Author's Note: Thanks for making it to chapter two. As stated before this story is inspired by 'Vicious' by Monroesfigure, any all recognizable work from that story belongs to that creative mind. I don't intend to have more filler than I need in this story so there will be jumps in the story, anything that guess reviews or responses from readers I may include in outtakes.
Also want to apologize for any spelling mistakes, I writer during my free time at work and don't have a Beta for this story to check for errors. Now read on an enjoy!
Warmth. That was the first thing that Syrena was aware of. It felt like the sun on her face, except it was all over. Her human body was burrowed against the source and quite content to stay there. However sleep did not reclaim her, her instincts were quick to return when she scented something… someone. Heard a heartbeat and voices filtering into her ears.
"Huhh?" a male groan came from way too close.
Her head snapped up, all at once wide awake and Syrena found herself looking up at a face. Human. Dark hair and dark eyes. The boy opened his mouth to speak but she was quicker. Her hands pushed him back and she flew backwards, falling she moved from something soft onto a hard surface. Her legs flew over her as she rolled back and then she was scrambling. When she had the chance to look back at this moment she would determine that it was her natural reaction to put distance between herself and a human. But in that moment she was not thinking, she was simply reacting in blind instinct and drive.
"Whoa, wait!" the voice from the human male called after her as she bolted through the door that had been left open a crack. She had no idea where she was but she knew she wasn't on the porch of the little abandoned cabin she had fallen asleep at.
Syrena didn't stop not even as she heard heavy footsteps behind her, she flung herself down the tight corridor and all but fell down the stairs when she came to them. She had only one goal, and one goal only - it was to flee.
As she was about to sprint for the door an figure suddenly appeared before her and an arm caught around her middle and lifted her from the ground. Slender legs flailed and she let out a shriek - high pitched and totally inhuman. Glass broke, or more like it popped light balloons and thousands of pieces rained from the window panes and on a nearby table a vase broke, the water and flowers it contained spilled in every which way possible. The figure who had captured her groaned and just about dropped her but seemed to at least have the forethought to instead of releasing her clamped his hand over her mouth and lightly squeezed her jaw.
"Please don't do that." a male voice, from the one who held her stated firmly. Syrena stopped realizing she was overpowered, her arms clamped at her sides and her legs still dangling.
"Paul, please don't man handle her." a voice came from behind, the same one she had woken up too.
"Did you find a girl or a banshee in the woods?" the second male stated and look down at the brunette. Her hazel eyes narrowed and she looked up at him, trying to strain her head back and remove her face from his grip. "Are you done?" he asked her and tilted her head up.
Syrena still glared.
"Don't do that again." he said lowly before slowly releasing her jaw.
Clenching her teeth together she considered ignoring him and letting out another screech. Better that their ears bleed and let her escape. But now she was able to see it was raining again outside... so she realized she would get no where at all. She let out a huff through her nose at the one called Paul. He carried her towards a couch and then sat her down and made the motion for her not to get up again.
"I called Sam and Jake, they should be here soon." Paul said once he stepped away and looked to the other and one eyebrow raised. "Just what was going on when I got here?"
"Her lips were blue and she was shaking like an earthquake. I called Sue and she said to warm her and well... body heat." the other responded before he moved to sit in a chair across from Syrena. She looked to him distrustfully. Now that she had the chance to take him in fully she determined he was handsome, she also took note that he was only half dressed. His torso bared. Hands balled into fists on her lap and her hazel eyes darted between the two men, Paul was standing with his arms crossed over his also bared torso. She noticed that both had matching black markings on their arms, near their shoulder. Odd.
"My name is Embry..." the one sitting down said to her and she turned her eyes back to him. He seemed to be gauging her reaction to him. "I found you in the woods... you were unconscious and cold." he continued on after a moment of no response from her.
"Brought you back here and tried to get you warm." he then added on. Still Syrena regarded him carefully and barely allowed herself to move. She had never talked with a human before, didn't know what she would say or should say. In truth she wanted to leave, but she was trapped there. Sniffing the air she came to realize that something was wrong... They didn't smell right. Not like human... well not quite. Something was different.
The two boys exchanged a meaningful look and Syrena stiffened.
