Page 18 of Forever My Siren Luna (The Hidden Cove #2)

Elelira

Last night was a blur. I never get drunk, but Cherum fed me a few of his special coffees before we headed to town, and then Lady Vera insisted on giving me free drinks all night to celebrate my coming back.

I wonder how I got back to bed? Cherum was there, and Val was on alert, so I'm sure everything was fine.

Stretching in bed, feeling well-rested, despite my hazy night, I stop when my hand lands on something hard and warm, and sparks shoot up my arm.

My eyes fly open, and there he is. Lachlan. Sleeping bare-chested in the bed we used to share.

He’s bare-chested, because I’m in the bastard’s shirt. Just his shirt. The scent of him is so overwhelming it made my entire body buzz.

“What the hell?” I muttered, backing away from him as far as I could, taking the sheet with me.

He still has on his pants, thank heavens, but his chest is completely bare.

Val stirs awake in my head, and when she sees our mate through my eyes, she growls furiously, not just in my head but out loud through me, making Lachlan startle.

His head lifts, turning in my direction, then slowly his eyes begin to open until he sees me crouched defensively at the corner of the bed.

“Lira?” He mumbles, his voice deep and thick with sleep, but still so full of affection.

I snarl again, my mind racing as I try to figure out how I got here. At the sound, his eyes flew open, surprise and panic filling his expression.

“Lira,” he breathes, “Shit. I thought I was dreaming.”

“What am I doing here?” I snapped.

“It’s not what you think. I….I didn’t….I mean,” he groaned, pushing himself up in bed.

“Cherum brought you back to the packhouse late last night. Val….Val took over and sounded drunk. She demanded I brush her hair and then shifted. She passed out and when you shifted back….you wouldn’t let go of me.

I’m sorry. I tried to pass you to Cherum, but you bit him when he tried to take you. ”

“ Val?” I snarled at her in my head.

I can feel her guilt and know Lachlan is telling the truth. “ I….I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me,” she admits.

I do. Beretta. She snuck her herbal concoction in one of my drinks, I’m sure. It wouldn’t be the first time. She gives it to me sometimes to help me sleep, since alcohol doesn’t affect me easily.

“Why am I in your shirt?” I murmured, hugging the sheet tightly around my body.

He looks guilty, pink hues showing through the scruff on his face. “You were naked when you shifted back, Lira. We tried to get you in a dress but you told the maids to leave you alone. My shirt was all you would accept.”

My anger was building, but Val just felt guilty and ashamed. “ It wasn’t just me,” she muttered. “ You were the one who wouldn’t let him go.”

Crap. It was all that talk with Cherum yesterday that got me reminiscing about the past, I’m sure. I can’t believe I ended up in his bed the first night back.

Looking around the room, I noticed that everything was as it was before. He didn’t change a thing. All my trinkets and belongings are exactly where I left them. Even my mother's slippers and overcoat rested on top of the chair I used to sit on and stare out at the ocean.

I used to long to run away and make the ocean my home again when I first woke up back in this life. I found a way to do that, even without my fins. The ability to unlock my magic was lost to me with the loss of my necklace, but I still found refuge in the sea through Jack.

As I looked back over to Lachlan, a number of venomous things brewing in my head to say to him, I noticed that very necklace around his neck, resting on his chest.

Without thinking, I moved forward to touch it, not noticing what I had done until Lachlan’s sudden intake of breath caused me to look up at him, noticing our faces were just a short distance away from one another.

I hurried to scoot back, looking at him accusingly.

“That’s my necklace.”

His hand moves to touch the place my fingers just were. He’s biting his lips, his muscles flexed tight. I realize Killian is shining in his eyes, likely pushing to the surface and Lachlan is trying to hold him back.

“You left it behind,” he whispered roughly, clenching the pendent in his fist.

“How did you come to have it, though? I left it on an island far outside of the pack’s trading routes.”

“Cedric,” Lachlan said. His body relaxes as he gets full control over Killian again. “He followed the magic there. We had men posted there waiting for your return, but you never came.”

I narrowed my eyes on him. “I want it back.”

Sighing, he reaches around his neck and pulls the necklace from around him, reaching out to hand it to me.

“I was just keeping it until your return. Here.”

I slowly took it from his hands, staring at the pendant and tracing my fingers against the delicate jewels.

