Word Count: 3540

Harper had just finished blow drying her hair and was dressed in a pale green halter top with white board shorts when Matt stepped into the bathroom. His brows were drawn together, and his lips pressed into a thin line.

"What's wrong, baby?" Harper asked, her eyes immediately moving over his chest shoulders where he'd been injured. "Are you in pain?"

"No, but we have company." Matt said slowly. "Reese and Callum are here with...Reese's parents."

"Oh god." Harper said, her eyes wide. She was not ready for this; she wasn't ready to face them. "Does Celie know? Is she down there?"

"No, I came straight up here, I think she's still in the shower." Matt said. "They're out on the deck, Adam is stalling them while I get you two, he explained to them that I know about wolves when they asked to speak to you two alone."

Harper rushed out of the bedroom and sprinted down the hall to Celie's bedroom, she knocked on the door, then pressed her ear to it when there was no answer. She heard the distant whir of the blow dryer and reached for the door handle and stepped inside.

"I think she's drying her hair; I'll go in and make sure she's decent." Harper said, disappearing into the room.

A few seconds later the door opened, and Matt entered to find Celie dressed in summer dress with yellow sunflowers on it, her hair still slightly damp.

"How the hell did they get here so fast?" Celie asked, her eyes were worried. "I thought they were traveling overseas or something."

"Yeah, me too." Harper sighed. "I'm so not ready for this, goddess, this is going to be a long night."

"Harp, I'll go down there and throw them out right now if you don't want to see them." Matt said, crossing his arms over his chest. "They can come back tomorrow after you've had time to get used to the idea."

"No." Harper sighed, she pinched the bridge of her nose, a nervous habit she'd picked up in medical school when she was stressed after hours of studying. "None of this is their fault. I guess if I were them, and I thought I was dead for seven years I'd be eager to see me too. Reese's parents were always good to me, they tried to be good parents to me after my mom and dad died, and I always cared about them. I was just hoping to have some notice and some time to sort of work myself up to a seeing them again."

"Yeah." Celie said nervously, picking at the bracelet on her wrist. "I always liked Alpha Lucas and Luna Sophia; they were always good to us. I'm not really all that surprised they showed up so fast."

"They're probably so mad." Harper said glumly, prompting Matt to put his arm around her shoulders and give her a squeeze. "Let's go get this over with."

The wolves were clustered together sitting on one of the outdoor couches watching the sun as it sank slowly into the horizon. Harper hesitated as they reached the doorway out to the patio, she took a deep fortifying breath and exchanged a nervous look with Celie before stepping out the glass patio doors.

Luna Sophia gasped, her hand quickly covering her mouth as she stared at Harper for a what seemed like an eternity, before she sprinted over and enveloped her in a crushing embrace.

"I'm so sorry, Harper! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" Luna Sophia said, before she broke down and began sobbing into Harper's hair.

Tears flooded Harper's eyes and washed over her cheeks as she held the weeping Luna in her arms. All she could do was nod, she could barely breathe, much less get a word out as she was overwhelmed by emotion. Luna Sophia loosened one arm from around Harper long enough to loop it around Celie and squeeze her just as tightly.

Alpha Lucas followed his wife and took all three of them in his arms as he fought the wave of emotion that threatened to overcome him. He kissed the girl's heads as he rested his damp cheek on their hair.

Luna Sophie finally raised her head and loosened her hold on the girls slightly.

"I'm so sorry, girls." Luna Sophia said, getting herself back under control. "I'm so sorry for what you had to go through, I should have known what was going on, I should have protected you. I'm so sorry!"

"It's ok." Harper finally managed to choke out. "It's ok, Luna. We're ok."

Callum, Reese, and Adam stood nearby watching, each battling their own emotions and fighting tears.

"I'm so sorry, Luna Sophia...I" Harper trailed off, swallowing hard. "I...we... I should have called or..."

"No." Luna Sophia cut her off, shaking her head vigorously. "No, Harper. This is not your fault. None of this is your fault. You didn't do anything wrong, neither of you. I don't blame you for leaving. I would have left too, if my pack treated me the way you were treated. I would have stomped out of that place and saluted a one finger flag as I walked away without a single glance back."

