Page 67 of Losing My Siren Luna (Hidden Cove #1)

Lachlan POV

“ Mate needs us,” Killian whimpers in my head again.

I’ve just been staring up at the ceiling, ignoring him and everything else as I tried to get myself under control for the last few hours.

My office is trashed. After my hopeless anguish dissipated, all I was left with was rage. I tried to keep my anger at those men and that whore under control, but feeling rejected by Lira made me blow up. It’s like everything is imploding all at once.

“ Get your head out of your own butt and go to mate!” Killian snaps at me, his temper rising as mine is finally settling down. “ She needs us.”

“I know,” I growled. I didn’t want to blow up like this around her.

I push myself out of my chair, my limbs feeling heavy as my guilt starts to set in looking around my office.

I destroyed another room because of my anger.

I sent a mind link to the omega in charge of the cleaning staff to leave my office so I can clean it later.

No one else should have to suffer because of my lack of control.

“ My mate needs me,” Killian demanded again.

“ I’m going!” I told him, “ I need to see her too.” I need to make sure she’s alright. She was so unresponsive when I last saw her. My ego was wounded, thinking that she preferred Cedric to me, but now I feel convicted for thinking of only myself and how I was feeling and not her.

When I get to our room, I find Cherum in our bed, his head back against the headboard snoring loudly.

Lira is lying on his lap, his hand resting on top of her head.

I can tell she’s not sleeping by her breathing.

When I walk to the other side of the bed to see her face, I see her eyes open as she stares at the wall.

She turns those beautiful green eyes, red-rimmed and raw, towards me, then a small, sad smile lifts the corners of her lips.

“Hi,” she whispers, her voice sounding raw.

Thank all that is mighty that she is talking to me. I don’t know if I could handle her ignoring me again.

I squatted down in front of her, getting a closer view of her face. She cried. A lot. It breaks my heart to see.

“ I told you she needed us,” Killian snapped at me. He is frantic with his desire to touch her, to help her feel better with the bond that she can feel, and he can feel, but I still can’t.

“Hi,” I whispered back to her, then cleared my throat when my voice broke. “Hi,” I told her again, slightly embarrassed.

“I’m sorry,” she bites her lip nervously. “I….I’m sorry I couldn’t speak before.”

“Couldn’t?” I lifted my brow questioningly.

She smiles solemnly. “I was trying not to break down, but then it happened anyway. I wasn’t trying to ignore you.”

“Oh, Lira,” I rested my hand on her face, careful not to wake Cherum. “I’m sorry for leaving. I….,” I hesitated, worried about telling her I had blown up and trashed my office. “I had a lot to deal with today and was worried I would disturb you more with my mood. I’m sorry I left you like I did.”

I should have stayed. I should have let Killian take control and just stayed with her, letting him trap me in my mind for once while I calmed down so he could have been there for her.

“It’s okay,” she smiles, but it doesn’t touch her eyes.

She briefly places her hand over mine, then sighs before lifting Cherum’s hand off her head.

She sits up to stretch, then looks at Cherum with a tired expression.

“I asked him to go to bed, but he won’t.

He said he can’t leave my side until Cedric comes back for some reason. ”

That’s right. I looked around the room and realized that Cedric really wasn’t there. I didn’t think he would leave her side for anything after today.

“Where did Cedric go?”

Lira shrugs. “To the sea. Cherum said something about him being back tomorrow and not to worry about it for now. He said the Siren King wanted to see him or something like that.”

He left to talk to Lira’s father? Anxiety fills me.

Is he going to try and take my mate from me now?

He can’t. My only crime right now is not being more sensitive to my wife’s needs.

Maybe he really was just called back for some other reason, but he mentioned the necklace calling out to him. Did the king feel it too?

“Lachlan?” Lira looked at me with concern. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” I told her too quickly, trying to paste a smile on my face.

“I’m fine. Just….thinking about everything that happened today.

I’m sorry if it got to be too much for you.

” I remember her reaction to seeing those men from her uncle’s pack.

“Can you tell me what happened? Why…..why did you have such a hard time?”

She looks away, pressing her lips together, and I can tell by the look in her eyes that she is talking to her Lycan.

She doesn’t want to tell me.

Did something happen with that man, Isaac, in her last pack? Does it have to do with her first life? I want to ask, but the contract prevents me from doing so. I can only hope she might trust me enough to tell me.

