Word Count: 4720

"What do you mean they attacked the boat?" Reese demanded the second he stormed into the house. "You said they only come out at night, you said they only hunt at night!"

Luna Sophia had called Reese and filled him in on the attack as soon as they were in cell phone range and he, Adam, and Callum had rushed to the house.

"We don't fucking know what's going on, ok Reese!" Harper snapped. "Do you think we would have gone out on the damn boat if we knew they would attack us out there?"

"You could have been killed! You could have been lost at sea!" Reese shouted.

"Lost at sea? Really?" Celie responded, rolling her eyes. "More likely eaten at sea."

"Not helping!" Adam said to Celie when Reese's eyes bugged out and he took a deep breath to start yelling again.

"Just calm down, everyone." Luna Sophia interrupted.

"No!" Reese shouted, and then rounded on Matt. "This situation is out of control; you need to get your damn people in here and deal with this."

"What the hell do you think we're trying to do?" Matt snapped back. "It takes time to get sirens here, traveling through water takes time, we've called our people, and they will come but they can't just snap their fucking fingers and appear here."

"It's not safe here," Reese turned to Harper and Celie. "You two need to get your bags, you're coming back to the pack where you'll be safe until him and his....kind...get this sorted out."

Harper stared at him like he lost his mind for a second.

"Let me think...Um...Fuck no." Harper said, her eyes narrowed at him, her hand on her hip.

"It's not safe here, you need to go home." Reese shouted.

"I am home!" Harper shouted back. "You think I'm just going to leave because there's a threat? Because you say so? Is that what you do Alpha Reese? Do you tuck your tail and run every time a rogue attacks? Every time there might be a fucking fight? Do you pack your shit and leave your home, or do you defend it?"

"Goddamn it, Harper, you need to listen!" Reese said.

"I don't need to listen to anything you say!" Harper snapped back.

"I am your alpha!" Reese roared.

"You are not shit to me!" Harper screamed.

"Me either!" Celie shouted, moving to Harper's side, glaring at Reese. "You don't get to tell us what to do! We don't report to your ass anymore!"

Everyone started talking at once.

Reese opened his mouth but was interrupted by a thunderous voice.

"STOP!" Matt roared, his siren power hit the wolves like a sonic boom, immediately shutting everyone down. "You have no say in what goes on here, wolf!"

"Be calm," Eden said soothingly in his siren voice, and all the wolves immediately relaxed. But that just prompted Adam and Reese to glare harder at Eden.

"Did you just use your power on us?" Adam demanded.

"Be calm," Eden said again, and again they all relaxed. "Arguing and shouting solves nothing."

"These beings are so uncivilized," Ara remarked to Sagan, prompting glares all around.

"How dare you..." Reese snapped.

"That's enough!" Alpha Lucas said. "That's enough. They're right, shouting solves nothing, and we have no right to try and force them to do anything. This situation is obviously beyond anyone's expectation or experience so we just have to do the best we can and figure it out."

"I would appreciate it," Luna Penny said to them slowly, looking a bit startled. "If you would not do that again."

"My apologies," Eden said to her. "I wouldn't normally use it, but things were quickly getting out of hand in here."

"Yes, I understand," Luna Penny said, smiling a little. "But it was...disconcerting."

"She means it feels weird to have someone voice, other than your mate's, make you shiver." Luna Diana chuckled.

"Or to have a man's voice do it," Porter grouched, making everyone chuckle and cutting the tension in the room.

"Listen, at this point, the only thing we can do is call in more sirens," Eden said. "Only our people can deal with the tritons and at the moment, they only seem to be a threat to us. Which, believe it or not, is actually a good thing. We just have to protect this house, not every person on this island."

"There can't be that many more of them out there," Harper said. "Seriously, I can't imagine that there are hundreds of them out there working together, getting ready to invade. They just couldn't have gotten that organized, you can't go from a species that can't communicate, to one that has an army working together in a year."

"Harper's right," Sagan said. "They couldn't have advanced that much in so short a period of time. This must be a local effort, a small, isolated group."

