Page 90 of Losing My Siren Luna
I resist the urge to groan, not liking that she just thinks that I’m trying to flatter her. “Lira, you really are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. I’m not just trying to flatter you.”
She grins, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. It’s more like a scoff, air exhaling from her nose in a puff. “I know you prefer more voluptuous women, Alpha. I have seen your tastes. That is why you have been insisting I be fed more, isn’t it?”
“What?” I stopped us just as we walked past the armory and warrior barracks. “The only woman I prefer is you. Your eating habits have nothing to do with my taste.” She is my taste in women. Anyone else I was with after we married the first time was nothing more than her replacement. None of them ever compared to her.
“I know I’m very skinny,” she whispers, running her free hand down the front of her dress. “Thank you, though, for trying to placate me.”
“I am not just telling you that you are beautiful as empty words, Lira. Look at me.” I gently turned her to face me, resting my hand on the side of her face. She doesn’t flinch away from me, which makes me ecstatic, besides the fact that she doesn’t believe me when I tell her she is beautiful.
“You, Lira, my wife, are the most gorgeous woman in the entire land. Maybe in the world. I doubt I could ever lay eyes on anyone more pleasing to look at than you. It’s not just your appearance, though. I find everything about you to be beautiful. The way you drink tea, the way you smile when you look at the sea, the face you make before you say something teasing to your Delta, and even the way you glower at someone when they make you angry. As long as it’s not me, I find joy in everything about you. You also have the most beautiful heart. You knew the relationship I had with Yasmin, and you still helped her when no one else stepped up to. You are kind to everyone in this pack. I’ve even stuck off to watch you entertain the children in the orphanage. Your heart is just as beautiful as everything else about you. I’m not trying to flatter you. I truly mean it.”
Her emerald eyes are staring up at me, Val shining through them, watching me with scrutiny, weighing my words, probably to detect any falsehood in what I am saying. There is none. I meant every word.
“Why?” she asks softly, leaning into my touch, probably without realizing it. She would blush if she realized she was seeking out more contact with my skin. I’ve noticed the bond causes her to do that at times and she usually doesn’t pick up on it right away. She does it a lot in her sleep. Holding her to help to keep her nightmares at bay is how we fall asleep, but I often wake up with her body wrapped around mine. She doesn’t even realize it. She just seeks me out in her sleep, and she hasn’t had nightmares again since that first night.
“Why what?”
She presses her lips together, her eyes searching mine. “Why are you so sure I am the most beautiful person to you? Do you….do you, um,” she hesitates, pressing her lips together again.
“Do I what?” I asked in a husky whisper.
“Do you…..do you feel it?” Her voice is shaky, like she is scared to fully form the sentence. Feel what? What is she asking me?
“The bond,”Killian tells me. “She is asking if you can feel that she is our mate.”
My throat swells, the contract pressing forward preventing me from outright saying it. I want to. I want to scream it. I want to tell the whole world that she was fated to me and only me. Her uncle and everyone else be damned. I want her to know that I’m treasuring my bond with her, even though I can’t fully feel it yet.
“I can, though,”Killian reminds me. “It's not often, and takes a lot of strain, but I feel flickers of it. I know my bond is there with Val, even if you can’t feel yours with Elelira.”
That’s right. I may not feel it, but I can tell her that Killian has.
I test the words in my head, imagine saying them and don’t feel my throat swell like before. I guess it's safe.
Lira was still staring up at me, waiting for my reply. She truly is the most beautiful woman alive. Even without the bond telling me that, I know without a doubt that she is.
“Killian does,” I whispered, tracing her soft cheek with my thumb, marveling at the glittering in her eyes at my confession.
“He feels the bond?” she gasps, her voice sounding slightly broken with relief. “Really?”
I nod, nervous and relieved that I’m finally able to tell her in some way that I know we are mates.
“So,” she bites her lip, hesitating again, “You….you know that we are…..mates?”
“Yes,” I smiled weakly, hoping she wasn't upset by the news. I shouldn’t know, but I don’t want to lie to her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she says, looking a little lost; maybe stunned.
“I…,” my throat starts to swell and my chest pounds as I attempt to tell her that I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell her that I knew we were mates. I would then have to tell her how I knew, and that is forbidden. “I….I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” she lifts one of her brows. “You didn’t know we were mates? Then, why? Why have you been treating me so kindly?”
“Because I love you,” I told her honestly. “I love everything about you. I don’t need the mate bond to know that.”
~
Elelira POV
“You love me?” I whispered hoarsely, not believing what I was hearing. “How? You barely know me, Alpha.”
