Natalia’s P. O. V
To say there was tension would be pointing out the obvious.
Kirstin was staring at me with an almost glare. And even though we were sitting on the same level, it felt like I was looking down at her.
I relaxed and rested an arm on the armrest, my fingers warming the wood, “Kirstin. I don’t care whose mate they are, none of them are safe from me.”
She seemed to weigh her words before talking, “I know what they did to you. Harry discarded me like I was nothing, and Callum was foolish enough to think that what he thought were his own desires for himself in the pack was worth losing you. But I can’t just let my mate die, and I don’t believe yours is guilty enough to deserve the same fate as the others.”
I cocked my head, “How sweet of you. You’re such a good person, how did I never notice this side of you before?”
She went silent, shrinking in her seat.
I snapped my fingers, and a spark flew from them that she thankfully didn’t notice, “Oh, right! Cause you were on their side. If I remember correctly, it was your job to take pictures of me after they were done beating me. You even joined in a few times if I recall.”
She had nothing to say to that.
“I wonder where this compassion and mercy was back then.” I continued. The sarcastic upturn of my lips dropped into a scoff, “You have a choice here, Kirstin. Either get the information I need to have them arrested and locked up for the rest of their lives, or let me deal with them as I see fit. So, what will it be?”
“I’ll get the information you need…” She mumbled, her head bowed.
Another long silence passed.
Wordlessly, we both began to get our things together. She gathered all the papers on the table together while I transferred all the files on the flashdrive to my laptop. When I was done, she handed me the papers and I put them in my bag.
Finally, I got to my feet, and walked to the door.
With my hand on the knob, I sighed and turned to her, “I’m not angry at you, I just don’t need anyone trying to hold me back. I know what I went through, and you do too. I get that they’re our mates and that means something to you, but it holds no significance for me. Harry’s still the same person that abused me and threw you to the wayside for Kylie of all people. And Callum’s still the same coward that joined in with the torment and rejected me for them.”
She lifted her head, meeting my eyes, “I know you think it’s weak and stupid of me, but I still care about Harry as my mate. I want to hurt him, but not as much as you do, and my instincts are telling me to protect him from you because of that. And Callum’s biggest crime is being an impressionable fool.”
“You’re right, I do think it’s weak and stupid.”
Her head lowered again.
“But since he’s your mate,” I continued, “I’ll allow you to pick his punishment.”
She perked back up.
I held up a finger, “On one condition. Make sure whatever you choose does not deny me the satisfaction of his suffering. Our next meeting will be on the thirty-first of March, so I suggest you use the time we have till then to come up with multiple ways we can deal with him, because I’ll veto the ones that don’t satisfy me. Is that better?”
She nodded.
I turned to leave.
“And Callum?” She called before I could open the door.
The doorknob began to heat up, so I let go of it before it could start melting.
I took a breath, “What about him?”
“Whatever punishment you have in mind for him doesn’t fit his crimes.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.” I spat, then left.
I refused to think as I made my way back home on autopilot. Before I knew it, I’d finished unloading all the documents in my study room and was sitting on my bed.
‘Nat…’ Cany said carefully.
‘Yes?’
‘What happened back there?’
I groaned, letting myself fall back into the bed, ‘We had a difference in opinion.’
‘That was more than just a difference in opinion, Nat. You were threatening, and menacing and almost cruel. She was terrified of you at some point.’
‘Good.’ I huffed, ‘I’m not here to play with those bastards and she’s letting her feelings for an asshole that rejected her cloud her judgement. If she wasn’t willing to hurt him, she shouldn’t have sought me out.’
Truth be told, I had no clue what’d come over me. Part of me had relished in seeing her shrink away from me, and I had no idea where that part had come from.
‘You once told me that obsessive paranoia would make us no better than the Lightwood Pack. Well, cruelty will definitely bring us down to their level.’
I knew she was right, but when I thought of everything they’d subjected me to, of everything I’d had to overcome and would still need to face because of the lingering effects of what they’d done to me, I didn’t want to be better.
I wanted to drag them to hell.