"We must get our people here and assess the threat, I just worry that they will be ambushed on the way in," Matt said. "I think we should draw them to a point away from here, and then bring them overland."

"Yes," Ara nodded. "I agree with this idea. Sagan and I will go from here, find a location on land, near the sea, where we can send out a new call."

"Won't a call draw the tritons to you?" Alpha Michael asked.

"It might," Matt sighed. "But we have no choice, we need the voices of the old ones here with us, to help us understand what is happening, and decide what to do. We must not act alone, all sirens could be affected by these changes in triton behavior, all must have a voice in what is done."

"But that will take a long time, right?" Reese asked, annoyance still in his tone. "You said getting everyone here takes a long time, now you're talking about bringing them in somewhere else and driving them here. How long will that take? While they are attacking every damn day?"

"Doesn't matter," Harper said, sending him a dirty look, he wasn't the only one still annoyed.

"You're in danger here. Don't be stubborn, Harper!" Reese snapped.

"Don't be an asshole, Reese!" Harper snapped back, then put her hand over here mouth with a wide eyed look. "Oops! Sorry, I forgot myself, I just remembered that's impossible for you."

Porter laughed out loud, and Callum brought his fist to his face to cover his grin.

"I thought you were in his pack?" Porter huddled over Celie and asked in a hushed voice.

"No." Celie whispered back, sending a glare at Reese. "We're lone wolves, we used to be in their pack. But we left seven years ago, want three guesses as to why?"

"Nah," Porter shook his head, grinning. "I think I'm up to speed now."

Porter and Celie turned back from their huddle to find everyone staring at them.

"Uh...Carry on," Porter motioned regally with his hand, making Celie start snickering and Luna Penny roll her eyes. She was perfectly aware that her son was a big goofball.

"Anyway," Alpha Alexander eyed his son. "We should be focusing on what we know and what we can do."

"We can offer Ara and Sagan a place to stay and call the sirens to." Luna Diana volunteered. "They Key's packhouse is not far from the water and unless there are other sirens in the keys, the tritons won't be able to smell you there. Islamorada is only a couple hours drive away, so we are close enough to help but far enough away not to be a target."

"Yes, that's a good option, the Everglades pack is not close enough to water to be a good place to call for the other sirens." Luna Penny agreed. "And if you go to the Key's packhouse you will have a wolf pack around you for added protection if the tritons come out of the water. If you went somewhere on your own you wouldn't have that."

Ara and Sagan both nodded, relieved that they would have allies with them in case of an emergency.

"We will stay here, protect the beaches, and hunt for the tritons," Eden said to Matt, who nodded.

"By yourselves?" Callum asked. Matt and Eden both nodded.

"We don't have that much choice until more of our kind arrive." Eden shrugged.

"Why don't you stay somewhere else? Like further inland, or at the Everglades packhouse?" Adam asked.

"Because other sirens who heard the earlier calls will come here, we need to be here to greet them and offer them shelter." Matt explained.

"I'll stay here with you," Porter offered. "I'll get a couple of guys from the pack to come out, we can patrol here like we did last night, keep an eye on things. We know now they can attack during the day, they probably won't but I'd like to be around just in case."

"You mean, you want to hang out at the beach all day," Celie whispered to Porter.

"Hey, I'm helping," Porter whispered back.

"We'll be here too," Reese said, earning a narrow eyed look from Harper and Celie. "We still need to patrol like we did last night, we can't just leave the island unprotected. Even if the sirens are their main target they'll probably still be hungry and try to eat someone."

"This is going to be the longest mating season ever!" Harper muttered.

"AND," Celie clapped her hands, excitedly, "there's a hurricane coming! YAY!"

"Now we just need an underwater volcano and a tsunami!" Porter clapped twice and made an insane clown face with jazz hands. Completely undermining Celie and Harper's cool façade and making them both laugh like idiots.

Luna Penny just rolled her eyes and sighed heavily, finally accepting the inevitable that her son, the future Everglades Pack Alpha, would never be taken seriously by anyone who was around him for more than an hour.

