Page 57 of Forever My Siren Luna (The Hidden Cove #2)

Beretta

“She’s coming to,” a female voice hissed quietly somewhere nearby. My entire body is aching. My jaw is throbbing. My head feels fuzzy, but then I hear my beast muttering softly in my head, whimpering as she tries to heal the worst of my body.

I quickly remember why my body hurts so badly and my eyes fly open, expecting another attack. Instead, I find a wet, cold room, large but cluttered with rusty dank cages.

In each cage are women of all nationalities, some fae, some lycan or were, and even a few humans among the mix. All of them looked scared shitless and worn for wear. I can only imagine the shit they had been through after what I endured upon getting to this hellhole, wherever in blazes it is.

There are several women out of cages, looking better off even though they still look terrified. Most of the free women are cuddled in a corner on top of a stained mattress, but two women are hovering over me, worry on their faces instead of fear.

One of them, a young red-head with eyes that remind me of someone else, is holding a metal collar like the one that was forced on me during the attack.

Wait…

My hands reached up to my throat to discover it empty. That is the collar that was on my neck. My blood is coating the thing, dripping from the crude edge. My neck and jaw feel raw, new flesh forming over a fresh wound. A wound my Lycan is healing, since she is free to do so now.

“It’s okay. Your beast should heal you now that this is off,” the redhead coos, running her free hand over my head.

She tossed the collar across the room, making a couple of the caged girls scream and flinch away from the harsh noise.

“Your jaw was already broken, but we had to dislocate it more to get the collar over your head. Be careful not to move your mouth too much until it’s healed.

We had to hold it in place for a while until it started to mend. ”

That’s why it hurts worse than any other part of my body. I thought for sure there would be greater wounds than my jaw, but these two women saved me from suffering the aftereffects of that torture.

I’ve suffered worse. I’ve endured more. It made me stronger, and this time it will be no different.

The other woman, a beautiful elvish or fairy girl with dark hair, brings me a ladle of water, and gingerly helps me to sip the lukewarm fluid so I don’t injure my jaw.

Now that I’m awake, my beast is working hard to heal the last of my injuries, and soon I have the ability to speak again.

“Thank you,” I muttered in a hoarse voice. “If you hadn’t gotten that thing off me, I would have woken up so much worse off.”

The two women looked relieved. They probably expected me to be scared like all the other women in this room.

That's not going to happen. I will be fighting until the end.

“It was her that suggested breaking your jaw more,” the red-headed girl pointed to a cage close by with a woman who seemed familiar.

No, she didn’t seem familiar. She was familiar.

“Are you…”

She smiled sadly. “I recognize you too. From the Western Shores Pack? Alpha Wayne?”

I nodded, my heart constricting to see someone familiar here. I didn’t know her name, and never was I allowed to speak to her or any other warriors’ mates, but I did recognize her as being one. Her mate was in the same platoon as mine.

“How did you get here?” I asked.

She shrugged, but the action looked forced.

“No mate, no use for me. My mate was sent on a sea voyage and never returned. Many men disappeared at sea. I felt it the moment he died, and made the mistake of trying to go back home to my family.” Her eyes looked lost for a moment before she continued.

“I was captured and called a traitor. Myself and a couple others like me were sent to this place as tribute, along with Alpha Wayne’s daughter. ”

This surprised me. “He sent his own daughter as a tribute to demons?”

“No,” she shook her head. “He sent her to become his bride.”

“Whose?” I asked, looking around the room when many of the women began to cry. “Whose bride? What is this place?”

The redheaded woman spoke up when it was clear the woman from my old pack didn’t have the answers. “Lord Tenebris.” Her voice was soft, full of hesitation. It was as if the mere name could hurt her. “He’s-he’s the ruler of this place.”

“And what is this place?” I urged her to continue.

Her eyes met mine, and I can tell how grave this situation is. How close to hell I truly am. “This is the hive of the dark fae and the breeding grounds for demons. Lord Tenebris spawns them here. He and-and that alpha, Alpha Wayne, have an agreement between them.”

That’s just like what Jack and Ela suspected.

“Jack was right,” I whispered, letting the information sink in, sorting everything out in my head.

