by Celeste Raye
“I hope so. I miss him.”
Ronald smiled and gave her a hug. It was rather strange for him and she took it without saying much. Afterward, she could not meet his eyes because there was guilt in Sienna’s heart. She had been with both of his sons, and if it ever came out, Sienna doubted that Ronald would ever look at her the same. He certainly wouldn't embrace her in such a way.
“He will be back soon, Sienna. Don't you worry about it. I am going to try my best to get him back before the baby is born. I missed both of my children being born, and I wish that I hadn't. It is a special time in every father’s life.”
Sienna agreed and smiled back at Ronald. One way or another, he was the grandfather, but it didn't mean that it was also straightforward.
“Yes, I hope he is back in time.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Trent found out about the pregnancy from Darius. His brother was jumping up and down with excitement and Trent could only wonder who the father of the baby was. He wanted it to be him, but at the same time, it would just make everything else a little bit more complicated.
He was sick of fighting, and even though it was his duty to do so, Trent found a way to get away for a little bit. Darius wanted to leave as well, but he was running everything. He was the leader when it came to the war. Ronald had gone back, too old to fight day in and day out like the rest of them.
So, Darius finally let him leave and told him to get back soon. He didn't want to miss the birth of his child, and since shifters usually had a quicker pregnancy, he wanted to get there soon.
Trent left, and there were a few moments when he wanted never to go back. The pack didn’t mean what it used to. Family used to mean everything to him, but now it just drove him crazy. Being around them and not being able to have Sienna was more than Trent was able to bear.
He wasn't really sure why he wanted to go back and see Sienna so much. Nothing had changed since the last time they talked, and undoubtedly, she wasn't going to change her mind about anything. So why was he going? Why did he feel the need to be there and to see her one last time? Was it going to be one last time?
Trent had no idea the answers to the questions because he was left in the lurch. When he finally got back to his place, he went to see Sienna. There were other things that had to take care of, the whole reason that he was sent back to begin with, but Trent couldn't think about those things. All he could think about was seeing Sienna.
When he got there, it took a minute for him to collect the courage to knock on the door. He had no idea what position he was going to find her in, and he had to steel himself from running away. This is what he was there for. He was there for Sienna.
She opened the door and Trent couldn’t believe his eyes. She was pregnant. Very pregnant, and a part of him was taken aback by how obvious it was. He was not expecting to see her that way, even though he knew her condition.
“Hey, Trent. I am surprised to see you.”
Her voice sounded strange, or maybe it was just the way Trent was hearing it. He was surprised that he could hear anything over the pounding of his heart. How long had he been thinking about her? He certainly hadn’t gotten to the point that she had talked about, where he would be able to go a day without thinking about her. At this point, Trent would be happy if he could go five minutes without thinking about her. That seemed a lot more doable than a whole day.
“Sienna.”
“I can't believe that you're here, Trent. Come in.”
Trent was thrown off by how friendly she was. They had not parted on good terms the last time he'd seen her, and it seemed like even now, things would just be more complicated than before.
She closed the door behind her and asked him what he was doing there.
“I just thought I would stop by and visit for a little bit.”
“It is good to see you, Trent. I hate that you guys were at war. I have never liked that part of the life.”
“I don't really care for it either. I would just rather let a little bit of land go, but my father will never let it happen. So, we will get dragged into every skirmish that we can to keep it ours.”
“That sounds exhausting.”
“It is.”
“So, you were wrong, Sienna.”
“About what?”
“You were wrong about my ability to forget about you. I still haven't been able to.”
“And you think that I have?”
She made a gesture towards her stomach and didn't have to say anything else. They both knew what she was referring to. The biggest complication of all.
“No, I guess you have me there. Do you even know whose it is?”
“Don't make me feel bad about it, Trent. You know that I don't. I guess if we would have run off together, then you would have known.”
“Ouch.”
“Pregnancy hormones. Take it or leave it.”
“I would take it every time.”
“Except for that one time when it really mattered, Trent. Seriously. Why are you here?”
He shrugged a little bit because he honestly didn't have an answer. There was a lot of reasons why he came back to see her, but it was hard to put any one of them into words. So, he just told her exactly how he felt in the simplest way he knew how.
“I came because I had to.”
“Why did you have to?”
“You know why.”
“Because I'm pregnant?”
“I can't think of a better reason. If it's mine...”
“If it's yours, then what? Then you're going to admit to your brother that we had sex a few days before we got married? Are you going to challenge him for my hand? What exactly are you going to do?”
Trent was taken aback. He didn't have an answer for any of it.
“Exactly, Trent. Nothing has changed. If this is yours or if it's your brothers, either way, I'm still married. And either way, you're not going to do anything to change that. Just go, Trent. You’re just going to make it harder than it has to be.”
