Page 30 of Losing My Siren Luna (Hidden Cove #1)

Leona left with little incident, just lots of sour looks, and the guards merely stood at the doors to ensure her departure. Yasmin and I decided to eat a light lunch across the street and have tea with Cherum watching over us while Percy and Maurice stood watch outside.

Our breakfast was ruined, thanks to my ever inconsiderate and rude husband, and Cherum insisted that I had to eat.

I wasn’t very hungry after our run-in with Leona, but I am enjoying my time with Yasmin.

She is bubbly and bright, making me feel at ease.

Even Val is loving her more and more now that she knows she is no longer a threat to our bond with our mate.

Not that it matters if she were. Lachlan himself is the biggest threat to our bond. No one else.

Yasmin is currently staring out the window with a lovestruck expression at Percy, and it makes my heart so happy to see her happy. Who would have thought when the incidents occurred this morning that we would reach this sort of outcome just hours later?

“So,” I grinned at my new friend, “congratulations to you and Percy. I’m surprised, but so happy for you both.”

Yasmin blushed, “I was surprised too. I mean, he, uh, did come to see me often after his mate died in the war, but I never knew he harbored those feelings for me. It had been a while since I last saw him, too. I thought that maybe he had forgotten about me, or he was like many of the others who like to pretend those transactions never happened.”

I tilted my head, intrigued by how they got to the point of agreeing to be chosen mates.

I don't want to discriminate, but it is quite surprising that Percy would take a woman of the night he used to visit as a chosen mate.

“It must be difficult to separate personal feelings and being professional in that line of work.”

Yasmin snorts, “There isn’t really a professional way to handle being a whore, Luna.

I just tried to keep my head down and when it was over, it was over.

I never let feelings into it,” she sighs, then looks out the window at Percy again, “Until one night, a grief-stricken warrior came in after losing his mate. It was hard not to have feelings when all he wanted was for someone to sit and listen to everything he would miss about her. The first time I took him upstairs,” she smiles warmly, “we didn’t do anything other than talk.

The next time, I held him in my arms while he cried.

It took him quite a few visits before we ever got to the, um, usual services.

He was always kind and gentle. Unlike any man I ever had. ”

'Any man she ever had' momentarily made me think of Lachlan, wondering if he was rough or gentle with her, but that fostered feelings of jealousy I didn't want to feel, so I quickly put those thoughts away before Val got worked up.

I felt her getting grouchy at my wayward thoughts, and I don't want to have reasons to have negative feelings towards Yasmin.

It's not her fault my husband is a manwhore.

This isn't a time to be upset. I'm happy for her and her new love with Percy. Percy is a good man, and from the way he protected her this morning, I know he will be tender and loving with her, respecting her as a woman and not measuring her worth by her past profession.

I reached across the table and took her hand in mine. “It sounds like you both have been each other’s saving grace for a while now. I truly am happy for you.”

Her cheeks turned that lovely pink hue, and she smiled embarrassingly.

“Thank you.” She then fidgets nervously in her seat, still holding my hand in hers.

“Um, Luna. About this morning, do you think maybe you should speak with the Alpha? I know he was excessively angry, but I really can understand why he didn’t want me to be around you. ”

I tilted my head in confusion, “I thought we already talked about this? It's unforgivable the way he treated you.”

She grimaces, “Maybe, but it wasn’t out of malice, but probably out of concern for you.

I am what I am, and he did visit the brothel on occasion.

That was a known fact throughout the pack, so I don’t think I am speaking out of turn to say that.

Last night, though,” she bites nervously on her lip, “The Beta and Gamma made sure all of the girls knew that he would not be visiting us any longer, and you were his true Luna. We were all warned to stay away from him and you. Technically, I didn’t listen to that order. ”

“Really?” That doesn’t even sound like something he would do. “Did Cherum, perhaps, orchestrate that? I can’t see the Alpha saying something like that.”

Yasmin shook her head. “No, because Alpha said much the same thing at your reception after you left. You should have seen how worried he was. I thought he was going to throw us all out himself then.”

Hmm. Why would he have that Leona woman at his bedchamber after the reception then?

Maybe he was just trying to save face. It really doesn’t look good for him to have women from a brothel entertaining him at his wedding in front of all the guests. He could have been trying to cover for himself.

“Or maybe he really is different,” Val offers.

I scoff, “ Did what happened just this morning leave your mind already?”

“You know it hasn’t. We share the same mind. I’m just thinking; he didn’t start offending us until you slapped him and called him a whore.”

“He called me a whore too!” I reminded her.

“ You called him one first.”

That’s true, but that doesn’t excuse him attacking me the way he did.

I don’t know how I will ever eat with the castle’s inhabitants again.

We embarrassed each other, but I think I have shamed myself beyond repair.

How do I come back from that? I wonder if Mimi would just bring me breakfast every morning in my room?

Wait….

I'm going to share a room with Lachlan from now on. I almost groan out loud at the thought.

“I’m sorry if I upset you, Luna. I just didn’t want to be the reason you and the Alpha fought when it was just as much my fault as it could be his.” Yasmin was looking at me with a worried expression.

“No,” I smiled at her, giving her hand one last squeeze before letting go to take a calming drink from my herbal tea. “You didn’t upset me. I was just thinking about what to do. I’m sorry to worry you.”

“No,” she smiled shyly, “Not at all, Luna. It’s an honor to be able to worry about you.”

I chuckled lightly, “You are a sweetheart, Yasmin. I look forward to a long and fruitful friendship with you. I think you might just be my first friend. Well, unless Mimi counts, but I see her more as a second mother.”

Yasmin giggles, “She is very motherly.” She then shifts bashfully in her seat, “And you may just be my first friend as well.”

We resolved to finish our meal and tea, then head to the orphanage as was originally planned for today.

As we empty the pot of tea, then get ready to stand and leave, my necklace starts to pulse around my neck, not like it did in the times I was distressed, but in an oddly familiar way that reminds me of something from my past life, a memory I can’t quite place.

Odd. It reminds me of home. Not of my uncle’s pack, but of the few times in my past life when I felt truly at home in the arms of my mother. Not just my mother, though. It makes me think of the sea. The sensation I felt the first time I felt the water between my toes as they transformed into fins.

I can’t place where I have felt this before.

It’s like a memory or a feeling in a memory that is trying to break free from my mind, but I just can’t reach it.

Like when you smell a scent that brings forth a memory, but you can’t pull it forward enough to see the actual memory, but remembering the feelings inhabited in the memory by smelling the scent.

It’s deja vu, is what it is.

Am I forgetting something important that involves this necklace?....

“Are you okay, Luna?” Yasmin asked me, standing in front of me. That's when I realized we were standing from the table and I froze halfway up, looking odd in a crouched stance with my hand over my hidden necklace on my under chest under my dress.

Just like that, the pulsing and the sensation the necklace brought forth is gone, the memory that I feel like I almost grasped all but gone.

“I’m fine,” I smiled, standing and trying not to seem embarrassed.

That’s when Cherum walked to the table from where he was watching us, leaning against the wall from the best vantage point, where he insisted on watching us for our safety instead of joining us in the meal, just as Maurice and Percy had declined our invitation.

I guess they take their jobs more seriously than I originally thought.

This morning with their spiked coffee, I thought they would be more lenient with their duties.

“Luna? Is something wrong?” he asks, moving my hair from my shoulder to examine what I was holding on my neck.

“I’m fine,” I waved away his concern. “I think I was just sitting for too long. I’m fine now. We can go.”

The necklace is no longer pulsing, and I have embarrassed myself enough not to dwell on it any longer.