Page 67 of Forever My Siren Luna

He laughed softly. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. Not all the time. As long as I can show I have some claim on you, I can manage. But, yes, your friend Jack is very much attracted to you. The level of that attraction, I am unsure of. I don’t really want either of us to ever find out.”

“Told you,”Val teased me.

I really didn’t think anything of Jack’s kindness towards me other than he was just looking out for me the way other men I trusted in my life did.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated again. “If I had known, I would have been more careful. I wouldn’t have invited him today.”

“Lira,” Lachlan stopped me, cupping the side of my face, looking down on me with that tender expression that makes me want to swoon. “I really hate you apologizing to me. You don’t have to. Ever. You tolerated a lot worse from me.”

“I didn’t really have a choice but to tolerate it,” I glared, muttering through clenched teeth.

“I know. That is why I don’t want you to apologize now. You were strapped to a bastard of a mate like me, and I was blessed with a beautiful, head-turning mate like you. If I were to get worked up every time a man fancies you, I would die at a young age from a heart condition or have a nervous breakdown.”

“Seriously?” I sputtered in my laughter, unable to maintain my previous glare. “You exaggerate.”

“I wish I was,” he muttered, then sighed, stroking my face with his thumbs, making sparks dance on my skin. “Do you hold any attraction for the pirate?”

I shook my head.

“I have never held any attraction to any man but you,” I admitted, though doing so made me blush.

A radiant smile spread on his face, making my knees feel weak.

“What was that? I didn’t hear you properly.”

“Oh, yes you did,” I swatted his hands away, unable to take any more of the sparks or tingles. I turned tail and started back for the castle, too embarrassed to face him again.

“Are you trying to run away from me right now?” He laughed, walking right next to me so he could bend to speak directly in my ear. “Where are you going, Lira.”

“This way,” I growled, “Don’t you have work to do?”

“Nilo has work to do. I have a beautiful mate who just confessed she is attracted to me. My only job today is to make sure she doesn’t change her mind.”

“You’re failing,” I snapped.

His hands snake around my waist, halting my escape as he pulls me back against him, burying his nose in my nape.

“I’m not. Admit that I’m not.”

“Never.” My voice is strained as I hold back my urge to laugh.

I’m not ready to admit it yet, but he’s right. He is not failing at anything at this very moment. Quite the opposite, really.

~

UNKNOWN

“I’m sorry, Lord Tenebris. I can not speak with any confidence about the situation in the South. My team of men never returned. Not one of them. No matter who or how many we send out, they get lost at sea each and every time.”

Intolerable scum. I have been waiting for the right moment to strike for far too long. This man promised me he could corrupt the pack from the inside, but he can’t even tell me the state the pack is in right now.

"You test me, Alpha Wayne. I thought you said you could pollute the integrity of the pack with your whorish niece?"

"I thought I could. His reputation is well known. And she was desirable and seductive enough, according to my men, but I haven't been able to check the status of her womb and if she has conceived the young alpha's heir yet. Without an heir, killing him would be useless to me. I couldn't take control of his pack without that claim."

A snarl vibrated through me. I had seen Alpha Wayne's niece. She was desirable. Far more desirable than I was expecting. I had heard of her mother and her exploits. I will only take the pure and unsullied to be my bride or I might have chosen the niece instead of the daughter when this all began. I don't want my heir to be tainted by the essence of other men. Plus, I wanted the more powerful of the two. The niece was born of a lowly warrior. The daughter was pure alpha.

When the niece was of age, she was sent to the south when my brute force was not enough to overtake the pack after years and years of trying. His plan was to have her impregnated by the young alpha, then end him so he could have a way to overtake the pack legally as her rightful guardian and the heir's only living male relative.