Word Count: 4966
Harper and Matt were quiet as they walked hand and hand back up the path to the house, neither were quite sure what to make of the meeting they'd just had with Angus. One thing was clear, the secret was out, maybe not completely out, but it was certainly out. Pictures of tritons could soon be all over the news if Angus couldn't be trusted, if that happened, all bets were off.
"What did you think of him?" Harper asked as they entered through the back patio doors. "Do you think we can trust him?"
"Yeah, I do," Matt said.
"That fast?" Harper turned with a little smile.
"He smelled of the sea, not like he'd been out swimming, but like he belonged there," Matt said. "There's more to him than meets the eye, and we should certainly tread carefully with him, but I don't think he's going to blow this wide open. At least, not yet."
"I thought he smelled like whiskey and gun oil," Harper laughed. "We should definitely have Celie meet him, she'll sense any...ill intent, I think."
"They're on the way back now, aren't they?" Matt asked. "We should discuss with them and then see if we need to call an emergency meeting. We still have to get on that plane tonight and go to the witch's den or whatever, and I'm not sure we have time to get everyone on the phone. Plus, I can't imagine that being a quick call."
"They should be back any second, she called right before we met his boat, she said they were nearing Miami, but you know how that is," Harper rolled her eyes with a grimace. "It can take twenty minutes or four hours to get here depending on traffic."
"Hey Cel, where you at?" Harper asked through the link.
"Nearly to the bridge, fifteen minutes out," Celie answered. "What's wrong?"
"Tell you when you get here," Harper responded.
"They'll be here in a few minutes," Harper told Matt and then stared over at the bar. "What I wouldn't give for a cocktail right now."
"Not for another nine months, baby," Matt said, hugging her from behind, his hands on her impossibly flat abs. Harper had done a quick ultrasound on her stomach at work Monday morning, and they had discovered she was only a few weeks pregnant; most likely having conceived within a day or two of the marking. She'd been surprised that Celie noticed so fast, it had only been a few days, but there were a number of reasons for it, but since this would be the first hybrid baby, no way of knowing what was going to happen.
Just then they heard the ding of the gate alert and knew they honeymoon party had gotten home.
Harper went out and met them at the door, giving Celie a hug and admiring her mating marks.
"I'm so happy for you Cel!" Harper said, squeezing her friend tight. "Everything is finally as it should be."
"I know!" Celie laughed. "I didn't think it would ever happen!"
"I knew it would," Eden said from behind.
"Oh, whatever, Mr. Confidence," Celie laughed, and playfully smacked him on the arm.
The door opened again, and Porter and the others came in carrying their bags from the trip.
"Ok, so we just walked in the door, I only have enough time to do one load of laundry before we leave again," Celie sighed, shaking her head.
"Will you throw mine in with yours?" Porter asked absently, only to be slapped on the arm by Lorelai.
"You don't get to mooch off Cel anymore, you could pull that shit before you had a mate, now you can't," Lorelai said.
"You're going to do my laundry?" Porter perked up.
"No, you're going to do your own damn laundry," Lorelai rolled her eyes. "I didn't say you have a mate to do your laundry, I said you have a mate, and it's my job to make sure you don't act like you're still a single teenage boy. You're a fully grown adult wolf, take care of yourself."
Celie and Harper shared a grin before struggling to keep a straight face.
"As much as I appreciate the gesture, Lore," Celie said, patting her arm. "In this case we really don't have time, we only have two hours before we need to head to the pack, so only enough for one load. Give me the clothes you two want to wear for this weekend and I'll throw them in with Eden and my clothes. When we get back Porter can do everyone's laundry as penance!"
"I like that idea," Lorelai smirked at a frowning Porter. "Time to make up for all that Celie has done spoiling your ass."
"Cel doesn't spoil me," Porter protested.
"Have you done a load of laundry since you started staying here a month ago?" Lorelai asked, eyebrow raised, smirk fully formed on her face. "I didn't hear your answer...Is that a no?"
"I'll get some jeans and t shirts," Porter grumbled as he went toward his room.
Lorelai and Celie burst out laughing the minute he went up the stairs.
"You've been spoiling him, Celie," Lorelai admonished. "He's used to being waited on hand and foot!"
