Word Count: 2356

~Sienna

Mercifully, I manage to evade Alston's advances for two weeks.

Once my metaphorical period could reasonably have been seen to end, he came to my door again. After that came endless excuses regarding all manner of things — headaches, nausea and even a sore back. Anything to swerve around his desires.

As the days drew near, the closer we were to seeing Onyx again, the more pushy he became. Still, once I said no, he backed off entirely, but his suspicions hang heavy in the air.

He knows I'm putting this off.

I know the deal I made, and I know that if I don't come up with an alternative idea, I'm going to have to succumb to the clauses in the contract.

Thankfully, as agreed, Alston drums up a vague excuse to Zion about wanting to take me home to see one of his cousin's marry.

Instead, we detour to the same inn that all our future meetings will be conducted at, and I'm reunited with Onyx.

The relief of seeing him after the two weeks I've endured it almost too much to bear.

We collapse into each other's arms and he immediately takes me upstairs to our room, barely sparing Alston a glance. I let him carry me, let him shower my face in kisses while he murmurs all the different ways he loves me against my skin.

During the journey over, I complied everything I wanted to tell Onyx, but the moment I'm in his arms, all my thoughts vanish.

We don't make it to the bed before Onyx is pulling my clothes off, his mouth on mine. Before I can even glimpse the room, I'm pressed against the door and he's inside me.

I let my worries sink into the back of my mind, allowing him to encompass my thoughts. Just being in his presence melts reality away, letting me give myself to him completely.

Onyx leaves me exhausted and sated, carrying me back to the bed where he lays me down gently.

The moment is so perfect, so familiar that I don't dare break it with what is burdening me. We bathe together, and I let him tell me about his plans for me when I return to his pack. He promises me a proper wedding, a honeymoon and plenty of card games in the old barn.

Eventually he tucks me into bed, and slides under the covers next to me. I lay as close to him as possible, my head resting on his chest.

I don't want to fall asleep...I want to spend every moment I have with him fully consciousness, but instead exhaustion pulls me into sleep with no escape.

I'm startled awake what feels like seconds later, but what must be hours.

Onyx isn't in bed, but across the room fussing with something. Darkness swaddles the room, making it so I can only decipher his figure as wanders about.

"Onyx?" I murmur blearily, rubbing my eyes.

He turns, leaning over to ignite a lamp at my bedside. It takes a few wary blinks to make him out again, sleep still clouding my vision.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." He ambles closer.

"It's okay." I sit up on my elbows, waiting for my perception of time to glide back into place. "What time is it?"

"Nearly dawn." He sits down on the bed next to me. "I wanted to get you some flowers, but there weren't many."

My eyes drop to the small bouquet he holds in his hands. It's a haphazardly clumped together mess of yellow and white flowers that grow on the back side of the inn. The stems of differing lengths and thickness are bound together by fraying yarn he must have acquired downstairs.

My heart melts as I gently take the flowers which are already starting to wilt. Regardless of their quality, they are beautiful.

"These are perfect. Thank you." I lean down to smell their rich scents, a pleasant tickle in my nose gathering.

Onyx smiles warmly, although his smile is dim.

"You look so tired," I breathe, reaching up to resting my hand against his face.

The lines around his eyes seem to have deepened, along with twin shadows beneath them. This is killing him as much as it's killing me, and I don't know what to do about it.

"I haven't been sleeping." He holds my hand, kissing it before lowering it to the bed. "I close my eyes and I think of what he could be doing to you."

A jolting pain strikes my stomach as I sit up until my back is against the weathered headboard. I knew he was thinking about it, that it has been bothering him more than he has let on...

"I don't know what to do," I admit painfully. "I can't have sex with him, Onyx...I just can't."

Each time the thought comes to mind, the urge to throw up is palpable.

"You don't have to. Let me get you out this," he insists, urgency straining his voice.

"He'll wage war on you," I remind him sharply. "Imogen may have indicated her support, but with a contract involved, she may be forced to take that back."

Right after we finished having sex I told him what Imogen said to me. I thought we both needed to enjoy some optimistic news for once.

Imogen confirming she would side with us if Zion waged war is a positive development...the first we have had in a while. It gives me hope that were Alston to turn against me, we would have other options.

"We can make it work." Onyx runs his fingers down my bare arm gently, leaving traces of sparks in his wake. "I'll do anything for you, Sienna."

"I can't be the one who forces you into a war."

Were I to say the word, Onyx would happily turn his army on Zion. He would use it as an excuse to conquer land and to finally get the revenge he's been fighting for.

"It won't be you doing it. It will be Zion and Alston for making you compromise yourself." His eyes darken at the thought. "I want to protect you."

I shake my head. I can't lean into that option...not yet.

"I need to kill Zion," I say decidedly.

"Alston is never going to agree to kill him until he gets his heir," he reminds me tightly, grimacing.

If I want to avoid carrying Alston's heir, I need another plan. I've been considering ways to kill Zion on my own, but if I do, it will be almost impossible.

Zion is never not in the presence of his personal guard. The man stands many inches above me, and carries an entire armoury on him at all time. Plus, he's chronically suspicious of me, and wouldn't let myself or Alston within feet of Zion without being near himself.

