Chapter 22 #2
“You’re a siren?” I shook my head with my question, before turning on my heel and bolted into the main cabin.
Drew cursed before following me, his speed too fast to be human.
I reached for my backpack, where I kept the pepper spray.
But large bands of muscle wrapped around my waist, pinning my arms to my side.
“Van, please—”
“Let go of me!” I yelled. I thrashed and kicked and threw my head back, but it landed on a shoulder, not his nose like I wanted. “Let go, now!”
“I can’t,” he yelled back, pulling me away from my backpack while struggling to still me.
I wouldn’t still. I was terrified. I was filled with rage.
“Who are you?” I screeched at him.
Did some random siren wander over to the human realm in search of a mate? Did he view himself as a tourist?
Oh god, we were out on the ocean. Isolated.
This siren could kill me right here and now if he wanted to.
“Vanessa, please,” his voice was low near my ear, and though his strong arms were still wrapped around me tight, he wasn’t trying to hurt me.
Yet. I kept thrashing in his grasp. Eventually, he grunted and pinned me against the interior of my boat, up against the pantry cabinet.
“Vanessa, calm—”
“Who are you?” I interrupted, still struggling but unable to move nearly as much, pinned between him and the pantry doors like this. “What is this? What do you want with me?”
“Vanessa—”
“—Who are you?!” I screamed before falling limp in his hold. Exhaustion overpowered me, perhaps due to fear of how vulnerable I was. Trapped on my own boat with a siren, capable of killing me in seconds. Capable of using his sinndra on me.
Oh my god. Was I ever truly attracted to Drew?
Or was it all some horrible emotional siren manipulation?
Drew’s breath was sawing in and out of him behind me, almost frantic.
But neither of us spoke. We just stood there, his large body pinning mine.
Rocking gently with the steady waves of the ocean.
My eyes started to burn, and a single tear escaped to trail down my cheek. His breath caught, and I wondered if he saw the tear.
“…I’m sorry…” he muttered. I didn’t say anything. He knew the jig was up. I knew the jig was up. What did we even do from here? Would he kill me for discovering his secret?
Silent, painful moments filled the space between us. Eventually, fear twisted my chest enough to make me choke out, “…What are you going to do to me?”
His body tensed, and he dropped his hold on me immediately. Cool air brushed against my back, where the warmth of his body had been. I collapsed and slumped against the wood of the pantry cupboard, resting my forehead against it as another tear escaped my eye—a tear of anger.
“Did your king send you?” I asked in a low whisper.
I held my breath as I waited for his response.
“No.” His voice changed, but I couldn’t tell how until he continued in his natural accent, “…this was just for me.” My eyes opened wide before I whirled around to confirm who was standing in my boat with me.
His dark, blood red hair was damp from our jump in the ocean.
Pointed ears with no gold hoops poked out of the strands.
No jewelry on any part of his body. He grew almost a foot from what Drew’s height was, making him awkwardly hunch in the cabin to avoid knocking his head against the ceiling.
His naked torso was significantly paler, no longer sporting the skin of a Californian who spent most of their time in the sun.
He had taken out his second contact, unveiling a pair of those distinct, siren irises.
His torso was wider, too. Perhaps he looked so big because of the smaller quarters of the cabin.
Perhaps he looked so big because he genuinely was so big.
I gaped at the siren prince, standing there with a stone-cold facial expression, complete with a clenched jaw. His eyes locked me in place. I both wanted to freeze and run away at the same time.
Instead, I ground my teeth together and glared at Drustan Shaw.
“What the hell?” I muttered, before balling my hands into fists.
I got to my feet and started marching toward him.
Drustan wasn’t expecting that. His eyes widened in surprise before he quickly trapped my wrists in his large hands to keep me from hitting his chest with them.
Perhaps my emotions and thoughts were racing too fast for him to keep up with.
“Fuck you,” I grunted between clenched teeth as I struggled to free myself. I wanted to hit him. I wanted to punch him. Rocks were forming in my gut, and betrayal and loss filled my chest with ice.
“Vanessa.” Drustan tsked at me. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”
I kicked him in the shin, but he didn’t react to it. I did, however, feel a small crunch in one of my toes before I yelped and my knees buckled. Drustan cursed again as he released his hold on my wrists to drop to his knees. He clasped my foot in one of his hands to study it. “Dammit.”
