the hearth surged wildly, threatening to leap from the fireplace.

My wolf, Dark, warned me in a voice only I could hear. Master — stop. Talia’s wolf, Ember, is not under her mature control. It’s about to lose control. If it does, the entire estate could burn.

I immediately withdrew the pressure and focused on calming my sister.

Talia took a step back; the blaze in her eyes dimmed but did not disappear. She still burned with anger. “Kiran, you heartless bastard. She just got out of the hospital and you made her stand in ice water. Are you trying to kill her?”

Her voice shook. “She’s been with you for five years. She would never push someone into the water like Lilith — someone you’ve only known for three years.”

“She didn’t know what love was before. She was bewitched by you. Fortunately, her emotions have returned. She smashed all the memory crystals about you. She won’t bother you anymore — you’re free!”

I opened my mouth but the words wouldn’t come. A sudden, hollow ache opened in my chest.

I asked my wolf, silently: Dark, did I do something wrong?

Master, Dark replied, you are the leader; you have the right to punish anyone. But Sienna wouldn’t do such a thing.

I nodded, but the knot in my throat didn’t ease.

“From now on,” Talia said as if announcing a verdict, “I won’t try to persuade Sienna to forgive you. You’re not worth it. I was selfish before — I wanted her to be my sister-in-law. Now I believe a good girl should be with a good man. And you’re not.”

With that, she turned and left the estate without looking back.

Silence fell over the room.

I sat on the bed, stunned, a sharp pain pressing at my ribs.

“Kiran, don’t listen to Talia’s nonsense,” Lilith murmured, voice soft, trying to comfort me. “She was misled by Sienna. Sienna clearly wants to get back at us now.”

I said nothing. Talia’s words kept replaying: Sienna smashed all the memory crystals.

I asked Dark again, almost pleading: Dark, my sister says she won’t bother me anymore, but I’m not happy. What should I do to make her chase after me like before?

Give her things — favors like you used to, Dark suggested. Be nicer, as you were before.

He was right. I used to be kinder, and she would keep loving me.