Word Count : 3982

Harper followed her normal trail down the sandy bank of the spring, she'd made two passes already, and she couldn't detect any trace of Mattie's fresh ocean scent. Where was he? He should have been back hours ago; he could have circled the island and up and down the south beach coast twenty times by now. She just knew he found something, she knew there was one out there, Reese was wearing pants when he waded out into the waves, there was no way he was planning on a swim. He must have been walking in the edge of the surf and whatever monster lured him must have been strong. Reese was an alpha, a regular triton shouldn't have been powerful enough to subdue his mind that much and draw him into the ocean. If he'd been any further out he would have been a goner, Harper wouldn't have been able to pull him out of deeper water before the damn thing got both of them.

Reese of all people was out there, the one person she was avoiding like the plague, the one person above all she never wanted to see again. Walking around the corner and seeing him standing in the foyer had been like a punch in the gut. All those terrible memories of the taunts and the insults came crashing through her mind like a massive wave, it had actually stolen her breath for a few seconds. She remembered the hate filled eyes that had stared at her at the dinner table, between the innocent looks he painted on his face when one of his parents looked at him. He'd been a good actor, he and Callum both had the alpha and Luna completely fooled, they'd never once suspected the cruelty and abuse that was going on under their own roof. Had they really found out all the details? Had they really passed laws to punish those entitled assholes?

Harper thought over the information they'd given her, she felt such pity for the she-wolves who'd been rejected. It had been horrifically painful when it happened to her, the pain of his being with Charla, the crushing depression, and the endless nights lying awake in her bed wondering what she'd done to deserve such a fate. Thank goddess she'd had Celie, thank goddess Celie had her, she knew it was even worse for Celie, she hadn't had the pain of Adam being with another woman. But she'd been more depressed than Harper, she'd had the heartbreak that went along with her longing for him. Harper had been spared that, she'd hated Reese with such a passion she'd never wanted to go to him, but Celie had wanted Adam, and Harper knew she'd thought every day about going back, about begging him to reconsider the rejection.

What would Celie do now? Harper was so proud of her friend, seeing her stand tall and reject him had been one of the most courageous things Harper had ever seen. Now maybe, finally, Celie could move on. She'd seen the conflict in Celie's eyes, she'd seen the longing for a brief moment, and she knew Celie had considered going to him, forgiving him, and giving him another chance. But she'd seen the pain too, she'd seen the memories flowing through Celie's mind, she could tell, she knew her friend as well as she knew herself. The deciding factor had been thinking of having to return to the pack, Celie hated the pack and the people there almost as much as Harper did, and they both loved their lives and their friends here in Miami. Celie had too much here to leave it and go back somewhere she hated, somewhere she would have nothing but derision and contempt coming from the people around her, especially for a man who'd rejected her and left her crying in the dirt.

The one thing good that came out of this visit was knowing that now they could contact the few people there that they'd loved. Celie could call her father and her brothers again, Harper knew it would be bittersweet and Celie was afraid they wouldn't forgive her for leaving them behind as she'd done, for letting them think she was dead. But they'd seen by the messages she'd received after they left, they knew that her father would come for her, if he could find her. They couldn't risk that, so Celie had cut off contact after assuring him she would be fine.

Harper could finally talk to the alpha and Luna again, she could apologize for leaving the way she did, she could thank them for everything they'd done for her, for taking care of her after her parents died. She'd always regretted leaving them with just a note, but she couldn't have explained to them what really happened, she couldn't tell them what Reese had done, she knew it would destroy them. They were good people, loving people, they would have blamed themselves for what Reese did, and she couldn't bear the thought of that. It seemed that was wasted effort though, considering they'd found out anyway, at least they didn't hear it from her.

Harper stood on the shore near the edge of the spring's outlet, her nose lifted into the wind, her eyes searching the waves for any hint of Mattie, but she found nothing. She sighed, huffing a breath out of her muzzle in distress, where was he? She turned back to make her way back up the stream, she could have missed him, he could have passed her if he'd been deep enough in the water. She'd made it almost back to the spring when she heard the shriek behind her, then a man's shout, Mattie's shout.

