Page 46 of Losing My Siren Luna (Hidden Cove #1)

“Bed time it is, then. Unless your stomach is too full to sleep, then we could maybe take a brief walk through the halls?”

“No, I’m ready for bed,” I grinned quickly to hide my unease, taking his hands.

He leads me over to the bed and pulls the covers back, kneeling and helping to remove my slippers like yesterday.

He arranges the blankets around me before going around, blowing out the candles and lamps around the room before coming to lay beside me.

We lay in silence for a few minutes after Lachlan blew out the last lamp on his nightstand.

“Lira?” Lachlan’s deep, masculine voice fills the dark space, making the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

“Yes?”

“Can I hold you? I will do nothing else. I just want to fall asleep with you in my arms.”

I bite my lip, anxiety making my chest feel like it is swelling. “Just holding me? Like, hugging me?” I clarified, knowing holding me could have different meanings.

“Just hugging you from behind. I want nothing more than to go to sleep with you in my arms every night, and wake up the same way. I really won’t do anything else.”

I feel nervous, but Val is screaming for me to say yes, not having enough of her mate, I guess. The bond is making my skin itch from his request, wanting nothing more than to fill it.

“Okay,” I whispered meekly.

I feel the bed move beneath me as Lachlan moves closer to me. His strong arms wrap around me, one arm sliding under my shoulders and the other resting on my waist. My breath hitches for a second, but then evens out as his touch satisfies the bond.

“Goodnight, Elelira,” Lachlan whispered hoarsely in my ear, his voice raw and gravelly.

“Goodnight, Lachlan,” I husked back, then let the bond soothe me to sleep.

~

“Here, princess!” Cedric calls to me cheekily, swimming in loops around me in the water. I tried to keep up with him, but I kept getting frustrated and gave up. Without my fins, I just don’t have the strength or stamina.

I envy him for his freedom in the open sea and his being able to dive deep below the water’s surface to a depth where I can no longer see him. The water is majestic from below. The sun’s rays glittering the surface above fade to clear, cool currents teaming with life.

“Will you quit trying to scare me, Cedric? I know there is nothing down there that can hurt me.”

“And how would you know that?” He asks, lifting an eyebrow.

Oh no. I keep slipping up. “I just know. If there was, you wouldn’t be letting me swim out here, would you?”

His expression slips back into his easy smile. “No, I wouldn’t. You are right.”

I keep almost slipping up and letting it be revealed that I have lived this life already. Well, not this life. This life is far different from my first. The past week has proved that.

It’s been a week, and not only have I not felt betrayal pains, I have been living quite comfortably as the wife of the pack’s Alpha. I’m being treated as the true Luna, not just by Cherum and the Luna’s guard, but by everyone. Even Lachlan.

Lachlan has been…..exceptional. He has been diligently working every day as Alpha, as he was before, but he has also gone out of his way each and every day to make sure to spend time with me.

He is so attentive that I find it almost smothering at times.

The confusing way the bond makes me feel has been making it hard to keep my mind about me.

I find myself giving into his small signs of affection and staring admiringly at him when he talks.

I don’t want to be. I don’t want to find the man that neglected and emotionally abused me in my first life attractive in any way, but the bond wants something different.

Just as it did in my first life. It took almost a year of betrayal pains and then enduring Mimi’s death by myself for the bond to lessen to where I could numb myself to the effects being in close proximity to my mate brought me.

Then, when he did start to show me his face, after I resolved myself to endure until I could leave, his constant cruelty made both me and Val bury any budding affection that seeing him stirred in the bond.

This Lachlan is nothing like then, though.

This Lachlan is the complete opposite of the cruel man I first married.

He makes fighting the bond impossible. If I could see any of the other cruel Lachlan in this one, it would make resisting the bond easier.

Besides what happened at breakfast the first morning here, he has been nothing but kind.

Val isn’t helping either. I don’t want to hurt her.

I’ve always tried to protect her above all else, but to keep her from feeling pain right now, I have to keep myself vulnerable to the bond.

She wants her mate and to feel her connection to him.

Lachlan and Killian are one entity, so each time she grows closer to Killian, I find myself being pulled closer to Lachlan.

It’s confusing and suffocating at times, my mind and my feelings not matching my heart.

Cedric must have noticed my conflicting attitude at breakfast because once Lachlan left with Beta Nilo to begin planning some event the pack is hosting soon, Cedric offered to take me swimming, saying that I looked like a fish out of water.

Percy and Yasmin came with us. They were supposed to be watching and serving me, but had drifted off to an intimate bubble of their own behind one of the boats in the dock.

Being newly mated, they aren’t able to really keep their hands off one another.

They had the first few days of their new relationship off from all duties, for obvious reasons, but it seems that wasn’t enough for them.

They still can’t seem to get their fill of one another.

Maurice is watching from the docks, so hopefully Percy won’t get in trouble later for leaving me unattended.

Cherum was reluctant to leave me with Cedric to join the meeting with the other ranked commanders and told Percy and Maurice to stay vigilant while protecting me.

Percy is remaining vigilant alright, or at least attentive towards his mate, but I don’t think Cherum cares much about that.

I’m fine with just Cedric anyway. Val was worried about him being too affectionate to me, but the only times he is affectionate in a concerning way is when Lachlan is around. I think he just wants to mess with Lachlan.

“Are you tired yet, princess?” Cedric asked, floating beside me.

“No,” I leaned back, letting my hair fan out in the water, soaking in the sun’s rays on my exposed skin as I floated on my back. “I could do this all day.”

Cedric chuckles, bumping my legs with his beautiful tail. “You’re a natural in the water, even if you haven’t gotten your siren magic yet.”

