The Pain Her Cheek Chapter 12

Chapter 12 

Sienna 

Beia Alec didn’t keep hold of her hand once they stepped outside, which was a good thing because Sienna didn’t want to have to wrestle her fingers away. Holding hands with any male seemed foreign to her. Holding hands with anyone seemed foreign to her for that matter, but she especially didn’t want to stroll along in front of a bunch of people holding someone’s hand she just met. 

Lots of people were milling about on the main street all of thems bidding him good afternoon and asking how he was doing. After the third or fourth time. Alec got annoyed and turned down a wooded path. Sienna was just glad no one seemed to notice her at all. 

“Sorry about that.” Alec said. “I promise you, you’re safe with me. I’m not an ax murderer or anything”. 

Sienna arched an eyebrow. “Why would I think you were an ax murderer?” 

“Well, you know. I just met you and lured you off into the woods by yourself, in a place that’s unfamiliar to you, where the likelihood of anyone running to your aid if you screamed isn’t high. That sort of thing. She stared at him wide–eyed. “So… I didn’t want you to think I was planning to kill you 

“I didn’t she said. 

He sighed and smiled. 

“I do now 

Alec turned to her with alarm in his eyes, and Sienna laughed. It was a little strange to her that the Bea of the pack had time to meander around the woods with the likes of her. But then, Alec was unlike any Beta she’d ever met before. 

“So.” he began as they walked between and around hundreds of trees all decked out in their fall colors interspersed between fragrant evergreens. Sienna hadn’t been allowed to walk in the woods for a long time, so she was having trouble paying attention to him. He waited for her to look at him before he continued. “What’s up with you and the Burks?” 

Sienna wasn’t sure how to answer that She definitely didn’t want to say anything negative about the Burks. As much as she hated them most of the time, Kent was still her Alpha, and Veronica was still her Luna. She had too much respect for their positions to speak badly about them. “Tm their servant,” she said, keeping it simple. 

“That’s what I heard, but how come they’re so mean to you?” 

Sienna shrugged. “They’re not so bad.” 

Alec stopped abruptly and turned to look at her. “Sienna, you’re covered in cuts and bruises. Wolf shifters heal quickly, so I know it’s not because someone hit you a long time ago. These have to be happening on a regular basis. I’ve witnessed how inhumane they are to you a few times, and you just got here. I don’t care what you did, even if you murdered their puppy, no one deserves to be treated like that.” 

The idea of murdering a puppy threw her off a little since she liked animals so much, but then she recollected her thoughts and shook her head to clear it. “It’s more about what my parents did than what I did. I don’t really know the story. It happened the night I was born.” 

Alec was walking again, but his eyebrows were knit together with curiosity and concern. “Are you being punished every day of your life for something that happened the night you were born! When you were an infant and had nothing to do with anything!” 

She shrugged. “That’s how it is. You know. Honor and pack politics and all that stuff.” 

“Not around here,” he said. “Kaden’s young, and sometimes he makes mistakes, but he would never do something like that or allow it to happen.” 

Sienna hadn’t spent a lot of time with Kaden, but he hadn’t seemed too upset when Jenna knocked her down in the upstairs of his house. He’d practically run into her on the stairs right after that and hadn’t said a word. “You never know,” she said. “Besides, Alpha Kent holds me responsible for his first wife’s death, and that’s a pretty big delu to owe 

Again. Aler looked bewildered. He crossed to a bench hewn out of a fallen log and sat down, gesturing for her to sit too. Sienna left plenty of room between them. Even though she was becoming more comfortable with him, she knew this couldn’t last. Either he would realize he was wasting his time with a loser, or Kaden would forbid his Beta from speaking to her. After all, be had to have figured out by now that she was his fated match. He wouldn’t want anything to do with her, nor would be want anyone else he was close to to be around her. 

“So when you were a baby, did something happen with your parents that made Alpha Kent’s wife die!” Alec asked, steepling his fingers in front of his fate as he thought through what she had said. 

