Page 13 of Losing My Siren Luna (Hidden Cove #1)

Elelira POV

This whole ordeal with changing rooms is utterly ridiculous, but at least I get to keep Mimi with me.

She was in tears when she came up to my room soon after Lachlan sent me away to start packing.

“I thought I had done something to offend you, my Luna. Thank you for believing in me,” she sniffled.

“I will serve you well, my Luna. These old bones are still strong.”

“Just being here for me is enough,” I smiled warmly at her, “and call me Ela. We’re friends, remember. Formalities don’t matter between friends.” After that, she quickly dried her tears and got to work on organizing my room.

I don’t plan on being Luna of this pack anyway.

I’m not going to tell her that, not with so many ears listening and when she is feeling like she is honored by serving me, but this position isn’t final until Lachlan either marks me or the mate bond is formed.

Lachlan won’t mark me, and I plan on rejecting him and leaving the moment my magic comes and the bond is formed again.

Mimi is taking her role as my handmaiden more seriously now, ordering the other maids as they pack the rest of my room and prepare to move me down to a room closer to Lachlan.

I hope he wasn’t serious about sharing a bed with me. I’ll do it for the sake of keeping Mimi, but I’m not excited about what that will do to my Lycan . Val will be affected by the bond so much more when the betrayal pains start again.

“I’ll be fine. You will have to endure just as much as me. It’s worth it to keep her with us,” Val tells me.

“ If he wants to….to mate, you’ll be able to feel his Lycan. It will hurt more when we break the bond.” I tell her meekly inside my head.

I can feel her anxiousness at the thought, but her resolve doesn’t change. Mimi was the only good thing we had here. Neither of us will abandon her.

“ We will endure,” she murmurs, “ We always do.”

Yes. It seems we do.

With that, the discussion ends. Hopefully, he has retired to his bedchambers with his guest from earlier and has forgotten about me.

It will be harder to avoid him if we are residing in the same wing, but we will endure, just like Val said.

I can always come back up here to hide, and hide on the docks, away from the bustle of the castle.

I know how to keep a low profile. My time here before taught me that.

Living like the dead will be easy as long as Lachlan doesn’t try getting into my bed, which I still doubt is likely this time around.

Everything is so different, though, so I have no idea what’s going to happen.

I’m sitting on my bed, folding my dresses from the wedding and reception to appear busy when the Delta clears his throat, causing me to look up.

“Luna,” Cherum sounds nervous as he enters the room being packed, “Your new room is ready.”

I sigh heavily, “I understand. We will follow you once we are done here.”

The dresses were folded as neatly as could be, and Mimi told me to leave the rest to the maids, so I stood awkwardly by the door as they finished. I was told I could head down first, but I’m not that eager to leave this room.

“Um, Luna?” Cherum mutters, watching me carefully.

“Yes?” I look at him from the corner of my eye, contemplating correcting his addressing me as Luna again, but I think that’s a battle for another day. There are only so many times I want to correct a man in a day. I know a lost cause when I see one. My first life in this marriage taught me that.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t be more comfortable wearing my coat?” His eyes roam down my body, looking unnerved. I’m still in the silk slip and thin overcoat.

“Does my body offend you, Delta Rosewood? You would think, with the frequency the ranked members of this pack visit the women of the soddy establishments in town, that you wouldn’t be offended by this appearance. I have far less to show compared to them.”

He groans uncomfortably. “Luna, that was a misunderstanding. The Alpha has stated numerous times to us that you are his wife and he won’t-”

“I’ve heard that plenty today, Delta Rosewood,” I cut him off, “I do not wish to hear it again. Whether he takes others to his bed is none of my concern. Not when this is all temp-”

He coughs, cutting me off, and his eyes move repeatedly to the maids, indicating they are listening.

When I look over, they are moving much slower, their heads all angled towards us to catch the conversation.

Even Mimi is wiping the same spot on the table over and over again while pretending to work.

I roll my eyes. “Like it is a secret. I’m sure he has already told all of you that I am not the Luna of this pack, that my uncle is using me to trap him, and that he’s divorcing me after two years when the alliance contract terms are void.”

“That’s not exactly the case,” he frowns.

