Word Count: 3652

Since the screaming was coming from the beach and was not near the canal the sirens ran in their human form and though they were fast, Harper quickly passed them in her wolf form, she was unnaturally fast, even for a werewolf.

"Do not go into that water Harper!" Matt shouted not far behind her as they neared the beach. "You know you can't fight them in the water!"

Reese shouted through the mind link. Adam's reaction to the scream and the others running told Reese Adam knew what was going on, or at least knew more than Reese did.

Adam replied, his mind on keeping up with Harper and the sirens.

Alpha Lucas shouted back.

But before Adam could say anything else they cleared the woods. There were two human women on the beach, one laying in the surf being dragged out into the water by something while the other held her arms trying to pull her back onto the beach. There were three men chest deep in the surf fighting, though one was clearly losing.

Harper ignored Matt's warning and jumped into the water, snapping viciously at the creature pulling the woman's legs. The woman was only in about a foot of water, so Harper knew she wouldn't get swamped by them if she went no deeper.

Harper linked Celie as she bit and clawed the triton who had let go of the woman to defend itself from her attack.

Celie shifted back into her human form and grabbed the arm of the woman struggling in the surf and helped drag her the rest of the way out of the water.

"Stay out of the water!" Celie turned to scream at the wolves who had caught up and were now circling them, growling viciously.

The triton Harper was attacking had risen out of the water enough to start shrieking and swiping at Harper as she bit and clawed it. Matt leaped on it's back, his hands transformed into wicked talons and quickly reached around it's neck and ripped it's throat out before he turned to join Eden who had reached the men and was fighting both tritons in the water.

"HARPER!" Matt screamed. "Get out of the damn water!"

Harper backed up immediately, getting back to the water line, but she quickly began pacing up and down the beach checking to see if there were any in human form onshore.

Harper linked Celie since she was in human form and could speak to the wolves pacing around her.

"Look for more of them in human form!" Celie quickly turned and relayed Harper's message. "They look human, but they'll be naked with really long hair and black eyes! They'll stink like rotting fish and they'll probably shriek at you if you get close to one!"

Reese and the wolves stared at her for a second before Adam shouted through the mind link.

Then he turned and lifted his nose and began trotting down the shoreline, his eyes on the forest.

Celie turned her attention back to the women they'd pulled to the beach, they were huddled on the sand hugging, the one who'd been being dragged out to sea was whimpering, there was blood running down her legs.

"What? What was that? What's happening?" The woman who had been trying to pull her friend to safety finally found her voice. "Are those wolves?"

"Shhh..." Celie hushed her. "Don't worry about that, you're safe now."

"W-where are your clothes?" The woman said then, finally looking closely at Celie.

"Don't worry about that right now, take care of your friend." Celie said absently as she turned her attention to the water where the fight had already ended.

Eden had quickly killed one triton with little effort and Matt had helped him finish off the second, they were now dragging the triton bodies and the human they'd been attacking to shore. Harper ran to them, shifting into her human form to examine the man who was covered with scratches and had chunks of flesh torn from his battered body.

"We have to get him to the house and call an ambulance, he's bad, I don't know if I can save him." Harper said. "Deal with those two, we need them calm."

Matt quickly turned to the crying woman.

"Ladies, please be calm. Everything is alright, we just need you to come with us to the house, everything is alright, just follow us and don't be scared." Matt said, his voice was melodic and soothing. Both women immediately relaxed, their eyes almost closed in contentment, the uninjured one smiled up at Matt softly.

Reese and the others were approaching cautiously, watching closely.

"Did you see any others?" Harper asked them, and Reese shook his head. "Good, we have to get back to the house fast."

Harper and Celie quickly shifted back into their wolf form, Eden picked up the injured man easily and started carrying him toward the house, as Matt began dragging the bodies toward the woods.

"Come, follow us, put this matter from your mind and be at ease, there is nothing you need to worry about or fear." Matt motioned to the women who stood slowly and blindly followed behind him like zombies.

They jogged back to the house, moving as fast as they could with the stunned women following behind them and Harper led Eden back into the room where she normally patched up Matt. She had him lay the man on the gurney while she pulled out her tools but as she checked him over she realized it was too late to save him, he was injured too badly, so she just held his hand as he breathed his last breath.

"I'm sorry." Harper whispered to him, and was thankful he'd been unconscious at the end.

Matt led the women to the couches and, bent down to inspect the injured women, he looked at her legs and found only superficial scratches and was relieved that she was not more seriously hurt.

"Rest now." Matt said to the women in his soft siren voice. "Sleep." And they both promptly lay back and fell into deep sleep.

Celie ran into the dressing room next to the pool and grabbed several robes they kept for guests and brought them out so the wolves could shift back into their human forms.

"What the hell was that?" Reese demanded the second he was able to talk.

But before anyone could answer Harper stepped out of the house with Eden behind her, her eyes were red and she shook her head at Matt.

"He's gone, I couldn't save him." Harper said softly.