“No!” I yanked my foot out of his hold, falling backward on my ass. I tucked my foot, which for sure had a broken toe now, closer to my body as I yelled at him, “Don’t do that. Don’t pretend that you care.”
Drustan frowned at me before he snapped, “You assume I’m pretending?”
I scoffed at him and asked, “Are you shitting me?”
Drustan grumbled as he shook his head in irritation.
Then, using his hands and knees, he stalked toward me.
It took no effort for him to crowd me against the pantry again, because the cabin was so small.
My heart was racing; something was thawing in my chest. Excitement?
Adrenaline? Because his stupid handsome siren magnetism was on full display now, and my pitiful human nervous system didn’t stand a chance.
“Do you think I enjoyed the ruse?” Drustan spat as his golden eyes flared with his words. “That I enjoyed playing the part of a pitiful human male?”
“Yeah.” I widened my eyes at him, curling up in a ball against the pantry. “I think you did. You probably got off thinking about how stupid I was.”
Drustan frowned. “You are not stupid. It was challenging to keep up the deception.”
I widened my eyes in horror and shook my head. My mouth opened and shut as words escaped me. I pressed both of my palms to my cheeks, unable to process this.
Andrew wasn’t real.
Drew was Drustan.
Drew…was Drustan.
I’m such a moron.
“W-why?” I finally settled on.
“Why?” Drustan asked as he shifted closer. He rested his massive body on his knees as he braced both of his palms against the pantry doors. Caging me between his arms as I struggled to press as much of my curled-up side against the pantry as possible, “Why do you think, Vanessa?”
“To fuck with me?”
Drustan shook his head, frowning with his words, “We’ve already established your competence, Vanessa. You know I wouldn’t put in that much time and effort for a prank. So, tell me, why would I spend weeks masquerading as a human with you in your realm?”
I frowned at him, pissed that he dared to seem irritated with me right now.
“To taunt Audrey? Give the halfling and fae that you hate the finger?”
Drustan’s nostrils flared. From the way he squeezed his eyes closed for a moment, I had a feeling he was struggling not to roll them. “Wrong again. The realms don’t revolve entirely around the halfling and her mate.”
“Don’t they? Why else—”
Something he said tugged at my chest. Her mate.
Mate.
My expression fell, not in disappointment, but in bewilderment.
Mine.
My lips parted, and his gaze dropped to them momentarily before raising to meet my eyes again.
No.
There’s no way. Did he really think…?
“Why would I do any of this, Vanessa?” Drustan asked again, leaning toward me. His nose was centimeters from mine now. His body was tense, his eyes held mine hostage. He knew where my mind had drifted; he was following my thoughts in real time.
I blinked at him, heat burning in my chest and cheeks. A little from embarrassment, but mostly confusion.
“You can’t be serious,” I muttered.
“Can’t I?” Drustan challenged.
I shook my head at him, sucking in a sharp breath. His masculine scent filled my nostrils and throat. I swallowed around dryness.
“But—but I’m not like you,” I said.
“I’m aware,” Drustan replied.
“But humans don’t—we don’t—I can’t have a m—” I cut myself off. Nerves twisted my gut too much to allow me to say the word out loud.
He narrowed his eyes at me and tilted his head to the side, something flashing in them that I couldn’t identify. “If you truly believed humans couldn’t, why has the halfling spent years trying to convince the people of my realm that they can—and should? Do you truly think your friend is so dim?”
I shook my head. I slid my palms into my hair.
I gripped the roots of the strands, tugging against the damp braid at my back.
I still didn’t comprehend a lot about bonds like this, but Audrey made it clear that the connection was somewhat devastating.
Forming a bond and potentially losing that bond could weaken a creature like him.
If Drustan had a mate and lost them…
But Drustan had already fought madness of some kind, hadn’t he?
He crawled out of the Gravhune. He’s the only one on record who has completed a five-year sentence.
If he were able to survive the Gravhune, it would make sense that the loss of a mate wouldn’t be as concerning to him as it would be to a typical siren.
“You seriously believe—”
“I know what we are,” Drustan abruptly cut me off. I flinched from his stern tone, and he frowned. “Contrary to what you’re assuming, I do not want to hurt you.”
“Why would I believe that?” I countered. “This isn’t, like, a good thing for you, right? If what you’re thinking is real, this makes you vulnerable, right?”
“I’d like to see anyone try to use this against me.” His lips turned up in the corner, as if my train of thought was amusing to him. “…Mates are always a good—”