"I've treated him like a little brother, Lore," Celie laughed. "We started hanging out when he was twelve, I wouldn't trust him to use the washer back then, just got into the habit. Besides, I'm like the laundry queen. It's the one chore Harper hates with a passion so it's the one I always do without thinking. You should have seen us when we were younger, we'd get up early and she'd go to school, I'd go to work, we'd get home and she'd study while I cooked, then she'd clean while I painted, and we'd fall asleep together on the couch. Her with a textbook in her hands, me with a sketchbook in mine. We were like a well-oiled machine!"
"It's amazing to me that you two have been together and this close for so long," Lorelai said, her eyes a little wistful. "I can't even imagine being that close to someone."
"Well, I can't imagine not having my Cel around," Harper said, looping an arm over Celie's shoulder. "She's literally been there with me my whole life, we practically lived together as kids. My mom and dad were the betas, her mom and dad were the lead trainer and head warrior, and they were all best friends with the alpha and luna. Callum and Reese hung out, Cel and I hung out."
"Then I'm surprised Reese was such an asshole to you guys, I would have thought you'd all be friends," Porter said, coming back with an armload of clothes.
"We never hung out, even as little kids," Celie shrugged. "Little boys don't like girls because they aren't cool, and little girls don't like boys because they have cooties."
"Plus, we always hung out with our moms and the luna, I was reading, Celie was drawing, and sometimes we'd all cook," Harper said. "The boys usually did their own thing, neither of us were tomboys and we shared no interests with them at all. I think if our mother's had lived, things would have been a lot different."
"Yeah," Celie sighed. "They were the ones who held everything together."
"So, you guys get your laundry going and get a snack or whatever and let's get out of here on time, we have a lot to tell you once we head out tonight," Harper said.
"What's up?" Celie stopped and turned to Harper with a frown.
"We had an unexpected visitor today," Harper said, pursing her lips. "Go...get your laundry started and get ready for the flight, we have time to talk when we're in the air."
"Why do I get the feeling this is going to be a huge curve ball?" Celie said, eyeing Harper critically.
"Because it is," Harper chuckled. "Go, get everything ready to leave again, and I need to you to go feed Su. Feel her out, see how she's doing. I've got the food ready; you just need to take it to her."
"Oh," Celie's face dropped, and she closed her eyes briefly. "Great. That's the wonderful ending to my weeklong vacation. She probably hates me."
"She hated you before this," Lorelai said, unsympathetically. "She just hated you less than the rest of us. Don't let your compassion for her confuse you, Cel. She'll kill you the second she gets the chance, don't think she won't. Never. Never. Drop your guard around her, the second you do, she'll take the shot. Just because you feel sorry for her, doesn't mean she feels sorry for you. Remember that. You'll live longer."
With that Lorelai turned and headed upstairs, leaving Harper and Celie frowning at her back.
"I worry about her sometimes," Celie said.
"I don't," Harper said. "She'll outlive us...because she's right."
*
"Hi Su!" Celie said as she leaned over the tank and waved at the water. "I just got back! I brought you some steamed shrimp, some clams, and some roasted potatoes. I don't know if you like potatoes, but I figured you might want to try them, they're great!"
Celie lowered the bucket slowly and watched the water, at first she didn't see anything then she saw Su's shadow slowly rising to the surface.
"Hi Su," Celie said, waving again. "Are you coming up? Do you just want me to leave the bucket? Harper said you haven't been eating much. Are you doing ok?"
A few tense moments passed where Celie just stared at the water with what she hoped was an innocent face.
Su finally surface, her lips peeled back from her face in a snarl and a low growl emanating from her.
"Hey Su!" Celie said, excitedly, doing her best to appear oblivious to the hostility radiating off Su. "How are you? Harper said you haven't been eating much, are you feeling ok?"
"You!" Su shouted, hissing.
"Me?" Celie asked, appearing confused. "What's wrong?"
"They kill Kul!" Su shouted.
"What?" Celie gasped, praying inwardly that she was being convincing. She imagined herself in a sort of silent movie where the character needed to exaggerate every emotion while the audience read the subtitles below. "What are you talking about? Who killed who?"
Su stared up at her angrily, as her eyes moved back and forth between Celie's eyes, and over her face. After a few tense seconds she seemed to calm, apparently believing the innocent character Celie was trying to portray.