Celie gave a soft sob as tears filled her eyes and Sophia briefly closed her eyes as she too fought back tears.

"What the hell is going on?" Reese said, though his voice had lost some of its heat.

"Mermen exist and some are insane cannibals who eat people." Adam said tiredly sitting down on a lounge chair.

"Well, that explains everything." Alpha Lucas said flatly rolling his eyes at Adam.

"Before we go into a big, long explanation we need to figure out what to do with them." Harper said as she knelt down to examine the women on the couches. "She's not hurt that bad."

"Yeah, just a few scratches," Matt said. "I will tell them to forget what they saw, and I'll replace their memories with their friend going into the water and disappearing. They will say he got caught in a rip current and carried out, they won't mention an attack, and it will seem like a drowning. They've been drinking, an accidental drowning and fuzzy memories will seem plausible to anyone questioning them. After they rest a bit, we'll call the authorities and say we found them passed out on the beach."

"What do you mean, you'll replace their memories?" Luna Sophia asked, frowning.

"I need a stiff drink and some clothes" Celie announced, standing up. "Does anyone else want one before we get into this? Because it's a long story."

The others nodded and Celie herded everyone into the rec room as Harper and Matt went to retrieve some clothes the others could wear.

Once everyone was dressed and sitting with cocktails in their hands Harper began explaining.

"Ok, so here we go. Werewolves are not the only supernatural species, there are two others that we know of, they are called sirens and tritons."

"Like the Greek myths?" Luna Sophia asked.

"Yes, exactly like that." Harper confirmed. "Mermaids and mermen, though they don't like to be called that. They can shift into a form that the upper body is human-like, but the bottom half is marine, a tail and fins. They have lungs and gills and can breathe air and water. They are bigger and stronger than humans, and werewolves."

Harper paused letting that sink in.

"We," Matt gestured to himself and Eden. "are sirens. Those others we fought on the beach were tritons. We are two distinct species, we look similar but we are very different. We can transform into human at will and stay in either form as long as we want. We can also partially shift, like keep our claws, teeth, and gills in human form without keeping our tail. We also have the ability to lure or enchant humans with our voices."

"We," Celie turned to Eden and gestured to herself and the others. "Are werewolves, in case you didn't notice us turning into wolves out there."

Eden raised an eyebrow at her chuckling, and she shrugged. "Might as well explain our side too since we're at it."

Harper laughed a little before going back to the explanation.

"The difference between sirens and tritons is like the difference between werewolves and feral rogues who have completely lost their humanity." Harper said. "Tritons kill and eat people, they kill and eat each other, and just about anything else they can get their teeth on, they don't discriminate. They are intelligent but have no language or civilization, they are basically really smart sharks that prey on people at every opportunity. They can't be reasoned with or stopped."

"Unlike us, they can't take completely human form at will, they can only transform once a year during mating season, they can only come ashore to mate, and even then they can only maintain human form for a few hours a day for a month." Eden said. "As you can see, mating season just started, and now they are coming ashore."

"They are a solitary species, they only get together during mating season, then only mating couples will get together and they never stay together longer than necessary to mate." Harper went on. "They are very territorial, and will usually kill and eat each other if they cross paths. Though they rarely kill across genders, like males will usually spare females because they know they need them to mate, but they will run them off their territory. However males will always kill other males, and females will often kill other females if they can. Usually there are never two tritons within fifty of miles of each other, they will literally hunt down and kill each other as soon as they catch the scent."

"But this year they are banding together, and they are coming ashore in populated areas, something we've never seen before." Matt explained. "Two nights ago, I was ambushed by three males working together."

"Which should be impossible," Eden said.

"And that same night when Matt was trying to get back home he came across a mating pair right down the stream from here." Harper said. "They should never have been on this island, they should have been too afraid to come to shore here, there are too many lights, too much activity. It would be like a panther walking right into downtown Miami, it just shouldn't happen. And I know that there was at least one other one in the water that night, a very powerful one. You should remember Reese; you were walking out into the water to get eaten by it when I pulled you back."

"What?!" Reese exclaimed, nearly coming out of his seat.

Harper nodded. "It was luring you into the water, that's why you just went swimming wearing your pants without thinking about it or planning on it. If I hadn't been there, you would be dead right now, there's no way you would have been strong enough to kill one in the water."

Reese snorted.

"Not in the water Reese." Adam said. "You haven't seen one of those things up close in its marine form, there's no way one of us could kill it one on one in the water."

"And you've seen one?" Alpha Lucas asked, turning to Adam.

"Yeah." Adam replied. "Later that same night, I ran into Celie and came back here, Harper was patrolling and found them attacking Matt at the spring, she called Cel for help and I followed her. We came upon the pair of them, Matt was fighting a male in the water, and Harper killed the female on the bank."

"And you didn't think that was important enough to tell me?" Reese demanded, furious.

