Page 55 of Forever My Siren Luna (The Hidden Cove #2)

My uncle, the vile man whose death has been my goal, is standing before me, on the shores where just hours earlier I had wished my loved one goodbye.

My thoughts were already such a mess before this, wracked with grief and raw emotion. Seeing him is like putting salt on an open wound.

“ We can kill him,” Val snarled, “ We can tear his repulsive body to shreds.”

She was pushing forward, ready to take the lead, but then several of my uncle’s warriors rounded the bend of the cliffs, coming from the place I used to wash my laundry and bathe.

It was the place Beretta and I first walked the Hidden Cove shores together, sparring to release some of the fury that was pooling inside me on my return home.

Those rocky grounds surrounding where the freshwater ran into the salty sea have always been a place of turmoil for me. In a way, it is fitting that that is where my uncle and his men would emerge. Though it is a mystery how they got to be there in the first place.

“What are you doing here, Alpha Wayne?” I tried to keep my voice steady, devoid of any emotion.

“Alpha Wayne?” He snickered. “I was like a father to you. The only father figure you have known. You simply address me as Alpha Wayne ?”

I hold my head higher, choosing not to respond.

There are so many choice names I would rather be calling him, but now is not the time to use them.

Not when I am clueless as to why he is here.

How he is here. Our navy and the pirates patrol the bay and the surrounding sea.

He couldn’t have sailed here. Did he come by land? The borders are patrolled as well.

Except…

The demon attack. Was that orchestrated by him? Does he have the pull to even summon demons to our borders on his whim? Is he that desperate for our lands? Or people?

What would one have to trade to be given the ability to consort with demons? Do I even want to know?

“Is that young Alpha husband of yours here?” Wayne’s condescending tone made my skin crawl. He looked around, almost mockingly, and his men were snickering behind him. “I’ve come to discuss the-,” he eyes me with contemplative arrogance, “terms of our alliance.”

“What terms would those be?” I dared to ask. I'm trying to keep my breaths even, my anxiety and Val's temper under control.

His eyes rest pointedly on my belly, then he meets my gaze with raised brows.

“It seems as if the pubescent alpha is not keeping to his end of the deal. Why are you not yet with child, my dear niece? I see the mark on your neck. Is he the one thwarting his duties, or are you as defiant as your mother, refusing to conceive a usable heir?”

Usable heir? Was he using my mother to try and trap other prominent beings into a similar alliance as this?

Is that why my mother hid who my birth father truly was for my entire life? To save his kingdom from my uncle’s acrimonious deeds?

“My husband is still well within the terms of the alliance, Alpha Wayne,” I tried to keep my measured tone, “You gave a term of two years. It is just yet now the completion of one of those two years you allotted him.”

“Ah, but that is not enough anymore. You see, things have changed. The terms should change. My forces are dying, and I doubt your young husband has the ability to come to my aid. Not while he will be needing someone to come to his. Since I can see his side of the deal has yet to be fulfilled, and I need a stronger alliance of my own, I came to negotiate new terms, or to confiscate what I brought into this arrangement. Since he has given nothing, and I am the only one losing in this deal, I think the time has come for you to return home where I can put you to better use.” His smile is wicked.

"That mate mark could still be useful before the contract is broken. "

Val snarled viciously through me, causing my uncle’s men, who were just cackling and whispering vile things among themselves, to stagger back. My uncle’s eyes go wide in alarm, and then a vicious smile grows on his face.

“Seems you’ve grown some claws since becoming the war mouger’s bride.” He then rolled and cracked his neck. “Even my beast perked at your kitten’s growl.”

Val was steaming, pushing firmly against the surface from his insult. I’m reaching out with my mind, about to summon help as he continues to speak.

“I suggest you retract those claws for now. Your…. little friends may thank you for your cooperation.”

“Friends?” I looked at him in alarm. I had touched Cherum’s mind, but retracted as unease sank further inside of me. His question and concern were raised, waiting for me to reach back out, but I closed the link completely a second later as fear overcame me.

