Author's Note; This story is coming out so easy, I just can't stop writing for it. Not that I think any of you darling readers are complaining about the constant updates. Hopefully this will continue and we can get to some good and juicy drama soon! Again I loving the support that this story is getting. All the follows and favs on this story have been great to see!
As before I would like to thank those have reviewed the last chapter; Brookeworm3, LornaRose, Kosongbird, and CarleighAlpha. The reviews keep me going, so keep them coming!
As stated before this story is inspired by 'Vicious' by Monroesfigure, any all recognizable work from that story belongs to that creative mind. Also want to apologize for any spelling mistakes, I write during my free time at work and don't have a Beta for this story to check for errors. Now read on an enjoy!
Everything had gone wrong. Syrena hadn't meant to hiss at that boy, she had intended on keeping her composure and not exposing herself. However when her eyes had been locked with his, she felt the rest of the world disappear. All the other people in the room with them no longer existed. Even for that brief moment the pull to return to the ocean lessened. When Paul stepped forward she realized she was in very serious danger, whatever this people were she knew that they had the power to rip her limb from limb and throw her back to the sea to become shark fodder. But the one with the brown eyes had stepped in to protect her, called call her 'mine'. Syrena had lived knowing she belonged to no one except herself and her clan, but when he staked the claim there was no primal response that she expected there to him to refute it.
Mermaids mated with men on land only to get a babe in their wombs, in years gone by it was the primary reason mermaids would lure men to wreck their ships. It gave them ample amount of men to sate their instincts to mate and then would serve to sate their hunger. Now things were done differently. Instead when a mermaid felt it was right they would go to land, take on their forms with legs and find a willing male to couple with. Some if they timed it right needed only one night, some would go for weeks... Forming an attachment to the male you chose was forbidden, a mermaid risked banishment if she was gone for more than two moon cycles. To stay that much with a single human... to fall in love... it was dangerous not just for her but for the whole clan. What if the human discovered what she was? What if she told her secrets - of the secrets of the clan?
To be safe if a mermaid took a lover for those weeks she would lure him down to the ocean with her and drown him. It was best for her and for the clan if all her secrets and her identity died with him. Even Syrena's own mother had to do it, only when it came time she did not have the strength. She had to call for her sisters of the clan to come, had to have them pulled him under while she watched, heartbroken but knowing it was necessary. Syrena never knew her father except through the stories her mother told about their brief time together.
Syrena had always been sure that when the time came for her to want a child, she would only go to land and take a man for a night. Humans had a strange ritual of singular encounters with a lover, one that only lasted a night and then they would never see each other again. That suited her just fine, she would only want to fall pregnant and did not want to have to kill so senselessly of someone she wouldn't see again or love. She would go as many times as needed to get what she wanted and be done with land forever. But Amara's death had changed her plans for her life, but she was stuck on land for a whole year among humans...
"What are you, Jacob?" Syrena asked lowly as she looked to him. They had been left alone, rather reluctantly by his companions.
There was a silent understanding on both their sides, each knew that the other was something other than human. She saw how Jacob tensed at her question and her fingers curled nervously into her palm. His silence made her stomach drop. He lifted his hand and ran it through his hair seeming to struggle with coming up with an answer.
"I... It's very... complicated." he finally said after a brief moment.
"You... to kill me?" the brunette then questioned, for the first time Jacob became aware of the strange accent her voice carried, like English was not her first language. It only made him wonder more about where she had come from. But his mind didn't linger much on how she spoke but rather what her words had implied.
Instantly Jacob snapped his head up and shouted out, "NO! Never!" his sudden tone made her jump and seeing her reaction he forced himself to breath in deeply and calm.
"Never." he re-stated firmly but gently.
Syrena regarded him at length and then her eyes darted to the door where Paul had been dragged out of. "Will Paul? - or the others?" she then asked.
"Never." he said again and squeezed her hand and her hazel eyes quickly dropped to their joined hands. He was radiating warmth, like the sun. "I won't let them." Jacob added after a few seconds.
"I don't understand..." she then said lowly as she looked to him.
