Page 16 of Losing My Siren Luna (Hidden Cove #1)

Lachlan POV

After slipping off her worn-out and beat up slippers, I couldn’t stop myself from tasting her skin.

Her feet were adorable and smooth, and my lips were on them before I could stop myself. To my surprise, she didn’t stop me either.

No, she seemed for a moment overcome by the bond and unable to do anything but react to my touch. Thank the goddess, something has finally turned in my favor. I thought she might kick me in the face or slap me again for kissing her.

Her reaction had Killian mewling for more. He was the one who told me not to push her, but now that the fire was lit inside us, seeing her body vibrate with want and hearing her sweet little gasp, that was all he could focus on.

“Not yet, you animal. She doesn’t trust us yet. Calm down ,” I told him.

“ She can trust us after ,” he growled, “ Let’s put a babe inside her womb, then that solves all our problems.”

“ No. It may get her to stay with us, but that’s not how we are going to gain her heart and her love. When it's done, we definitely will lose any chance of getting her trust.”

Killian grumbled, still salivating at the sight of our mate, but the mention of gaining her love and trust seemed to snap him out of his aroused state and helped to remind him what our end goal was.

Her father did not say we needed to get her pregnant or force her to choose us within the two-year time limit until her 20th birthday.

He said we needed to gain her trust and make her love us again.

Manipulating her with the bond and getting her pregnant would not be meeting those terms, and I don’t want to manipulate her like that. I crave her heart more than her body.

I do crave her body, though. I am going to have to try hard to keep myself under control tonight.

“ Just let me hold her,” Killian whimpers, “ I won’t do more. Just let me have control for a bit and let me hold her. I’ll calm down after that.”

I looked up at Lira’s beautiful face from where I was still kneeling in front of her. Her eyes are gleaming, like she is talking to her Lycan as well. Maybe her Lycan is as hungry for me as mine is for her.

“Lira,” I said softly, breaking her from her trance. Her eyes focus on mine and my heart thumps wildly in my chest. Her green eyes shine so much more brilliantly than the ones in jewels I just gave her. “Would it be okay if my Lycan took control and held you for a little while?”

“Your lycan?” she cocks her head to the side, the movement so graceful and lovely that I almost backtracked on everything I just told my lycan and pounced on her, ripping that awful and ragged nightdress off her.

I nod slowly, swallowing down my desires. “Killian wants to meet you. He won’t do more than hold you while we sleep. I promise.”

She looks deep in thought for a moment, her eyes gleaming over again, as she talks to her own Lycan, I’m sure. After the longest minute of my life, she asks, “Why does your lycan want to meet me?”

My throat swells and burns with the desire to tell her that I’m her mate. I can’t form the words, though, no matter how hard I try. The blood-oath with her father wouldn’t allow it.

“Because you are my wife,” I managed to choke the words past my lips.

I might be mistaken, but her face seemed disappointed somehow, her expression dropping ever so slightly. It is hard to tell, though. She has seemed disappointed with me since the moment I saw her again this morning.

“Oh,” she whispers, her eyes looking down at her hands knotting in her lap.

Was that not the answer she was looking for?

Does she want me to tell her some other reason?

Could I use practicality to convince her, like I had to when I was trying to convince her to go to town with me?

Using Niomi was an excuse I invented on the sly, but I’m sure I can come up with an excuse like that again now.

I can’t tell her that Killian wants her because she’s our mate, and she may trust me less if I say it’s because she is my love, my life, my everything.

That might seem too forward and like a line to get her in bed for other reasons than to sleep, especially after the day of misunderstandings we just had.

She doesn’t trust me. I haven’t given her a reason to yet, and now that I am finally making headway, I don’t want to falter backward now.

“ I need her,” Killian tells me, “ Can’t you just tell her that?”

I need her too. I’ve needed her for so long. It’s the raw truth of the matter, but I still don’t think it’s okay to tell her that yet.

“Lira?” is all I manage to whisper to draw her attention back to me. I curse at myself internally for using the nickname again. She hates it, but I’ve been thinking and calling her that for years. It’s going to be a hard habit to break.

