Page 19 of Forever My Siren Luna (The Hidden Cove #2)
“I need to get ready. Get out.” I can’t sit here like this with him any longer. The mate bond is pulling me towards him, demanding I comfort him, but I know better. Val is becoming affected by it too, and we need some space to think.
“Okay,” he whispered. “I’ll send Niomi in to help you.”
I can dress on my own, but I want to see her so I don’t object.
“I’m so sorry, Lira. I truly am.” With that, he leaves me to contemplate all that has been said.
“ Prove it ,” Val mumbles in my head, but most of the venom is missing in her tone.
“ I think he’s trying,” I admitted. “ I just don’t know if I’m ready to try anymore too.”
~
Lachlan
“ That was brutal,” Killian mumbled.
“ That’s better than I expected her to be.
” At least she didn’t slit my throat. I think if she tried to physically hurt me it might hurt less than seeing how badly my mistreatment of her in our first lives affected her.
She was never open about it before. There were signs, but she never told me.
Now that everything's out in the open, she doesn’t have to hide her pain.
I lean against the wall across from our room for a few minutes, gathering my thoughts and settling my heart before I go and knock on Niomi’s door.
“Mimi?” I yelled to her after knocking, not hearing her moving around.
All of us have taken to calling her Mimi when addressing her, since it was the nickname she loves given to her by my wife. She asked us to do it herself.
I knock again, but there is still no answer. I’m about to mind link her, but then I hear her voice along with Cherum’s drifting down the hall. When I looked up, they were rounding the corner, Cherum carrying a large tray of food with one hand and a basket of linens in the other.
“Oh, Alpha,” Mimi rushed over to grip my hand with a warm smile on her aged face. “I heard that Luna is back. How wonderful. I told you. I told you that she would come back for you.”
“You did,” I returned her smile, though I didn’t feel it. I know Lira came back for many reasons, and being with me wasn’t one of them.
“Is she up?” Mimi asked with excitement.
“She is. She’s waiting for you.” I led her to the door, and Mimi practically started to skip alongside me.
“Oh, my dear Ela is back,” she squealed, then rapped on the door lightly.
“Come in,” Lira called, and opened the door for her.
She had already slipped out of my shirt and put on a thin skirt and a shirt of her own, both items meant to be worn under a dress in the winter, but it seemed Lira was wearing them as regular clothes now.
Pirate women do have a habit of wearing undergarments on the outside of other clothing.
I chose not to say anything when she met my staring with a mean glare.
“Oh, my Luna! My Ela!” Mimi wrapped her in a tight hug, and all Lira’s aggression disappeared instantly as she hugged the woman back.
Cherum slipped around them to set the tray on a table, then he kissed both women on the cheek before excusing himself to carry the basket of linen to Mimi’s room.
Mimi probably wants to have them pressed to change the sheets in my bed.
I haven’t changed them since Lira left, and it's one of the things she has been wanting to fix.
Lira throws me one last glare before Cherum closes the door. I try to keep a friendly appearance, but it still hurts being hated so severely by the one you love most.
After Cherum deposits the basket and comes to stand by me in the hall, he eyes me up and down.
“You look a mess, Alpha. Scruffy.”
“Do I?” I didn’t even think of my appearance. I was woken up by growling, then thrown out before I had a chance to.
“Aye. You look better rested than in a long time. The bags aren’t so heavy under your eyes. But you should shower and shave today. And one more thing.”
“What?”
He looked around the hall, making sure no one else is there, then motions with his fingers for me to come closer. I do, curious about what this is about.
"You should fix that bruise on your face too."
"What bruise?"
WHACK
“Mother fucker,” I snarled, grabbing my jaw and lunging for my Delta, who just punched me right in the face. “What the hell?!”
We rolled on the round for a second, Cherum holding his own longer than I expected before I had him pinned.
“Why the fuck did you do that?!”
“You deserved it!”
“For what?!”
He snarled, trying to buck me off him. I could sense whatever rage he had was dying down so I let him up, not wanting Lira to come out into the hall and see him pinned under me, even if he did deserve it.
“She told me, you cotton headed bastard.”
“Told you what? Who?”
“Your wife!” Cherum snapped, getting right in my face. “She told me. Everything! How alone she was. Did you know she had to wash her own laundry in that rocky stream far behind the packhouse? Did you know she was starving, and all alone?”
I didn’t know about the laundry, but I could have guessed the rest. I knew. I didn’t tell the pack to openly mistreat her, but everyone was wary of her because of my neglect and where she came from.
“Where was I, Lachlan?”
“Lachlan?” Killian snarled at him through me.
“Don’t give me that, alpha nonsense right now. I’m not talking to my alpha. I’m talking to my childhood friend. Now, where the hell was I? Why was I not there for my Luna?”
I don’t want to answer this. It would only hurt him to know he was guilty along with everyone else.
“I didn’t feel the bond, Cherum. I didn’t know she was my Luna, so you didn’t either.”
“I hate this,” he hissed, “I hate all of this for her. She went through too much, you bastard.”
“I know she did.” I can’t deny it. She went through hell, and it started with me.
“You fix it, Lachlan. That woman still loves you. She is fighting it, but seeing her last night; hearing her confess it herself…..” He shakes his head. “You fix this. Not for yourself. For her.”
“I am. I will.” I would give up my very life if I had to.
“Good.” He pulled down his shirt, smoothing out the wrinkles and took a couple of steadying breaths. “If she leaves you, I leave with her.”
I smiled sadly. “I expect no less.”
“Then we understand each other?”
“Clear as day,” I confirmed.
He nodded, huffing and looking down at his feet before looking back at me. “How's your jaw, Alpha?”
I rub it, flexing it to see.
“ He punches like a pansy,” Killian snickered. “ Mate hits harder.”
That makes me laugh out loud, causing Cherum to give me a look. “My wife packs a better punch.”
“No joke,” Cherum chuckled. “She got a few hits in on me last night too.”
“We should enlist her into warrior training.” It would be nice to see her with me and my men in the mornings and she said she had come back to fight. I doubt I could ever let her be in actual harm’s way, though. I just like the idea of wrestling with her.
“I don’t know if we have any who could be a fair match with her Lycan. Val seemed to be on your level, Alpha. She’s a fierce creature.”
“She was fierce as she climbed onto the ship, but last night all drunk, demanding I brush her after licking me, she was like a giant puppy.”
He chuckled darkly, “That giant puppy has a hobby of killing Wayne’s warriors.”
“What? Lira wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Flies have more value than the vermin she kills. Slaughtered was actually the verb Beretta used.”
“ Our mate is magnificent,” Killian purred.
She is, but it is still hard for me to imagine my Lira slaughtering anyone.
I rub my hand down my face while trying to imagine it, and then give up. She can be fierce, but she is still my tiny little mate. I would have to see it to believe it.
I sigh, feeling the stubble on my face, deciding to go to the warrior’s washroom to get cleaned up.
“Stay with Lira until she is ready and then escort her to the great hall.”
“For what?” Cherum asked.
“We have a meeting with her father.” Hopefully it doesn’t turn into a repeat of yesterday on the docks. “I need to go get ready and find Cedric. Tell Lira of the plans and if she doesn’t want to meet him or be there, don’t push her.”
“You got it, Alpha,” Cherum moves to the bedroom door.
“And… Cherum?”
He turned to stare at me.
“Thank you.”
He smirked. “I knock you upside the head anytime you want, Lachlan.”
“Eh, you hit like a girl,” I snorted, before walking off to get ready for the next hurdle with my mate.