Harper turned and ran for all she was worth, and she soon came up on a sight that would make her soul cold. Two, there were two of them, one was in the water, still in its marine form fighting Matt, the water churned red in the moonlight, their tails flapping the surface. On the bank stood another, a female screeching in a high-pitched animistic rage.

Harper hesitated for a second, she saw Matt's back break the surface, there were wicked, bleeding claw marks on his shoulders, and he was fighting with everything he had. With a vicious growl Harper attacked the one on the bank.

**

Adam ran as fast as he could, following Celie blindly, he soon heard the sounds of fighting, a high-pitched screeching and vicious growling and snapping. The sight before him was one he would never forget as long as he lived. Harper was attacking what looked like a naked woman with long black hair stuck to her wet body down her back to her knees, and there was something thrashing in the water he couldn't identify. They got there just in time to see Harper lunge forward and grab the woman by the throat, the screeching was followed by the gurgling sound of a dying creature whose throat had just been ripped out.

Without hesitating a second Harper's wolf ran straight to the stream, jumping and growling, staring at the churning water, looking for a target. Celie ran to the bank next to her, pacing up and down, growling and whining watching the water. On the bank the body of the dead woman had started changing, transforming into something else, something with a long black tail.

Adam had no idea what he was seeing as two bodies burst from the water, locked into a heated battle. One was Harper's husband Matt, and he had a clawed hand around the throat of another man, or what looked like a man but wasn't a man. Then he realized Matt wasn't a man either.

With a great heave Matt threw the beast toward the shore and Harper lunged forward biting its arm and yanking it toward the bank. It shrieked in pain and tried to claw at her but Matt grabbed its other arm, and clawed its chest. Celie and Adam ran forward at once and attacked the creature from opposite sides of Harper, they snapped and clawed at it from all sides, blood was flowing down its body as it thrashed and heaved in the shallow water at the edge of the stream where Harper had dragged it. Matt surged forward and with one great swipe of his clawed hand, he ripped the creature's throat out. The eerie quiet after it's shrieking stopped was profound, only the labored breathing of the wolves could be heard for several minutes, then with a groan, Matt sank into the bloody water.

Harper shifted back into her human form, taking no notice of her nudity as she waded into the water to grab Matt and start trying to pull him out. Celie and Adam followed her actions, shifting to human and trying to help her lift him.

"Goddess he's heavy." Adam groaned, standing waste deep in the stream, trying to get a hold on the slippery body of the creature in front of him.

"Yeah, his muscles are two times as dense as ours, his weight is more than twice what a man, or wolf, of his size would be. Try being under that in bed." Harper complained, breathing hard, talking like this helped settle her mind and ease some of her panic as they struggled to get him out of the water. "We have to get him to the house; we have to get him to his tank, so I can stitch him up, and he can heal."

"His tank?" Adam gasped. "What is he?"

"He's a merman." Celie grunted, as they managed to get to the bank.

"A WHAT?" Adam practically yelled, almost dropping Matt.

"A merman." Celie repeated, annoyed. "Look at him, he's half man, half fish. He's a merman."

"They exist?" Adam stuttered. "Mermen exist?"

"No, dumbass." Celie snapped, panting in exertion after straining to get Matt out of the water. "He's a figment of your imagination. A giant, heavy, fish hallucination."

Adam was shocked and speechless the rest of the way to the house, it was a struggle to carry the massive creature all the way back, but they finally made it. They lugged him around to the back of the house where there was a tile room with a large rectangular tank with glass sides. It was low to the floor at only about three feet high, as they slipped his body into it the water immediately turned red and Harper pressed a button that caused water to begin to circulate through the tank and the water cleared as the blood was filtered out.