Celine and Harper both giggled when the Luna said it, it broke the tension quite a bit.

"We miiiight have turned and given a double bird salute from the back seat of the taxi." Harper chuckled.

"Not in your direction though," Celine said quickly. "Just at those bastards and their precious friends." She smirked as she pointed toward Reese, Callum, and Adam.

"The fault was ours, not yours." Alpha Lucas said, guiding them over to the couches. "We should have seen what was going on, we should have protected you, it was our failure that caused all of this. Not you."

"It wasn't..." Harper tried again.

"But you didn't know..." Celie started to protest, she didn't like seeing the alpha and luna take the blame for their leaving.

"Knowing what is going on with our children is our responsibility, teaching our children to do right is our responsibility, and we failed in that." Luna Sophia said softly. "We failed you."

Reese stared at the ground, he knew this was his fault. He'd thought he couldn't feel more guilt than he'd been feeling for the last seven years but watching his mother cry and apologize to Harper and Celie made him realize there was still a deep well of it within himself that he had yet to tap. He glanced over and saw tears flowing freely down Adam's face, and a look of intense shame on Callum's.

Reese had been nervous bringing his parents here, but he'd never dreamed it would be this hard to watch. A part of him wished he'd just dropped them off and let them have this reunion without him, but that was the cowards way out, and he needed to face the consequences of his actions.

"Now...let me have a look at you." Luna Sophia said, sniffling and wiping under her eye. "Harper, honey, you and Celie are so beautiful, my girls are all grown up! Look at those tans!"

Harper and Celie exchanged a relieved glance and gave halfhearted chuckles at her comment.

"Why don't you introduce us to your friend?" Alpha Lucas said, turning toward Matt, who was standing back from the group, watching silently.

"Yes, of course," Harper said, finding her voice again as she stood and moved toward Matt. She looped her arm around his waist and pulled him close, sniffing his shoulder. "Luna Sophia, Alpha Lucas, this is my husband, Matt Maris."

"Husband!?" Luna Sophia exclaimed, shocked, as she turned and glared at Reese. "Reese didn't tell us you were married!"

"Sorry, Mom." Reese muttered a little sheepishly. "It slipped my mind."

"Yes, we got married a few months ago." Harper said, a real smile finally lighting up her face as she leaned into his embrace.

"Yep. Harp came home one Friday and said, let's go shopping I'm getting married on Sunday!" Celie chuckled, her mood lifting just thinking about it. "So we hopped in the jeep, drove into downtown, bought a couple of dresses, then sailed off to the keys to celebrate for the weekend! It was amazing!"

Though they were shocked, and honestly a little saddened, at the news that Reese's mate was married, they recovered quickly and turned back to Matt. Luna Sophia glanced at Matt's neck and raised a brow when she saw no mate mark.

"I'll be marking him officially on our two year anniversary, which is in 7 days." Harper said, seeing the Luna's glance. "This is my last week on rotation at the clinic, then I'm taking a month off so we can spend time together."

Harper and Celie had already made plans to take the mating season off, they were going to spend the month with Matt patrolling the coast and waters for mating tritons. Last year they had spent weeks on the boat, they ended up finding 3 mating pairs on small uninhabited islands in the southeast Caribbean Sea.

"Where are you going on your honeymoon?" Luna Sophia asked.

"We haven't really made any plans." Harper answered. "We usually just take off on the boat and then pick a direction to sail in as we head out."

"Spin around in a circle a few times with your eyes closed and then point, and that's the direction we head in." Matt laughed. "No telling what island or coast we'll land on, last year we ended up hitting every island between Puerto Rico and Trinidad before turning around and heading home."

"Or we just sail out a few miles and lay on the deck and pretend we went somewhere. Feels like we're a million miles away, but we are really only an hour from home." Harper laughed. "That's what I love about living here and being married to a sailor."

"What about you Celie?" Alpha Lucas asked, "what do you do when they are out sailing?"