If I'm going to kill my father, I need to figure out the guard first...I stand no chance otherwise.

Onyx stands, wandering over the window. He pulls the threadbare curtains back, revealing a strip of light gilding the distant horizon. Somewhere in that direction lies his pack, my salvation.

"I got another note," I bring up suddenly.

The muscles of Onyx's back tense beneath his shirt before he turns. The violent unleashing of his anger is visible in the dark depths of his eyes.

"From the person who has been threatening you?"

"Yeah...they say they are my brother." I wince, wringing my hands anxiously.

The thought has been haunting me. It makes no sense...my entire life I've been an only child, hidden from public eye by Zion until my escape. I have no memory of a brother growing up, and I cannot conceive of why one would be terrorising me now.

There has to be another explanation.

"Brother? How is that possible?" Onyx stalks closer.

"I don't know." I shrug helplessly. "Zion would much rather choose my brother to be heir over me if he knew he existed..."

"So he doesn't know then." Onyx rubs his jaw thoughtfully, although the tense coiled in his muscles make it clear this news bothers him.

"But why, and how?" I question into the air. "There is no way my mother had another kid. She wouldn't have abandoned them."

My mother sacrificed everything to me. It can't be possible that she would abandon a child, or give them off to someone else. She was too kind, to maternal in nature.

And she wouldn't have kept that from me...she kept nothing from me the entire time I've known her, aside from the times Zion hurt her, no doubt.

"Perhaps she sent them off to live with someone else to save them from Zion," Onyx theorises.

"Why not send me then?"

I bite into the tip of my nail anxiously. I could envision my mother realising the environment she would be subjected her children to if she didn't hand them off for a better life, but she wouldn't have kept me and saved my brother.

Onyx sighs roughly, his inky strands gliding through his fingers as he runs both hands across his scalp.

"Maybe whoever is writing these notes it lying to deceive you."

"I just don't see why they would do that." I press my eyelids together until sparks of colour dance in my vision. "They have nothing to gain."

Whoever is sending these notes must be behind the murders, which means they are volatile. If I don't adhere to what they are saying...who knows what they will do.

"I wonder if he has a different mother to me. Maybe he was a bastard child that Zion never knew about," I murmur.

If that's true, everything could change.

"That's a possibility." A muscle in his jaw ticks. "What did they threaten you with?"

He says the word threaten like it's poison, like he can barely manage to get it out.

"They told me they would kill Alston if I had his baby, and that if I killed Zion, they would kill me," I exclaim, the words having burned themselves into the forefront of my mind.

"You can't let that stop you." Onyx sinks back down onto the bed, taking my hands into his. "I'll do some looking into this for you."

He wouldn't put me at risk if he thought the threat was credible. Still, he didn't see the urgency of the notes left to me before he knew. Whoever this is has nothing to lose, and isn't afraid to act against me.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were the one who alerted Zion to my existence in the first place.

"Just don't alert Zion. If he knows he has a son out there...wait," I drift off, a thought coming to mind.

"Wait what."

I spring from the bed, needing to pace, to consolidate my thoughts. "Maybe if we find who my brother is, he can be the heir."

He just shakes his head, his gaze tracking me. "Alston would never allow that to happen."

"It wouldn't be my problem anymore."

"Is that what you want? To forgo your right to that land?" He asks gently, his voice wavering.

I pause, considering his words and the subtle vulnerability entwined within them.

He worries about that, clearly. He worries that Alston will take control of the land owed to me by birthright while I become Luna in Onyx's pack. I know he worries I will resent him for the shift in power, when I could have land all to myself.

In reality, I hardly care for my father's territory, for what will belong to me when he dies. I want Onyx, not land, not title. Onyx could be a farmer or a trader, not an Alpha and I would love him as ardently as I do now.

All I want is for the pack to fall into capable and fair hands. Even if they aren't mine.

"It would never be mine anyway," I say softly. "Unless you want me to stay and get Alston to kill Zion..."

"I would never want you to put yourself in harm's way for my benefit," he says quickly. "I want you home, and if finding your brother would do that, then fine."

"No, I should stay. I'll figure the Alston matter out, and I'll kill Zion myself," I exclaim decidedly, releasing a long breath.

The thought of staying hurts me, especially when Alston's intentions are chasing me down relentlessly. But Zion can't be killed from a distance. We may never get this close to him again.

Onyx's expression cracks. "Sienna..."

"I want to. For my mother, and for your father." I step closer, standing between his legs as he sits on the bed.

His hands rest on my waist. "I would rather see you free."

I smile weakly, an unfamiliar feeling blooming in my stomach. He's putting me before his desire for revenge...that's not surprising, but just hearing it affirms my love for him.

"There is no way we can know if I even have a brother. Even so, if he does exist, why hasn't he come forward to claim his right as heir?" I shrug with one shoulder. "I get the feeling he would want it as much as I do."

"I'll do some investigating, and you continue what you're doing for another two weeks. By then I'll have a plan, I promise," he vows gently.

I nod affirmatively. "And while you do that, I'll figure out how to kill my father."

And evade Alston.

At this point, I'm not sure which one is going to be easier.

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