Another warrior with a blood red stripe down his sleeve came around the corner with two bodies slung over his shoulder, both little bodies wiggling and fighting their restraints, but no match for the bulking warrior holding them in place.

Wesley and Riley both had strips of cloth, their own shirts, by the looks of it, tied tightly around their mouths. Riley looked scared, his eyes overflowing with tears, but Westley was letting little growls and snarls rip out of his chest, barely audible with the gag and the raging waves.

“I was wondering how I could persuade you to leave the confines of the castle walls. Lucky for me, these boys were wandering the creek nearby. The goddess must be looking down on me, because here you are, just minutes later.” He laughed and the men cackled behind him.

All of them are looking expectantly at me, their filthy eyes degrading, and I know I can not allow any of them to harm those boys.

They would. They would kill them in a second if I gave them reason.

“You come peacefully with us, and I’ll allow these two little ones to go back home where they can remain safe and at peace, for now.

” He threw a metal collar towards me. It lands heavily on the sand.

My blood turns cold knowing exactly what the collar is.

“Put that on if you wish to save their lives.”

“How do I know you won’t kill them the moment I do?” I asked with maddened worry. Even Val was still inside my mind, both our eyes trained on those little feet kicking and dangling from the warrior's shoulders.

“You don’t,” My uncle shruged, “but you can be sure that if you don’t, those two boys will die, and we will take you anyway, using any means necessary.”

Val snapped into action, calling on Cherum and our guard, praying they can make it here soon…..

Because we have no choice. We are going with him. I bent to grab the collar, the weight of it scorching my hands. Once this is on me, Val will be contained, and there will be no call for help from either of us then.

Cherum stirred frantically in the mind link, his voice screaming for my location. He can feel me. I felt him hurrying back towards the castle, but he was in the town with Percy still, seeing to Mimi’s remains.

The alarm bell, deep and lumbering, echoed in the stormy sky, and a sea of frenzy can be heard above the cliffs, warriors and guards coming to my aid, no doubt at Cherum’s command.

My uncle snarled in frustration.

“THEY DIE!”

“Wait!” Stepped forward as the warrior threw the boys to the ground, another stepping forward with a blade raise. “I’ll come! I'll go with you! Just let them go!”

Wayne looked above the cliff then back at me.

“Five seconds, Elelira,” my uncle snarled, nodding toward the collar.

Cherum is still bellowing in my head, Val snarling and growling for him to hurry, but as I fasten the collar in place, my head goes silent. I am utterly alone with this mad man with all his cruelty, trusting his word that he will take me and leave the boys in one piece.

The chaos of Hidden Cove guards is growing louder, they have made their way upshore to the beach, but still too far to see me and the doom I'm facing.

My uncle came forward and grabbed my wrist, jerking me with him and telling his men to hurry and leave the boys.

Westley’s eyes met mine as I was dragged away. The ache I see in him is all for me. I can feel it is, but there is no way for me to ease his pain and reassure him I will be okay.

I will probably not be okay, but I couldn’t let them die as their lives have barely begun.

Suddenly, my chest throbs from the outside, reassuring sparks dancing on my skin. The magic of my father is seeping through me.

My necklace. My father's necklace and its magic is seeping into my heart, welling inside of me like the day I can run away.

~

Lachlan

This was different. Different from anything I have experienced in war before, and I have been in a lot of battles. More battles than you could possibly count.

This isn’t a battle. Not yet. We’re just waiting.

Waiting for the ball to drop. Waiting for them to make a move.

If we make the move as things are right now, we will do more than cause more bloodshed on our side.

That is the way of war. You wait for your opponent to attack first. We have never had to wait before.

No one is attacking. No one is invading.

When we rode to the place where my warrior last saw my Beta, the demons were already just waiting on the other side of our border, watching but not attacking.

They were merely looking over the rocky landscape, waiting for us to arrive.

I’ve never faced an enemy like this. What are they waiting for?

The warriors who had departed with Nilo were torn to pieces, their bodies ripped apart along the bloody landscape.

Evidence of the battle coated the ground all across our packland.

The monstrous tracks of retreat ran back over the border.

They came to attack then, but now they are keeping their distance. It doesn't make sense.