**

"It was the best idea ever to send the guys patrolling alone," Harper said, clinking her glass with Luna Penny's.

The ladies all nodded knowingly, with differing degrees of exasperation and annoyance on their faces. There were eye rolls, huffs, snorts, and scoffs that accompanied the expressions.

Luna Penny had made the executive decision to send the men out patrolling while the girls stayed in the house watching the cameras. She expertly claimed Celie's near death experience, Harper's long hours at the hospital, and Ara's needing time with her child as valid reasons for the girls to stay in. Not one of the males could come up with a reason not to go along with it. Though Porter did his best to get to stay behind and hang out with the girls, 'for their protection', but Luna Penny wasn't having it and sent him out the door with a slap to the back of his head.

Even Ara, who was by far the most serious of them, had voted to stay behind to spend time with Faru before putting him to bed. At first she'd seemed uncomfortable, but she'd quickly relaxed and started enjoying her "girl time" which was a concept Celie had to explain to her, as she'd never really been around groups of females before.

"So, Cel," Harper began, sipping her fourth cocktail which had loosened her up considerably. "What's up with you and Eden?"

Every eye in the room immediately turned to Celie, knowing looks, wagging eyebrows, and wicked smiles were exchanged.

"Well," Celie said, drawing the word out before jumping in and talking a mile a minute. "He's so cute, and sweet, and smart, and funny, and I really like him a lot, and he's so big and strong and tough, and he totally saved my life today."

"Yes, Dear, and this afternoon I couldn't help but notice he has an enormous," Luna Penny paused and smiled sweetly, "personality."

The girls all howled with laughter.

"Couldn't miss that," Luna Sophia smirked.

"Not by a...mile," Luna Diana snickered.

"Oh my god, were you checking out his...package?" Celie gasped, at once shocked, horrified, and amused.

"No, of course not, Honey," Luna Sophia said, eyes wide. "It was just, really...hard to miss."

"Impossible," Luna Diana mumbled.

More howls of laughter.

"I'm not sure how I feel about that," Celie laughed.

"Oh please, Honey, once you've shifted in public, everyone knows the extent of everyone else's...um...pride," Luna Penny smiled. "We don't really take notice of those things, except in...extreme circumstances."

"We're just teasing you, Sweetie," Luna Sophia said. "Obviously siren men are all...impressive."

"Wait!" Harper sat up. "Were you checking out my husband too?"

"Of course not!" Luna Diana said, looking quickly away from Harper.

"Oh. My. God!" Harper shouted, before collapsing back on the couch in a fit of laughter. "I can confirm though, if you're really curious, that it's much more impressive when I'm naked."

There were a lot of 'woooos' that accompanied the ensuing laughter.

That's how the men found them when they returned from their patrols. When they asked what was so funny, all they got was more laughter.

Matt walked over to the bar, noticed an empty bottle of grey goose in the bin and another almost empty one on the shelf.

"I see you girls have been hitting the vodka pretty hard," Matt grinned, holding up the bottles. "Having a good time?"

"We're werewolves," Celie's voice was a little slurred. "We have a high tolerance."

"Not that high, Celie, you're clearly not a drinker, I bet you puke in less than an hour," Porter smirked.

"Shut it Port," Celie pointed at him and narrowed blurry eyes on him. "Don't make me ask your mom how many of the pack females have seen you naked."

Porter's face immediately went red and the girls all burst into laughter again.

"All the unmated ones," Luna Penny announced, shaking her head sadly. "Not a peach among them either."

"MOM!" Porter screeched.

But Luna Penny just raised her hands, palms up, and shrugged with a half smirk.

"He's made the rounds at our pack too," Luna Diana sighed. "No one will ever accuse you of being shy, Porter."

"Or picky," Alpha Alexander scoffed.

Even the men were laughing like idiots now, and Porter promptly excused himself to go to the bathroom, grumbling to himself about everyone being assholes.

**

Sunday was spent in the usual fashion on the day before a hurricane closed in, everyone was running around, waiting in lines for cash, water, gas, and groceries. The crush of people was not too bad at the stores this time, since the hurricane was just a category two and looked as though it may swing east and only graze the coast. But just to be on the safe side, everyone loaded up with all the supplies they could possibly need.

