Page 7 of Forever My Siren Luna (The Hidden Cove #2)

Everyone remained silent as an awkward tension filled the air.

This man is clearly making a statement with his close proximity to Ela.

He is claiming her. She has a naive look about her face, something that is not new.

Even despite the maturity gracing her features that I can now see, she seems unaware of what the man is doing.

This man is no fool. He is letting us know in a subtle way that Ela is here with him, and her husband is nowhere to be found.

Hurry up, Lachlan. I pray he gets here quickly.

~

Elelira

Looking around at all the familiar faces, I don’t know if I’m relieved or disappointed that he isn’t there.

I was so nervous as we sailed in. Truth be told, I’ve been nervous and worried for days now.

I have barely slept the past few days. Beretta gave me some special tea she used to drink to help her pass out when she was suffering because of her ex-mate, but even that rarely helped.

I would pass out quickly, but then have lucid dreams of the last moments I was in this pack and the horror I felt seeing my mate with that horrid woman.

Is that where he is at now? With that woman?

“ We should have skinned her alive before we left,” Val grumbled in my head, resting on the surface, ready to spring forward to defend me against anyone who tries to hurt me. “ It’s never too late.”

“We don’t even know if they have been together since we left. We haven’t felt the pains,” I reminded her.

“ We won’t feel them unless he touches her. He could just be touching himself for now and watching her until we came back, like some men at the brothels choose to do. Who’s to say he won’t start now that we’re here?”

Somehow, I doubted that. He may be the same bastard as before, but I doubt he would hold back for my sake. He never had before.

Plus, I’m still clinging to some form of hope that he might somehow be different, despite him having lied to me the whole time we spent together. In the deepest corner of my mind, I still have hope he regrets giving in to temptation that morning.

“ You’re a fool,” Val mutters, having given up on Lachlan, her trust in the mate bond all but shattered.

“ I know,” I sighed, knowing how foolish it is of me to still crave that intimacy I was building with him, even if it was all for show on his part.

My heart broke learning the truth, then seeing him with another woman.

Val’s trust was torn to shreds. Her love for the people here and her love for me is the only thing keeping her contained right now.

She wants to escape back to the sea on Jack's ship and handle things like we have been, with raw strength we never got to use in the past.

Seeing Cherum and Percy brings back that sense of obligation, but then when I look at Cedric, I’m reminded of the betrayal I felt; not just by Lachlan, but by him and the man I always longed to know; my father.

“This is your show, Ela,” Jack whispered in my ear, pulling me back to the situation at hand. “If it is too much for you being back here, I can handle this if you want, but this is your objective. You are the captain now, lass. Act like it.”

I turned my face up towards his with a grateful smile.

Jack is not one to let one of his men wallow in self-pity.

Self-pity does nothing for a person. He tells us to use our sorrows and hardships to strengthen us, not make us weaker.

This is a moment where I need to use my past as a source of strength, not feeling bad for myself and retreating into my mind.

“Thanks, Jack,” I whispered back.

He winked at me, his crooked smile easing my anxiety. “I’m here for you if you need me, but you got this.”

I nod firmly. I got this. This was what I was brought back to do.

The man who simply created me from a one-off night with my mother might have brought me back out of guilt, but I have a reason for living now.

My uncle was the source of so much evil in this world, and I can stop him.

I can do what my mom never had the strength to do.

Stop Wayne Lambert.

I needed to protect the pack I was fated into, and the defenseless members of the pack I left. Val is ready. I am ready. Now, I just need Hidden Cove to get on board.

Looking back at the men I know all too well, staring at me and Jack on the dock, my eyes meet Cherum’s, who is standing just a few feet in front of me.

His expression is full of bafflement, but also that same level of devotion that I grew used to in this second life.

I have no doubt in my mind that he is glad to see me back, even if I’m not sure how the others are feeling.

“Cherum,” I whispered, offering him a small smile.

His answering grin is ecstatic, and he takes the last few steps to close the gap between us and wraps me in his arms as Jack lets me go and takes a step back. I told Jack enough about the Delta that he knew not to worry.

I can’t help but squeal as Cherum lifts me in his arms, twirling me around him.

“Oh, lass. I missed you greatly.” His voice was thick with emotion, making me wrap my arms tighter around his neck.

“I missed you too,” I murmured, trying to keep my emotions at bay. Even Val is content in the arms of our friend. She’s let up some of her tension, letting Cherum’s soothing touch comfort her.

“Don’t go running away without me again, Ela,” he told me when he finally set me back on my feet.

I choked out a laugh. “Are you saying you would run away with me?”

He smiles broadly, his cheeks as red as his thick beard. “Aye, lass. You are my Luna, wherever you choose to go.”