"Oh, I'm usually with them. Sometimes I try to get out of going, but they drag me with them wherever they go unless I dig my heels in and flat out refuse because I have projects to work on." Celie said.

"We're a package deal," Harper said. "Where one goes, the other goes..."

"Which I figured out in about 3 seconds flat," Matt said, "I got a wife and a little sister at the same time. I'm blessed."

"It's a big boat though, so they can still have some privacy." Celie explained.

"It's a huge boat." Adam muttered. "A small pack could live on that boat."

"Why don't I make us some drinks and let's figure out what we want to do for dinner? It's starting to get late and I'm starving. We have a full bar in the rec room, and I'll bring some menus for takeout places in the area." Harper suggested. "There are several restaurant down the beach that have amazing food and a pretty quick delivery."

Everyone quickly agreed, the alpha and luna had rushed straight over from the airport and hadn't had anything except airline food for nearly 12 hours.

Harper and Celie exchanged a look as they stepped into the house to go make the drinks.

"Goddess, I can see this being one of the longest nights of our lives." Celie complained.

"Yeah, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was sure we were going to get yelled at and guilted for at least an hour or two." Harper said as they set about mixing up the drinks.

"That'll be when we see my dad and brothers." Celie sighed, prompting a pained groan out of Harper.

**

Harper and Celie spent all night talking about the last 7 years to the former alpha and luna who asked question after question about their lives. They told them about medical school and how Harper had learned to study in her lounge chair at the beach, and how she had met and fallen in love with Matt.

They talked about how Celie had taken the local art scene by storm with her incredible talent, and now she was the toast of the Miami elite, her exhibits and shows selling out as soon as they hit the news.

It hadn't been as bad as Harper imagined it would be since Sophia and Lucas had been careful to steer the conversation away from any touchy or painful subjects, which Harper was grateful for. It would have actually been a pleasant evening if not for the presence of Reese and Callum.

Harper could barely contain her animosity toward them, and it took all her will power not to snap or growl at them whenever they joined the conversation. It bugged her to no end that they pretended everything was fine and acted like they were all just old friends catching up. She'd told them they were not welcome here. But they'd still come, invited themselves into her house and tried to crowd their way back into her lives by using the alpha and luna's visit as an excuse to stay, knowing she'd be too polite to throw them out in front of the older wolves.

However despite not throwing them out on their asses, she hadn't for a second let them feel welcome. At the start of the evening they would ask questions and try to join the conversation but after getting stared down a few times they realized they needed to keep their mouths shut for the most part.

Harper had noticed Celie and Matt both hiding smirks whenever Harper sent a particularly vicious glare at Reese or Callum when they made comments or asked questions. At first Matt had been tense, worried that the situation would cause Harper pain, but he quickly realized his strong wife was more pissed than hurt by their presence. She had truly grown beyond the misery and insecurity they caused her growing up.

Harper glanced at her watch as she helped Matt clear the table, it was after 10 and she was getting tired, but Alpha Lucas and Luna Sophia showed no signs of wanting to leave. She was about to mention the time when she caught the scent of another siren on the breeze and turned to find the most enormous man she'd ever seen in her life coming up the stairs from the path to the spring, she couldn't help but stop and stare as he stepped into the light.

The man had to have been nearly 7 feet tall, his thick golden hair fell all the way to the middle of his back, and his face was the stuff of legends. Harper loved Matt with all her heart and thought him the most handsome man in the world, but even she couldn't help but take notice of the striking creature walking toward them. His skin was a smooth golden tan, his body thick and powerful like a bodybuilder, his face was all angles and chiseled perfection, with a short beard and light green eyes.

"Cousin!" Matt said, striding toward the man.

Matt had never seen him before, but it was custom for sirens to address each other as family, even if they were meeting for the first time. Sirens of similar ages referred to each other as cousins, older sirens were addressed as aunt or uncle, and the oldest received the title of grandmother or grandfather as a sign of respect.

When they neared each other they clasped each other's forearms and pressed their foreheads together in the formal siren tradition.

