Page 51 of Forever My Siren Luna (The Hidden Cove #2)

Jack

I’m pacing in front of the damned armory, a trail forming in the dirt from the hours I have spent here, walking up and down the same few feet of shadowed walkway, waiting to hear some news about the party that left early yesterday morning to check the borders of this pack.

The party that had left with my crew mate.

The maddening woman did not even bother to ask me if I was bothered by her leaving with the group of men or not.

Mostly, if not entirely, unmated men. All of whom I'm sure would jump at the chance to keep her warm at night.

Lucky was the one who found me at the bar to tell me, and I almost wrung his neck at the time. I want to wring someone out now for allowing such disrespect.

Who does she think she is, just abandoning me like this? With several unmated men at that.

“ You were the asshole who drove her away,” Oisin grumbles, annoyed with me more than anyone else.

“ By doing what the woman told me to do! How was I to know she would act this way?”

“She’s a woman. A woman who professed feelings for you.”

“She professed feelings for my body,” I tried to argue.

“ You know that is now true. The woman may be sexy as sin, and as lithe as a panther, but you know as well as I that she didn’t offer what she put on display freely to anyone the way she did with you.

You ran from a good thing straight to someone who was never going to accept you.

You knew the hybrid princess would never accept you too.

She never even noticed you, but that beauty that trapped you in your bed did.

You should have trapped her right back the moment you woke up with her. ”

Oisin was fuming as he ranted. I sould almost feel the steam inside my head.

My teeth ground together with fury. “You wanted Ela as much as I thought I did.”

“Of course I did. That was until I saw what a lost cause trying to claim her would be. You have eyes. You see what she is like with her mate. Her Alpha mate. An Alpha mate with the largest free pack in the land; a pack that is thriving, despite its constant wars. Even if he was a lesser man and Lycan, she has never looked at you with a fraction of the emotion she looked at with him. My attraction to her was different from what I felt when you awoke next to Beretta. You even felt different after that. Don’t lie to me and tell me otherwise,” Oisin said, almost sounding desperate in his rant to convince me.

I need no convincing. I know it was different. Ela is a beauty. Exceptionally so. That is for sure. I have encountered many beauties in my days, so I know that was not what first drew me to her.

It was the power I felt and smelled seeping out of her very being. She was a prize. I’m ashamed now to admit it, and it flares my thirst from the guilt, but I saw Ela as something to be attained. She was the grand prize in a game I thought I was playing, trying to win her affection.

With Beretta, it felt different. I felt in her touch how different the attraction I was denying was.

Now, the blasted woman is gone to who knows where, doing who knows what with who knows who.

I kicked the dirt under my feet, my body itching with the need for a drink, but Beretta threw my flask and I wasn’t able to fetch it.

I refuse to leave this spot without hearing word from the pack’s men that Beretta is safe and on her way back.

I'll wait here all blasted night if I have to.

I'll wait here for days. However long it takes.

Two warriors just then passed by, snickering to themselves, not noticing me in the shadow of the building.

“Praise be to our Luna,” one chuckled. “Training getting canceled because she finally allowed our Alpha to mate her is making this to be the start of a good day.”

“Aye. A good day indeed.”

“An especially good day for our Alpha,” the one laughed.

“The maids that passed by the new wing of the castle last night said they could hear the two going at it from the courtyard. They must have left a window open or something. The Delta had to restrict access to that area to offer them their privacy.”

“We are all like that at the start. Nothing to be secretive about,” the one warrior snickered. “When I first claimed my mate, I think everyone on my block knew. No closed window was keeping that a secret.”

“This isn’t a secret either. Every person in the territory will know that our Luna and Alpha are finally one. Just like after their marriage, Alpha sent that envoy to every corner to declare the Luna his rightful fated mate. I’d put money on him doing the same again.”

“I wonder if he will try to hold a festival to celebrate their mating like he tried to for their marriage.”

“Goddess, I hope not. I barely slept that week during the preparations, but then it was all in vain.”

Their voices faded as they continued on their way.

So Ela and the Alpha came together as one? Is it weird that it doesn’t even bother me hearing that she is now mated, though not even 24 hours had passed since I tried to proclaim my desire to be her mate.