"What's your name?" Paul asked and she refused to look at him. Her gaze drifted to the other side of the room as she tried to put the puzzle together. If they weren't human then what were they?
From his spot Embry rocked back and forth, he had known since he came across her scent in the woods that something about the brown haired girl wasn't right. She smelt sweet, not vampire sweet but not human either. It was what had drawn him in to find her just on the border of their lands. Her scent reminded him of ocean salt and pure rain - like the shitty candles that Kim and Emily loved but not in a chemical sort of way. Hers was natural, and yet unnatural. He couldn't leave her out there like that and he had let the pack know what he had found before he shifted and carried her back when there was a break in the rain fall. He had thought it would turn out to be nothing, but when the girl had woken she was unusually strong. A human would not have been able to push him like that.
"Can she talk?" Paul then briskly asked and look her over as well. "Can she hear?"
Syrena whipped her head around and glared at him.
"Seems she can hear you." Embry chuckled under his breath. He raised and hand and ran his hand through his hair, a low sigh escaping his mouth. "Look we don't want to hurt you, that's not what we do."
"If we can help it." Paul muttered under his breath, Syrena figured he did not mean for her to hear him but she did.
"So what's your name?" Embry asked again, and like before Syrena refused to answer. What would happen once she did? Silence and she could see both of them becoming frustrated. Again they looked to each other like they wanted to speak, some shared message that they were trying to saw with their eyes.
"Look girl we are trying to help you. Give us something, let's start with why you were out in the woods like that anyway." Paul said and then stepped forward and crouched before her. Her lip twitched, her instinct was to hiss at him. But if he had no idea she was anything other than some girl who his companion had found in the woods then her hiss would surely give her away. Biting the inside of her lip to contain herself made Paul frown angrily.
"Paul..." the other boy warned lowly, his voice oozing with concern.
"No this is bullshit. We need some answers from her one way or another." Paul stated and his breathing increased, shoulders heaving with built up anger. Syrena pushed herself back along the couch, putting distance between her and the male.
"Take a walk Paul." a new very stern voice said and the brunette whipped her head to see a taller man standing by the door. She had been so focused on Paul she had not heard him enter. "Now." the third male said heavily and she watched as Paul's back went ramrod straight before he marched across the room and then past the one who had ordered him out.
A few seconds passed once the door slammed shut and Syrena now looked to this new comer, he appeared slightly older than the other two.
"Anything?" the new one asked, Embry just shook his head in response.
"I'm Sam." he said after a moment. "Sorry about Paul, he gets that way sometimes." he said and his eyes fell to her battered and bruises knees, still covered in scrapes.
"Get a first aid kit for her, need to patch her up." Sam then said and Embry immediately got up to do as he was told. She wasn't sure what it was about this was finally ticked her last nerve, but somehow these males trying to tell her what to do, demanding answers and ordering each other about in how to deal with her finally got to her.
"No." Syrena said, her voice cutting the air and catching both Sam and Embry by surprise. They both turned their dark eyes to her. "I did... I did not ask for help." she said struggling through her words. Language was different for mermaids when in the water, she had never had to speak to humans or out of the water and it felt strange to do it now.
"You've been bleeding." Sam pointed out to her. Syrena only frowned in response.
"I fine." she said in a short curt way.
"Then what were to doing at that cabin out in the woods?" Embry then challenged her with a question.
"Lost." the brunette responded simply, trying to give as little information as possible.
"Where were you going?" he then asked her and Syrena felt her mouth go dry. She had no answer. Embry leaned forward to her, his elbows resting on his knees. "And where were you coming from? You had no shoes, nothing." Again Syrena had no answer to his question.
Her silence once again filled the room and Sam sighed from behind her now.
"Did you run away from somewhere?" Embry then asked her his face turning to a look of sympathy.
Rolling her lip between her teeth she shook her head. "No... I..." she said and struggled with the words. "Expel?" she then asked and looked up at Embry but saw nothing but confusion in his eyes.
"Leave... pushed out." the brunette then said and motioned away from her body to demonstrate her meaning.
The confusion clear and his head nodded slowly. "Oh, you mean like banished?" he then said.