“The ocean is my favorite,” I told him, keeping my eyes closed and feeling the orange heat on my eyelids.

“Did you do a lot of swimming in your former pack?”

My smile falters as I cringe inwardly. No, I didn’t.

No woman would dare try to swim alone without a mate or someone to protect them.

I was only out of the ocean for a short time before my uncle’s men found me.

Even if I wasn’t his niece, I doubt they would just have left me unscathed.

I thought I would be fine with my magic, but my uncle was ready for me.

“Not often,” I told Cedric.

“How did you get to be such a great swimmer?”

“I’m just a natural, I guess,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant.

He chuckles, “It is in your genes, I guess.”

“Seems so,” I sighed, going back to a vertical position in the water.

I look to shore and see Percy and Yasmin are now making out on the sand, no longer trying to hide it.

I’m happy for them, but I wish they would do that in their room.

It makes me feel uncomfortable as it makes me think about the first night I was back here.

Lachlan and I never got heated like they are getting, but we did kiss twice.

Something I know Val is craving to do again.

I’m not ready, though. Even if it is her and Killian doing it, I don’t know if I can sit back and just accept it. I will likely panic again.

I do let Lachlan brush my hair for me every night, something that feels intimate enough as it is.

He also holds me as I fall asleep, which I’ve actually come to welcome.

I sleep better every night when he does it.

The bond is soothed enough by his touch to not pulse annoyingly inside me begging for a connection with my mate.

I haven’t accepted him, but I will accept using him to get a good night’s sleep.

“Look,” Cedric pointed off towards the castle.

I looked in that direction to see Lachlan and his men walking towards the docks.

I nervously glanced at the couple still making out on the sand, wishing I had the ability to mind link them to tell them they were about to get caught.

I can’t until I mate with Lachlan and have him mark me.

That will not be happening any time soon.

“Can you warn them?” Cedric asked, nodding to the couple.

“I wish I could. Let’s swim back and try to beat Cherum to them,” I wiggled my eyebrows at him. “I’ll race you.”

“Should I give you a head start?” He huffs.

I splash him, then dive underwater, pushing my human body to swim as fast and as hard as I can.

When he flies past me, I grab hold of his tail, hitching a ride until my lungs begin to burn with the need for oxygen.

I don’t let go as I lift to the surface, making his muscles in his tail flex as he fights for control to break free.

He turns and breaks the surface with me, both of us laughing and sputtering water.

“That’s cheating,” he groans, splashing me with his free hand when I grip his upper arm to prevent him from swimming off without me.

“No it’s not,” I laughed,” You told me to do this.”

“To cheat?!”

“No. To use you as my tool,” I grinned.

He throws his head back and laughs, “You’re using me to beat me?”

“It’s called being resourceful,” I smirk before diving back under.

The same thing happens again;he tries to swim past me but I grab on to his tail. We wrestle underwater for a minute, then get above the surface when I need to breathe. I’m hanging on his back, laughing uncontrollably as he tries to throw me off.

We end up back at the shore eventually, our mission to warn the lovebirds all but forgotten.

Cedric’s fins are shifted to limbs, even with me hanging on his back, demanding he admit that I won.

My wet clothes are bunched high on my thighs, my legs wrapped around his torso.

He reaches back to poke at my side to tickle me, trying to get me to let go.

He is bellowing laughter and empty threats to get me off.

It isn’t until a very angry growl startles me that I finally let him go and slide off his back.

I turned to see Lachlan, Nilo, Cherum and Meldec watching us.

Cherum and Nilo are pressing their lips together to keep from laughing, Gamma Meldec is glaring at Cedric and me disapprovingly, and Lachlan’s face…

.it reminds me of his face towards the end of our first marriage when he was always so angry with me.

“ You’re hanging on the back of a naked man. Of course he is angry,” Val growls at me.

I jerked my head to look at Cedric, just now realizing that he was naked, and my face, I’m sure, is bright red now from embarrassment.

Cedric, showing no shame, places his hands on his hips, grinning widely. “Did you men want to join us for a swim? The water is quite lovely, right princess?”

Meldec surprised me, being the one to growl at that question. “ Princess ? Are you that familiar with the Luna to being calling her in such affectionate ways with no clothes on?”

Why is he so offended? Cedric always calls me that. He just shifted back too. It’s not like we were swimming together while he was naked.

“Get dressed, Cedric,” I pat his arm, then looked up at him. His face no longer looks easy-going. He looks hurt by what the Gamma said, which I don’t understand. He usually wouldn’t care about such statements. “Cedric?”

He forces a smile and looks down at me. “Yes, my princess,” he briefly kisses my temple, “Since your knight and the jesters are here, I think I’ll head back to my room for a bit to rest. Thank you for accompanying me on my swim.”

I smiled weakly, sensing the discord between my friend and Meldec. I’m a little offended by the Gamma’s words too, but they really seem to be bothering Cedric.

After he was out of earshot, not bothering to put his clothes back on that he scooped out of the sand, just walking back naked, I turned to glare at the men, particularly Meldec.

“Did you need to be that rude? He just shifted back. He wasn’t intentionally naked.”

Meldec frowns at me, but looks guilty now. He opens his mouth, then shuts it, then turns to follow Cedric back to the bunk houses and dorms.

“Hey! Don’t be mean to him!” I started to follow after him, but Cherum wrapped an arm around my waist, stopping me.

“I don’t think he is following the man to be mean to him, Ela. I think there is more going on there than it seems.”

“What do you mean?” I looked up at him confused.

He shakes his head. “Nothing to worry about right now, lass.”

I pressed my lips together, not believing him.