“So he didn’t say any of those things? He didn’t put me up here to begin with to keep me away from him; so I stayed out of sight?”

He cringes with each word. “That was….I mean, I’m sure Alpha didn’t mean that.”

“I’m sure,” I muttered, “I’m sure he didn’t mean to be caught with one of those women at the door of his bedchamber by me earlier as well.

I may be young, but I am far from naive, Delta Rosewood.

You do not need to put on airs around me.

I know who I married, I know what is expected of me, and I know not to expect anything from him.

All that will bring me is heartache, and I’ve suffered enough of that. ”

He hangs his head solemnly, looking defeated. “I’m sorry, Luna. I will think before I speak from now on,” he frowns, “I just thought you might be cold. It is awfully cold up here. I’m sorry if I offended you.”

Now it’s my turn to feel awkwardly regretful. I thought he was indicating I was indecent, not commenting on my attire out of concern for my comfort.

I shift back and forth on my feet uncomfortably.

My feet are numb from the cold, which is helping with numbing the pain from the heels I'm still wearing. I do have goosebumps on my chest and legs. Even my arms feel prickly in the sleeves of my overcoat from goosebumps. I was so used to the coldness of being up here that I didn’t notice it before now.

“I am a bit cold,” I murmur , offering a sorrowful smile.

He smiles, shrugging out of his jacket and placing it over my shoulders gingerly, like he is worried its weight might be too much for me. He’s slightly awkward in his actions, but it is still sweet he cares enough to offer.

“I’m sorry, Delta Rosewood. It has been a…a trying day. I should not have snapped at you when you were not the one at fault.”

He scratches the back of his neck. “It’s okay, Luna. I would be upset in your shoes too.”

We smile awkwardly at each other, then stand in silence while the maids finish packing my room.

I do feel much warmer in his coat. It still has his body heat saturated in it, soaking into my chilled skin. I'm warming up quickly. The problem with that is now my feet are less numb and are starting to ache more. I don’t know how much longer I can stand in these heels.

As the maids finish packing for me, we start the trek down to the Alpha’s wing. The Delta insists on me gripping his arm as I walk down the stone steps, and when my ankle rolls, causing me to almost fall forward, he quickly stops my fall, lifting me into his arms like I weigh nothing.

“I’m sorry, Luna, but I can’t let you continue to walk in those shoes. Your feet are turning purple and I wouldn’t forgive myself if you hurt yourself.”

He holds me close, ordering one of the maids to rid me of the shoes before continuing down the stairs with me in his arms.

“Ela,” I tell him after a few stunned seconds once I got my reasoning back.

“Sorry?” He looks at me in confusion.

“Call me Ela, Delta Rosewood. I do not care for the formality of Luna, but you can call me Ela.”

He smiles softly. “Okay, Ela, but only if you call me Cherum. Delta Rosewood sounds like you’re talking to my dad.”

I laugh gently at that. “Deal. Thank you, Cherum, for your help.”

“Anytime, Ela.”

~

Lachlan POV

I am pacing outside the room that would soon be Lira’s. Nilo just came with a few men and took my bed and mattress from my room to be burned.

I don’t need it. I plan on spending my nights with Lira in her room now that she has agreed to it.

Her only requirement was not sharing a bed I shared with other women.

There is now no bed that fits those disqualifications, so I'm in the clear. I’m giddy with excitement at the prospect of holding her in my arms at last.

That shit show with the women set me back momentarily, but I’ll win her over. She won’t be able to fight the bond if I’m touching and holding her. She might mentally fight it at first, but her body will crave my touch.

“ Don’t be an asshole and force her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. Manipulating her with the bond she feels but we don’t isn’t right,” Killian growls at me.

“ I’m not manipulating her. I just want a damn opening.”

“You don’t deserve an opening,” he growls. “ I hope she punches you in the nuts for letting that nasty woman with all the fat touch you.”

“You’d feel it too,” I snap at my Lycan.

“ The pain would be worth it. Don’t let floppy boobs touch you.”

“I didn’t let her touch anything. She did it on her own. Did you want me to rip her hand off for it?”

“Better than letting our mate assume we asked for it,” he snarls. .