"Banished?" she repeated the word he had said. It sounded right. "Yes." Syrena then said and put the word to memory.
"Where were you banished from?" now it was Sam's turn to ask. She looked over her shoulder at him.
"Home." was all she said as an answer for that.
The two males seemed to realize that might be all that they got out of the brunette at the time. Sam stepped back and there was a howl outside. The girl on the couch jumped up and turned to look out the window. Her eyes scanned out looking through the trees for the source of the noise. Sam knew that she wouldn't see anything he had told them to shift away from the house.
"I'll be back. Stay with her." he said to Embry before he turned and went out the door again. A moment passed and Embry tapped his hands against his knees.
"You know we are really just trying to help you..." he said to her He noticed her look in his direction from the corner of eye and then looked away again quickly.
Syrena was confused, these people were acting odd. And still there was that strange scent about them, all of them - Paul, Sam and Embry... and they said there was others. Others were coming. She was vastly outnumbered, vulnerable and lost. Even if she got away from them, even if the rain magically stopped - did it ever stop raining in this place? Even if all those things happened she wouldn't know where to go. She was stranded...
"Why do you help?" she then asked, her gaze still averted.
"It's what we do." he responded. "And you need it." he then added after a few seconds.
"We?" Syrena then asked wondering what the 'we' was.
Embry looked outside and saw Jacob and Leah walking from the treeline, they had shifted away from the house and were garbed in the most basic amount of clothes that they could. With Brady, Colin and Seth running patrol this was most of the pack, Quil he was sure would come soon with Jared... it had been a while since the pack had anything to meet about. The Cullen problem was nearly non-existent now. Bella had left with Edward and the blonde vampire and her mate, the big one - he forgot their names at the moment. They all knew that Bella was going to be changed. The elders and Sam had agreed to the new treaty forged with the vampire coven one where they could change someone who was willing and who was a mate to one of their own. They all knew that now that all the Cullens had a mate that they would not change another. Doctor Cullen, Esme, the fortune teller and her mate remained, but all understood that they would likely move on with Bella newly changed she wouldn't come back for a long time... maybe never. The pack wouldn't mind if they all left, the phasing would slow they could have resume normal lves again... Or so they thought until this enigma of a girl showed up on their lands.
"We protect our home." Embry said not able to say more than that. They all suspected she wasn't human and likely she knew that they weren't either...
There was footsteps coming up the porch and the door slowly swung open. In first filed Sam then behind him came Paul, Leah and lastly Jacob. All eyes either looked to Embry or looked to the brunette girl sitting on couch, some even moved back and forth. Her head was down, avoiding to look at all of them. Not letting them see the panic in her eyes as she was surrounded by more of them.
"Anything?" Paul's voice broke the silence. Embry lifted his head and looked up at them and silently shook in response.
"We need answers. One problem goes away and another starts." Leah grumbled and Sam shushed her with a glare.
"What do we do with her?" Paul then asked looking to Sam and Jacob for answers.
Finally Syrena looked up, if they were going to discuss her fate right in front of her she would make sure she was aware of what they were doing, she would look them in the eye when he made a choice. Her eyes looked to each one of them slowly, each turned to face her when she moved, first to Sam, then Paul... then the girl and then the other tall one, also bare chested.
As hazel eyes met dark brown ones she felt locked with his gaze. She watch his shoulders lift, his chest rose and he took a stumbling step forward to her. The brunette tensed in her place but could not look away, and it seemed neither could he. His eyes became dark tunnels that seemed to deepen and it drew her in like the depths of the ocean, like an unexplored crevice... He shifted, both physically and internally she saw it in his eyes - saw how he struggling to find his balance again and struggling to find his center of gravity.
"Jake? What's wrong with you?" Embry asked from where he was sitting.
Leah looked between the two and both her and Sam reached the same conclusion at the same time.
"Oh shit." they both muttered in unison. It took less that ten seconds for the rest to realize what had happened, well perhaps all but Embry who looked to the others with confusion written across his face.
"He imprinted." Paul said out loud. Finally Syrena looked away from the one called Jake, and noticed that they now look at her with open wonder and confusion. What the hell had just happened?
