Word Count : 5042

Adam felt sick with every chop of the axe, he stood frozen watching Harper mercilessly hack the bodies into pieces. She didn't hesitate a second, there were small splatters of blood on her arms and even her face, but she kept at it without the slightest hesitation. He'd burned his share of rogue bodies, but this was almost too much for him, he couldn't understand how she was doing it so casually.

"How can you stand that?" Adam said, finally turning away, fighting to keep from vomiting his breakfast onto the sand. "How many of these things have you chopped up?"

"I went to medical school." Harper said with a snort. "I cut up cadavers every day. This isn't anywhere close to that, but medical school will take away any of your squeamishness. I've only helped chop up a couple of these things, most of the time Mattie gets them in the ocean, and he just draws the sharks to them to take care of the bodies. But we found a few on uninhabited islands off the coast and got rid of them before any casual boaters could find them."

"How did you find them on uninhabited islands?" Adam asked, picking up an arm that Harper had just hacked off and placing it in the cart Harper had brought with them. "Goddess, I'm starting to feel like Dexter with the body chopping."

"They smell, Mattie can pick up their scent for miles." Harper chuckled hearing the Dexter reference, she felt kinda like that now that he mentioned it. "They are kinda like feral rogues that way, they smell like death. Mattie hunts them almost every day, just to make sure they stay clear of our waters and are not a danger to anyone. Usually they stay far out away from populated areas, it's scary that they are so close, and that they actually came ashore here, the lights should have scared them off, even a mating pair trying to get on land should have passed by this island. Especially since there are smaller uninhabited ones close by."

They finally finished up with the bodies and headed toward the dock where Matt kept his boat. Adam had been quiet for a while but finally worked up the courage to ask.

"I know you won't give Reese the time of day since you have Matt, but I was wondering if you'd ever give Callum another chance?" Adam asked.

"No." Harper said firmly.

"Harper, he's your brother..." Adam started.

"Exactly." Harper interrupted. "I don't wish him harm or unhappiness, but I don't want him in my life. I don't trust him, and I don't believe he's changed."

"But he has changed!" Adam exclaimed. "Harper, he regrets what he did more than you know."

"Abusers always regret it, Adam." Harper told him. "They always do, but it doesn't change them. He did it for years. He was my brother, we were so close before Mom and Dad died, but he turned on me for no fucking reason. I was just a kid! You don't know half of the hell he and Reese put me through, you only saw what happened at school, do you think that shit stopped when you weren't around? No. It didn't. The only time it stopped was when the alpha and Luna were there."

"What did they do?" Adam asked quietly.

"What didn't they do? Pushing, shoving, knocking me to the ground, kicking, slapping, punching, twisting my arms out of socket, slamming my face into the wall...take your pick." Harper returned. "It wasn't just mean words, Adam, it wasn't just insults. Do you think the bruises and cuts just appeared by themselves? At first, they only did it around queen Charla, to impress her, but after a while they did it whenever they could. I had to hide from them in my own house! So don't ask me to forget that and open my arms to him. He doesn't deserve a second chance, and I'm not giving him one. I'm not stupid enough to do that. I've seen what happens when victims forgive and forget, I've seen children lose their mothers, mothers lose their children to violence, I'm not going to make the same mistake."

"He wouldn't do that, Harper." Adam said. "He would never do that."

"Whatever. That's what they all say." Harper said, walking away. "Once an abuser, always an abuser. People who get off on hurting other people never stop liking it, they just hide it when they get busted. And he did like it, I saw it in his eyes, he got a thrill out of hurting me, they both did. You don't do something like that if you hate doing it. The whole 'I couldn't control my temper' excuse is bullshit. There are literally billions of people out there who don't abuse other people no matter how bad they piss them off. And I never did anything to piss them off except existing, they had no reason to do it, they did it because they wanted to and liked it. They sought me out to beat me up, they searched the house for me when the alpha and luna left for the pack house, I'd be in the laundry room by myself, quietly folding clothes, doing nothing wrong, bothering no one, and they would come down just to smack me around."

