Page 111 of Forever My Siren Luna
“What I did. What I was here. You won’t want me. I-I did-”
“Hey,” I turned her body towards mine, shivering from the sparks that danced on my skin from touching her. No wonder Lachlan changed so much after meeting his mate. After touching her.... no, after just staring into her eyes for the first time, I knew I would do anything to be with this woman. No matter what.
I angled her chin with my fingers, smiling as I watched the tingles affect her too. “You’re perfect. I couldn’t have ever envisioned a better mate. Whatever you faced, you survived, and now I’m going to take you home and prove to you how much I want you.”
She bit her lip, her green eyes overflowing with tears. I wanted to kiss them away, but just then that pantiless pirate had to go and start yelling my name.
“NILO! WE NEED MORE MUSCLE!”
I sighed, running my thumb along her full bottom lip, then grabbed her hand and dragged her with me out into the hallway to follow the sound of Beretta’s call. I don't want Ceclia out of my sight until I know she is safe. Even then, I feel like I will still have a hard time leaving her alone.
In the other room, one very similar to the one I was kept in, a charred body is lying in a crumpled heap on the ground. I think it’s a burned body, dead and unmoving at first, but then the elvish woman pushes a mass of hair to the side and I see a woman’s face underneath.
She’s breathing, her breath coming in puffs of smoke. It looked like soot or debris being expelled from her mouth at first, but by the third or fourth breath, I realized that it was actual smoke. The woman is expelling smoke from her lungs.
There is a collar, thicker and made of black glass around the woman’s throat, and a net made from similar material holding her to the ground. She didn't have any room to move. The collar had to be so heavy. I doubted she could even lift her head.
“Obsidian,” I whispered. “The collar and the net. They’re obsidian. It’s unbreakable with human hands, even if you use all your strength and the strength of your beast,” I tell them. "Not in human form."
“Then what the hell are we supposed to do?” Beretta asked. “Look at her. What have these devils been doing? Lighting her skin on fire? Torching her? Why is she tied down like this?”
The woman’s eyes opened, and my suspicions about why she was tied up alone like this became a certainty. No one has reptilian eyes like this but one race, and it’s a race that was suspected to be extinct.
“Move,” I told the women hovering over the charred girl. I gave Cecilia’s hand a gentle squeeze, then let her go, stepping away to give myself plenty of room.
My Lycan takes over, pushing forward to take his form. I know nothing better than a Lycan’s strength to break through the hard stone of obsidian.
The woman’s eyes flew open the moment my Lycan leaned over her form, face just inches from hers. The swift shifting in her slit pupils takes all of me in, looking for a sign of hostility as the smoke continues to puff out of her nostrils.
Slowly, showing her that I mean no harm, my beast opens his mouth and takes the collar on her neck between his teeth, biting down with all his force. The stone’s energy pulsing against his teeth, hurting his jaw, but after several seconds, it finally shatters, falling in large jagged pieces onto the floor around her.
She lifted her head, but then it fell back to the floor, a high cry tearing through her when the netting sank further into her skin with her movement. The black stone is not only restraining her, it's tearing into her skin when she fights against it. That's why she was so unmoving.
We need to get her out. Next is the netting. Even the bolts holding it in the ground are obsidian. Beretta is in Lycan form beside me now, using her strength to pry one side free while I work on the others. It takes longer than I would like, but we soon have the woman free.
“Poor thing,” the woman who had called for Beretta says, pulling the freed woman to her lap as the elvish girl looks over her wounds, using her magic to heal what she can.
Her entire body is covered in soot and char, but she doesn’t have a burn on her. She has very few wounds besides bruising on her body, from the net and probably from being kicked while pinned down.
If she is what I think she is, it’s no wonder. Any attempt to harm her in any way where she would be less restrained would not bode well for the attacker. It takes this level of restraint to contain their power. I'm surprised they captured her at all.
The woman is panting, the smoke growing thicker and thicker with each of her breaths. Then, her eyes blaze with fire, her pupils startling the women, making them shrink back against the wall. I shielded Cecilia with my Lycan body, anxious as the woman slinks off the lap of the woman who was trying to soothe her, and slowly crawls towards the door. Her eyes move over every face, every body, searching for a threat. She seemed satisfied not finding one, then quickly stood and raced out the door without looking back. Soot falls from her body with each step, and I’m left wondering what she would look like clean.
Those eyes. I could never mistake those burning eyes if I ever saw them again. I hope she finds her freedom and I never see those eyes again. Those creatures caused our pack a lot of grief in the past, but women of the breed are so rare, it’s entirely unheard of. I didn’t think they existed.
“Not even a damn thank you,” Beretta muttered, shaking her head.
I followed her lead and changed back into human form. My spirits sail when Cecilia reaches out to grab my hand on her own once I’m done. It’s a very possessive hold, and I love it. I hope she grows more and more possessive. I want her to be confident in her ownership of me.
"Do you want to go chase her down and force some gratitude from her?" I lifted my brows at Beretta.
"No," she sighed. "Poor thing was scared out of her mind. Can't blame her for that."
I don't think she was scared of us. I think her breed just doesn't do well in crowds like this, and she left before she accidently hurt us. Beretta and many of the others might not even suspect what that girl was, but I can tell that the elvish girl had caught on. She gives me a wise, knowing look, and we both just keep quiet, keeping the girl's secret.
“Let’s go,” Beretta, ushered everyone out of the room.
I take the lead, Cecilia tucked behind me and the Elvish girl I soon learn is named Irrita. Irrita used her magic to cast a mirror at every approaching corner, helping us to see what's around them before we turn. Beretta took the rear, back in her Lycan form, since I was able to take command again.