I know. Fuck, do I know, but I can’t kill a member of my pack for doing what she thought she was allowed to do.

It won’t happen again, though.

“ I’ll send Nilo to deal with those women to leave me alone tomorrow,” I tell my Lycan, trying to ease his nagging.

He scoffs, “ Sending someone else would be better. He’ll be too focused on getting his dick wet.”

Killian is right. I should send Meldec, my Gamma.

He goes with us often to drink, but doesn’t touch the women.

He has three sisters and a widowed mother.

His father died in the war. He thinks the brothel is exploiting women with no other choice but to earn money with their bodies.

He may be right, but in my first life, I didn't see it that way.

Now I wonder if Lira found herself in similar circumstances after rejecting and leaving me.

I felt the betrayal pains for some time before I felt her death.

I never discovered where she was or what happened to her, but her uncle mentioned her being a whore before I killed him and took his head to her father.

He could have just been throwing insults at random while facing death, but I never got the chance to find out.

I hear voices echoing down the hall, and perk up expectantly. Even Killian has his ears up and tail wagging with excitement.

She’s here. She’s finally here where she belongs, with me.

I see their shadows on the wall before I see them. The shadow in the front is obviously Cherum, but it’s larger than it should be and oddly shaped. When he finally becomes visible, I see why.

A growl leaves me before I can stop it, seeing my Delta carrying my mate, her legs and feet seductive and bare, and his jacket wrapped tightly around her, though it doesn’t go past her waist. He has her slip bunched in one hand to prevent her ass from hanging out, but that just means his hand is dangerously close to it instead.

What’s worse, they are smiling at one another, laughing lightly like they are sharing an intimate joke.

Jealousy pings my heart and makes my chest swell.

I’ve never seen her smile like that. Not since the day of her arrival for our wedding, the first time we married at the beginning of our ceremony, before I had crushed her hopes of acceptance and happiness.

All I got after that was sorrow and hatred.

“What the hell is this?” I snapped, drawing all their attention to me. Killian is saying something, probably telling me to calm down, but I can’t hear him over the white noise of my rage in my head.

“Alpha?” Cherum slows his walk, looking at me questioningly.

I nod to his hand holding onto the skirt of her slip, pressed tightly against her thigh. Another fierce growl echoes down the halls from me, making all the maids jump in surprise.

He must catch my mood and what triggered it, because he quickly sets her on her feet, his hands lingering on her until she gets her footing. I step out to help her instead, but she takes a step back, backing into Cherum’s chest so he has to hold her shoulders to keep her steady.

She avoids my touch, but seems perfectly fine with his touch. That realization hurts.

“Ela almost fell going down the stairs,” Cherum explains, “Her feet were hurting due to her shoes, so I helped her to prevent her from hurting herself more.”

He’s the Delta, whose sole purpose is to serve and protect our Luna. This shouldn’t surprise or anger me. His father would have done the same for my mother, but I can’t stop the rampage of my jealousy raging inside me.

Not until I saw the look on Lira’s face.

My flaring nostrils slowly calm as the air freezes around me. She’s not impressed with my dominant display. Why would she be?

“Is there a problem, Alpha?” She asks coldly.

I send a fierce look at Cherum before I can stop myself, then instantly regret it when her expression grows even colder.

“Why didn’t you call for me if Lira was having trouble walking? I could have come to assist her. I don’t know how I feel about my Delta carrying my wife when she is dressed so provocatively.”

“My name is not Lira,” she snaps, “It’s Elelira, and you can address me directly since I am right here.

There is no need to talk to Cherum as if I am not present.

I assumed you would be retired for the evening with your guest from earlier, who was dressed far more provokingly than me.

Why would we disturb you for something so menial when my Delta so kindly offered to help?

It is very unbecoming of an Alpha to put down his own member and ranked warrior for just doing his job. ”

Panic fills me, knowing I messed up once again. Killian is snarling and cursing at me for my endless transgressions to our mate today when we were supposed to be winning her favor.

“I’m sorry,” I hang my head, “I just don’t like the idea of another man touching you.”

She snorts.The sound would make me chuckle at the cuteness of it if I wasn’t so worried about pissing her off more. “That’s supremely hypocritical of you, don’t you think?”