The Wrong Brother’s Temptation Novel – Chapter One Sienna I chewed at the end of the pencil, staring at the form in front of me. “We don’t have all day, Sienna” Mom reminded me for the millionth time already. “Yeah, I am trying” I had been stalling it for weeks but mom was now in front of me, demanding I fill the compatibility questionnaire right away. One question in particular nagged at my brain. It asked whether I preferred my future mate to be “verbally expressive or the strong silent type” as if I was ordering a custom wardrobe and not a husband. Ever since I had turned eighteen, my parents began looking for a suitable groom for me, an alpha to strengthen our pack’s strength. And truth be told, I wasn’t completely against it. “Breathing would be a good start” in the margin as an answer at last but my mother did not find this funny. “Sienna!” She used that tone that had exactly two settings:
gentle and I will love you into compliance. “I filled it out,” I said, pulling the form back toward me and scribbling over my margin note with something more diplomatic. “Open communication is valued.” All mature and reasonable which was the exact opposite of how I felt. “The Ashford Alpha arrives in four days,” she said, sitting down across from me with her tea, which she holds the way other people hold weapons. “Four days, Sienna. This is not the time for humor.” “It’s always time for humor. Humor is a coping mechanism. My therapist said so.” “You don’t have a therapist.” “I’ve been meaning to get one.” She rolled her eyes and walked away with the form. I knew a lot was riding on me. And truth be told I wasn’t against it entirely. I understood duty and as the only daughter of the Vaelon Pack’s alpha pair, I had been told to put the pack’s needs above my own. So I reluctantly agreed to meet whatever alpha was coming over to see me tonight. There was only one problem- a cute boy named Aaron who I had a crush on since seven. It also didn’t help that he was my best friend and completely oblivious to my feelings. “Hey, what are you upto?” Aaron asked as he stepped inside my room without bothering to knock.
He had never bothered to. And my heart fluttered slightly at the sight of him. He had a boyish charm to him, a lean and athletic frame, a witty tongue and a smile that made me agree to whatever he said like an eager, hopeful puppy. “Aaron! I could have been changing clothes!” I gave him a look but he only shrugged. “Then I would have just looked away” He said with a laugh, settling beside me on the couch. And those words, that simple truth stung like hell. Because Aaron had never looked at me with anything except sisterly affection. I was still that stupid girl he found crying in school over her melted icecream, the girl who helped him befriend the school’s hottie, Carla. I had always been an intermediary, a bridge between Aaron and whoever he wanted to date. “Why would you?” I asked, unable to stop myself. I knew I was not the most gorgeous girl to be alive but hey, I looked decent-ish. I had the same strawberry blond hair like my mother and dark brown eyes like my father. And I tried my best to hide the freckles behind my glasses. “What do you mean why?” He asked, trying to find the remote already.
Irritation flashed through me. “Because you know, I am a girl” It sounded stupid and lame to me. “You okay?” he asked, noticing my irritation. “Perfectly fine,” I said, trying to see if the idea of losing me affected him in the slightest. It did not. “Extremely chill. Totally not spiraling about the fact that a stranger is arriving tomorrow to assess whether I’m a suitable political acquisition.” “You’re a little spiraling.” “I’m elegantly spiraling. There’s a difference.” He smiled, and it was the smile I had memorized without meaning to. Aaron was careful with his expressions the way some people were careful with money. He didn’t spend them on just anyone. “Just talk about books and bore him to death.” “Did you just call me a bore?” I asked, slightly hurt. Aaron didn’t bother paying attention to the conversation, already distracted by the notification sound of his phone. He quickly reached for it and I saw the biggest smile flash on his face. “Look! Sandra said yes!” I managed to smile, trying to hide the obvious hurt. How could this man call me his best friend and yet not even notice me despite spending most of the day together.
Sandra was his latest obsession. A tall brunette with curvy hair and a seductive smile who was horrible at maths so Aaron was giving her private lessons after learning it all from me. “It worked! God, you are the best, Sia!” Aaron shouted in excitement, pulling me closer for a hug. He was the only one who called me Sia. “My glasses!” I frowned but let him pull me anyway because I loved the warmth of his embrace. I loved that despite his complete ignorance to the fact that I was a girl too, I managed to put a smile on his face. “Fuck! I should get ready for the date. Love you, bye.” He placed a peck on my cheek and ran outside a minute later, my words dying down on my tongue. “Yeah, love you too” I said in a whisper, desperately hoping he knew I’d give anything for him to actually mean it, that he realized I wasn’t the same girl with a doll scared of ghost stories anymore. I spent the entire day worried about his date with Sandra, feeling jealous of her receiving all his attention. Usually, he would call me in an hour, telling me she wasn’t his type or something similar and I would go back to living in my bubble. But he hadn’t yet. Maybe they had already found a room, and gotten frisky… “The meeting.
