Page 46 of Forever My Siren Luna
“What happened to Leona after I left?” I have to ask. I can’t continue to wonder. “Where is she now?”
“She’s dead,” Lachlan tells me, like he was simply informing me about the weather. “She wasted away in the dungeons for a few days until we were done torturing and extracting information from Alpha Wayne’s men. Once they were all dead and she had to witness it all, I had her killed.”
“You killed her?” I almost couldn’t believe that he would kill a woman, especially one he was once involved with.
“I didn’t kill her personally. I had a victim of hers have that honor.”
“Who?”
Lachlan gave me a look like I should know who. “Yasmin,” he states, “If you couldn’t be here to exact justice yourself, I thought it only right for her other victim to take care of her in your stead.”
Yasmin had more reason to kill Leona than anyone. What happened to Yasmin at the brothel was evil and cruel. “I hope she made her suffer.” Anyone that could so casually have another woman raped so brutally and blame her for the act is evil to their core. I refuse to ever feel bad for a woman like that.
“Percy was there with her. He made sure she did.”
I nodded, glad for my friend. I know after taking out so many of Wayne’s men how freeing it can be to avenge yourself and know by doing so you are saving others from suffering in the future. I’m happy to hear there is a little less evil in the world now.
“Lachlan,” I looked up at him, my original intention of finding him coming back to me. “I wanted you to tell me about everything. Explain from the beginning. I want to know the whole truth from you about everything, from beginning to end.”
Fifteen
“If I promise to listen without getting mad or defensive, can you promise to tell me the entire truth? Don’t glance over anything if you think I can’t handle it. I am stronger than you think.”
Lachlan smiled softly down on me. “I promise to never keep anything from you again, Lira.” His voice is so sincere, so tender that I can’t help but to trust him. Please, just don’t let my trust be broken again.
Lachlan led me into the parlor connected to the bedroom. It’s sparsely decorated, but it has a settee and a pair of chairs. They look custom made, matching the beach theme with the rest of the room.
“Where do you want me to start?” Lachlan asked nervously, wiping his hands down the front of his pants. I can tell he is holding back from touching me, which I am grateful for. I don’t need the sparks and the bond to confuse me right now. I want to put the bond aside as it should just be me and Lachlan through this if at all possible. Touching would hinder that.
“From the beginning. Our wedding day. The first one,” I told him.
He cringed. “I hate thinking about the way I treated you. It makes me sick,” he whispered.
I nodded, understanding. I hate thinking about it too, but I have to know. I want to know why he was so cruel to me, and it started that day. The beginning of my hardest years started on that wedding day.
“I need to know, Lachlan. I need to understand or I don’t know if I can ever accept you.”
“I know,” he smiled sadly. “Just, please, bear with me.
~~~
Lachlan
“Why are you doing this?” Nilo asked for the hundredth time in the past week. “You know he can’t be trusted.”
“You don’t think I fucking know that? What other choice do I have? One attack is all it would take to ruin our pack’s peace, Nilo. One. We lost too many and too much in this last war. It was either this or we started training the women and children to fight. Do you want to see young ones out on the gorey battlefield with us?”
“No,” he groaned, “I just…. I just don’t see why you have to give up finding your fated mate to form this alliance. Why can’t he demand anything else?”
“I’ve been asking myself the same thing. I have already signed the treaty. There is nothing I can do. I just have to pray that she doesn’t try to use tricks and schemes to get me into bed. Two years. I just have two years, and if she doesn’t carry my heir, then the treaty can be broken and I will be granted an annulment. I can hold out for 2 years.”
“If she is anything like her uncle, tricks and schemes are guaranteed,” Nilo grunts.
I know they are, that’s why I will have to be careful. After the wedding, I plan on avoiding her at all costs. I even set her room in the furthest tower from my room, assigning her a maid that holds no authority in the castle whatsoever so she can’t cause problems. I just have to avoid her. It won’t be hard. My men have already been informed of the situation and will help me to not fall prey to any scheme the niece of the damned Alpha of the west may have.
As I get ready, I feel as if I am dressing for a funeral and not a wedding. It feels like a funeral to me. Alpha Wayne is trying to trap me into this never-ending alliance by using my promiscuity against me. He said it himself. “What’s wrong with adding one more woman to your harem?”
It made me sick to be thought of that way. Yes, I unwind like any other man, but I never make it personal. As an unmated Alpha Lycan, I need the release after battle. I need to unwind and destress the only way I can without having my mate. I don’t mess with the women outside of the brothels, and I pay for the services. There is no harem.