Adam just followed behind her slowly as they neared the dock. He didn't know that, he didn't realize they'd enjoyed hurting her like that, he'd never seen that, but maybe he hadn't seen it because he didn't want to. He'd never laid his hands on her, he'd only ever thrown an insult or two her way, and he'd felt sick every time he did it. It was hard to stomach the thought that the guys he thought he knew, the guys he considered good friends, had actually enjoyed hurting a girl. Especially a part of their family, Callum was Harper's brother by blood, and Reese's parents had adopted Harper and loved her like family, considered her their daughter.

"Goddess, it's so beautiful out here." Adam said after they'd been sailing about an hour to get far enough off shore for Harper so dump the triton bodies. He was surrounded by brilliant blue water as far as his eyes could see and the ocean breeze was cool and comfortable against his skin. He was impressed with Matt's boat too, it was a lot bigger than he was expecting, there was a kitchen, storage room, and even three bedrooms downstairs. He'd been able to take a quick shower and even put on a clean shirt of Matt's after Harper had sailed out of the bay. "How did you learn how to drive this thing, it's huge?"

"I've been with a sailor for almost two years." Harper laughed, soothed by the gentle rocking of the boat and the ocean air.

"You and Matt have been together for two years?" Adam said, turning to her with wide eyes. "Do you have the bond the way sirens do?"

"Yeah, it's growing." Harper said, glancing over at Adam to see his shocked face. "I can feel it, it's been getting stronger and stronger as we get closer to our anniversary. It feels very similar to the regular wolf mate bond to me, I feel it a lot more than I felt with Reese, I can tell you that. I'm feeling Matt more and more, I can sense his emotions, I knew he was in trouble last night. And the pull toward him is getting so hard to resist, I can't get my mind off him to save my life, it takes all my concentration to get through the day at work the closer we get to our anniversary. They worship the moon goddess too, I think they have been blessed by her and their bonds are sacred."

"Really?" Adam asked, surprised. "Why would you say that, if they don't feel the bond when they meet?"

"That's why I think they are blessed. I honestly, throughout the years, wondered if the mate bonding was almost as much a curse as it is a blessing. It's certainly a curse for people like me, and the other she-wolves who get rejected." Harper said. "Yeah, there are a lot of wolves who love their mates, but there are a lot who are not happy with who they got paired with, they may end up accepting them, and grow to love them eventually, but they are not their choice. Just look at your own circle of friends, Ben rejected his mate, Reese rejected his mate, Callum got rejected, none of them really wanted the mate they got, they all wanted someone else. What if they could have had the mate they wanted? What if we could choose, and build the same bond, and have the same love but it be by our choice, not someone else's?"

"But there are a lot of wolves who get the person they should have, that might not necessarily be the ones they would have chosen. Like how many wolves would look outside their pack for that special person? Everyone would just end up with people they know and grew up with. The bond puts us with people who complete us, balance us out." Adam argued. "And it keeps the packs diverse, so that there is always moving between packs, new blood for future generations."

"Are you saying the rejected wolves, the girls who have to run from their homes and their packs, are blessed? That they are paired with their perfect person? A person who has absolutely no problem inflicting horrible pain on them and letting them suffer." Harper returned. "You told me all the things you found out about the pain a rejected wolf suffers, you told me about their wolves dying, them committing suicide, and getting killed by rogues trying to get away. Do you really believe they were blessed?"

"I think...we're the ones who have fucked up." Adam said finally, turning her words over in his mind. "I think we stopped respecting the moon goddesses gifts and got too selfish and full of ourselves. I'm glad it's working out for you though, Harper, I'm glad you found someone you love so much, who loves you, and you'll get the bond too."