Trent left as she asked him to, but he did not agree with the sentiment at all. How could it be any harder than it already was?
Instead of going back to the front lines at the skirmish, Trent decided that it was better for him just to get away. He dropped off the message to the one who needed it and then he left. He didn't know where he was going, but eventually, he knew that he was going to find himself at the Dynasty Club. Something told him that he needed a change of scenery, and it was the only place he knew of where he could be himself, and it wouldn't jeopardize everything if he made a slip. He needed to be around his own kind for a while. Long enough to get her out of his mind.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
As soon as Sienna saw the baby, she knew exactly what the answer to the question was. She had wondered the whole time she was pregnant who the father was, but now it was clear as day to her. The baby was born in a shifter form, which was rather strange in and of itself, but the color of the scales was easy to recognize.
The baby quickly turned into human form, and it happened so quickly that Sienna wondered if she had made it all up in her head. She asked the nurse that helped her deliver the baby if she had seen it as well. The nurse agreed and Sienna made her promise that she would never say a word about it. Sienna was waiting for her husband to get back from the war. They had finally pushed back on the McClellans, and supposedly, things were about to get back to normal.
Though she was happy that the war was finally over, she wasn’t as happy to think about Darius coming back. While he was very nice to her and treated her well at the same time, she felt guilty every moment that she was around him. She was in love with his brother. Not him. That was hard to reconcile in her mind.
She heard news that Trent was in America but was being called back by Ronald. He wanted to have a big feast in celebration of the new baby. Sienna was worried about how that was all going to turn out. She knew that Trent was going back to finish up things with Darius and then the two of the
m were going to be back home. Then she was going to have to navigate life with Trent around and Darius watching everything.
Sienna was nervous for the future, and she tried her best to prepare herself. She had to prepare herself for her husband, as well as the man that she would always love. Paired with the fact that she had a new baby to take care of, Sienna had her hands full.
“I hear that congratulations are in order, brother.”
“Trent! It is good to see you. I hadn't heard that you were going to be back.”
“I told Father that I would come down here to work out the agreement with the McClellans. You know, to make it look like we’re a united front.”
Darius agreed with a nod of his head. “You know how Father is. He always knows the best way to play things.”
“Yes, he does.”
“Well, it is going to be a couple of hours until we meet up with them. Nothing for us to worry about.”
Trent was trying to decide something. His time at the Dynasty Club was over and talking to Frank had shown him that he needed Sienna in his life. No matter what the rules were, he needed Sienna, and he needed to be with his child. Trent didn't need to know if the baby was his. He would love it either way, and he had a feeling that it was.
So, he told himself that he was going to finally tell his brother what had happened. He was going to tell him everything and see where that left them in the end. It wasn’t going to turn out well anyway, but it was something that had to be done. He could no longer keep it in his heart any longer. It was eating him up inside.
“I think we need to talk, Darius.”
Darius turned his face towards his brother when he heard the tone of his voice.
“Yeah? What's up?”
“I want to talk to you about Sienna.”
“Why, what's going on?”
“Nothing. I mean, she's fine and everything.”
Darius asked his brother again what was going on and why he was acting so funny about it. “Why are you so weird about Sienna?”
That was the perfect moment for Trent to tell him his truth. He was weird about his wife because he was in love with her. That was the only thing that he could say, but that was almost impossible to say out loud. How could he tell his brother that he was in love with his wife, and the child she just had might be his? There was no way to say that out loud. Not really.
“There is just something about her, Darius.”
“Yes, there is. I fell for her almost immediately. I was sure that I was going to come back here and pick back up where I left off with Amber, but I haven't even thought about her. How crazy is that?”
It wasn’t crazy at all, because Trent had felt the same thing. What bothered him was that his brother was feeling it as well. He wanted to believe that it was something that was just between the two of them, but maybe it was just the woman that was special. She made every man that came in contact with her feel like he was the last one in the world.
“That's not crazy, Darius; it just makes what I'm going to say next a little bit harder.”
“What do you have to say?”
Trent didn’t know how to put it into words. However it came out, it was going to be a big problem. To pretend would be to deny the obvious.
“I’m just going to say it. Okay?”
Darrius was paying attention now. He’d stopped what he was doing.
“Just come out with it. This isn’t like you, Trent. I don’t think I remember a time that you were actually nervous.”
That was true, but this was one of those times. Trent was nervous because he knew that he had messed up.
“I slept with you wife, before the two of you got married. I think I love her…”
Darius’ head flew up, and it was so fast that Trent was genuinely worried that his brother might have broken his neck. He wanted to tell him that everything was his fault, but that didn’t seem to be a problem.
“You what?”
