When My Alpha Betrayed Me

I was folding laundry in the pack house when the call came through.

Mom's voice was tight. "Sienna. Your father's been arrested."

The shirt in my hands—one of Elijah's—slipped through my fingers and hit the floor. "What?"

"Pack security came to the house an hour ago. They said he killed someone. A wolf named Hank Patterson." Her breath hitched. "They took him, Sienna. They just—they took him."

I was already moving toward the door. "I'm coming. Stay there."

I didn't wait for Elijah. I drove to my parents' house myself, gripping the wheel so hard my knuckles went white. The mate bond hummed faintly under my skin, a distant pulse that told me Elijah was still at the pack house. He hadn't come after me. Hadn't called. That alone made my chest tighten in a way I didn't want to examine.

Mom was sitting at the kitchen table when I arrived, her hands wrapped around a mug of cold tea. She looked up when I walked in, and the expression on her face made something crack inside me.

"Tell me what happened," I said quietly.

She did. Slowly. Carefully. Dad had been patrolling the eastern edge of Black Moon territory when he'd heard a girl screaming. He'd run toward the sound and found Hank Patterson on top of a young she-wolf, her shirt torn, her face streaked with tears. Dad had pulled Hank off her. There'd been a fight. Hank hadn't survived it.

"He saved her," Mom said, her voice steady but hollow. "He stopped an assault, Sienna. And now they're calling him a murderer."

I pressed my fingers against the side of my neck, where Elijah's mark sat just beneath my jaw. The bond pulsed again, stronger this time, like he'd felt my distress and was reaching back across the link. I dropped my hand.

"There was a witness," I said. "The girl. Julieta. She'll testify."

Mom nodded, but she didn't look convinced. "They said they're looking for her. She hasn't come forward yet."

I stayed with her until late, cleaning the kitchen and folding the blankets Dad always left on the couch after his evening shifts. Small things. Normal things. Things that let me pretend the world hadn't just tilted sideways.

When I finally returned to the pack house, it was past midnight. Elijah was in his study, the door half-open, the light still on. I stood in the hallway for a moment, listening to the faint shuffle of papers and the low rumble of his voice on the phone. Then I pushed the door open.

He looked up. His expression was unreadable.

"Sienna."

"My father was arrested tonight," I said. My voice came out calmer than I felt. "You know that, right?"

"I know." He set the phone down and leaned back in his chair. "Marcus briefed me."

Marcus. His Beta. Not his mate.

"He was protecting someone," I said. "A girl named Julieta. Hank Patterson was assaulting her. Dad stopped it."

Elijah's jaw tightened. "That's his