Page 57 of Sienna Rossi: Beyond Shattered Trust

“No, she can’t,” Dad says, his eyes full of sadness.

“Fuck, and has anyone told Uncle Alejandro?” I ask as a drakath jumps at me out of nowhere.

It’s not real. It’s not real.

I fight against the pain as it begins hacking at me, continuing to tell myself it’s not happening.

“Not yet,” Azura admits.

“You need to worry about yourself,” Aunty Kiara says as she comes over to me, and I shake my head as I stagger to my feet, trying to resist the urge to blast the drakath away.

“No. You were one of our greatest assets. This isn’t only about you…” I trail off, seeing the pain in her eyes.

What am I fucking saying? She knows that… She’s lost her wolf. This is way harder on her.

“Maybe they’ll return,” she says quietly. She doesn’t believe that; no one here fucking does.

“I’m sorry,” I say quietly before wrapping my arms around her.

But we all know this is a huge blow for the Dauntless; we just lost one of our most powerful aces, and now, my issues with Sienna feel so… minuscule.

“Someone needs to tell Uncle Alejandro. He has a right to know,” I say quietly. If I were him, I’d want to know, want to be there for my mate, and she might be pretending to be strong, but this is crushing her. I can sense that.

But I’m not there for my own mate right now.

I push the guilty thought away.

Aunty Kiara needs him here, but she’ll never say it, not wanting to be selfish.

“Send a message. Now,” I command.

“Jayce, you’re not well yourself. Sit down; you need rest,” Grandma reminds me. “We’ll sort it out, but you need to take it easy. Please consider what Leo has just said…”

Her voice is drowned out as I hear more shrill cries of the drakaths.

I need to get out of here; I don’t need them seeing me struggle when there’s so much shit going on.

“Excuse me,” I say as I walk towards the archway, doing my best not to stagger.

“Think it over, Jayce,” Leo’s crisp, cold voice comes. “Because we don’t have time for you to be out of commission.”

I don’t respond, simply staggering towards the stairs, my mind reeling.

Fuck.

An Evening That Matters

Sienna

“When is Grandpa Al being told?” I ask. We’re in Renji’s room, where I’ll be spending the night, as the rest of the quints are at the Academy. I’ve come up to shower and change before dinner, but Ahren had followed with Dad, who now stands in the doorway whilst Ahren paces the room.

“Leo will have a message sent out tonight, calling for his return,” Dad replies.

“We need something good going on. This whole thing is a mess; it’s depressing,” Ahren says quietly to Dad, who nods in agreement.

“You’re right, we could do with some distraction. I’ll look at what options we have.”

“Maybe a small trip together or just invite everyone to the Rossi Mansion; we could have games and a barbecue and anything…” I sigh, sitting on the bed and placing my head in my hands.