"Celie can you get my tools please?" Harper said, reaching into the water to run her hands along his chest and shoulders, checking the deep claw marks that covered his body, raising him slightly onto his side to look over his back, then down the tank to check his long thick tail. Harper reached up and pressed another button that caused him to be raised to where his body just broke the surface of the water, but it was slightly angled so that his head and neck were still submerged water seeped slowly out of gill slits in his side between his ribs.

Celie immediately ran to the other side of the room and opened what appeared to be a hidden door and started rolling out two long carts, covered with medical instruments laid neatly side by side. She draped a robe over Harper's shoulders and tossed a towel to Adam to wrap around his waist, he'd completely forgotten he was standing there buck naked the whole time.

"Goddess they got him good, he's hurt so bad. Two of them, goddess, there were two of them." Harper whispered as she examined him. "You better pull through this fishy fishy, I'll never forgive you if you don't."

"What..." Adam started, as he stared at the amazing sight before him. The creature in the tank was massive, Matt had grown in size when he transformed, his upper body slightly wider and thicker, his muscles bulkier, and with his long tail he was over 10 feet in length. No wonder he was so heavy and hard to carry to the house. Adam was glad he was there, the girls wouldn't have been able to get him up here alone. "Goddess, I can't believe mermen exist."

"Actually he's a siren." Celie explained softly as they watched Harper get to work stitching Matt's claw marks. "I just said merman because that's the term you recognize, but they are actually sirens, like the ones in the odyssey story from Greek mythology. They're not just women, there are men too, and they don't sit on rocks and sing to sailors to lure them in to kill them. They could if they wanted to, they have that ability but that's not what they do, they eat fish and shellfish mostly. There are two kinds though, Sirens and tritons. The others that you saw are tritons, they are mean, viscous animals, they hunt and eat humans, hell, they kill and eat each other. They are almost like rogues, only worse because there is no such thing as a sane triton, sirens kill them whenever they find them. Mattie patrols the waters around south Florida to keep them away from the beaches, but mating season is coming up, it's the only time they can take human form, and they will be coming ashore to feed and mate. Most of the time they stick to the deserted islands, but they get aggressive and territorial this time of year."

"I just can't believe they're real, goddess, what a world." Adam said. "How did you find a siren?"

"He lives on land and spends a lot of his time in human form, we met him on the beach, he asked Harper out, and they started dating and fell in love, when things got serious he told her what he was, and she confessed what she is, and here they are." Celie said, a slight smile on her face.

After a few minutes of just watching Harper go from cut to cut sewing and checking his vitals, as quiet tears steadily slid down her cheeks.

"Do you think he'll be OK, Harp?" Celie asked softly. "Is he...is he that bad?"

"I don't know Cel." Harper replied. "He's in pretty bad shape, I wish he hadn't been so far from the house, he lost a lot of blood, if we'd been able to get him back faster I wouldn't be so worried. I'm hopeful though, I can see he's starting to heal already, they heal so much faster than we do, so maybe he'll be OK, he'll probably be weak for a few days, but otherwise OK. Goddess, I swear I'm going to build emergency bins every 100 yards out there, from the ocean to the house so that we'll have medical supplies ready. If I could have gotten some quick bandages on him I could have stopped some of the bleeding on the way."

"Maybe put a few stretchers out there too." Adam chimed in. "You and Celie wouldn't have been able to carry him all the way up here alone. That thing is heavy."

"Don't call him a thing!" Harper snapped, glaring up at Adam furiously.

"If he's a thing, then so are you!" Celie spat at him, slapping him hard on the arm.

"Hey!" Adam exclaimed, jerking back. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Sure you didn't!" Harper snarled. "Wolves think they're so fucking superior. Let me tell you something, Mattie is stronger, faster, and smarter than any wolf, and his people are actually civilized, they don't torment and abuse each other for no fucking reason the way wolves do, they don't make war on each other. So get off your high horse, compared to them, you are uncivilized animals, you're barely better than rogues yourself."

"Harper, I didn't..." Adam tried again, he truly hadn't meant to insult the man.