He was walking towards Trent, and he could instantly see the anger flare up. He could also see that his brother was going to shift, and that meant only one thing.
“This doesn’t have to go this way. I know that I should have told you, but I didn’t. I didn’t know how.”
“You slept with Sienna?”
“Yes, and I think the baby might be mine. I need her, Darius. I need her like I need oxygen.”
Trent hadn’t meant for all of that to come out, but it just flowed out of him and he wasn’t able to stop it. He wanted his brother to understand that it wasn’t just some fling. This was something that he didn’t have a say in. He wished that he did, but he didn’t. All he could do at this point was try to come clean and see how it all played out. That’s what mattered now, as far as he was concerned.
“What?”
Darius was red-faced, and Trent could tell what was going to happen next. He said once again that it didn’t have to be that way, but his brother obviously had other plans, plans that he was obligated to go with.
He watched Darius start to turn, and the only option he had now was to defend his life. Darius was not going to give this up. He couldn’t. It wasn’t in him to let it go, and that was part of the reason why Trent hadn’t been able to tell him. It would have ballooned into something huge, like it was now.
Trent tried one last time in his dragon form to get through to Darius, but then a large breath was taken and fire started to shoot towards him. Trent had to get out of the way, and he was able to move in just enough time.
He could feel the heat that wouldn’t do much to him, but the claws coming towards him could. Almost nothing could penetrate a dragon’s scales, except another dragon. Their nails were sharp like razors and Trent had to continue on in defense.
The reason he told Darius the truth was starting to get harder to understand. He knew that Darius was going to be mad, how would he not be, yet he said something anyway. He wanted Darius to know. He wanted the end to be him with Sienna, however that was arrived at.
Chapter Thirty
Something told Sienna that she needed to see her husband. She had been waiting for him for months, and finally, she knew that she had to have a conversation with him before he saw her son.
Sienna was nervous, and it took her days to get to the location. Her son was with the servant and away from the house. It was the only way to keep him safe because Sienna had no idea what was going to happen when she told him the truth. All she knew for certain was that the truth was going to have to finally come out. It was the only way.
When she got to the place where their side was set-up, her attention was almost immediately drawn to the sky. The clashing of two dragons above her took her attention, and Sienna knew almost instantly who it was. The two brothers were very familiar to her, and she couldn’t believe what was happening.
Trent was running from his brother, and it looked like he was going to get away until Darius sent fire into his eyes and Trent started to fall. Her heart leaped in her chest because Sienna was seeing it all, sure that she was going to watch the man she loved die. Right in front of her.
Right before he was about to hit the ground, Trent pulled up and hovered for a moment before going up towards Darius. It was clear that he was no longer running. He was going to face him head on, and she was lost in the moment, trying to figure out what it was she was seeing in front of her. How could this be happening?
She wanted to call to them, tell them to stop, something, but nothing was coming out. Sienna was forced to watch the two men in her life battle it out. She didn’t know for certain, but she had an idea that it had to do with her.
Finally, sound came out when again, Trent was forced to the ground after being bitten by Darius. It was in his long neck, and she screamed, scared for his life. The noise sidetracked Darius long enough that Trent could get his own attack in. The bite was well placed, and she could see it in the eyes of the beast the moment that he knew he was done.
She wanted to call to Darius, tell Trent to stop,
but she knew that it was to be one or the other. While Darius had never been mean to her in any way, she would always pick Trent.
The thrashing continued but started to slack off, and it was clear that Darius was done. Once Trent moved away and let go of his brother, they both turned back into human form. Her scream had been heard, and Trent looked back at her, anger and sadness in his eyes. There were also accusations, like it was her fault. Sienna wasn’t sure, but maybe it was.
She wanted to go to him and throw her arms around him, but she knew that wasn’t the way. That would do her no good at all, and before she was able to let it really get to her, Sienna pushed it all out of her mind. There was nothing she could do at the moment, nothing at all. The best that she could hope for was that he would come to her.
Sienna tried to draw him towards her with her eyes. She wanted him there, holding her, telling her that it was all okay and that they were going to be together finally.
That didn’t happen. Trent looked at her for the longest time and then he turned away. She wasn’t sure what was going on until he shifted back into his dragon form and flew as high as she could see. Then he was gone.
Trent couldn’t believe what had happened. He had killed his own brother. That was something that was even worse than sleeping with Sienna and getting her pregnant. How was he ever supposed to face his family again? His father?
Then there was Sienna, and Trent had no idea why she was there. She had come out of nowhere as far as he was concerned. He knew that he wanted her in every way that he could have her, but this was too much. There was no way that he was going to be able to face her either.
She had watched him kill his brother, her husband. Nothing he’d done since falling for her had helped. Everything had gone to hell, and now Trent had to leave. He couldn’t believe what he had done.