She doesn't correct me or look at me coldly this time when hearing my nickname for her. Her emerald eyes met mine again, making my heart thump violently and my nerves buzz with anticipation.

“Okay,” she whispers, her voice sounding as unsure as I feel. “Killian is your Lycan’s name?”

I smiled with relief. “Yes. His name is Killian,” I assured her, then Killian growled at me to find out what her Lycan’s name was. “Your lycan, what is her name?”

Her eyes gleamed and I knew her lycan had pushed to the front of her mind, listening to the entire conversation. “Valerina, but I call her Val,” she tells me.

“ Valerina,” Killian purrs in my head, “ Beautiful.”

I smiled in agreement. Valerina and Elelira. Our mates.

Her eyes are still gleaming, so I slowly reach up, resting my hand on the side of her face.

My thumb strokes her soft cheek and to my surprise, Lira leans into my touch, making my heart race.

“It’s nice to meet you, Val,” I tell her, holding her gaze as I stare not just into Lira’s beautiful eyes, but Valerina’s too.

Elelira offers me the first genuine, heart-melting smile in this life, something between a sob and a laugh leaving her. “She says it’s nice to finally meet you too.”

Finally.

That one word weighs heavy on me, knowing that my ignorance and arrogance is what prevented us from meeting sooner.

“ Give me control,” Killian snaps, breaking me from my momentary grief. “ She said yes. Give me my mate,” he growls.

I sigh deeply, annoyed I have to share the attention I’m finally getting from Lira with my beast.

“He wants out now. I’m giving him my body, and I’m not sure how he’s going to act. If he does something you don’t like, just tell me and I’ll rein him back in.”

She looks nervous, but nods.

“ Don’t scare her,” I told Killian, “ Or you won’t be seeing her again for a very long time,” I warned him.

He huffs, “I’m not you, jackass. I would never hurt her.”

I growled at him in warning, but still allowed for him to push forward as I retreated into the back of my mind, just in time to witness him jumping off the floor and enveloping Lira in my arms.

~

Elelira POV

I was nervous about meeting Lachlan’s Lycan, hoping the decision wasn’t going to hurt Val in the long run, but the moment Killian took over Lachlan’s body I had the wind knocked out of me as I was pounced on, falling backward onto the mattress.

My entire body was overcome by the pull of the mate bond, my skin erupting into mind-numbing sparks.

I couldn’t think about those worries any longer.

I couldn’t think about anything. I was all sensation and euphoria like I never felt before.

The bond inside us, that had once called out to Lachlan, but deadened with my deprivation over time, was jolted back to life. My whole body felt like it was singing from his touch.

Does he feel this too?

“Mmmh,” the Lycan controlling Lachlan’s body purrs, making his chest vibrate against mine.

Goosebumps rise up on my skin, and Val, the pushover, purrs back.

I can’t blame her. It’s too hard to fight the bond when he is touching me.

"Hi," I managed to mutter out in an airy voice.

"Hi, Elelira," Killian purrs. I like how he calls me by the name I asked when his human counterpart wouldn't do the same.

"It's nice to meet you," I say, the giggle as his nose tickles the hair on the back of my neck.

His weight is heavy, but feels almost comforting with the sparks from the bond.

I don't feel as apprehensive knowing this is Killian and not Lachlan right now.

It's like a giant pet was lying on top of me and not a man.

Well, his hard body does feel like a man's body, but I don't feel any ill-intent or anything sexual from him. All I really feel from the spell the mate bond is casting over me is adoration. Killian obviously likes me.

“My mm-mmm-mm….” he struggles in a rough voice to form words. I pushed my neck into the mattress to lean away from him and saw his adam’s apple bobbing up and down with much strain.

“My….mine,” he growls after much effort.

“Yours?” I asked breathlessly, my cheeks flushed as I tried to overcome the bond enough to think and speak.

“My wife,” he growls again, his nose skimming my neck, “You are mine.”