I’m more agitated that the warriors weren’t speaking of their damned Beta and where he currently was with my Beretta.

My Beretta….

I have never referred to her in such a way before, but that feels more right than any time I ever said “my Ela’. There was a tingling, tightening in my chest at the thought of calling her my Beretta.

“ Not your Beretta if you don’t fix what you did the last time you met. She looked done with you. She called you pathetic,” Oisin reminded me.

“ I was pathetic,” I admitted. “ I feel as if I’ve been pathetic for some time, and she was just the first one to call me on it.” She was the first person of consequence to call me on anything. I just wasn’t willing to hear anything she had to say out of fear that she was right.

Suddenly, all the lights in the barracks seemed to light almost simultaneously, rushed movement behind every one of the windows. It caused me to stop my pacing and stare, wondering what the sudden fuss was about.

Those two warriors claimed training was canceled, so I know it’s not that.

The Gamma was the first one I saw rush out of the barracks, running to the stables with just trousers on, not even fastened all the way. The siren knight that always follows Ela around all day, who loathes me, was quick to chase after him.

I don’t know what drove me, but I suddenly knew I needed to follow after the men. Something seemed wrong. Something that had Oisin prowling anxiously inside me, waiting on the surface to burst forth.

A warrior in full gear, much like the gear my men would wear to protect their human forms on long rides through potentially dangerous lands, came bursting through the castle gates, his horse sweaty with snotty moisture dripping from his snout.

He came to a sudden stop right beside the Gamma, the horse rearing back, not having properly cooled off after being driven hard for a long time.

Whatever was going on, I could sense that it was not good. Not good at all.

“Are you sure!?” The Gamma yelled, holding the reins to keep the horse steady. “ARE YOU SURE?!”

“Yes, Gamma,” the warrior panted, out of breath. “As I said in the mind link, I fear it might already be too late. Beta Nilo did not have the force needed to hold them back.”

“Hold who back?” The siren asked, looking worried, but as confused as I felt.

“Who was it?” The Gamma demanded. “Vampire? Orks?”

“Worse, sir.” The warrior’s face looked grim.

Gamma Meldec’s eyes grew large. “You don’t mean….?”

The warrior hesitated before nodding his head, looking forlorn and defeated by whatever they were speaking about.

“Blazes, would either of you share what on earth is happening?! What the hell is wrong?” The siren knight stomped his foot, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

Meldec shook his head, looking horrified for a moment. He gulped nervously, his eyes flickering about like he was working something out in his head.

“The demons. The ones from the northernmost colony. That is what you are telling me, is it not?” The gamma looked at the warrior one last time.

“It is,” the warrior looked overcome with fear. “It’s a miracle I made it out to deliver this message to you. Beta Nilo tried to send-” The warrior seemed to just notice me, a panicked expression crossing his face.

Gamma Meldec furrowed his brows, looking from me to the warrior. The siren looked annoyed by my presence, but urged the warrior to continue on.

“Out with it,” he snapped.

The warrior recoiled, but continued.

“The girl. Miss Beretta. He commanded her to leave with me, right at the start of the fight. He had to command her because she refused at first.” He pressed his lips together, making the most broken expression. “She was captured first. Like I said, it is a miracle I escaped. No one else did.”

Oisin snarled furiously through me. Not my Beretta. Not her.

Pathetic doesn’t come close to describing how tormented I will forever be if I lose her too.

~

Beretta

It happened as we were resting by the campfire, enjoying the start of our dinner of jerked beef and dried fish with crackers.

One of the men had picked wild herbs while collecting firewood, and one of the towns we had passed through had offered the Beta jared vegetable stew for our dinner.

We were waiting for that to heat up over the fire, and the kettle of wild chamomile and mint tea to brew.

The day had been interesting. I would even go so far as to describe it as fun, though riding all day was hard on the body.

I got to see the outskirts of the pack’s territory, and it truly was a magnificent place.

The beauty of the land inward matched the beauty of the sea.

The lush greenery and fields of wildflowers were vibrant with wildlife.

Deer and elk were in abundance, not even scared of our movements as we passed through.

The towns were picturesque and added to the scenery instead of taking away from the natural wonder of it all.