But I didn’t tell her that.
Instead, I said, ‘I know, you’re right.’
I’d planned to start visiting more packs after Christmas, but I didn’t want my fire to act up and cause any issues, so over the next couple of days, my hours were filled with trying to practice my new abilities with Kaesha. She really was a great teacher, but conjuring the fire on my own still proved difficult. Though, I was making headway with being able to handle the sudden outbursts of flames whenever I got emotional. And paying attention to the patterns so far told me that I needed to pay closer attention to my feelings of panic and anger in particular.
I’d thought that was all I could work on for the moment, but then Mrs Burton had given me a piece of advice when she’d seen my Uncovered state after I’d briefly dropped by on Christmas between celebrating with my friends.
“I can’t tell you how happy this makes me.” She’d said tearfully as she embraced me.
“I’m glad I got to Uncover too.” I told her once she let me go.
She held my crested hand in hers, looking at the markings with what I could only describe as joy, “I almost didn’t believe it when one of your guards told me when it happened. I thought you said you were a Werewolf though? And the day you Uncovered wasn’t your birthday.”
I nodded and shrugged, “I am. I Uncovered and got my first shift on the same day. It was a lot to handle, but I’m managing. As for my birthday, I have no idea what happened, but the most logical explanation is that December twenty-first is my actual birthday. I have no idea why my mom would have lied to me about it though.”
“December twenty-first?”
I nodded.
Awe and unease melded on her face, “How haven’t I thought of this for months? I was so occupied by the news of your return that I didn’t even stop to consider the dates. It makes sense now, December twenty-first was the first day of The Jam. And it was the day Syrenlina was made. The first Queen needed several celestial events to align, to meet the conditions needed to create Syrenlina, and the winter solstice was one of the most important ones, because it gave a stable start for the world’s seasonal cycle. It would make sense for your mother to lie to you about your birthdate if she didn’t want the wrong person figuring that out.”
My mom hadn’t told me much about the circumstances around my birth before she’d disappeared. The only reason I even knew about the disgusting details of my conception was because Clark had used it to taunt me years ago, and another adult in the pack had confirmed it.
“It would be best for you to keep the lie up in the Syren School, so that your classmates don’t get suspicious of your lineage, and don’t forget to use the powder on your crest so they don’t see it.”
I nodded, “I won’t let them find out.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
She returned the nod, “Good. Your hair is so beautiful, but it isn’t the usual black with just one additional colour like most Syrens. And your eyes are already a bit out of the ordinary, but hopefully, both can be explained away by your Werewolf side making your Syren traits present themselves differently. Do you know what your Special Ability is?”
My hand went to my fire mark on my wrist, “I have two Special Ability marks. I know one of them is for fire, and I assume the other is for snow or ice or something, but I haven’t manifested it yet.”
Her hand wandered to her chin, “They seem so contradictory, and nobody’s had a fire related ability for a while. The closest we’ve seen is light. We usually don’t get such destructive abilities. How are you handling it?”
I felt like I grew more out of the ordinary with every new thing she told me.
“The other ability hasn’t manifested yet, so I don’t know how it’ll be. The fire seems to be triggered mostly by panic and anger but I’ve been practicing it at home. What I wish I could get a handle on is the allure. I’ve had groups of men and even some women follow me around more than once.”
She laughed, “It’s to be expected. A lot of Syrens have the innate ability to remain unseen by others, kind of like going invisible to those who aren’t aware of you. Not everyone can do it, and those that can can’t really explain how they manage to, but it’s worth giving a shot. Though once people notice you, your allure will be in effect, but it could help.”
My mind was taken back to Hailey’s concerns when we’d visited the Pine River Pack some months ago, about how she felt like I’d gone invisible.
‘Maybe the dangerous and stressful conditions of being in the Lightwood Pack made you manifest it early to help avoid some situations.’ Candy theorised.
That could have been it. I believed the same of some of my Werewolf traits like my hearing and speed manifesting long before my first shift, even though they’d increased since then.
“Thank you, Mrs Burton, I’ll try that.”
