Page 27 of Losing My Siren Luna (Hidden Cove #1)

It took hours to get my mess cleaned up, and after apologizing to the kitchen staff, I ordered them to use the great hall for meal times until the new furnishings could be built for the dining hall again.

Cherum kept me updated on everything Lira was doing. She was finishing having tea and lunch with Yasmin, the last he told me, and getting ready to pay the orphanage a visit; the one she was supposed to go to today with me.

If I could go back and redo this morning, I would, but I’ve already been granted one redo. I need to make this right on my own.

I hurried back to my room, deciding to create a chance encounter with her at the orphanage, or at the very least, watching her from afar just to see that she was really okay.

Killian has been anxious about her because of the last image we have of her on repeat in our mind. I just need to see her to put him and myself at ease.

Walking into my bedroom, I stop when I realize that it’s no longer mine. With all the chaos from today, I had forgotten.

All my belongings are gone, and two single beds are sitting against the wall that used to have my bed against it, with a chest between them. I was turning to leave, when I jumped back, startled to have Niomi almost run right into me as she opened the door.

“Oh, my,” she pressed her hand to her chest to catch her breath from the surprise. “Alpha, we have to stop running into each other like this,” she almost laughed.

“I apologize, Niomi. Are you alright?” I put my hands out, as if to help her, but she waved away my concern.

“Oh, I’m fine. Just had to restart my heart, is all. Um, is there something I can help you with, Alpha?”

I shook my head, “No, I was just checking the progress of your move. How do you like your new room, Niomi?” I smiled at her. Lira cares deeply for this old woman. With the devotion Niomi already shows to Lira, I’m starting to like her quite a lot myself.

“Oh, I barely did a thing. After helping that young woman get cleaned from the coffee spilled all over her earlier, Delta Rosewood insisted that I take it easy and gave me a few helpers that packed and moved my belongings. A good looking bunch, too,” she chuckles, “Did my eyes good watching them work.”

My smile falters a little hearing about her helping Yasmin, but she doesn’t notice. Niomi speaks her mind, for sure. It almost makes me laugh hearing her talk about watching the warriors move her things.

“I’m glad. Well, I had best get myself cleaned up. Take care and enjoy your relaxation in your new room,” I told her, going to move around her to leave.

“Um, Alpha,” she stopped me. “It might not be my place, but,” she pursed her lips nervously, “I just wanted to ask you to maybe be careful of how you treat Yasmin in front of Ela. Ela’s mother, the poor woman, was forced into a life similar to Yasmin’s and I think that is one of the reasons why Ela was trying to protect her. ”

I sighed heavily, “Did they tell you what happened?”

She shakes her head, “No. Miss Yasmin just said she spilled coffee on herself, but as I was helping her change, I noticed scarring from wolfsbane on her arms and legs. And….and other places too, Alpha. She went through quite an ordeal. I heard Ela tell her over and over again that her profession did not give anyone the right to mutilate or harm her after they got back from their walk on the beach. Gemma heard about what happened in the dining hall when she went to launder the clothes and told me. I know it’s not my place, but the Luna I serve suffers when she sees others suffering. ”

Guilt eats at me again. As a man, I have no feelings for Yasmin, but I should have been open to helping her as her Alpha.

I’ve been so focused on getting Lira to trust me and fall in love with me that I’m doing a shit job of running my pack.

I’m doing a shit job of earning Lira’s trust and love too.

I smiled tightly at Niomi, “I’ll keep that in mind. The last thing I want is to make my wife suffer.” I’ve done that enough already.

Niomi breathes out a sigh of relief, “Thank you, Alpha.” She bows as I leave my old room; her room now.

Lira’s room, our room now if she still allows it, is tidy with everything put away.

Her closet now houses all my clothes on one side, hers on the other, and all my other belongings are put up around the different rooms. I quickly washed myself of the grime from cleaning the dining hall, then dressed to hopefully impress, in the few light-colored clothes that I own.

Well, the shirt is white. My pants are still in my usual black. Black hides blood, which is why most of my clothes are black.

I don’t want to be that same blood-thirsty, angry man with my wife. I should have new clothes bought for me too. Things I can wear specifically for Lira.

My wardrobe didn’t change in the years we spent married or the time after she left me. Maybe changing my clothes is the kickstart that I need to change everything else about myself.

