Page 88 of Losing My Siren Luna
Val is sighing contently in my head. Lachlan is gripping my hand in his large, warm one, the sparks shooting up my arm and making my bond buzz and tingle with rejuvenation. It's like this every time our skin makes contact. No matter how apprehensive I want to remain, the bond reacting to him won’t let me when we are together. Not when he is treating me like this; like I am cherished. When he is kind and gentle with me, I can't react with hostility or coldness like I tried to before.
I half expected him to get mad at me for swimming in the ocean with Cedric. I expected him to get angry and yell at Percy. My expectations from the past had me thinking the worst of him without realizing it, but he proved all those preconceived notions to be wrong. He was the same doting husband he had been all week. Now, he is even about to take me to a garden special to his mother. I never even knew of this garden before. If it's in the warrior's area and by the training grounds, that would explain why. I wasn't allowed to go there before.
“He wants us,”Val exhales tenderly in my head. “He likes us.”
“It’s more than that,”I told her, “Do you….do you think he knows? Do you think he feels the mate bond?”
That’s the only explanation I can think of for his behavior all week. If he felt it, he would have said something, right? Killian would have. He wouldn’t have been able to hold back from claiming his mate as a Lycan Alpha.
Val was deep in thought, contemplating what I suggested. “I don’t know. It would explain a lot.”
“What do you mean?”I asked.
“Well….Killian can reach me sometimes, even when we are both not in control. It's flickering, never long enough to communicate, but I can feel him reaching out for me. He also wouldn’t want me at all if he didn’t know I was his mate.”
That’s true. Could Killian be the biggest difference in this life versus the other?
I’m in the bathroom now, being changed into a new dress and having the salt water quickly cleaned from my hair. Lachlan seemed reluctant to part from me, but seemed equally excited for me to get ready so he could take me to the garden he said once belonged to and was treasured by his mother.
“Lira? Are you ready?” Lachlan asks from outside the ensuite doors.
“She’s just about ready for you, Alpha,” Mimi yells out to him, running the brush through my damp hair a few more times. Lachlan called for her and Gemma to help me change as soon as we got back.
Lachlan groans softly, making both Gemma and Mimi chuckle.
“He is so smitten with you,” Mimi grins at me in the mirror, making me blush. “The man hates it when you are out of his sight.”
“It’s enduring,” Gemma says, placing shoes beside the bench for me to slip my feet in to. They’re the sandals I like, not a pair of the expensive heels or boots Lachlan gave me as a birthday present when I first got here. I like being able to slip my feet out of their restraints to feel the sand between my toes when I can. Gemma and Mimi are learning my preferences and rarely try to put me in the exquisite stuff anymore.
“I was worried after that first breakfast, not understanding how anyone could react that way to their mate, but I see that must have been a fluke because of the circumstances. He really does cherish his Luna like he should, doesn’t he?” Gemma elbows Mimi gently, making Mimi nod with a warm smile.
“Mate?” I picked up on the term since Val and I were just discussing it. “He called me his mate?”
“Oh, I know he prefers the term ‘wife’,” Gemma added. “The night after your marriage, though, he had Beta Nilo running around the castle declaring he had found his mate and it was his new wife. We were all surprised and ecstatic, really. He has been so lonely and untrusting since his parents’ deaths. He always longed for his mate. When the, uh, incident happened at breakfast, the whole castle started to worry that he would lose his Luna and mate to his temper before you had a chance to know the real Lachlan Stiles, the Alpha who always put the well-being of the pack before anything else. We were all so happy to see you flirting at dinner that same night. We all want our Alpha’s happiness, and I’m glad he found that in you. As far as mates go, I think you are both perfectly suited to one another.”
Mate. He had Beta Nilo tell everyone that I was his mate? How could he know that I am his mate? How could he have felt that? My magic is still sealed.
“The necklace?”Val suggested.
I lift my hand, tracing my fingers over the intricate metal. The magic fused inside it tingles against the pads of my fingers.
“You think the magic in this could have triggered him to know that I was his mate?”
“He did ask to share your bed and send those girls away after you put it on.”Val sounds as apprehensive as I feel, but there is no way for us to know for sure without asking. Maybe that's why Killian can hold back too. He doesn’t fully feel the bond but feels just enough of it to react to me and want me.
“Should I ask him?”I asked Val. I am still a siren and this is still the same pack that has been in wars with the northern clans for the past decade, making them wary of other races. Lachlan did accept Cedric staying here in the pack and on the castle grounds, though. If I picked up on what he and the others were hinting at, Cedric might even be mates with Meldec. The Gamma didn’t accept him or mark him yet, but he obviously didn’t reject him or have him thrown out of the pack. Should I expect the same? Will I be safe to stay here even if I tell Lachlan about my siren blood and ask him if he can feel the bond at all?
“I think you should ask him,”Val tells me. “Nothing hurts from asking.”
“He could reject us,”I whispered. “He could throw us in the dungeon.”
“He would have done that to Cedric already. I doubt he would reject us. Killian wouldn’t let him.”
She’s right. As much as I don’t trust Lachlan fully, I do trust Killian. I trust Killian’s relationship with Val, and even his relationship with me. I can tell Lachlan cares for me, but I can see the reasons behind it, making me constantly confused. Killian, though, is always bluntly honest with his feelings and emotions. He wants Valerina and he wants me. If nothing else, I can trust in that. Killian would not allow for Lachlan to reject me or hurt me.
“I’ll ask. I want to know. I need to know. I can’t keep battling these confusing feelings and emotions all the time.”
I can feel Val grinning inside my head. “I think that is a very good idea. You’re getting on my nerves trying to resist him all the time.”