Wife , not mate. Once again, my hope that he might feel the bond died. He can’t feel the bond. It’s just not possible until I’m 20.

“ He still called us his. He still wants us,” Val says with relieved elevation. Even if it was as his wife and not his mate, Killian seems to want us, which is all that matters to her.

She never got to meet his Lycan before this moment, and I can feel her tears of satisfaction from just being wanted in some way.

It hurt her immensely, feeling like our bond was being rejected and abused every single day in our first life.

I got to see Lachlan’s treatment towards me, but she never got to experience Killian or see how he felt about her.

She had longed for this since the moment we very first laid eyes on Lachlan in our first life. She is finally seeing how Killian feels towards us, and even without the bond, he is accepting us. Accepting her.

“Can I come forward? Can I talk to him?” Val asks.

I think apprehensively, not sure if that would be a good idea.

“ You can’t blurt out that he is our mate, Val.

If you do, this could all end. It is different this time.

Lachlan is different this time, I’ll admit that, but what this pack has gone through with its wars has not changed.

They will still be wary of other races and hybrids like us. ”

“But he wants us. He might not care,” she pouts, impatient for her mate.

“ Do you want to take that chance?”

She thinks for a few seconds, then sighs, “ No. I won’t say mates. I just want to feel the bond myself, Ela.”

This may be a different Lachlan from our first life, but I still don’t trust that he will not betray us, especially if he learns what we are.

“Killian,” I murmured, trying to get his attention again. His nose is buried in my hair and his arms are wrapped tightly around me, holding me firmly against him.

“Hmm?” he hums, his voice much deeper and raspier than Lachlan’s. “What is it, my wife?”

His touch with the way he calls me his wife makes a chill travel up my spine and butterflies flutter in my chest. I don’t know how I’m going to get any sleep if he plans on holding me all night.

“Do you want to meet Val? She is asking to come forward too.”

He jerks his head back to stare down at me, a carnal smile spreading on his face. “She wants to meet me?” His expressions may look more wild, but the way he asked the question, full of surprise and excitement, reminds me of a child confirming he is about to receive a present.

“Yes,” I chuckled, “ if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t!” he quickly responds, “I want to meet Valerina too.”

Killian is cute in his earnestness. I already find him much more tolerable than his human counterpart.

“ Okay, Val. Just stay in control of the bond. Please,” I begged her before giving her control of my body.

I slowly recede into the back of my mind, letting Val come forward, but keeping a minor hold over our control in case I need to take over quickly. I know how powerful the bond is. I just experienced it myself, and even with my guard up I was overcome by the power of it while under his touch.

Val still longs for our mate, unlike me. She might not be able to control herself.

“Killian,” she whimpers in her velvety voice as she pushes past me, wrapping my arms around Lachlan’s body.

She is melting against him, purring wildly as she rubs her face against his cheek. To my surprise, Killian copies her, like they are both trying to mix their scents, marking with territories like a cat would.

“Valerina,” Killian husked, turning our bodies so mine is practically on top of his, then gripping my face, now Val’s face, between his hands, “I’m so happy to finally meet you.”

Val whimpers, nodding between his large, war-roughed hands, “I’m happy to finally meet you too.”

Killian stares up at her lips; my lips, and I can almost see the thought process going on in his head. It’s the same as Val’s as she studies our mate’s annoyingly handsome face.

Her head dips, encouraged by his hands, as he tilts his face up to meet hers.

“ Oh, no you don’t,” I growled, pulling back control, forcing myself forward and Val back to the back of my mind.

It’s my lips that meet him now that I’m in control. I couldn’t stop the act. I was a moment too late. My entire face feels like it’s tingling and my heart is beating wildly in my chest, but I know better than to give into this sensation.

It took me by surprise the first time he pounced on me, but now I have my head about me, and can fight the bond and the power it has over me.

Pulling away, I stared down at his panting face, him looking as surprised as I felt. It takes me but a minute to realize it is no longer Killian, but Lachlan in control, and I’m lying across his body, feeling vulnerable from the state our lycans left us in.