"Save your excuses." Celie said angrily. "Just get out, and don't tell anyone else about this, it's none of your damn concern. If you open your mouth, rest assured it will be the last fucking time you lay eyes on me again. It won't surprise me if you do though, betrayal is something wolves do very well, you'll turn your back on your own mate for no reason at all."

"Celie, Harper, listen!" Adam said loudly. "I didn't mean anything by it. I'm shocked OK, I had no idea his kind even existed, what do you expect? And I'm not going to betray you, I wouldn't do that. The only way I'd open my mouth is if I was alpha commanded to, and you know damn good and well I wouldn't have a choice in that case. There's no reason for that to happen though, why would Reese bust out with 'I alpha command you to tell me about mermen.'?"

Harper opened her mouth to retort when Matt moved beside her, he turned his head toward her and his eyes fluttered open. Harper immediately pressed a button to raise his head above the surface and watched the water drain from the gills above his collar bone as he took a breath of air.

"Hey baby." Harper said softly, her fingers trailing gently over his cheek. "I thought I lost you."

A ghost of a smile appeared on his pale face.

"You can't get rid of me that easily, my love." He whispered hoarsely. "I'm not going anywhere."

"What happened?" Harper asked, tears once again spilling from her eyes. "There were two out there? Were they just a mating pair coming to shore?"

"I think they were, she was already transformed to human, but they were not the only ones out there. I was ambushed and killed three other males before I got to the mouth of the spring and came across those two." Matt said. "I'm going to send out a call when I am able to get back to the water, I need back up in case there are more."

"There were five of them?" Celie exclaimed in horror. "Why so many? How did you take out three of them by yourself!"

"It wasn't easy." Matt tried to chuckle but winced in pain, causing Harper to grab his hand and squeeze it tightly. "I was already injured when I came up on the pair in the stream, I was able to surprise them, and she was on land, thank goddess, I couldn't have fought them both off in the water."

"How could three males be working together?" Harper said, her eyes wide. "They don't work in groups, especially during mating season, they kill each other!"

"That's why I'm putting out the call, we've never seen them do that before, if there are more like that I can't take care of them on my own." Matt sighed, his eyes closing in fatigue. "Hopefully it was a fluke, and if there are more like that, they are out to sea or near the uninhabited islands. Either way, if they are evolving my people need to know, and we need to look for them."

Harper just nodded, bringing his hand up and kissing it.

"I knew there was one out there, it was strong too, when I was on one of my runs I had to pull Reese out of the water. I wouldn't have thought a triton would be strong enough to lure an alpha wolf. Unless Reese is very weak-minded." Harper glanced at Adam.

"Reese isn't weak-minded." Adam confirmed, bringing Matt's eyes to him.

"What's he doing here?" Matt asked, following Harper's gaze to the man standing nearby.

"I found him on the beach when I was doing a pass, he wanted to talk, so I brought him back to the house, he was still here when I got Harper's call for help." Celie explained. "He followed me down and helped us carry you back."

"We wouldn't have been able to get you up here by ourselves." Harper said, she would give credit where credit was due. "You probably would have died out there without his help, you were losing a lot of blood."

"Then I thank you for your help." Matt said to Adam, surprising him.

"I'm glad I was there." Adam said simply. "And don't worry, I won't share your secret unless I'm forced to. Harper and Celie understand."

Matt just nodded and closed his eyes tiredly, the last of his energy draining.

"Get some sleep, Baby." Harper said, leaning forward to kiss his forehead. "I love you more than anything."

"I love you too." Matt said softly squeezing her hand. "I'll be up and around in the morning, but I'll be weak for a few days. I feel like I went halfway through a wood chipper."

"You look kinda like that too." Harper said, wiping her cheek. "You're torn up pretty bad, I almost ran out of thread sewing you up. I'm going to blend you up some seaweed and fish, I'll bring it and you can rest."

"I'll get it, Harp." Celie said, pulling Adam with her as she left the room. "One sardine seaweed smoothie coming right up."

"That sounds disgusting." Adam said grimacing, following her to the large kitchen.