After a few minutes of more discussion and wishing each other a merry Christmas, I returned to my celebration with my friends to exchange gifts.
Trevor and Greg had given me strange looks and commented on my sudden growth spurt, but they were apparently used to me enough for my allure to not have much of an effect. As for Timothy, besides a sarcastic comment about me finally not counting as a midget, he was completely unfazed by my changes.
Of everyone present, the one who took the most issue with my new self was the person least welcome: Keily.
“Oops.” She said prematurely, as she tipped her glass of eggnog in my direction.
I sidestepped her, and the eggnog ended up on the floor instead. I was glad we were in the kitchen, cause I’d make her clean the carpet if she messed it up.
Trevor and Greg had begged me to let her join the celebration. Their regular Christmas tradition had included both Hailey and Keily for years, but they’d insisted on celebrating with me too. I was hosting the festivities, so it went without saying that Kaesha and Timothy would attend, but I hadn’t wanted Keily anywhere near me and they knew it. After hours and hours of their pleading and promising that they’d keep her on her best behaviour, I’d finally agreed.
Unfortunately, I found myself alone with her in my kitchen again, and she most definitely wasn’t on anything resembling good behaviour.
“You don’t have to pretend.” I rolled my eyes, retrieving a mop and handing it to her.
Her nose wrinkled and she looked from my face to the outstretched mop then back again, “You expect me to clean that up?”
I re-extended the mop in response.
“You’re the host, you clean it up.”
“You practically threw it at me.”
She huffed, folding her arms, “I don’t appreciate you accusing me like this. Maybe all the growing you’ve done took away the energy your brain needs to think.”
I could feel my annoyance growing, along with the heat in my hands. Despite how much I wanted to, I couldn’t just set her on fire, so I opted to mop the mess up myself instead. Continuing to go back and forth with her would only anger me.
She watched me as I cleaned up, which I ignored. When I’d finished and returned the mop, she decided to speak again.
“You’re really something, getting all that surgery. And it makes you look like even more of a skank.”
“You can’t get taller from surgery. I just grew.”
She scoffed, “As if anyone believes that. I bet you used your mommy’s money to give yourself some enhancements.”
“As if you could tell a real body from a fake one.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re not exactly a genuine person. Who knows what passes as real to you.”
Her face twisted in a scowl, but I moved away from her before she could respond.
Ignoring her, I turned one of the stovetop fires on to reheat one of the many dishes made for the festivities. As I carried one of the pots to place it over the fire, the flames jumped up to ten times their size, engulfing my hands and the pot.
I placed the pot back on the counter and shut the gas off.
“You freak!”
I turned to her, wondering what the hell she was on about now. She had one hand in her pocket and another was pointing an accusing finger at me, with a look of disbelief on her face.
I rolled my eyes, “What are you talking about now?”
I could hear Trevor and Greg competing with Timothy in an eggnog chugging contest, and was tempted to yell for one of them to come and get Keily back on her leash.
“Your hands should have burns, you should have felt pain and screamed or something. But there’s nothing!”
I hadn’t even noticed the pain, or rather, the lack thereof. My ability apparently made me fireproof, and it was just my luck that Keily was the one to witness it.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t lie, that fire was big enough to hurt you.”
My eyes narrowed, “You sound like you really wanted that to happen.”
She went silent, and my gaze went to the hand in her pocket. Really noticing it now, it looked like she was holding a ball in there.
She saw my gaze on her pocket and turned away.
“Looks like you’re the freak here, Keily.”
She turned back to me, her expression the most vicious I’d ever seen her, “Don’t call me that!”
“How did you get the fire so big? You were nowhere near it.”
“It must have been an overflow of gas.” She couldn’t even lie decently.
I took a step towards her, “But you knew. And you wanted it to hurt me.”
“Maybe it’s just your karma. Things were fine till you started hanging around Greg again.”
What was with her? Her obsession with Greg was way past the point of being unhealthy, it was dangerous. Enough for her to try to have me burned.
“They begged me for forgiveness after the shit you pulled, remember?”
