Page 19 of Lured By the Siren

She returns the gesture, but there is something in the way it doesn’t reach her eyes. I sense a lingering sadness in her gaze. I have a mind to ask her what’s wrong, but before I have the chance, we are at the edge of the forest and I can hear voices beyond.

“Welcome to our home,” Evelyn says as we push our way through the trees and onto another picturesque beach, however this one is covered in huts—dozens of them. There are even huts up in the palm trees lining the beach with roped walkways between them and rope ladders going up the trees. It looks like something from a story.

“Come, the Elders will want to meet you.” She grabs my hand and pulls me toward the largest of the huts. It is decorated with white flowers and carvings of not only sirens but different sea creatures and what looks like possibly a few humans. I don’t get to look for long before Evelyn pulls me into the large, round space where four intensely gorgeous women sit in chairs made entirely out of seashells. I momentarily think that the seats can’t be comfortable for the women, but they seem perfectly content. Ethereal even.

“Another batch of survivors so soon after the last?” One of the women says, “Where did you find him? And where have you been for the last day, Evelyn?”

She is probably the oldest of the four, although she looks no more than thirty. She has thick red hair that is braided into a coil atop her head, her skin, though tanned, is smooth and unmarred with age as her scales subtly shift between silver and bronze.

I gulp as she stands up and walks around the table she is sitting behind. She is completely nude, and I force my eyes to stay on her face. I won’t show any weakness in front of these women. They exude power and grace in a way that makes me want to do whatever they tell me to. I blink, trying to shake that feeling away.

The three other so-called Elders all join the first, and I bite the insides of my cheek trying not to make a sound, all of them fully nude as well. None of them look older than myself, and my heartbeat begins to quicken at their closeness. I can feel the power radiating from each of them.

Have I actually just landed myself on an island full of naked women? This is any man's dream. I pinch myself to make sure I’m not actually dreaming. If Dru was here somewhere alive, I can see why he might have stayed. This is a utopia compared to our home. The thought of my brother sparks what the Elder woman just said,‘another batch of survivors so soon’.

Does that mean someone from my brother’s ship wrecked on these shores, too, and survived? It has to be Dru. I need it to be Dru.

“Take him to the men’s hut with the others and then come back here. We need to speak with you, Evelyn, before tonight's cleansing ceremony,” another of the Elders says as she walks toward me. Her hair is pitch black and braided intricately down her back, leaving everything uncovered for me to see. I gulp and clear my throat, trying not to look at her erect nipples as she circles me, looking at my body in a way that has my skin crawling. It’s not sensual, but more like she is sizing up an animal for slaughter.

Evelyn must sense my discomfort because she brushes the back of her hand lightly against mine. The contact instantly sends a warmth through me, one that I reach for. I don’t want to leave her side while on this island.

“Yes, Florence,” Evelyn says, bowing her head to each of the Elder women and then grabbing my hand and pulling me from the large cottage.

“What was that?” I asked.

“They must inspect all new men who come ashore. It is our custom.”

“Inspect?” I raise a brow, “For what reason?”

“It’s just how things are done here.” She brushes the question off quickly and it sends a flurry of unease through me. She is definitely hiding something from me.

I allow her to pull me through the maze of huts along the beach and into the copse of trees behind them, to where a large hut is built into the trunks of several large palms high overhead. I look up at it, amazed at its carpentry. It looks so different from the huts on the beach and reminds me of some of the smaller wooden structures from home.

“This is where the men stay. One of them built this place for themselves, and he has always welcomed newcomers to stay with him there.” That explains why it looks so different.

I follow her up a ladder, which consists of pieces of wood nailed into the trunk of the largest tree, and go straight through the center of the building. I’m not sure what I expected to see as I climbed my way up into the large space, but I most definitely didn’t expect to see an orgy happening right in front of us.

Moans of delight and ecstasy echo toward us, and I can’t peel my eyes away from the group of two men and four sirens all locked together in a pretzel of limbs and lust.

“I—my god,” I whisper and Evelyn grabs my hand pulling me away from the group and into another area of the treehouse far away from the sounds of the orgy.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize they would be doing that this early in the day.”

“So that’s a recurring event?”

“Um…well, yes,” her cheeks turn that lavender color again, noting she is blushing.

Just then, a man comes through a door at the opposite side of the room we are in. He is tall with short hair so light it looks almost white, tanned skin, eyes that seem to glow with a strange golden brown, and ears with a subtle point at the top.

“Katarina told me there was another new sailor to join our home. Happy to welcome you,” the man says, smiling with a large toothy grin. I can’t help but notice the points at the tip of his incisors.

Something about his smile, the way he is tilting his head a little to the right, and those strange, pointed ears, ignite a long-lost memory inside my mind. “Do I know you?” I ask him.

He chuckles, extending out a hand for me to shake, “I highly doubt it. The name’s Mathius. Pleased to meet you.”

I take his hand, which practically engulfs my own with how large it is. “Kai,” I offer numbly, staring at him, trying to place the face and the name in my head.Where do I know him from?

“Come on, let me take you to where you will be staying.”

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