“Did…,” I tested the question out in my mind to see if I could ask it, and nothing happened. My throat doesn’t close up and pain doesn’t radiate through me. “Did those men hurt you?”

She stays quiet for a few seconds, still talking to Val, then turns her head to look at me again, faking a smile. “No. Not….not really.”

She was scared of them, though. I wish she would just tell me why.

I remember what that man said about her mother. “Did they hurt your mom?” I asked, going out on a limb with the only question permissible to me that I could think of at the moment.

Lira’s eyes went wide. “Did….did he say anything about my mother?”

“ That answers that question,” Killian mutters, bloodlust setting in to avenge our mate’s mother.

“He made an off-hand comment,” I told her, not wanting to lie. “I threatened him not to say more and he didn’t after that.”

“Thank you,” Lira sighed. “I always hated it when they would degrade my mother for the things my uncle made her do.”

I shift uncomfortably, not wanting to ask this next question, but needing to at the same time.

“What things did your uncle make your mom do?”

She looks down at her hands, knotting them in her lap.

“Lots of things. Women are not treated very well in my uncle’s pack, Lachlan.

My uncle also thought that my mom was a threat to his title.

He would,” she pressed her lips together, then looked up at me.

“What happened to Yasmin was a regular occurrence for my mom.”

Disgust fills me. “That man, the one from the docks, did he hurt your mother?”

She hesitates before she nods. "I think so."

I gulped nervously. “Did….did he or anyone else ever hurt you that way?”

She stays silent for a moment, shifting uncomfortably in her spot on the bed. She takes a shuttering breath, then says, “No. Not really. Not….nothing has happened yet.”

Yet?

Killian growls ferociously in my head, catching on before I fully do.

There are so many more questions I want to ask, but each one, even when I think about them, makes my throat swell. Is that man going to try and hurt my wife? Did he before? Is that why she reacted the way she did?

“ Kill him,” Killian snaps. “ Kill him now.”

“I’m going to kill fucking all of them,” I said in a deadly tone to my Lycan. All of them are dead.

My murderous rage is building inside me. Lira is looking down at her hands, but when she looks up again and I see the fear and sorrow behind her eyes, that hardens my resolve.

“I’ll take care of this,” I muttered darkly.

“Take care of it?” Lira repeats. “You can’t. The alliance….”

“Don’t worry,” I stood, leaning over and kissing her forehead. “Please stay with your guard.” I don’t want my wife taking any trips to town without me while I get this sorted out.

“Where are you going to go?” she asks, reaching for my hand. “Lachlan, you need this alliance.”

“I need you, Lira,” I told her. “I’m not going to let those men breathe much longer if each breath they take is offensive to the person who matters most to me.

“Lachlan, please,” she urges me, “I don’t want to bring harm to this pack.”

She knows the same as I do that I will need her uncle’s men soon to ward off the northern clan, but my mind is made up. I can’t just let this go.

“Trust me, Lira,” I told her, resting my head on hers. “Everything will be okay.”

I place my lips on her forehead one more time before I leave the room, mind linking Nilo to meet me in the arms room so we can start planning what to do.

~`

Elelira POV

“Lachlan,” I tried to call for him to come back. He keeps walking, not hearing me as the door closes behind him.

“Let him go,” Cherum says, startling me.

“You’re awake,” I gasped, pressing my hand to my chest.

“Aye, lass,” he stretches his arms in the air. “How was I supposed to sleep with all that racket?”

I didn’t even notice that his snoring had stopped.

I was too worried about what Lachlan was going to do.

I didn’t know what to tell Lachlan about my uncle’s men, since they haven’t done those things to me in this life.

I’m not even sure they did anything to my mother in this life.

I was just assuming that that part of this life is the same.

I don’t want those men to be punished for something they didn’t do, no matter how traumatic it is for me to see them.

I think some part of me is still clinging to the idea that if the Lachlan in this life is different, maybe those men might be different as well.

I’m too scared of the idea that if those men are the same, that might mean Lachlan is the same deep down as well.

“Can…can you go with me to stop him now, if you’re up?” I asked, moving to scoot off the bed.

“No can do, lass,” Cherum says, moving to wrap his arm around my waist and pulling me back to my spot in bed.