"They kill Kul!" Su shouted, watching Celie's face as she faked looking confused.
"Who did?" Celie asked, trying to look as clueless as possible.
"Harrperrr kill!" Su screamed. "She kill him! She cut him! She hurt him! She and the white monster! They cut!"
"Are you saying Harper killed Cole?" Celie asked.
"YES!" Su shouted, hissing at her.
"Okay...well...are you sure?" Celie asked, tilting her head in apparent confusion. "I mean, Harper hardly ever goes anywhere, she works at the hospital most of the time, she's never involved in any battles or anything... at least not often."
"They kill Kul!" Su shouted, pointing over at the area where Harper had dissected Cole. "They kill! She and the monster! They kill! They cut! He die! You do this! You!"
"Oookaay..." Celie dragged out the word, then looked down at Su with a disbelieving face. "Listen, Harper said everything was fine when I called to check, she didn't say anything about anyone dying. She just said you weren't eating much and that I should check on you when I got back, she said you didn't like her."
Su hissed and shrieked in anger.
"Hey!" Celie shouted, putting her hands over her ears dramatically. "You don't have to blow my eardrums out. How rude!"
After a few seconds Su seemed to calm down again and Celie took her hands off her ears.
"Why don't you just tell me what happened?" Celie said calmly. "I think you may just be confused, are you having bad dreams or something? Maybe being in this tank is bad for you? I asked Matt if we can let you go, he said he may have a cave for you."
"They lie to you!" Su shouted up at Celie. "They lie! They bring Kul here! They cut his head! They cut him pieces! You fault! You leave!"
"Huh..." Celie shrugged. "I'll ask what happened, but it's been obvious from the beginning, they were always going to kill him. You know that he's been trying to kill us and organizing armies and shit. Of course, he was going to be killed if they found him. I don't know why you're so surprised. Are you hungry? Do you want me to leave the bucket so you can eat something?"
Su shrieked again, and Celie clamped her hands over her ears.
"Hey!" Celie shouted down at her. "Stop it! That's not helping anything. What is your problem anyway? Yeah, Cole's dead, big deal. People die when there's a war, especially when they're the ones who started it. You knew he was badly hurt in the battle, it's a miracle he made it off that beach. Lorelai tore him up."
"He mine!" Su shouted, but her rage seemed to have cooled into grief. "He mine, you kill him."
"Listen, I get it," Celie sighed as she absently ran her fingers over the bite on her neck. "He was your mate and you loved him. I know. I can't imagine how painful this is for you, and I'm sorry for that. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, but you knew it was going to happen. You knew they were no match for us and that he would be killed if he was found. It's terrible, but there's nothing that can be done about it now."
"You kill me next," Su said, and she almost seemed as though that's what she wanted.
"I don't think they're going to kill you," Celie said. "I'm not sure what they're planning, or if they've even decided. I just got back a few minutes ago, and since Harper told me you hadn't been eating much since I left, I thought I'd bring you dinner before I take off again."
"You leave again?" Su's eyes went wide.
"Yeah, just for a day and a half though," Celie replied. "Harper and the rest are going, one of the guards will make sure you have plenty to eat while we're gone. It's a quick trip to pick up a friend of ours for a visit. Just try to calm down, ok? Get some of this food, and rest a little, get some sleep, you look kinda tired. No one is going to hurt you, if I think they are, I'll tell you, I'll be honest with you about it. Is there anything I can get you? Anything you like eating or would prefer that we haven't brought?"
Su watched her silently for a few minutes.
"Snail, pointy shell," Su said and reached for the bucket.
"No problem," Celie smiled. "I'll make sure we get someone to go out and grab a few and bring back for you. Not sure how long that will take, it might be after I get back, but I'll get you a few conchs for dinner."
Su simply stared at her as she ate her food by the handful, she stopped chewing suddenly and looked down at her hand.
"That's a potato," Celie said. "I love those, they're vegetables and they are amazing when you roast them with some garlic and butter. What do you think?"
"Is strange," Su said, absently, then took another bite and chewed slowly for a moment before she once again began eating voraciously.
Celie didn't speak anymore and just pulled the bucket back up once Su had finished eating.