Harper mind linked Celie with a sneaky glance.

Celie linked back, a blush spreading across her cheeks.

Harper responded with a little smile.

"I wasn't expecting you so soon." Matt said, a knowing glance let the man know he should pretend familiarity in front of the others.

"I was so happy to get your invitation I made good time." The man's voice was as deep as the ocean he'd swam out of. "I see you already have company."

"Let me introduce friend's of Harper and Celie." Matt said, his eyes sweeping over the girls as he said their names. "This is Sophia, Lucas, Adam, Reese, and Callum"

"I am Eden." He nodded to them all with a smooth smile, and then sent a sly wink at Celie, making her already pink cheeks flush deep red.

"Are you hungry, Eden? " Celie asked smiling up at him. "We have a few left overs, I can order you some supper before the restaurants close, or I could put something together for you."

"Well, I certainly wouldn't turn down anything you want to offer me, little one." Eden raised a hand to push a stray lock back from Celie's cheek. "I will be in your debt for taking such good care of me."

"Absolutely. Come inside, we'll look over the menus and we'll get you something to drink." Matt said, as he swiftly ushered Eden into the house followed closely by Celie.

The wolves exchanged guarded looks and Harper knew they were probably linking each other about the strange visitor, but it wasn't them she was worried about. They knew nothing of her life and had no way of knowing who the man was, it was Adam's reaction that concerned her.

Adam was staring at the doors they'd disappeared through with narrowed eyes and a tense jaw. He had seen Celie's blush and was probably close enough to hear her heart speed up when she saw the man.

"That's Matt's cousin?" Luna Sophia asked.

"Yes. Distant cousin." Harper lied smoothly.

"Where did he come from?" Alpha Lucas asked, looking toward the dimly lit pathway.

"That's one of the paths to the docks, his boat is likely moored nearby." Harper explained. "Matt's is a family of sailors; I don't know anyone he's related to that doesn't live at sea."

"Well, it's starting to get a little late, and I'm honestly losing steam." Luna Sophia said, turning to Harper. "That flight was a killer and I'm not as young and energetic as I used to be."

"I'm glad you came over, it's good to see you, I was nervous at first, I thought you'd be mad at us." Harper said.

"I won't lie and say there was no anger," Alpha Lucas said. "But it was mostly directed toward others." He glanced over at the others who looked down, not meeting his eyes. "We were worried, Harper, scared of what might have happened to you. Young female lone wolves don't have a high survival rate, you know."

"I've heard," Harper said. "I didn't realize how bad until Adam told me. I wasn't like most though, I didn't just shift into a wolf and run blindly into the forest. I knew I was going to leave for a long time, I hoped it would be just leaving for college, but I knew I would be rejected if my mate was in our pack, so I had a plan. I knew where I was going, I kept my college secret, I had scholarships, I stashed money, I had all my things packed, I had a new phone, I even had a train ticket for that night. I didn't think I'd end up taking Celie with me, I never thought it was possible someone like Cel would ever get rejected. I hated seeing her like that, she suffered so much. But I don't know how I would have made it without her. We kept each other sane, I think. And we had the blessing of the moon goddess to protect us."

"And you didn't suffer?" Luna Sophia asked gently.

"My heart wasn't broken. I expected to be rejected, I was prepared for it, well, as prepared as someone can be for something like that. It was just physical pain for me, and I can deal with that, I was used to it." Harper explained. "It wasn't that way for Celie, she never thought she'd be rejected, she thought she was going to live happily ever after with her mate."

Out of the corner of her eye, Harper saw Adam turn away, his hand going to his face.

"You're so strong, Harper." Luna Sophia said, tears filling her eyes. "I don't know if you realize how much like your mother you are. I see her in you so much. She was the strongest person I ever knew, so much stronger than I ever was. I knew if anyone could make it out here, it was you, but I still worried."

Harper was saved from answering as Matt, Celie, and Eden stepped back outside, Eden with a tall drink in his hand.

"Did you get to order any..." Harper began when a piercing scream was heard coming from the direction of the beach.