“Jack?” the redhead tilted her face, staring at me curiously. She then sniffed me a few times, looking more distracted than before. “My brother, Jackson, used to go by Jack.”

I smiled solemnly at her. “Jack is a common name.”

I wonder if Jack is aware that I am missing right now.

I wonder if he is still too hung up on Ela and that lost cause to even care.

I could die tomorrow and he would still be chasing her, not noticing my absence at all.

He spent his days drinking and hiding from my nagging.

I’m in hell and he’s getting a break from my meddling.

No. I can’t think negatively right now. I will not wallow in self-pity. I need to get out of here. I need to find Nilo and get us out before those demons come back to finish me off.

“My brother was an alpha,” the redhead continues on, oblivious to my thoughts.

She looks lost in her thinking about the past. “Alpha Wayne destroyed our pack.” She lifted her face, her eyes focused on me with determination.

“I thought-I thought you smelled familiar. It’s like how he used to smell.

It’s faint, but you smell like my brother Jack. ”

Her eyes. I realize now why they looked familiar to me. They are the same as his. Jack’s. She had many other features that were the same as his too.

He thought all of his family was dead. He drank himself into a stupor every day because of his guilt. Here someone is with his eyes and the undertones of his scent, letting it be known that they are family. Now that my Lycan is aware, she can pick up on the scent much more than before.

I looked around at all the other women in this room.

They are all someone’s sister, or daughter, or maybe even mother.

How many other crew members do I have that might be missing someone in this very room right now?

I met a woman I haven’t seen in years again, who was once in similar circumstances as me.

If I had stayed with my mate instead of rejecting him on a full moon and running away, I could be sitting in a cage just like hers, having suffered far more than I already have.

I leaned up, reaching around the redheaded girl’s neck. It burnt my hands, and made my beast howl at her expended strength, but I managed to tear off the lock holding the thinner collar in place.

She gasped, reaching up for her neck and rubbing the rough skin. Her eyes immediately began to glow, her beast pressing forward, probably for the first time since her capture. If she had been here since Jack’s pack was destroyed, it would have been years.

Tears began to stream down her face. A choked mewling sound fell from her lips, pressed together by the rush of her freedom and the emotions that brought her.

The other woman has a similar thin collar, but this one is made up of intricate gemstones and iron. It is meant to restrain magic. I snap her necklace next, then push myself up off the floor to start freeing the girls from their cages.

“What-what are you doing?” the redheaded girl asked. “We-we will be punished if we-”

“You will be punished endlessly anyway if we do not escape. Would you rather die trying to escape, or live on forever as the demon’s whore?” I lifted my brow.

Her tears slowed, and she wiped them with the back of her hand. Her eyes are glowing, her beast speaking to her, no doubt. Mine is screaming at me to get Nilo and get out of here.

“If you stay, they will collar you again, and she will be taken away. Your beast will be cut off from you once again.”

She choked, obviously not liking that more than the thought of being the demon’s sexslave for the rest of her life.

The other woman is flexing her hands in front of her body, testing her magic now that it is free.

Her expression is determined, and once she gets her fingers to spark just the way she likes, she moves to the first cage, the one with the woman from my old pack, and helps her get free. The redhead still looks unsure.

I knelt in front of her, trying to look gentle and caring, when really I wanted to hit her upside the head and tell her to keep fighting. Tough love doesn’t work for everyone. It hasn't worked on Jack, so I doubt it will work on his sister.

“Your brother, Jack, is one of the bravest men I know. He would want you to keep fighting. He would want both of us to keep fighting.”

“He’s alive?” She whimpered softly. “He’s really alive?”

“Yes,” I grin, “and he is the captain of the greatest navy there ever was.” Telling her he is the leader of notorious pirates may not be ideal right now, but saying he’s leading the navy for Alpha Lachlan is not much of a stretch.

He is very much a captain, and a capable one at that.

“He has been preparing with the Southern pack, Hidden Cove Pack, to come and defeat these monsters. I would bet that they are marching up here now. If you don’t want to fight for yourself, fight for him, because he has never stopped fighting to avenge you. ”

The woman sniffed back her sobs, a look of determination coming over her face.

“He’s coming?”