Page 52 of Losing My Siren Luna

Wow. Her story, being sold into prostitution by her own parents, is so heartbreaking. She must have felt so lost and alone.

“Lady Vera sounds like a good person,” I told her.

She smiles fondly. “She is. She’s tough. She has to be in her business, but at the core, she’s a good employer. None of the other brothels would take a ten-year-old, so when she agreed, I was terrified. The first thing she did after paying my parents and sending them away was tell me to get all my tears out that night, because the world is cruel and tears would never help me, only my determination would. She didn’t want to see me crying again. She fed me the first meal I had in I don’t know how long, then sent me to my own room with a lock on the door so I could prevent anyone from wandering in, then put me to work in the kitchen washing dishes the next day.”

“That’s a woman after my own heart,”Val tells me, making me chuckle at her inside my head.

I squeezed Yasmin’s hand, smiling at her. “I’d like to meet Lady Vera one day.”

“Oh, but she’s human, Luna.”

I looked at her in confusion, wondering why that would matter.

“Um, Lycans and humans don’t, uh, meet. Not for friendly matters, anyway.”

This damn pack and their issues with races. The war really damaged many relations, it seems. Not just between this pack and the fae, vampire and demon races, but with the different races within the pack.

“Such things do not matter to me,” I told her.

How can they? I’m half siren, something that would get me exiled or killed if it was made known.

“I’d still like to meet her, if I can.”

She bites her lip nervously. “Do you want to go back with me to get my belongings, then? I don’t think the Alpha will like it,” she giggles, “But I don’t think that would bother you.”

I laughed with her, “No. It makes me want to go even more.”

~

Lachlan POV

“GAAHHHHHH!” Killian roars as he throws a table across the room, shattering a glass window. That was the last table and last window in the room that was left in one piece. Not anymore....

“HOW COULD YOU!?” he yells, his threatening tone directed at me. “HOW COULD YOU HURT MY MATE!?”

“Our mate,”I told him feebly.

“No. No, you don’t get to call heryourmate. Not after what you just did. Not after you tried to….to….”

He plays the scene in our head again, of Lira’s face when I struck out for her, and the horror that filled her emerald eyes and washed all the color out of her features before Cherum thankfully pulled her away from me.

I did that. I hurt her again, only this time I have no excuses. I knew she was my mate. I knew she was easily triggered. I knew she thought nothing but horrible things about me. I just proved everything she thought of me to be true. I ruined any progress I might have made this morning, and I have no excuse besides I’m a fool.

Killian stands at the center of the destroyed room, huffing as he stews over my mistakes. If he could kill my half of us off, I know he would right now. He was thinking of throwing us over the side of one of the cliffs skirting above the town just so Lira didn’t have to deal with me and the stress I cause her anymore.

Doing that would ruin our pack, though. The North would hear of my death and overtake us in a single night, so for now, he has to deal with me living.

“You hurt her,” Killian tells me once again. “You made her scared of us. She will leave us sooner at this rate. Her father will come for her if he hears of what you’ve done.”

My heart wrenches inside my chest. The thought of her leaving scares me, but the thought of being the reason for her pain hurts me more.

“Maybe we should let her go,”I whispered.

“Or maybe you should stop being a jackass and apologize.”

Killian drops to the ground, right in a pile of discarded food and broken glass before giving me back control, forcing the shift. I wince when the glass tears into my ass, but welcome the pain. I deserve to bleed a little after what I just did.

I saw red when Yasmin was right across from my beautiful wife. After the scene with Leona yesterday, I thought another bar-maiden from the brothel interacting with my mate would ignite the same distrust and reservation towards me that incurred yesterday.