Focus on the meeting” I reminded myself. This was why I had said yes to it anyway. Partly to see if Aaron would react to seeing me actually meeting someone, if he would be averse to the idea of me dating someone else. I had a plan. I fell asleep that night feeling hopeful, ignoring the absence of any calls or messages from him which could only mean that his date with Sandra was going very well. Stomping down on the hurt that was going to rear its ugly head at me, I told myself I could do this. That Aaron would come to his senses before another man claimed me, and that my feelings for him weren’t one-sided. I was, as previously noted, catastrophically wrong. Chapter Two Sienna The next few days passed in a blur with no contact from Aaron. It was as if he had suddenly forgotten I existed. There were no messages, no phone calls. And the fear that I had truly, completely lost him began to look very real. “Where are you lost? I asked you which color you prefer?” Mom asked, dragging me out of my thoughts.
She held two gowns in front of me, both elegant and sophisticated. One was a soft pink and another a deep shade of purple. “Any is fine” I mumbled, distracted by the sound of notification from my phone. I dashed through the room, grabbing the phone lying on the side table. It was not Aaron. He had never gone silent before, never not checked on me for days. Something was wrong. “Mom, Aaron must be hurt. He must be in trouble” I voiced out my fears, imagining the worst. But mom only laughed it off. “No, he went with his girlfriend to some weekend destination two days ago.” “What?” I asked in shock. Mom inched closer to me, patting my back softly. “Yes, he had given a call to our beta to check for last minute flights that I overheard because apparently his girlfriend only wanted to fly first class. He would have been ignored if not for being your friend.” Ouch. That was so not how I imagined being of help to him. His crushes always faded away in a week or so, he would just return to me after the girl walked all over him and everything would be fine in my life again. I always hoped that cycle would end one day with him realizing no other girl would be there for him like I was. But Sandra had proven me wrong. “And it would be good if you forgot about him. You should worry about your own future, dear.” Mom suggested with a small smile. I felt completely broken to have been ignored like this. The silent treatment like I had been tossed away from his life as if I had never been a part of it weighed heavy on my heart. I had never experienced heartbreak because I never had a boyfriend technically but I imagined the pain to be similar to what I was feeling right now.
My eyes fell on the two gowns mom had laid on the bed for me. A memory popped up in my head of me prancing around in my pink dress in school and Aaron distracted by some girl wearing a deep blue dress. “That one. I will go with the purple one” I said and Mom beamed at me. “Excellent choice” she clasped her hands together and then the maids walked in, prepping me up like a pig for slaughter, applying lipstick and rose tint to my face and styling my hair to hang loosely around my shoulders. Mom expected me to argue and bicker like always but I let them do their thing, transforming me from a nerd to a glamorous diva. When they were done, I stared at my reflection in shock. “Is that me?” I asked, mouth slightly ajar. “You look gorgeous, Sienna. The alpha would be smitten by you, I have no doubt.” “I will do my duty to our pack, mom, don’t worry. I wont chase him away, not this time.” Because I had done that for Aaron who proved he would never belong to me. All set to impress the alpha I didn’t bother asking the name of, I waited with my parents in the living room in anticipation. But one hour passed and then three but there was still no sign of him. By the fourth hour, I began to feel abandoned all over again, this time by a man who had not even seen me yet.
Mom could clearly see the disappointment on my face and gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “They must have run into some sort of problem. The alpha is said to be a man of his word.” I wanted to get up and just leave to cry my heart out in the pillow but one look at my dad’s face was enough to change that idea. Because I was seeing real concern on my father’s face. I could see the alliance slipping away from his hold and the uncertainty of our pack’s future gnawing at him even though he hadn’t said a word. My misery transformed into irritation and slowly morphed into anger. I was annoyed at the alpha who thought it was good to waste our time without so much as an explanation.