"To be honest I'm a little scared of getting it. Just because if I follow the pattern, I'll go into heat after the bond is complete if I'm like a wolf, or during the next mating season if I'm like a siren, and I'm not sure what will happen, I just know it's painful as hell. I didn't go into heat after the bond with Reese, thank goddess we never touched or were around each other for any for more than a second after we saw each other. That would have been a nightmare and a half."

"Did, uh, did Celie go into heat after you left?" Adam asked slowly, he hadn't even considered that before. "I didn't touch her, but we stood next to each other, and we were out there for a few minutes."

"Yeah, she did." Harper answered, not looking at him. "I guess you were close enough or the bond was strong enough to bring her into it. It started about 5 days after the rejection, we'd only been here a couple of days. The worst week of our lives, it killed me to see her in so much pain, I thought it would never end."

"Goddess, I never..." Adam started when he was interrupted by Harper's gasp.

"What the hell!" Harper grabbed a pair of binoculars off a shelf of the bridge and stared out at the water. She quickly dropped the throttle and ran to the side of the boat.

"Do you see that?" Harper shouted, pointing to what appeared to be a shadow in the water about 100 yards away, handing him the binoculars too, before running back to the wheel and restarting the boat to steer it toward the starboard side.

Adam adjusted the focus on the binoculars as the boat began to turn, and he wasn't sure what he was seeing, at first it appeared to be just a shadow in the water, but as he looked closer he saw a long black shape which quickly disappeared deeper into the water.

"Holy goddess!" Adam shouted to Harper. "Was that one of them?"

Harper had a grim look on her face as she took the binoculars back from him and scoured the waves looking for the shape, but it was gone.

"It sure as hell looked like one." Harper said, lowering the glasses, her face pale. "How could there be so many? Goddess, even during mating season there shouldn't be so many out here, so close to populated areas, we're only a few miles from shore! This is bad. This is so bad."

"Maybe it was something else." Adam tried to reassure her. "I mean, aren't there tons of big ass fish and dolphins and stuff out here?"

"Dolphins come up for air, also a shark's tail is perpendicular to its body, and they swim side to side, that was flat, and the tail flicked and it drove straight down, sharks don't do that, they glide, they can descend quickly but they don't dive straight down like that. And sharks don't normally swim that close to the surface during the day unless they are closer to shore in the shallow water, they like deeper water where it's darker and cooler and there are more fish." Harper explained. "Which is even more surprising, tritons don't normally come close to the surface either, the only reason a triton would come up is to look at something above the water. Why would it come up like that? Especially with a boat so close? We have to get back to the shore, I have to talk to Matt. He needs to put out a call and get others here to investigate this, he can't handle more on his own. Keep an eye out, let me know if you see more of them."

"How does he put out a call? Do others live like him live on land?" Adam asked as Harper turned the boat and released the throttle.

"Some do, a lot of sirens raise their children on land, it's generally safer for their young, but they can't turn to human until they are about a year old, so it can be risky too." Harper answered absently. "But we don't know any others who live close by, so he will call through the water, they communicate the same way whales do, and their voices can travel great distances if they put enough power into them. When one hears a distress or emergency call of another, they will repeat it, so it travels further. The only suck thing about it is that it can take days for them to get here, sirens are fast, but traveling through water takes longer than traveling on land, and they don't have cars or planes or anything like that, so it takes a lot of energy, they still have to hunt and fish on the way. But it could be days before Matt is healed enough to go out into the open ocean again, so the time it will take him to get out here, added to the swim time it will take for any sirens close by to get here, can put us a week without protection. I wouldn't be so worried if we hadn't just seen another one so close to the island, now I'm getting freaked out. Five in one night, then another today, that's just crazy, it's unheard-of, they are generally pretty rare. These things are so dangerous, Adam, you just don't understand how powerful they are, even in human form they are twice as strong as us, and unlike us they can partially shift. Which means they can keep their size, claws, and teeth while still having legs and being able to fight on land. The only thing we have in our favor is that they can only shift for a month a year, and it's hard for them to stay on land for more than a few hours at a time."

