Chapter 38 #7
"No." Her voice steadied, hardening with resolve. "I need to see it end. I just can't be the one who does it."
"Riven." I looked at my packmate, at the controlled fury burning in his golden eyes, at the readiness in every line of his scarred face.
"Make it slow." We took them to the small pond at the edge of their property.
The water was cold and dark, mist still curling across its surface in the early morning light.
Riven dragged Harrow in first, his grip iron on the struggling man's arms, and held him just below the surface, letting him taste the water that would become his grave.
"Your daughter used to dream about you…about you coming and rescuing her…" Riven growled, his scarred face inches from Harrow's terrified eyes, his golden gaze burning with cold fury. "But you never came. You took your gold and forgot she existed."
He pulled Harrow deeper, holding him under as the struggles grew weaker, as the bubbles grew fewer, as the light faded from his bulging eyes.
It took a long time. Riven made sure of that.
Maren screamed and sobbed on the shore, held in place by Vale's grip, his beautiful face impassive as stone, forced to watch her husband die.
Her voice went hoarse with screaming, her legs giving out until only Vale's hold kept her upright.
"Please," she whispered when Riven emerged from the pond, water streaming from his hair, his expression satisfied. "Just make it quick."
"Now you know how I felt," Lily said coldly, her voice carrying across the water. "Every day wondering if you were coming. That's what you condemned me to."
She nodded to Vale, her expression final. Her mother's death was quicker—not out of mercy, but because Lily had seen enough. Vale dragged Maren into the water with efficient strength, and held her under until the struggling stopped, until the bubbles ceased, until the pond went still and quiet.
When both bodies had sunk to the bottom of the pond, Lily stood motionless at the water's edge, her face turned toward the pale morning sky. Her human body was trembling, her hands clenched at her sides, her breathing ragged.
I moved to her side, pulling her against me, feeling the shudders that wracked her small frame.
"It's done," I murmured against her hair, holding her tight, letting her feel the solid reality of my presence. "They can never hurt you again."
"I know." Her voice was rough, thick with emotions she couldn't quite name. She pressed her face into my chest, her fingers curling into my shirt. "I know it's done."
"You don't have to feel anything except what you feel.
We're here." I stroked her hair, feeling Vale and Thane and Riven close ranks around us, surrounding her with warmth and protection.
She clung to me as the sun rose higher, as the morning mist burned away, as birdsong filled the quiet fields.
Slowly, the tension drained from her body, her trembling easing, her breathing steadying.
"I want to go home," she whispered finally, her voice small and exhausted. "Back to the caves. I want to sleep for a year and wake up knowing it's really over."
"Then let's go home." I pressed a kiss to her cheek.
The journey back to the sea took two days.
The transformation back to our true forms was painful but welcome—a relief after so long in human bodies.
For Lily, the change back to siren was easier than the shift to human had been, her body welcoming its new nature like coming home.
She sighed with relief as her tail reformed, as her scales shimmered back into existence, as the water embraced her once more.
We swam home in silence, returning to the caves that had become our sanctuary.
The bioluminescence welcomed us back, brightening as we passed, and the warmth of the nest wrapped around us like an embrace.
Lily curled between us, her copper hair spreading across Thane's chest like spilled sunset, her tail intertwined with Vale's silver one, her hand clasped in Riven's even as she drifted toward sleep.
I wrapped myself around all of them, feeling the slow rhythm of four heartbeats synchronizing with my own.
The nightmares faded over the following months. Lily no longer woke up screaming, no longer flinched at unexpected sounds. She smiled easily now, laughed often, moved through the water with the confidence of someone who knew exactly who she was and exactly where she belonged.
She belonged with us. She had always belonged with us.
We were sirens. Predators. Monsters from sailors' nightmares. We had found something worth protecting—worth killing for, worth dying for, worth living for.
Our omega. Our mate. Our Lily.
The hunt was over. Vengeance was complete. All the people who had ever hurt her were dead, their bones scattered and forgotten, their names already fading from memory. In the soft glow of our underwater home, surrounded by the mates who would burn the world for her, Lily finally knew peace.
This was their happily ever after.