Heat builds behind my eyes, but I swallow down the tears, looking away so the raw emotion and devotion on his face doesn’t put me over the edge. I don’t want to cry here in front of so many people. He might be happy to see me, but I did run away from this pack. Others might not feel the same way.

“Ela,” Jack coughed behind me, helping me to regain my composure.

I looked back and smiled at him gratefully. “Jack, this is Cherum, the Delta of the pack.”

He stepped up behind me, his hand resting on my shoulder again. “It’s great to finally meet you, Cherum. Your accent?...Are you perhaps not from here?”

That’s right. They have a similar accent, which is one of the reasons I warmed up to Jack so easily. He reminded me of Cherum in many ways. He acts like a big brother, just as Cherum does to me. An overprotective big brother.

Cherum gave Jack a wary look. “My mother is originally from a pack in the northwest, but she moved here with my father when he found her to be his mate.”

“Hmm,” Jack looked at him curiously. “Well, it’s great to meet a man our Ela has spoken only good things about for the last several months.

Meeting you first must be a great relief to her,” Jack said, squeezing my shoulder a bit tighter.

He does that action often when he is acting protective.

It’s like he’s trying to lend me some of his strength.

Again, it’s a familiar touch Cherum used to do to try and comfort me.

“I’m here too,” another familiar voice spoke up from behind Cherum. My smile slid off my face, knowing that this was inevitable.

Cedric was standing there when I peeked around Cherum's broad frame, an anxious expression on his face. He is tensing and flexing his hands at his side, as if he wishes to hold me too, like Cherum did.

I trust Cherum. I’m not sure yet if I can trust Cedric again.

During our last conversation he admitted to hiding vital information from me, claiming to do it for my own good.

I don’t know how to react to him now. He was one of my best friends, someone I spent every second with when I wasn’t with Lachlan.

It’s so hard to decipher everything that happened.

I know the betrayal between Leona and Lachlan wasn’t his doing, and I can understand that my father was the one who asked him not to tell me about his part in bringing me back to life and sending me to the past, but I feel as if Cedric still could have said something sooner.

He knew that Lachlan was the same man from my first life, and he still let me believe he wasn’t, as I slowly fell in love with a lie.

All I could do was stare at Cedric stoically, letting all these conflicting thoughts race through my head.

“ He isn’t the worst in this situation. He doesn’t carry the most faults. That man is,” Val huffs, meaning Lachlan, “ Cedric never really liked him. Maybe that was why.”

“Maybe, but he still never told us anything until he saw the way I reacted to my uncle’s men.” He could have said something sooner.

Thinking of my uncle’s men, I turned my attention back to Cherum, choosing to hold off on any interaction with Cedric until I know those men are no longer here. “ If they are, I get to deal with them,” Val snarls.

“ Agreed.”

“Cherum. Those men my uncle sent. What happened to them?”

His face clouded over, his eyebrows drawn down. He turns and stares at Percy, who is shifting on his feet, looking guilty.

“Um, I dealt with them, Luna,” Percy told me. “Some of them were the ones who hurt Yasmin, so I ended them. We killed all of them except for the biggest one. Issac, I think his name was. Your husband and father were the ones who tortured and killed him. They….they were very thorough too.”

“They’re dead?” I asked, confused. I knew Lachlan was mad that night, but I didn’t think he would really kill all of them.

“Aye, lass. That was what Alpha and Nilo were doing the morning before you left. During the interrogations, many disturbing things came to light. That man, Issac, was one sick bastard. When he confessed everything, Alpha and King Brennus were not going to let his death be quick or easy.”

What? He hadn’t done anything yet, though. What did he confess to?

Before I could ask, Jack asked a different question.

“King Brennus? As in, the Siren King?”

Crap. I forgot that he was unaware of my siren lineage.

I sighed, looking back at Jack, and he was staring at Cedric curiously too. He probably sensed what Cedric was. A siren in the mix of a bunch of Lycan warriors.

Screw it. All these men must know by now who my father is. I trust Jack as much as, if not more than them. I might as well tell him.

“Yes, Jack. My father is apparently the Siren King. A fact I was not made aware of until the day I ran away.”

His eyes go wide, a huff of disbelief leaving him as he covers his mouth. “That explains a lot.”

I furrowed my brows, about to ask what he meant, but before I could, a scent I could recognize anywhere enveloped me, making my pupils dilate and Val to growl in my head. I feel his eyes on me, piercing into the back of my head.

Jack’s expression turns disgruntled as he stares at someone behind me; someone who is huffing and panting loudly, as if he ran all the way here.

When I turn slowly to confirm what I already know, the sight of him makes everything inside me clench and pulse painfully like a punch to the gut.

Lachlan.