Page 25 of Forever My Siren Luna (The Hidden Cove #2)

“It didn’t before. This is a new addition. We’ve been hard at work getting this ready.”

“Ready for what?” I asked.

He just laughed, shaking his head. “I’m going to let your mate explain that, Ela. This was all planned by him.”

Val was pressed forward, eager to hear more. Cherum won’t share many more details about what this place is, but his eager grin has me just as excited. I just don't know what I'm excited about.

We passed several bedrooms, all identical and void of any furniture. The only reason I know they are bedrooms is because Cherum offered that information when I asked, though he won’t tell me who the bedrooms are for.

At the end of the hall is a massive bedroom, the only one furnished.

The bed is larger than the one currently in Lachlan’s room, or our room, as Val insists it still is.

The bedframe is carved from birchwood, fish scales carved into the headboard and footboard and loose, transparent fabric hanging from the canopy.

All the furniture in the room is similar, reminding me of the driftwood loitering all around the beach.

There are multiple adjoining rooms, but I’m too stunned to explore those.

The view of the ocean from this room is absolutely captivating, more so than the view from the bay window in our room.

“Whose room is this?” I asked, still gaping at the living image before me. The glittering water was shining brightly in the sunlight. I can see dolphins leaping out of the water, riding the currents of a ship moving into the harbor in the distance.

“It’s yours.”

I jump when hearing Lachlan’s voice. I didn’t realize he was there with us. I forgot I was looking for him for a moment.

He must have come from one of the rooms connected to this one, and when I looked behind him I saw a few men cleaning up tools around a stained glass window in a room that appeared to be a washroom.

I wonder if he just had the window installed.

It looks gorgeous with a depiction of the sea on a sunny day.

“Mine?” I asked. How is this mine? I didn’t even know this room existed. I didn’t know this wing of the castle existed.

“Well,” Lachlan looked nervous all of a sudden. “I, uh, had it built for us, but I can stay in our old room if you prefer. I had the blueprints for this planned out long before you left, so it was designed for both of us.”

“You built me an entire wing onto the castle?” I asked in shock.

He shrugs. “I wanted a fresh start with you in a space we could make our own. I was hoping to lay the ghost of the past to rest.”

“ Good. That’s what we want too,” Val cheered in my head.

“ Stop jumping the gun, Val. We haven’t talked to him yet.”

“Tell me you don’t want to. I can feel you do,” Val taunted me.

I can’t argue with her. After learning what really happened it’s hard for me to hold on to the idea that I hate Lachlan. I realized I never really hated him at all. A small part of me was still clinging to hope that everything wasn’t a lie with my mate in this life.

“Lachlan, can we talk?”

Cherum cleared his throat behind me, waving the workers towards him. “Let's give them some privacy.”

I smiled gratefully at my friend, but now that I have finally found Lachlan, I’m nervous about being alone with him. I am nervous about this conversation we are about to have.

“You’ll be okay, Lass. I’ll be out in the hall if you need me.”

Cherum must have sensed my anxiety. His hand on my shoulder before he leaves behind the workers helps to calm me a bit.

“What did you want to talk about, Lira?” Lachlan asked, his body tense, like he was nervous too.

What did I want to talk about? Where do I even start?

“ You could start by apologizing for biting his head off this morning when he didn’t do anything wrong,” Val offered.

“ I woke up almost naked beside him in bed!”

“Yeah, because of me. He wasn’t at fault.”

I hate Val logic sometimes. I kind of still wanted to be petty and blame Lachlan for last night, but she’s right. Lachlan really wasn’t at fault.

“I think I owe you an apology for last night,” I murmured, wringing my hands together. “I was the one who acted out. Well, mostly Val, but I sure didn’t help. We shouldn’t have blamed you for the way I woke up. I’m sorry.”

“Lira,” Lachlan took a hesitant step towards me, “You really don’t have to apologize for that. To tell you the truth, I was relieved you sought me out in that state and not someone else.”

My goodness, I made a fool of myself. “I’m so embarrassed. I never get drunk. Beretta must have spiked my drink with her herbs.”

“Herbs?” Lachlan questioned me. “Does she do that often?”

I shrug. “Not without me knowing. I have trouble sleeping sometimes and she offers the herbs to me in tea. I had never really taken them with alcohol before.”

“You still have trouble sleeping?”

“Still?” My brows pulled down in confusion.

“You often had trouble sleeping before, Lira. That’s why I insisted on holding you every night. The bond you felt when I touched you seemed to soothe whatever was troubling you.”

I didn’t know that. That explains why I always felt the urge to miss my mate when trying to fall asleep at night. That was when my mind would drift towards him the most. I tried to cover up missing him with resentment, but now I know better.

“I didn’t know,” I repeated my inner thoughts.

“I thought the night terrors started after leaving here.” I feel relieved to know that they didn’t stem from what happened with Lachlan before I ran away.

I thought that he broke me. It’s a relief to hear I was already broken and he was just trying to heal me the entire time in the only way he could.

“No,” Lachlan shook his head. “They started our first night together. Scared me. I thought you were allergic to my kisses or something,” he tries to joke.

My face heated at the memory. “I am not. I think we have proven that over our time together.”

“That we did,” he chuckled dryly.

An awkward silence filled the room for several seconds, neither one of us knowing what to say.

“Is… is that all you wanted to talk about? Sorry is something you never have to say to me, so don’t worry about last night.

I really didn’t mind.” Lachlan smiled softly.

“It really did make me happy to have you back, even under those circumstances and knowing you would be upset with me in the morning.”

He was happy to have me wake up and yell at him, laying the blame on him?

“No,” I whispered softly. “That wasn’t all I wanted to talk about. I just don’t know where to start.”

He thought for a moment. “Do you want to talk about us?” He asked hesitantly.

I nodded in response.

“About what happened before?”

I nodded again.

He breathed deeply. “I regret that day so much. I wanted to go back to you in our room. I wanted to be with you and make sure you were okay, but I was covered in blood after taking down Alpha Waynes men, and stunk of them. Blood isn’t the only thing to come out of a man as he is being tortured.

I didn’t want you to see me like that. Not ever.

I was resting in my office to work through all I had learned when that…

.that whore found me sleeping. I really didn’t do anything with her, Lira.

She kissed me and I woke up. I was about to throw her out by her throat when you walked in. ”

One question keeps ringing in my head.

“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.”