“Something like that” A cardinal fluttered by in front of them, bright red and chirping. It brought a smile to Sienna’s face. She loved all animals, but red birds were some of her favorites. The bird circled around again, and Sienna lifted her finger. The bird landed on it, chirping 

“Whoa! That’s so rool Alec kept las voice low. “Doesn’t that bird know you’re a predator?” 

“Not to him I’m not she said, stroking the bird’s head. “Besides, I don’t shift” 

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Chapter 12 

“You don’t, or you can’t?” Alec asked. 

“Are you not allowed to 

Sienna shrugged. Some things were better left unsaid. She lifted her finger. The cardinal took off back up into the air. 

“Can you wrangle any other animals! Like maybe a squirrel or a rabbit?” he asked enthusiastically 

Sienna laughed. “I don’t know. I don’t get o 

outside much.” 

He pressed his lips together and slowly shook his head. “That’s all really too bad. I think you’re a nice girl, Sienna. You’re pleasant to talk to. It’s too had they can’t be nicer to you 

“Thanks” she said, low Jown before he saw tears in her eyes. She figured she’d be even nicer to talk to if she didn’t smell so bad. The only time 

she ever had a chance to clean off was when it rained, and the rainy season had ended a few weeks back. If the Burks caught her taking a shower or even washing underneath her armpits, she’d be punished. 

“Do you want me to have Kaden say something to Alpha Kent for you?” Alec offered. 

Sienna’s eyes widened in horror as she stared him in the face. “Please, Heta Alec, don’t do that!” 

by non- 

“Okay,” he said. “But can I ask why 

face! 

they would be furious with me, and he would laugh in your f 

“Because. 

e would never put up with something like this, knowing a girl 

“No, he wouldn’t,” Alec insated. “You don’t know him, Sienna. He’s my best friend. He is being mistreated for something dut happened before she was born.” 

“I’m pretty sure he already knows, and he doesn’t care.” 

“Why do you say that?” Alec asked. 

Sienna upped her head to the side and considered him for a moment. “Because he was there earlier too. He heard what was going on.” She didn’t mention the fact that she was pretty sure Kaden had noticed her for reasons other than her name being screamed by Jenna. 

“He’s just really distracted right now with the ball and everything. Between you and me, he didn’t want to host it. He doesn’t even want to find his fated match” 

Sienna absorbed that for a second. “He doesn’t? 

“Nope. He said even if he finds her, he’ll reject her. Isn’t that crazy? He says he has too much work to do to worry about finding a Luna right now.” Alec was shaking his head, looking away. “Seems crazy to me. I can’t wait to find mine.” 

away 

She wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, if Kaden had actually planned to honor his fated match, it might have been ay for her to escape a horrible situation. On the other hand, at least when Kaden rejected her, she could blame it on something other than the fact that she was herself. She could soothe her shattered soul by telling herself he would’ve rejected anyone. It was hard for her to imagine anyone rejecting a girl like Sylvia or Jenna though. 

“I should get back to Jenna, Sienna said, as much as she hated to admit it. If she was later than expected, she’d get smacked around. Kaden’s sweet grandmother could only do so much to save her. 

“Okay. I’ll walk with you. Alec said as he stood up 

“You really don’t have to,” she assured him. 

I want to 

She couldn’t remember the last time anyone said they wanted 

they wanted to do anything for or with her. It almost made her blush. 

(not sure you’ll find your way back.” he joked. 

“I could. I have a good nose” 

“Yep, and it’s cute too.” He reached over and gently Lopped her on the nose and chuckled. 

Sienna was uken aback, again. Alec wasn’t like any boy she’d ever met before. How he could see past the grime and the ugliness on her outside and actually think she was interesting, or dare she repeat his word, cute, she didn’t know. But there was something different about this place, Light Sky Pack, and she was beginning to like it here, despite herself and despite knowing she was about to be rejected by the Alpha. 

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