"Syrena... it's hard to put into words... maybe I should just show you?" Jacob said and looked to her. Syrena felt a creeping warning run up her back, some unease at whatever he wanted to show her. But Jacob seemed to make up his mind as he stood and gently tugged on her arm. The brunette was unable to resist and she slowly got to her feet and moved towards the door. He stepped out onto the porch and as he got closer to the edge and pulled back, resisting and planted her feet before he pulled her out of the protective covering of the roof's overhang.
Jacob turned to face her and saw her worriedly looking about and he gazed about the open yard surrounding the house. Sam, Embry and Leah were across the yard and standing under some trees. All eyes had turned to the imprinted pair when they had emerged. His jaw clenched as his looked to his pack, he hadn't expected them to leave but having them witness this moment that should have been just them was not what he had expected either.
"Syrena..." he said and turned back to his brown haired imprint. "I won't let them do anything to you, remember?"
Lifting her head she looked up at Jacob and her eyes searched him before mutely nodding. At least she seemed to trust him to some degree. He nodded to her as if reaffirming what he had said.
"Em, can you give us a demonstration?" Jacob called across the yard.
Embry looked to Sam and the alpha gave a slow nod. Whatever Jacob's imprint was they all knew that imprint's had the right to now the pack and tribe secrets. Slowly Embry stepped out of the shelter of the trees and crossed the yard slowly. Kicking off his shoes as he went and then his hands went to the buttons of his cut off jean shorts. His glanced to Jacob once more before he took his pant off and stepped from them. Jacob had the instinct to stepped between his imprint and his friend, she shouldn't have to see any male naked except for him... but he could sense her nervousness - felt the way that she grasped his hand firmly. He should have been the one to show her what he was but he also wanted to be able to answer her questions.
Naked as the day he was born Embry stood for a moment before briefly closing his eyes. His body quaked and every part of him tensed before he exploded forward. Skin exploded into fur and all at once limbs changed and Embry fell onto all fours as a wolf. Some growls escaped him and he pawed at the wet earth under him and his head whipped around before he huffed and started to calm. Jacob turned his head and watched his imprints face, he remembered the shocked look on Bella's face when she had found out the pack's secret... but that shock wasn't present on Syrena's face. Light surprise but not true shock. She stared at Embry and then her gaze flickered to the others and then to him.
"Werewolves?" she asked him lowly and Jacob shrugged.
"Not like the traditional kind in movies and books... we change when we want and not on the full moon. But we are made to protect our lands from one enemy..." Jacob explained to her and studied her face, however Syrena seemed to keep her face calm and collected when he spoke.
"Enemy?" Syrena asked then sounding nervous. Jacob nodded slowly.
"Syrena... are you a vampire?" Jacob asked, he felt he breath leave him. It seemed impossible that she could be, she had a heartbeat after all - she was clearly alive. But they had all seen the teeth she had hidden in her mouth and seen the way she had hissed. It all seemed so familiar to the way the newborns were.
Her eyes widened, the question had surprised her but she quickly shook her head. "No..." she breathed lowly.
"But you aren't human." Jacob then said and Syrena closed her mouth with a snap. Her head ducked and she nodded slowly. "What are you then?"
Silence. Nothing but the rain falling lightly around them could be heard. Feet away Embry - still as a wolf but had moved out of the rain again, Sam and Leah were all waiting with baited breath for her answer.
"I cannot say." She said her voice sounded like a mixture of sadness and frustration. Jacob could hear from where he stood that Leah cursed under her breath. She had been about to step and cross the yard but Sam placed a hand on her shoulder and held her back.
"You can trust me. We'd never tell." Jacob said to her. But again Syrena denied to reveal what she was, she shook her head. It wasn't just her secret, it was her clan's and she could not betray them or their secret existence. But there was a small voice starting to speak in the back of her mind, whispering that they would kill her if they found out what she was, what her kind was capable of... Mermaids and vampires weren't all that different. They preyed on humans, they were made to kill them... Embry had said that they protect and even Jacob had said that they had one enemy... If their enemy were vampires would they consider mermaids to be the same? If Jacob knew that she had been the cause of any entire human family to die... Would they only look at her fangs and think she was their enemy as well?
