Their Siren

Chapter Twenty-Two

Hannah

My head hurt.

A lot!

Damn Vodka.

It was pretty obvious just by looking at me that I was suffering the mother of all hangovers. Squinting at myself in the harsh bathroom mirror was torture, actual torture to my eyes and brain.

I was never drinking again.

Fact.

I needed food and caffeine, desperately but was I hell going downstairs not when perfect Lyla was no doubt using the house as her own person naked catwalk. I wasn’t going to put myself through that so tap water from the bathroom would have to do. At least it would help combat the dryness of my mouth which currently felt like a Carpet had done the nasty with a thorn bush and had a baby. That baby being my tongue.

Hangovers sucked.

Of course, it wasn’t just the hangover that had my eyes red and puffy. I had finally fallen asleep around four am, still crying. I cried because my life was a mess. I cried because my family were being hurt over my shitty choices in men and I cried because I wanted those shitty men more than I wanted to admit. Which made me the worst sister and daughter in the world.

The sharp knock on the door tore through my head like a sledgehammer.

“What?”

Wrens face came into view, slowly. It hurt more than I cared to admit to crane my head back to look at him. He was so impossibly tall.

“Julian wanted me to ask if you are coming down for breakfast” He paused. “Are you ok?”

“Hung over to hell, I’ll live probably”

“So, breakfast?” he looked puzzled, which was a strange look on such a stern looking man. He definitely wasn’t as scary as I had first thought. Maybe like a big teddy bear.

“Stop comparing me to a cuddly toy” he growled. “It does nothing at all for my ego. I am a terrifying dragon”

I waved him away with my hand, seriously I wasn’t even in the mood to laugh at him. “No breakfast” I paused. “I’m not fit for company and I’m not sure I want to see them”

“That bad huh?” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I heard you crying,” I blushed. If he heard it meant he had been outside my door all night. Maybe the whole house had heard.

“You heard?”

“I was going to knock” he looked sheepish. “But it would just complicate matters more”

“How?” But I was overwhelmed that he was going to knock. “And you don’t have to stay outside my door, I’m not going to run away and I’m sure I wouldn’t get very far even if I did”

“I would never go to another shifters mates bedroom in the middle of the night!” he said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I may not like them very much, but I have respect for them and you”

“Then why?”

“Why stay outside your door last night?” he shrugged. “I like you Hannah, I respect you is probably a better way to describe it and I know those assholes.”

“Assholes” I smirked.

“Yeah, the council and the brothers, I’ve decided that no one gets to hurt you anymore”

“Julian and Alexander would never hurt me, not physically anyway” and there I went again, defending them even after everything.

“No, they wouldn’t, that doesn’t mean you have to deal with them right now. Not unless you want to? And I’m guessing you don’t?”

Did I want to deal with them right now? The answer to that was a big resounding NO!

“Thank you, Wren,” I whispered. Dealing with any of them was more than I was capable of. Who knew the scowly dragon would end up being my only ally.

“Wren” I paused, “Thank you”

It was the sound of shouting that roused me out of my zombie like mood. I had been standing under the jet of the shower for longer than I cared to admit, and I could hear the raised voices even with the spray on gull and the door firmly closed.

“Move out my god damn way”

Wrapping myself in a towel I slammed open the door, making it bounce against the wall. Three pairs of eyes turned to me.

Julian stood there, tray in his hands. His face furious as he squared up to Wren who had planted himself like some unmovable rock in front of my door. I had been lucky the door hadn’t taken him out when I shoved open the door. Though I wasn’t sure if the solid wood door would last an impact with him or splinter into a thousand pieces.

“She doesn’t want to see you Julian”

“Get out of my way” Julian’s face was dominated by the change in his eyes, the warm brown bleeding out to the demonic black and I couldn’t take my eyes off his face.

“Not when you are in this mood, back down” Wren moved me back behind him, his hand soft on my bare arm as I tried to peer around him. What ever was happening it wasn’t good at all.

Alex roared “Take you hand off my mate”

I took a step back, my heart thundering in my throat. I had never seen anything like it. His face contorted. If Julian’s face had been terrifying that first day then Alexanders face was the thing of nightmares.

Julian

Wren was outside her door when I went up stairs with a tray. She might not want to see me but that didn’t mean she had to starve plus I wanted to see her. I needed to make sure she was ok. To say the last few days had been a mess was an understatement, but the stupid dragon was back outside her door. The same place he had been all of last night. I knew because I made it my business to go past as often as I could get away with. Any excuse to walk past her door I had taken, and the ass hole hadn’t moved. Just stared at me with barely veiled contempt.

Seeing her outside again rocked me to my core. Did he have ideas about her, about keeping her for himself. They sure did seem friendlier than they had a few days ago. when Lyla had mentioned it, I hadn’t given it much thought but now? Now my blood ran hot with the jealousy in my gut.

Who was he to tell me she didn’t want to see me? Her body guard?

And then he touched her, it was nothing I knew that but just watching him place his hand on her arm had me fighting for control of the beast within. Sirens, we have a good rep in the media. There are fairy tales about us. We are romanticized but that isn’t true in real life. My human form is handsome, I knew that. It drew people in just as much as the pheromones did but once we shifted. Especially when we shifted out of water that could be monstrous. Hannah had seen a tiny bit of it, and it had ended up with her smashing her head open in fright.

I caught Alexander around the waist as he rushed past me, swinging him up and around to get him away from Hannah, who gave a little shriek of fear as she caught sight of my brothers face.

“Dammit” I tightened my grip on my brother who was clawing to get at the bigger man who was standing between him and our mate.

“You need to calm down” Wrens voice was calm, but he had his hands clenched at his sides. Ready to put Alex out if he caused to much of a fuss.

“Alex calm” I tried to soothe him but couldn’t take my eyes off Hannah’s terrified face. We had well and truly screwed up this time.

“Control your brother” Wrens voice was harder now. “Julian do it, or I will. He shifts anymore and I will take him out the equation!”

“You need to move away from Hannah” My voice was just as firm. “He will calm down then, we both will!”

“Not going to happen friend, not when you are a risk to her”

Alex roared again, any minute now the council would descend on us. Wren was an asshole, but he was there with the councils orders and my stupid ass brother had just attacked him.

And they called me the hot headed one!

“Wren its fine” Hannah looked as white as sheet, there was no colour in her cheeks. She touched his shoulder as she moved around him.

“Son of a god damn b***h”

I heard Hannah scream as I rushed forward, any thought of stopping Alex from attacking forgotten at the sight of her hand on him.

“Don’t hurt him” She screamed, making me pause a second to late. She didn’t want us to be hurt. It sent hope leaping in my chest. Then Wrens boulder sized fist connected to my jaw. The pain radiated like a firework as I was sent sprawling.

It all went black before I hit the carpet.