Page 25 of Forever My Siren Luna

"Why indeed? They never know what hit them."

“That’s a scary look on your face right now, Luna,” Cherum stared at me warily.

“Sorry,” I tried to control my expression. “Val was being funny.”

“Vicious little beast,” Cherum shivered. “Though, I guess little is not applicable to describe her.”

“She’s glorious,” I praised my Lycan, making her purr.

“That she is. The Alpha couldn’t take his eyes off her.”

I rolled my eyes, acting like hearing about him annoyed me, even though I could feel Val’s pride at Cherum’s words.

Maybe I should talk to him soon. Everything just got emotional earlier. We need to sit down, just me and him, and get our differences aside so we can get to what really matters. Killing my uncle and ridding the world of him once and for all. We can figure out the rest after that.

Nine

Beretta

What an informative and insightful evening. So, so insightful.

I thought that maybe Ela was ignorant of the Captain’s feelings because she was so young, and she was just jaded from her mate. It happens often. I didn’t want to even think about men after what my mate put me through either.

Hearing that she truly just thought of Jack as a brother and nothing more was almost as much of a shock as seeing her confess to still loving her mate. She said she didn't want to, but that was as much of a confession she loved him as if she outright said it.

I thought she had gone through what I once had, suffering from betrayal as well as being abused by the one fated to love you. Even though after hearing all she went through, I was sure she went through worse than even me, I was also sure she had no desire for our captain.

More important than me being sure, so was my Lycan, Bella.

Bella and I always cared for Jack. Deeply. He was our savior. What started as admiration and trust in the first man in our lives grew to something more. Lycans tend to desire powerful Lycans as chosen mates, so it took me a while to realize it wasn't just Bella attracted to Jack. I was too.

The past few years, I had considered letting my feelings be known, but held back, knowing Jack was suffering a true loss of his mate. He still drank himself to sleep every night, crying her name on the worst of days.

I myself had to drink a special tea before bed to keep the nightmares of my past at bay. Using alcohol and herbal substances to forget was common among our group. Sometimes it seems that it is the only reason we plunder; to buy the means to forget our pasts.

Then, Jack brought Ela back to port with him after attempting to stash treasure on one of our islands, and the change in him was instantaneous. He still drank, but not as much, and our crew stopped hearing the wailing for his mate coming from his cabin. His beast wanted Ela, and that was distracting both his beast and himself from suffering in past memories. He was living for the future for once.

Once Ela started to open up to him too, no longer fighting Jack and trying to escape, I thought them getting together would be inevitable. Every full moon, I expected it, but it never happened.

I would wake the next morning, reluctant to go to breakfast, suspecting I wouldn’t like what I saw if they had chosen each other and were still in the mating process, but it never happened. He never claimed her, and as I saw how naive she was towards men and their advances, I knew that Jack was being patient for her benefit. She was merely 18. She suffered Alpha Wayne’s pack, the same as me, where women had to hang their heads and not notice men at all in the hope they wouldn’t notice them either. All men were pigs, and you could only pray that your fated mate would treat you well, or at least better than most.

She didn’t know Jack’s kindness towards her was not just brotherly affection, but desirous intent. He wasn’t watching out for her to be a good man. He was taking steps to earn her trust and to win her heart.

Her heart, it now seems, still belongs to another.

After witnessing the way the Delta of this pack treats her, as well as the other men from that dock, I can see why she mistook Jack’s intentions. All the men she trusted and who genuinely just cared for her out of innocent kindness in this pack treat her as Jack does, and all the men who she knows have desired her have treated her like shit. No wonder the girl is so naive. Unless you grab her tit or smack her ass, she might not get it.

One thing is for sure now; Jack will not have an easy time winning her over. Maybe if he treated her a little more roughly, or came onto her a bit stronger instead of being just patient and kind. She might have caught on to his intentions then and might have seen him as a man.

There is not really a chance for that now.

Her passion when talking about her mate revealed how totally the man still encompassed her mind, and overtook her thoughts. Even now, sitting at the bar in some brothel, speaking to a madam who goes by the name of Lady Vera, her eyes are still scanning the door as if she hopes someone else might show up any minute.

It’s not Jack she is looking for. He is already here, sitting in a corner booth with a bottle of amber liquor and an impendingly empty glass. He was watching her constantly, but besides a quick greeting when we got there, her eyes hadn’t met his once. She is too busy searching and longing for another.

“Another glass?” The pretty woman behind the bar asks.

“Please,” I grinned, pushing my empty one towards her with a wink.