The Alpha's Siren Song

Chapter 40

Easton stood with an arm wrapped around my shoulders as massive snowflakes descended upon us. the snow had held off until after Halloween which was unusual for this region, but now it seemed like Mother Nature realized her blunder and was trying to compensate for it but offering record setting snow falls. I was hoping that the bad roads and the treacherous conditions would keep Misty away.

But a black sedan pulled up to Easton's house with no regard for the snow or ice. 

I should have been thrilled to meet one of my own kind. I should have wanted to welcome her into my world with open arms. But, all I could think about was that she would hate me. I had left her and several other sirens in that torture chamber and had fended for myself. True, I had assumed that they were dead as I would soon be, but it didn't change the fact that I had abandoned them.

My hands curled inside my mittens when I saw a gorgeous plume of red hair leave the car. 

I hadn't ever really known Misty. Sure, I had been able to recognize her face. But we weren't friends. We were just two of hundreds of creatures that had been tortured at Nero's hands. I could pick her out from a crowd, but that was nothing outrageous. We were sirens, we were designed to be noticeable. 

But Misty stared at me for a moment, like she couldn't believe I was real. Her eyes ran me up and down, once, twice, three times. Then she was running for me with her arms outstretched. 

"Oh my God!" she squealed, her melodic voice right in my ear. Her arms crushed in a hug that her slender arms shouldn't have been able to managed. "You're real! You're alive! I mean, I knew that you got out, but I had no idea that I would ever see you again."

I let out a nervous laugh and awkwardly patted her back, glancing at Easton for help.

"Misty, it's lovely to finally meet you," he chimed in, turning up his natural charm. "Ajax and Keiko have said wonderful things about you. Would you like to come inside?"

Misty fell away from me, gasping and wide-eyed. "They weren't kidding! You really are mated to a werewolf." 

"Yes, I am."

"Christ, the last time I saw you, you had your hands around a werewolf's throat and I was face down in the dirt, hardly able to breathe. I thought for sure, that after you killed one of his henchmen, Nero would come after you full force. I mean, you always were his favorite." She cocked her head to one side, her smile ever so slight on her full lips. "But here you are, alive and well while being in love with another werewolf."

I wanted to curl up and cry. My hands were still clenched into fists, but when I felt the ache in the small muscles there, when I thought of how familiar it was to the ache that came with closing someone's airways long enough to kill them, I forced my hands to be flat. It took everything in me not to look at Easton, to know what he was thinking. I had done what I had to. I would not be ashamed, not even in front of my sweet kind mate.

"Let's go inside," I ordered. 

We all ambled into the house and I wished that I had never agreed to meeting this other siren already. Easton, on the other hand, was as hospitable as ever. 

"Tea or coffee?" he asked.

"Depends on what kind of tea you have," Misty replied, making herself comfortable at his farm table. She crossed her legs and propped her chin up on her dainty hands. There was no scar slashed over her cheek. Her skin was flawless. 

Something in me clenched with jealousy.

While I had fled and fought Easton with everything I had, she seemed perfectly content here, like werewolves were just as much her family as sirens were. She had been subjected to much of the same torture as I had been, but Nero hadn't tried to destroy her power by slashing up her face.

She even liked bloody tea.

She let out a beautiful laugh when Easton rattled off over a dozen tea flavors. He had everything from maple flavored black tea and blueberry green tea to less descriptive names like strawberry dream. She settled on something fruity and he brewed two cups for them. 

I didn't want to be petty, but I wasn't above noticing that he hadn't bothered to put on a cup of coffee despite the fact that I had bought some grounds and a french press. I also noticed that he didn't sit beside me, but at the head of the table, between me and Misty.

"So you and Kaia met when you were being held by Nero?" Easton said, trying to restart the conversation while I sat their empty handed.

"I wouldn't say we met," I grunted. 

Misty nodded at that, taking a sip of her concoction. "It's not like we were friends or even knew each other down there. All that mattered was surviving. Some of us worked together and some of us didn't. We mostly stayed in the groups that we were brought in with. For me, I can captured with my sisters. My mom died trying to protect us, but me and my two older sisters were caught and we stayed together through the whole thing."

"That must have been awful," Easton murmured. "I still don't really understand what he was trying to accomplish."

"He was trying to gain our power. He was obsessed with it, trying to get it anyway he could. He threatened us, tortured us, tried to damage our faces to see if our power came purely from beauty," Misty explained, casually gesturing to me to indicate the scar on my face.

I had grown comfortable in front of Easton, not bothering to put foundation over it. In fact, I couldn't remember the last time I had intentionally covered it. 

Now I felt like a circus freak.

"Fuck," Easton hissed through clenched teeth. "Why didn't you just try to use your siren abilities on Nero? Surely they would have helped you?"

"Nero as too far gone. His brain was more animal than human. As far as I know, he spent every second outside of the bunker as a wolf and only shifted to torture us."

I don't know why, but that moment made me snap. With my mouth aching from clenching my teeth so hard, I finally rose off the wooden chair. The legs gave out a small whine as they slid over the floor. 

"Lass," Easton whispered, looking at me for the first time since Misty arrived. The sudden anxious habits that took over his form like his bouncing knee showed me that he had almost forgotten about me, forgotten about what kind of impact this conversation was having on me.

"You were Nero's favorite because you were the strongest siren, not the other way around," Misty pointed out, completely unapologetic. Her electric blue eyes ran over me again. "Being what you are with the power you have is nothing to be ashamed of."

"I'm not ashamed," I hissed, placing my palms flat on the table and leaning towards her. "I went through some god awful shit and I don't particularly feel like reliving it."

"The only way that you can help yourself stay alive now is to give everyone who wants to help you as much information as possible. Until they met me, the royals thought that Nero was in fucking Spain. That's not even the right continent, Kaia."

"These are my secrets, this is my life, not just yours."

"This is our last chance to have a normal life. And this might be your only chance to carry on the siren line because after the two of us, it's over."

My tongue became tangled and too heavy in my mouth. I only stared at the red headed vixen in front of me, wanting to spew words that were as scorching as her hair. I wanted her to hurt. I wanted the last one of my kind to feel the crippling humiliation and dread that came with her words.

But I couldn't do that.

I turned on my heels and headed out the door.

"Lass," Easton called out. 

I heard his chair move as I shoved my feet into shoes.

"You're mighty brave if you're going to follow a siren powerful enough to drown you with one look," Misty mused.

I flung open the front door just as Easton settled himself back down in his chair.

~~~Question of the Day~~~

What was the best vacation you ever went on?