“It was your mother’s,” Lachlan tells me as I continue to examine the familiar piece of jewelry that seemed like my lifeline not too long ago.

“How do you know that?” I don’t remember my mother ever having this necklace or anything like it for that matter. As I try to think about her with a necklace like this, though, some of my memories become hazy, like I’m not seeing the full picture in my mind.

“Your father told me after Cedric brought it back. He gave it to your mother in your first life so she could call for him if she needed him or changed her mind.”

“Changed her mind about what?”

His long silence caused me to look up at him again.

He looks nervous about telling me. “Do you want me to tell you, or would you rather hear it from him?”

My brow furrowed. “Is it something you don’t want to tell me, like how you didn’t want to tell me you’re the same bastard that hurt me before?”

“Lira,” he groaned, raking his hands through his hair.

“I wanted to tell you. From the moment I saw you walk down the aisle at our wedding and I realized you remembered everything too, I wanted to just fall at your feet and beg you to forgive me. I couldn’t.

Everytime I tried, my throat would close up. ”

I remember instances where it seemed like he was having trouble speaking, like the night I asked him if he knew we were mates and questioned him about knowing my father.

“Where there's a will, there's a way,” I stubbornly mumbled.

“I wish there was,” he huffed, “If I broke the contract your father was going to have you taken from me and hidden away until you turned of age.”

“Is that why he sent Cedric? To take me away if need be?”

He nodded. “I had no choice in anything concerning telling you, Lira. I always wanted to.”

It makes sense. Cedric was never his biggest fan. That seems to have changed over the time I was away. Cedric was quick to step up and take blame away from Lachlan yesterday.

“You just didn’t want your pack to suffer without their fated Luna. That’s the only reason for all this. You hated me until you knew who I was. That's why you were willing to sleep with me, to mark me and keep me here.”

“No,” Lachlan sat up straighter, inching closer to me.

“I wanted to mark you so I could tell you the truth, to fulfill the conditions of the contract! I love you, and wanted to tell you everything. I never hated you. I hated myself for not hating you. I thought….” He pressed his lips together, hesitating.

“I thought you were sent here to entrap me. You were already 18 and your uncle promised you were a pure Lycan alpha female. I desired you so much it scared me, because you were already 18 and I thought I knew you weren’t my mate. ”

“I tried to tell you,” I hissed at him. “I tried so many times!”

“You did. I remember,” he nodded. “I even remember the look on your beautiful face the first time I saw you as you were walking towards me.

I saw the infatuation there. Combined with your beauty, it stunned me, making me think instantly you were a trap.

You were gripping your uncle's hand as you walked to meet me with this expectant look and he had that evil sneer. I truly thought you were bewitched. I knew no woman could be as beautiful as you and just want me like that. My pull to you was so strong even without the mate bond that it scared me. I had to stay away from you or I would have given in.”

Val grumbled, not liking his excuse.

“You didn’t always stay away. I gave up, resolved to leave after I could, but then you started to show your face just to torment me.”

“I know.” He looked down guiltily. “I was horrible to you.”

“Why?” My voice sounded like a plea; a desperate cry for answers.

His eyes looked haunted as they met mine. “You changed.”

I scoffed. “A year of betrayal will do that to a person.”

“Yeah,” he groaned, raking a hand down his face.

“I didn’t know that at the time. I had just gotten back from clearing the threat from the North and…

..Lira, you were all I thought about. The whole time I was fighting, I was praying the threat wouldn’t reach you and that you were okay.

I came back and went to see if you were alright, only you couldn’t even bear to be in the same room as me.

You openly avoided me. I wanted to check on you, but you no longer wanted an audience with me.

My pride and anger grew with my frustration.

It’s no excuse for what I did to you or how I treated you, but if I had known of the mate bond… .”

“What? What would have changed? Even if you didn’t know I was your mate, I was still a living creature that was left in your care. No one should be treated the way I was.”

“I know,” he hung his head. Seeing how my confession and his own are affecting him; seeing the hurt on his face makes my heart pang in my chest. “I’m sorry, Lira. I am so eternally sorry for what I’ve done.”

My lip begins to quiver, but I look away, not willing to cry in front of him. The bastard has seen enough of my tears.

“Get out,” I whispered when I knew my voice wasn’t in danger of breaking.

He lifted his head to stare at me.