"Do you think they'll come on land and attack people?" Adam asked as they started getting close to the island and Harper slowed the boat to head into the channel.

"Normally, I would say no, one sighting would be all we'd find in months, but there were five last night, and one today, so I have no idea what to expect." Harper answered. "There has to be something bringing them in, they just don't do this. I know there was at least one off the coast last night, it lured Reese into the water. He doesn't know that's what happened, but he was basically sleep walking out into the surf, I yelled at him, and he didn't even turn to me or look at me, I had to run out and literally grab him and yank him out of the water. They have a little of a siren's ability to draw people in, but normally they can only do it with the weak, and only if you are in the water already, or at least touching the water. The fact that there was one out there strong enough to do that to an alpha wolf is just so scary. I've been trying to tell myself that it must have been the ones Matt encountered, or the ones that came ashore, but what if it wasn't? What if it's still out there and it's hunting on my beach?"

"How do we find out?" Adam asked, an uneasy feeling growing in his chest.

"We don't." Harper sighed, gently guiding the boat to the dock. "There's no way for us to know, no way for us to find them unless they come on land. Only a siren can track them in the water, we have no way of knowing if they're out there without another siren to tell us. I'll just watch the beaches until we can get some backup, if they stay out in the water we will be OK, hopefully they won't lure anyone else, but there's nothing else we can do, people will just die...horrifically. They tear them apart; they literally devour them. At least rogues don't do that, you don't have to worry about them eating your pack members alive, not the case with tritons, human is their preferred food. In the old days they would take people left and right, that's why you didn't have a big beach crowd until the last century or so, people stayed out of the water for a reason."

"This is just unreal to me." Adam said, still amazed. "Mermen, goddess, killer cannibals of the sea are real."

The comment actually made Harper chuckle as they made their way back up to the house, it was already late afternoon and Adam was seriously starting to run out of steam. As much as he wanted to talk to Celie he knew he needed to get back to the hotel and hook up with Reese and Callum before they got too suspicious, and then get some sleep tonight, he also wanted to back off a little, and give Celie time to think of what he'd said. She told him if he tried to pressure her then there was no shot for him, and he didn't want to mess this up. Harper had gotten more comfortable with him today, she'd opened up a little and had at least talked to him and been nice all day. She'd looked at him differently after he told her he would leave the pack for Celie, maybe she was starting to come around. He knew she and Celie would talk about everything that happened today, so he was hopeful she'd be positive about their relationship. He knew one thing for sure, Harper loved Celie with all her heart, she wanted her friend to be happy, and whatever would make Celie happy would make Harper happy. He just hoped he was that things. Harper mentioning Celie having a second chance mate had scared him half to death, what if he showed up before Adam could convince her to give him another shot? He was so close, he was right here, he wouldn't be able to stand it if someone snatched her away right under his nose.

Celie was out on the patio when they came around the side of the house, she gave them a once over, her eyes moving between them before she spoke.

"Matt is doing good; he looks a lot better." Celie said to the question in Harper's eyes. "I made shrimp for dinner, I just brought him some and there is some steaming in the pot in the kitchen. How did it go? Any trouble getting rid of the bodies?"

Harper gave her a worried look, conveying enough in her eyes that Celie tensed.

"We need to talk to Matt, let's grab a plate and go to the back, you need to hear this too." Harper said.

They each made a large plate of steamed shrimp, corn on the cob, and roasted potatoes and headed back to the room with Matt's tank, Adam was surprised to see large double doors that he hadn't even noticed the night before. Beyond the doors was an enormous indoor aquarium that had Adam's eyes bulging out of their sockets. They climbed a set of metal stairs and came to a landing where Matt swam up to the edge, and broke the surface.

"Hey baby." Matt said, then eyed Adam suspiciously.

"I have some bad news, Mattie." Harper said, sitting at a small table by the pool. "We saw another one out in the water when we went to dump the bodies. It was only a few miles off shore and it came to the surface not far from the boat."

"What?!" Matt almost shouted. "Was it male?"