Page 72 of Losing My Siren Luna (Hidden Cove #1)

That's what she did. She pushed my legs and feet to move, bolting past Cherum and down the hall as both Cherum and Lachlan yelled for me to stop.

My hand drifts up to my chest, the pain radiating through me still.

My hand connects with the necklace, and its magic flows through me, intensifying as Val's anger and need to protect me grows.

It filters through every inch of my body.

Val is in full control, starting to shift as she sprints for the docks.

The shift taking control of me feels different as the magic mixes with our transforming muscles. It feels like.... like fins are growing instead of Val's Lycan body.

~

Lachlan POV

I fell to my knees on the dock. My anguish is suffocating. It’s choking me. My lungs can’t get enough oxygen. My body is trembling. Killian’s howls of pain echo in my head.

What should I do?

This is like my rejection all over again, only this time….This time it really feels hopeless. I was trying. I was trying to fix everything, every wrong I ever committed against my mate. One misunderstanding, one thing that wasn’t even my fault ruined it all.

She left me.

Again.

“Alpha,” Cherum falls to his knees beside me, staring out at the ocean just like me, only in shock. “She was….she’s….a siren.”

I didn’t reply to him. He saw as well as I did. He doesn’t need me to confirm it. I don’t know if I can speak without choking up anyway.

“That’s what that flounder meant,” Cherum mumbles.

“What?” I choked, then looked at him from the corner of my eye, then quickly turned them back to the ocean, not ready to give up hope of my wife coming back yet.

She should know it wasn’t as it seemed. She knows my love for her is too deep to do that. She should know deep down I didn’t betray her.

“Cedric. When he got back, he told Ela that he came from seeing her father, but he also told me that her father was the Siren King. It makes sense now.”

I furrow my brows. He told Lira that her father was the Siren King? That wasn’t allowed.

“What else did he say?” I asked, turning to grab the collar of Cherum’s shirt.

He looks at me with surprise. “I don’t know, Alpha. They fought, I know that,” he sputters, trying not to fall back from my sudden movement. “She made him leave.”

They fought? Over what?

Wait, Cedric can go after her. He can follow her where I can’t.

I looked at the sea one last time, hoping to catch some movement to indicate Lira might still be out there, but there was nothing. Just the vast, open sea.

I need to find Cedric. I need to plead with him to find her and bring her back.

As if he heard my thoughts, Cedric at that moment came racing down from the castle to the docks, Meldec not far behind him.

“Where is she?” he asked in a panic. “What happened?”

I pointed out to the sea. “It seems she gained her fins somehow.”

“What?” He stared wide-eyed at the ocean, then back at me. “She….she unlocked her magic?”

“So it would appear,” I muttered.

“No,” Cedric shook his head. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know it would be that great of a shock.”

“What would?” I took a step forward, Killian taking focus from his despair to come forward in my mind.

“I….I told her. I told her the truth. I told her about her father bringing her back.”

“What?” I stared at him in disbelief. My eyes feel as if they are bugging out of my head, my panic multiplying. “You told her everything? Why?” I wanted to be there when she found out so I could apologize. So I could explain my reasons for everything in our first life.

“I thought it would help her to know she could talk with us. She could tell us what happened before and….and we could help her. Those men, Alpha. I think they hurt her.”

I’m sure they did. I was taking care of them all morning because I was sure they were guilty of many crimes against my wife and her mother, along with many more.

Cherum said they fought. She must not have taken the news well. “Did she say anything?”

“No,” he shakes his head. “She kicked me out before I could explain much further too. I merely got to tell her that she, you and her father were the only ones with those memories.”

“ No,” Killian whispers brokenly in my head. “ She….she will think we lied to her.”

Shit. He’s right.

I grabbed Cedric’s collar, pulling him closer to me, surprising him and making Meldec growl. “Did you tell her your King ,” I sneered the word, “prevented me from telling her anything myself? Does she know I wasn’t trying to deceive her?!”

Cedric stared at me wide-eyed. “I….I was told to leave before I could.”

No, no, no. She knows I have my memories, and then she walked in on that nasty woman’s attempt to seduce me.

Val had control, too. Not just Lira, but Val ran from me.

“ No,” Killian began to sob, heartbroken because of his mate.

“FIND HER!” I screamed at Cedric, seconds away from wringing his neck. “Find my mate!” I tossed him to the ground, my rage boiling over.

Meldec snarls at me, then helps his mate back to his feet.

“Her father is coming,” Cedric tells me as I begin to walk back to the packhouse, my mind made up to kill the woman who caused this. “King Brennus is coming. He wanted to see her himself. I…I want you to be aware.”

He shrugs out of Meldec’s hold then begins to strip as he walks to the end of the dock to dive into the water. We stand there and watch as he shifts and begins to swim out in the direction that my wife disappeared.

“Her father?” Meldec asked, still staring after his mate. “Alpha, what’s going on?”

Killing the whore will have to wait. “Is that woman in the dungeons?” I asked Cherum.

He nodded solemnly. “I had two warriors take her down before following after you.”

“Good,” I muttered. “Call a meeting.” I’m only going to explain to my men once what’s going on, then I’m going to prepare to get my mate back, whatever it takes.

~

Elelira POV

We swim like never before, flowing through the water with my lithe siren body and long-missed fins. It should have been a happy moment, getting my fins back, but this was anything but.

I love the water. I missed it so much, but now that I have the magic and power I longed for to be free, freedom has never tasted so bitter.

He knew. Cedric knew. Even my father, who Cedric said brought me back to this point in my life, knew and decided deceiving me was the best option.

I don’t know if I can trust someone ever again. Not after that.

At some point, Val retreated to the back of my mind to grieve and mourn, feeling heavy from her mate's deceit. I can feel all her conflicting emotions. She is heartbroken and miserable thinking her mate didn’t love her enough to tell her the truth.

He didn’t stop his human counterpart from betraying me again.

She feels sorry towards me, having urged me so many times to open myself up to the man that ultimately betrayed us again. He lied to me. Lied to her.

Everything feels hopeless now. I don’t even have the desire any longer to find my father like before. He took my death away from me, forcing this second chance to be deceived and manipulated to pacify everyone else’s guilt.

What do I do now?

After swimming for so long and so hard that my tail muscles are aching, I find an island that I used to take refuge near in my first life, out in the middle of nowhere.

I had never seen human life there before, but there was a small dock and a few abandoned buildings on the land.

I had never ventured out onto the island before, sticking to the underwater caves to stay hidden while I rested, but Cedric might find me if I stayed in the water.

I’m sure Lachlan has already forced him to come after me.

I should probably get rid of the necklace before I go on shore. It’s a beacon for him to find me. It may be what gave me the magic I needed to shift, though. I touch it, and I no longer feel the magic in it. It all filtered into me, giving me the ability to gain my fins in my time of need.

I decide to keep it just in case, but I take it off when I get to shore, holding it in my hands, hoping it stops the necklace from signaling Cedric, or worse, my father, to where I am.

The largest building is like a hut house, with a dusty bedroom inside. There is shelving with bottles of rum, coated in a thick layer of grime, and chests around the room that I choose to look through in hopes of finding clothing.

I set the necklace on the table beside the bed, then slipped on a loose-fitting shirt I found in one of the chests.

It’s a man’s shirt. A very large man. The dark shade reminds me of something Lachlan might wear, which makes my heart pang.

I still choose it over the lighter colored shirts for some reason.

I guess my heart isn’t ready to let go of him just yet.

Laying on the old, dusty bed, I curl into a ball as my tears start to flow from my tightly closed eyes. I loved him. I truly did. I don’t know how I’m going to get over this pain residing in my heart.