The rain came to a slow stop and from where he stood Sam sighed. With Jacob's imprint refusing to say what she was, he had little choice. Either way the Elders had to know, but with the unknown factor of what the newest imprint was, what she was capable was as well as refusing to give them any information about her... they would have to come up with a plan to deal with her while protecting La Push.
"Jacob." Sam's strong voice spoke loudly to reach the couple on the porch. "Take her to your place, keep her there. I'll call the Elders together to talk about this." he said lowly and started to cross the yard, Leah following a step or two behind him.
"Sam, please." Jacob asked, no nearly begged of his alpha.
"The Elders need to know. We need to determine if she is a threat to us." he replied.
"And what will you and the Elders decide? She hasn't harmed any of us." Jacob retorted.
"We all saw the same thing in there, how much better did she seem than those newborn bloodsuckers?" Leah bit out and Jacob growled lowly at her.
"Watch it Leah." he snapped at her. "So much for innocent until proven guilty." Jacob snapped then in Sam's direction.
"You know as well as I do our duty is to protect La Push, though she is your imprint we have to consider what little we know about her." Sam stated and before Jacob could fight back on that point he raised his hand, a sign to stop speaking. "Take her home, I will find you there, try and find out more from her there." he said and Jacob huffed through his nose.
"Go now Jake." the alpha commanded firmly. His jaw clenched but he turned back to Syrena and reached for her hand and tugged her with him. This time she did not resist, the rain had come to a stop and she was no longer fearing stepping out onto the grass. Jacob did not look back to the members of his pack as he directed her towards the dirt road that led from the Call household into the rest of the reservation.
Their walk was silent, Jacob was fuming about the idea of Sam and the Elders, his own father included, talking to determine the fate of his imprint. Never had Jacob regretted his decision to not take up his birthright and be alpha to the pack, but right then when he felt worry and fear that they might do something to Syrena he was feeling the regret. They could not kill her... that he was certain. It was a sacred law... but what lengths would the Elder want to go to protect the tribe.
"They kill me now?" Syrena asked him finally once she could take the silence no more. The sight of a red house had just come into view and seemed to be where Jacob was taking her but she wanted to resist, if this was to be the place that he would take her for her execution.
Jacob quickly spun on her, his eyes wide with a mix of concern and refusal in his eyes.
"No one is going to kill you. Please... don't think I'd let that happen." he said lowly and his other hand came up and touched the side of her face. Syrena's breath hitched in her throat and she looked up at Jacob's eyes. His form towered over his, she had no idea humans could be so tall. "I'd fight them all if they even suggested it... but they won't they can't hurt an imprint."
Hazel eyes blinked in confusion. "I don't know that word." she murmured in confusion.
Jacob sighed, he had wanted to wait until he was home to tell her but he could not stand to see the fear and uncertainty in her eyes.
"You are my imprint. It make you mine, and makes me yours." he said not sure how else to explain it. He would think that seeing the memories of Sam, Jared and Paul all go through this would make it easier. But as Syrena seemed to not speak fluent English he wanted to explain it as simply as possible.
"Like mate?" she then asked. Jacob felt his inner wolf once again lift it's head, responding to her. Mate was a term that vampires just but it was also used for wolves - the natural kind. A wolf in the wild only mated once, for life.
"Yes, a mate." Jacob confirmed. "It happens for us when we see each other for the first time. Now I am tied to you forever." he said, knowing if wasn't a proper explanation of everything that the imprint was, but in that moment it was all he could think of too say.
Syrena's eyes widened again as she looked at Jacob. Imprint... mate... lover... partner... it all was something that in her mermaid mind she could not have.
"Come, I'll tell you more inside, you look cold." he said and tugged her hand again and started to walk again towards the red building. The petite brunette followed but her mind was swimming, trying to sort out all the feelings and thoughts that were swirling around inside of her. Looking to the back of Jacob's head she found it hard to pinpoint what she thought and felt towards him. He was different, to her than the rest of them. With her unknown fate looming ahead of her she found herself grasping his hand tighter like he was cave in the middle of a storm, a place to offer her safety and shelter.
And Syrena refused to examine that feeling any further. Right now she had to focus on what was going to become of her now.