"Not my place to tell you about their species." Adam said softly. "Celie and Harper asked me not to, I didn't think I'd ever see another one or have any reason to talk about it. It's not like they'll ever be a threat to us, we live in the woods nowhere near the ocean. I didn't want to betray Celie's trust."

"You should have told me!" Reese growled.

"Why?" Harper snapped. "Why do you need to know about their species? You'll never encounter them, they're not a threat to you, they want to keep their species secret just like we do. Matt hasn't advertised to his people that Celie and I are werewolves or that our kind even exist, why should we expose them to you?"

"But you told him?" Reese snarled.

"He's my husband." Harper snarled back. "I'm allowed to tell my mate what I am, werewolf law allows that."

"He's not your mate!" Reese roared.

"Yes. He. Is." Harper gritted out.

"No! I'm your mate!" Reese shouted.

"You are not my mate. You rejected me the second you saw me." Harper reminded him. "I stopped being your mate that moment, I haven't been your mate since then, nor will I ever be your mate again."

"The moon goddess chose you for me!" Reese said.

"And she regretted it and apologized to me for it that same night! She came to me in a dream and told me I did the right thing by leaving. She gave me her blessing and marked me and Celie to keep us safe." Harper held up her arm, showing the moon symbol on her wrist.

Luna Sophia gasped, she stood and came to Harper to inspect her wrist.

"The goddess mark is incredibly rare, there are only a few instances of it in all our recorded history." Luna Sophia said in awe, turning to Alpha Lucas who stood and came over to look.

"She said I had a purpose to fulfil, and that I wouldn't be able to fulfil it staying in the pack." Harper explained. "I thought she meant that I was to become a doctor and help people, and that is probably part of it. But I'm starting to wonder if she wasn't also talking about the laws you created to protect the she-wolves. Without Cel and I leaving the pack those laws to protect the runners and discourage rejections wouldn't have been passed. That's way more important than one lone wolf going to medical school."

Celie gaped at Harper. "Oh my god. I didn't even think about that! You're right Harper, that's probably exactly what she meant. Those laws have probably saved countless wolves and stopped even more rejections!"

"As fascinating as all this is, and as much as I would like to hear the whole story." Eden drawled. "Perhaps we should see to the sleeping females outside before too much time has passed."

That pulled them all back to the present moment and Harper felt bad for forgetting the women outside. They'd been through a horrifying experience and lost a friend, they needed to be cared for.

"You said something about making them forget what happened, how do you do that?" Alpha Lucas asked.

"A sirens voice has power, we can lure them, enchant them, command them, or make them believe things." Matt explained. "It's almost like hypnosis in a sense, at least that's the closest thing I can liken it to."

The wolves exchanged uncomfortable looks.

"Is it like hypnosis where someone wouldn't be talked into doing something like murdering someone else or doing something completely against their character?" Callum asked.

"No." Eden responded. "You would do whatever we tell you to do, whether it is something you would normally do or not. Some juveniles may not be powerful enough to compel something like murder, but mature sirens can command humans to do anything, and they will obey."

"But we're not human." Reese smirked.

"Come here." Eden whispered sweetly and Reese jerked, his jaw clenched, as he trembled for a moment, but then he stood and robotically walked to Eden. "See? And I didn't even try, that was the weakest voice I could use. If I brought all my power to bear on you, I could destroy your mind entirely."

"You shouldn't be so cocky, Reese. Tritons hardly have any power to lure at all, they can barely lure someone touching the water, but one was able to get you to swim right out to it and it nearly had you for dinner. If I hadn't pulled you out of the water that night you'd be dead right now. You have no idea what you're dealing with." Harper sighed tiredly. "Let's take care of the women and continue this discussion tomorrow."

"What about the body?" Celie asked hesitantly. "What are we going to do with the guy? We're not chopping him up and dumping him like the tritons are we? I don't want to do that to a human being, it doesn't feel right."

"I'm not helping this time." Adam blanched, remembering Harper and her axe.

"I don't want to chop him up either, but we can't give his body to authorities, or let it be found. The marks and bites can't be explained by known species, no coroner or investigator will ever believe they are shark bites or animal bites." Harper said. "At least with rogue attacks they can track it back and blame wild wolves but there is nothing in nature that looks like a siren bite, and they tore him up. They were eating him alive." She shuddered involuntarily, thinking of the wounds she'd seen on his body.

"Does the Everglades pack have a crematorium?" Luna Sophia asked, then held up hand when the others started to protest. "I don't think we can keep their species existence a secret and I'm starting to get worried about the tritons. Reese and Lucas can't in good conscience keep this from another alpha whose pack could definitely be affected. Perhaps our pack didn't need to know about you, certainly we're nowhere near the ocean and would never encounter your kind, but the wolves here might. You can't monitor the entire coast of FL. You said you've never seen this type of behavior before, you don't know how many might be out there. We might need help patrolling and the Everglades pack would probably be happy to assist with that, they don't want people dying any more than you do. We can't fight them in the water, but we can definitely scare them off the land if they try to come ashore."