“You should change your piss-poor attitude first,” Killian growls at me, still upset.

“ I’m trying,” I sigh. Turning off the defensive, war-focused way I think and react isn’t that easy. I feel like I’ve been on the defense since I was a child, and that mindset is hard to overcome.

After I’m ready, I spend more time than I should staring at the bed, thinking about the face Lira made earlier and comparing it in my mind to the face and reactions she had last night with her night terrors.

I thought that was trauma from some form of abuse, but what if it was from me? What if she was remembering the ways I used to yell at her, and all the times I was unfaithful? I was a brute. I never laid hands on her, but I did yell at her and belittle her more than a few times.

“I told you, that wasn’t it,” Killian sighs, “ You’ve seen as well as I how the victims of the demons’ horrific acts would react when triggered. They would suffer night terrors just like hers as well.”

I growled, “I can’t even think of someone doing such things to Lira. I would kill them.”

“Yes, we would. Oh, their death would be long, drawn out and so, so bloody gruesome.”

I grunt, happy me and my Lycan can still come together on some things.

After leaving the room, I went the long way out of the castle; the way that leads along the docks and the water.

It’s a habit after the long months of searching for some sign of my lost siren mate.

I would walk this path endlessly at times, desperately waiting for some sign of Lira in the open water.

There never was one.

I stare off in the distance, like I once did in hopes of spotting her, but instead of a void ocean, I see a familiar figure floating in the water near where I saw him yesterday.

Shit.

Her father.

King Brennus looks livid, but waves me over in the direction of the secluded dock that houses my ship where we met just yesterday. Just yesterday he warned me what would happen if I hurt his daughter again, and my stomach is now tied into knots as I wondered why he was back already.

He can’t know what happened this morning, can he?

He dives under the water's surface, and I groan, feeling sick as I make my way to our meeting spot.

King Brennus is impatiently floating between the dock and my ship when my boot starts stomping against the creaking planks of wood alongside him.

“Hello, King Brennus,” I feigned a welcome attitude. “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon.”

He remained silent for some time, glaring at me with his menacing green eyes. I try not to fidget nervously under his glare. This man has the power to take my whole world from me if he wants.

“Alpha,” he finally says, surprising me as his eyes glow and the water around him lifts him to be level with me. Maybe a fraction of an inch taller. “What did I warn you of just yesterday?”

I scolded, wondering what he knew. “What do you mean?” I tried to appear ignorant. With a flick of his fingers, water rushed out toward me, soaking the front of my shirt and my entire face.

Shit, not again. I just got cleaned up.

“THE NECKLACE, ALPHA!” he snaps, “WHY DO YOU THINK I HAD YOU GIVE IT TO HER?!”

“The necklace?” I repeated, wiping the water from my face and pushing my wet hair off my face. Shit. I had forgotten about the necklace. “What about it?”

“IT CONNECTS ME TO HER!” he huffs, then pants as he tries to hold back his rage.

“I can feel her distress and it calls on my magic to help her when she needs it. Do you know how many times it has called for me since we last spoke? 6 times! 6 times, and the last time, I felt how severe her pain was. I felt her distress so strongly, I left everything behind to check on her. Imagine my relief when I saw her on the shore, walking joyfully with another woman unharmed, but something big must have happened to her before that, or I wouldn’t have felt what I felt. ”

I cringe back, and Killian starts cursing at me in my head. “It was a misunderstanding, King Brennus.”

“Oh," he scoffs, “I’m sure.”

He moves out of the water, and I’m surprised to see his fins turn to legs before they land on the wooden planks. He is very naked, and more imposing than I want to deal with right now, as I’m struggling to contain my defensive tendencies.

“I have sent her a protector in my place,” he states, taking a threatening step towards me.

“A protector?” I asked, standing my ground, trying not to let him intimidate me.

“Oh, yes, and you are to welcome him with open arms, Alpha. Because if you don’t, Cedric will be taking Elelira and hiding her away from you and the rest of the world until she comes of age.”

“Him,” I asked in a growl, making King Brennus smirk.

“Yes, him. One of my top soldiers. Cedric is unmatched in his skill among my guards, and it is him who will be giving me weekly updates on the state my daughter is in.”

He leans in close, and I can’t help but to snarl slightly at the threatening waves radiating off him.