She scoffed, her nose in the air, “I don’t recall.”
“Keep testing me, and I’ll be happy to give you a reminder. And I won’t let them stop me this time.” I snarled, temperature rising.
A throat cleared and we turned our attention to the person.
Hailey was leaning on the kitchen entrance, her arms folded, “Do you have to do this every time?”
“Buzz off, this is none of your business. And I didn’t even do anything, she’s the one threatening me.”
“Quit lying. I can see the Fae Orb through your pocket.”
Keily’s eyes went wide and she glanced at me conspiratorially, before staring at Hailey in disbelief.
“I wish you’d just get over yourself. You’re not the only different one, Keily.”
Hailey had pondered revealing the fact that she was a Werewolf to Keily a few times, but I hadn’t thought she’d do it so soon. She’d been home more often in the past few days, so I guess Keily and her mom had gotten on her nerves enough to make her talk.
Keily fumed, her indignation flaring, “How dare you? You don’t know-”
Hailey cut her off, “What you go through. Yes, yes, life must be so hard as a Seer, what with your visions and all.” She rolled her eyes, “You’re not a Natural Seer, so you don’t even get visions that often.”
Keily was speechless.
“You’ve hated her from the moment we met her, and I really have no idea why. You just seem to be awful with sisters it seems.” Hailey continued, pushing herself off the frame and moving closer to her dumbfounded sister, “Greg and Trevor may have had crushes on her in the beginning, but I think they see her more like a sister now, so I don’t know what you’re worried about. Plus, she has way more important things to do then get into a relationship right now. And all that aside, he’s not yours. You’ve got a boyfriend, for fuck’s sake.”
Keily went on another tirade, “It doesn’t matter! She’s been throwing herself at him, even pretending to be mad so he’d beg for her forgiveness and want to be around her more. And she’s even got you fooled. I can’t believe- wait.” Her eyes moved from Hailey to me then back again, “What do you mean by ‘sisters’?”
“Unfortunately,” I shrugged, “We share the same father.”
She was speechless again. Seconds passed, then she burst out laughing.
“Oh, that’s fucking rich! Don’t tell me you believe this skank’s lies. Is that why you’ve been following her around like a lost puppy? Cause you think you her saying we’re family will somehow make her the one person related to us that doesn’t like me more?”
Hailey and I shared a look. I shrugged and gestured for her to handle it. I didn’t mind Keily knowing we were related, or even that I was a Werewolf. I just didn’t want her knowing I was a Syren.
“Basically, our father is a Werewolf. He’s an asshole alpha of some pack in Florida. He had a one night stand with mom and forced himself on Ari’s mom, so we’re her half-sisters. We also have another set of twin siblings, his legitimate son and daughter. Ari escaped his abuse and somehow met us by coincidence through Trevor.”
Keily’s nose wrinkled again, and she looked at me with disgust, “So, she’s a Werewolf?”
Hailey moved next to me and crossed her arms, “Yes, we are. Mom just never let me say anything cause she hates Werewolves, and she apparently passed it down to you.”
“Well, that explains all the chains.” She pointed at me, “But I don’t believe that I’m related to her.”
Showing her my special ability marks would be the simplest way to prove it, but I had no intention of letting her of all people in on my Syren secret, “I can have a blood test done, but I don’t care either way. The point is, I don’t want Greg, or anything to do with you really, aside from being in Hailey’s life.”
“Not like I’ll buy that, but whatever. Just keep your dirty paws away from me.”
“Gladly.” I sneered, “Now get out of my kitchen.”
She finally left and I released a sigh. Dealing with her always left me in a bad mood.
“I’m sorry, Ari.”
“It’s not your fault. I’ll always commend you for living with her for seventeen years and not going crazy.”
She shrugged, “I might be and just not know it.”
We laughed at the thought.
“Come on.” I said, picking up the yule log cake, “Let’s make it through today, then we won’t have to see her for the rest of the holidays.”
She smiled, “I like the sound of that. After all, what’s the holidays without dealing with family members you don’t like?”
“Exactly.”