"Is it always like this?" Adam asked Harper, looking around the store in amazement. The shelves of the grocery store were basically empty, they were standing in a line that wrapped around the store and didn't seem to be moving at all.

"Yup," Harper deadpanned. She'd brought Adam with her to do her share of the errands because she felt surprisingly comfortable with him since they day he'd helped her dispose of the triton bodies. The truth was, she felt sorry for him, he was facing a heartbreaking situation and there was nothing anyone could do to spare him from it.

They finally made it out of the grocery store and were getting into Harper's jeep when Adam turned to her.

"Do you think..." Adam trailed off, not sure if he should ask Harper or if he didn't want to know.

"I don't know, Adam." Harper sighed. "I don't think she knows, and I'm not going to get involved. Her decision is her decision. She has to live with it, I don't, so I'm not going to get in the middle of it and try to influence her, so don't ask."

"I wasn't going to," Adam said. "I want her to choose me because she wants me, not because someone else told her to."

That surprised Harper and she turned to look closely at him.

"Surprised?" Adam snorted. "I know what you think of me, Harper. I know you think I'm just about even with pond scum, but I don't want to force Celie into anything. It wouldn't mean much if she didn't make the decision herself. And while I want her more than anything, and I would give my whole life to make her happy. I want her to actually be happy, and if that's not with me... Well, then it's not with me, and there's nothing I can do about that. I don't want my happiness in exchange for hers, I want both of us to be happy. Hopefully together, but I'll take just her happiness if that's all I can get."

"You've really changed," Harper said, looking at him sadly.

"We all did, Harper," Adam said. "You don't know because you weren't there to see it, but the whole pack changed. Everything changed when Luna and Alpha found out what happened to you and Cel and why you left. Knowing you're doing something wrong is one thing, you can rationalize it to yourself, you can tell yourself it's not that bad, especially when there are others doing it and encouraging you to do it. But then it comes out, and you have to face the truth. Let me tell you something, Harper, facing the truth that you've acted like a monster when you've convinced yourself what you were doing wasn't that bad, is not easy."

Adam stopped and took a deep breath.

"I know this is no excuse, I'm not trying to excuse us, but we were kids, we were kids and teenagers doing terrible things. But you know the pack mentality, if everyone is doing something, it must be ok to do it. Not to mention, that we are in fact wolves, and unfortunately that shit happens in wolf packs regularly and not everyone even thinks it's wrong." Adam said. "So we had all that in our heads, then we had to face the music, and we found that the tune we were humming, was very different than the one everyone else was singing. Facing them, all the pack, the elders, the adults who had no idea that shit was happening. Realizing the true horror of what we'd done, it has an impact. A massive impact, on who you are, on how you think, and on how you're treated. The whole pack turned on us, we found out first hand what you went through, to a certain extent, because it happened to us because of what we did. Alpha Lucas took the title away from Reese and he didn't even become alpha for another four years, until he proved himself capable."

Harper gaped at Adam, she didn't know Reese hadn't become alpha after she left, no one had told her that.

"I had it in my mind, Harper, that whole time, I had it in my mind that because I wasn't doing it. Because I walked away, because I didn't participate, that I was ok, and I wasn't really doing that much wrong. Yes, I knew I should have done more, but I was a kid, the future beta. I wanted to be popular, I wanted my alpha to like me, and everyone to respect me, and as fucked up as that is, I thought that's what I needed to do to get respect. And you know, in school, with the other kids, that is what we had to do to get respect. Was it wrong? YES. Of course it was. But not doing it put targets on our backs from the others. You know that Celie was ostracized because she wouldn't stop being friends with you, everyone knew it and didn't want it to happen to them. So it was one big ass giant fucked up shit storm and everyone in school was caught in it. And it was entirely and completely the fault of a few people, first and foremost it was Charla, her minions, Ben, and Reese."

Adam stared at the dash, his lips tense, turned down, his chin and jaw tight, he looked like he was fighting back tears.