Page 32 of Losing My Siren Luna (Hidden Cove #1)

I didn’t even turn to acknowledge him, still hoping to see the siren pop up again any second, not wanting to risk missing it for anything. The pulsing from my necklace died down, but I still feel little flares of its magic emanating from it.

“ELA!” Cherum reaches me, grabbing my shoulders and turning me to face him. “What?! What’s wrong?”

I craned my neck to look behind me, still longing for the mystery man to show himself again.

“ELA!” Cherum shakes me slightly.

“ Ela, you’re scaring the delta. That man is gone. You aren’t going to find him,” Val tells me.

" I need to find him. He may know how to find my father, Val. I have to find him!"

I can feel her pity for me in my head, " Ela, you don't know that. It is probably just a coincidence. Sirens do come to shore occasionally. This is a port token too."

I want to cry. I want the man to come back so badly, my eyes are burning with unshed tears about to burst free.

My craving for the ocean is stranger than ever, so strong, I almost want to throw myself in it, praying for the man to come back to save me.

Anything to prove that he was really there and I wasn’t just imagining him in my head, conjuring him up from my desire to return to the sea.

“I,” my throat swells with emotion as I try to answer Cherum. “I….I just-”

What should I tell him? That I saw a fellow siren?

I can’t. I can’t tell him what I think I saw or why I’m acting this way.

He will think I’m crazy or turn on me. This pack doesn’t accept races other than humans, werewolves or Lycans.

If I tell Cherum I think I saw a siren and I’m close to madness because I’m a siren too and miss the ocean, he will either have me committed, or thrown in prison.

Lachlan will kill me before I can ever reject him and earn my freedom.

My life will just be over, or worse. I could have to repeat this damned loop again.

I may wake up on the day of my wedding to Lachlan again.

“Ela, please. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

I bite my lips and shake my head, trying to resist the urge to throw myself into the sea.

When I still can’t say anything, Cherum growls in frustration, then turns to Westley. “Did you see what happened?”

Westley shakes his head, “No, delta. Miss Ela was looking at the ocean, then just yelled ‘NO’ out of nowhere. I don’t know,” he shrugs his little shoulders.

Maurice and Percy are running from the orphanage now, Yasmin close on their heels, as well as one of the teachers from the orphanage.

The teacher runs over to Westley, helps him up and dusts off his clothes before picking him up and taking him back up the hill, muttering apologies and scolding the little boy for not asking to go to the beach.

I should tell her that I was the one that brought him down here, but I'm still frozen from Cherum's questioning.

“Luna, what’s wrong? Yasmin ends up running past Percy and Maurice to stand beside Cherum, pushing him out of the way to grab hold of my face and turn it towards her, “Luna?”

“I’m fine,” I managed to choke out. “I just…I…I thought I saw something, but it’s gone now.”

“What did you think you saw?” Cherum asks, looking past me to scan the ocean, “Was it pirates? A shark?”

I shook my head, “It was nothing.”

“No,” Yasmin shook her head, “You wouldn’t react like this to nothing. You saw something that put you in shock, Luna. What happened?”

“It was me,” a smooth, velvety voice carried in the sea breeze.

We all turned to see a gorgeous man emerging from the water, with long, platinum hair, a chiseled face and body, and eyes that looked so much like the sea that I longed to dive into them and never emerge.

“ Stop,” Val growls at me, “ He is not our mate. You will not be diving into anything of his, and he will not dive into anything of yours."

“That’s not what I meant,” I murmured, “ He is like the living embodiment of the sea, Val. Look at him! He’s….he’s like us; like what we were meant to be.”

“Just don’t get any weird ideas,” she huffs, “ Your mate sucks, but I will not tolerate anyone but Killian.”

I wanted to roll my eyes at her, but I was too happy to see another siren in front of me.

Cherum tries to grab me and pull me behind his body, but I push him away, almost falling into the water in my efforts to get to the man.

I can still see scales on his forearms and legs, and his gills are slowly fading in his transformation. It’s really him. The siren.

“You,” I gasped, stumbling towards him. He hurried forward, reaching out to catch me.

He was very much naked, but that wasn’t important to me at the moment.

My focus is on other things. He’s a siren, like me, and he’s here.

He came to me. “You’re him; the siren,” I whispered desperately, staring up into his deep blue eyes.

He smiles down at me, a crooked, endearing smile.

“Yes, princess. What might your name be?”

I blinked a few times, mesmerized by his beauty. He’s not ruggedly handsome like Lachlan. He’s got a graceful beauty about his features, and I almost reached out to touch his glowing skin, only Val growling at me is holding me back from doing so.

“Elelira,” I whispered, “Elelira Meline Lambert,” I gave him my full name, feeling compelled to do so for some strange reason.

The pendant around my neck pulses again, stronger than before, and I look down to see it glowing. His eyes follow mine, then a radiant smile erupts on his face.

“I found you,” he states, pressing his fingers to the glowing pendant under the neckline of my dress, and the glow dies down.

“Unhand her,” Cherum growls, pulling me from his grasp, “I don’t know who you are, but you will lose a hand if you continue to freely touch our Luna as you like.”

“Your Luna?” the man raised an eyebrow. “I think it is you who should refrain from handling my princess in such a rough manner if you do not wish to lose your hand, along with that rodent hanging from your chin.”

“Rodent?” Cherum scoffs, pulling on his beard. He seemed more worried about the threat of losing his beard than his hand. He narrows his eyes at the man, then growls.

“Princess?” Yasmin echoed, ignoring Cherum and hanging on to that one word.

I furrowed my eyebrows, confused by his statement. “Why are you calling me your princess?” I asked.

He smiles warmly, “Because that’s what you are.”

He bows gracefully, completely unfazed by being naked while doing so. I tried to avert my eyes and I heard Yasmin mutter an “Oh my,” behind me, followed by a deep growl from Percy.

The man straightens up, his perfect and white teeth glistening in the sunlight, “My name is Cedric, Princess, and I am here to serve and protect you.”