Page 131 of Sienna Rossi: Beyond Shattered Trust

Ahren’s standing quietly beside Heaven, his wings gone, a small frown on his face.

“He is the only one who cared about me!” she screams, just as I see Dad racing towards us. She runs at me, hitting my chest, but I barely feel it. She has no strength, but her anger burns in her eyes from behind the tears.

“He was using you to get to us! The harm he could have done was beyond imaginable,” I say sharply, trying to calm her as she starts pummelling my chest. “You have us, Katara.”

“Do we?! Where were you when I needed you? Where were you when Dad needed you to step up as Alpha! You ran away! You’re a coward!” she screams.

I wrap my arms around her, although she fights me, and I stroke her hair. “I’m sorry,” I say quietly. “I really am.”

I wish there was more I could do than just promise her those words that mean nothing to her. I mean them, and I regret that I wasn’t here, but there is nothing I can say that can fix this right now. In time, she’ll get it.

“What is going on here?” Dad asks, looking between us. I exchange looks with the others, but it’s clear they expect me to fill Dad in.

Sighing softly, I look over at him. “It’s a bit of a long story,” I begin.

Dad crosses his arms, a grim expression on his face. “Well, I have all day.”

Icy blue eyes pierce into each of us; the sound of the pen flicking between two fingers on repeat at an excessively fast speed is loud in the silence.

It’s been maybe three minutes, but it feels way fucking longer since we finished filling Leo in on the situation. And nearly two hours since we told Dad, who called Leo for this meeting.

The five of us are seated here along with Dad and Grandad. Katara is home with Grandma. Uncle Alejandro is on a screen, along with Uncle Rayhan and Raihana. The oldest of the three is on mute, courtesy of Leo, who looks livid.

But unlike his uncle, Leo’s taking a minute – or ten to think before he speaks.

With every passing second, I can feel his aura simmer low and high.

Raihana, who is on the same screen as Rayhan, sighs as she leans forward. “They’re all safe. The threat was dealt with, with no casualties. I would say that’s a win. Yeah, maybe they shouldn’t-”

Leo’s eyes snap up to the screen. “Enough.”

She wrings her hands and sits back, shaking her head. Dad massages his temples, and Grandad simply nods, as if in agreement with Leo’s silent displeasure.

“When I was informed that you’ve had something to fucking deal with, not once did either of you think to let me know exactly what it was.” His voice is low; the snap as he breaks the pen in half is loud before he slams it onto the table, making the entire thing rattle, his eyes going from Ahren to me. We’ve already taken full blame.

“Now, now, let’s not get worked up. We handled it,” Ahren says lazily as he reaches into his pocket. We’re all silent, watching him, and I hear Sienna sigh, covering her face as he pulls out none other than a packet of fucking cookies.

Really?

He opens it and, taking one, bites into it and looks around the table. “Want one?” he offers. A bang goes off, making most of those at the table jump as Ahren jerks back, the tip of Leo’s gun smoking slightly as Ahren stares down at what was once his packet of cookies. “Now, that was just mean.”

“Do not fucking test me. You went up against a fucking primordial!” Leo snarls as he stands, slamming his hands onto the table. “This is not about you being successful; it is about the risk that you all fucking took. What if you failed? What if one of you lost their powers in the process?! These are risks we can’t afford. If you failed, he would have been alerted that we were onto him. Had this attempt failed, it would have been a fucking catastrophe.”

“We understand that, but you also need to realise that we are capable of taking some decisions into our hands if it is safer to do so,” I say clearly, looking across at him. We stare each other down; his eyes flicker to a magnetic blue, and my own wolf surges forward, disliking another alpha trying to get the better of him.

“This one was far too risky,” Leo growls.

“Maybe, but I had calculated everything. I made the decision to end him rather than hold him, because that was the safer option,” I continue, my voice sharp but even.

“Although we could have kept him alive; if we had, maybe we could have got Mama’s powers back,” Alessandra says sharply.

She had rushed to call and ask Aunty Kiara if her abilities were back, hoping that maybe after his death it would have returned to her, but it seemed like that didn’t happen.

“Although we had no inkling if that would even be possible. From my own assumptions and theories, I don’t think it would have been,” I counter, looking at her.

On the screen, Uncle Alejandro slams a paper in front of the camera.

UN-FUCKING-MUTE ME NOW, YOU FUCKER!