Myths & Rejections

Chapter 23 - New Faces and Preparations

Word Count: 3838

As the night wore on they discussed strategies and both packs decided it would be in their best interests to have a few patrols at the most populated beaches in their territories. The only thing these wolves would be doing is watching for tritons and making sure no one went swimming in the ocean at night.

The alphas were comfortable committing warriors for this since they would be under orders not to engage the creatures if they saw them, the last thing anyone wanted was bloodshed. The only time the wolves would be allowed to attack is if the tritons were in the process of attacking a human on land. And even then, only if the wolves had a numbers advantage. No one-on-one fighting with a triton unless there was no other choice.

If the tritons managed to lure someone in the water the wolves were to do nothing. No one was happy to stand back and watch someone die, but they realized that they would have no advantage in the water, and anyone who tried to be a hero would likely end up dead too, and that would only make things worse.

They did discuss the possibility of just trying to scare them off and not actually engage with them, if a group of warriors saw tritons on land, they would first follow them and observe their activities. Then the wolves would call in backup, surround the tritons in their wolf forms and growl and snap at them and try to herd them back into the ocean. Maybe this would scare the tritons enough to keep them from trying to come back onshore at a location near humans. No way to know for sure if it would do anything other than scare them away from that particular beach, but it couldn't hurt to send them back into the water if possible.

The wolves were initially very worried about patrolling during the storm and didn't want their people out in hurricane weather, but Matt and Eden assured them that wouldn't be necessary. Tritons didn't want to be anywhere near the eye of a hurricane, if caught in a storm like that, tritons did what every other intelligent ocean going species did. They swam away as fast as they could, and they stayed in the deepest water they could, where the currents weren't affected as much by the strong winds. Tritons absolutely would not try to come onshore during a hurricane, they would find a beach or island out of the path of the storm.

So it might actually be a good thing if the hurricane stayed on course and headed right for them. As long as it stayed small, of course, a cat one hurricane making landfall was manageable. A category five hurricane making landfall was a catastrophe. But regardless of anything else, hurricanes were not something anyone had control over, so they would just have to manage around the storm.

It was nearing ten pm when Harper noticed a movement outside on the deck and looked out the door to find a small family of sirens standing near the path at the edge of the deck. Matt and Eden rushed out to meet them. It was a young couple with a child around two years old clinging to the woman's back.

They were wearing some of Matt and Harper's clothes that had been laid out near the spring for any visiting sirens to take. The man was tall and broad, and nearly as big as Matt, wearing just a pair of swimming trunks. The female was a stunning statuesque woman, who stood at about six feet tall with hair down to her mid-thigh, wearing one of Harper's sundresses. They all had pale blonde hair that was pulled back from their faces in braids but loose down their backs.

"Well, she looks exactly the way I expected a mermaid to look." Luna Penny whispered to Luna Sophia who nodded sagely as if it was exactly what she expected as well.

"Do you think there are any...uh...unmated ones swimming around out there?" Porter asked Harper, clearing his throat and prompting chuckles around the room.