"Get some rest Su, everything will be ok," Celie reassured her. "I'll be back before you know it, and we'll talk again."
*
"So she's blaming Cel for everything," Harper sighed as she watched the monitor. "Cel is the only one who's tried to be nice to her and she's blaming her for leaving. I'm going to nip that in the bud when we get back, I'm going to tell her I did it while Cel was gone to spare her having to see it, not because she could have done anything to stop it."
"Well, that was pleasant experience," Celie grimaced as she walked back in with her bucket. "I think my hearing has been permanently damaged."
"I will go with you next time, love," Eden said, frowning. "She will not dare to speak or scream at you with me there, I will command her to be respectful to you."
"Do siren commands work on tritons?" Lorelai asked, surprised.
"No, but I can shout louder than she can," Eden chuckled.
"Alright is everyone ready to go?" Matt said as he came into the room. "The jet is ready, we just need to get to the airport."
"Yeah, I got all the laundry out of the dryer, and everyone packed while Celie was feeding the triton," Porter reported, proud of himself for taking the initiative to finish up the laundry after everyone ragged on him about being spoiled.
"Let's head out then," Harper said, turning toward the door.
"Yay, more traveling," Celie sighed.
*
"Wow this plane is nice," Reese said as he sat in one of the plush seats at the front of the plane. "We should consider getting one for the pack, especially if we're all going to be traveling around a lot in the coming months or years."
"Can't say I'd complain if we had a plane at our disposal, that commercial flight with my knees in the back of the seat in front of me was not comfortable at all," Adam agreed.
The chatted quietly as the others got settled and they watched a young woman checking the settings and gauges, getting ready for the flight. She was a pretty girl, very petite and tiny, obviously an omega but she was competent, obviously well trained, as part of the flight crew.
"Is this everyone? Or are we waiting for anyone else?" the young woman asked.
"No, this is all of us," Harper said from the rear of the plane where she sat with Matt.
"Great, then we can get in line for takeoff, let me get us set," she went to the side and closed and locked the door, then began stowing things away so they would not move around during the flight.
Another man came from the back of the plane, he was an average sized man with dark brown hair and hazel eyes.
"Hi everyone, I'm Harlan Martin, and I'm the pilot, this is my beautiful mate and copilot Calliope," Harlan said. "We've got the flight mapped out and ready to go, should take us about three hours to get there. Luna Penny said we'll be returning tomorrow afternoon, is that correct?"
"That's right," Harper replied. "We'll have one additional passenger, maybe two, I'm not sure if she has someone to assist her since she's blind."
"Sounds good, we have a plenty of room left, so we should be fine," Calliope replied with a smile. "Are you guys all buckled in and ready for takeoff?"
Everyone answered in the affirmative and she and Harlan moved into the cockpit and put on their headsets and started up the plane.
"What is it?" Adam said, noticing the concentrated look on Reese's face.
"I think that's Ben's rejected mate," Reese said, glancing over to see Adam's shocked face.
"What? Why do you think that's her?" Adam asked, glancing toward the cockpit.
"Ben's mate was named Calliope, how many omegas do you think are out there with that name?" Reese said. "Should we ask her?"
"I don't know, it could be a painful subject for her," Adam said.
"She might want to know he's dead, it might help her get some closure," Reese argued.
"Maybe she doesn't need closure," Adam argued.
"I'm going to ask her when we get there, or sometime during the flight," Reese said, ignoring Adan who was shaking his head. "She has a right to know that he's dead, I would have wanted to know, and so would you."
"I guess..." Adam sighed.
"Plus, it'd be nice to know she survived, that another runner made it, hopefully her wolf is still alive too, at least she didn't suffer like Carrie did," Reese said. "She might also want to know that Ben changed and regretted what he did. She's probably happy in her life, maybe even glad he rejected her, but she has a right to know what happened."
As soon as the pilot announced that they were at cruising altitude and everyone could move around, Harper stood up.
"Hey Guys, we have a new development we need to talk about," Harper said, and everyone turned in their seats and looked over at her a little apprehensively.
"What's up?" Porter asked, swiveling his chair.
"We had a visitor today, a human boat captain," Matt started, exchanging a worried look with Harper. "Retired Royal Navy, marine biologist, who sails the waters around FL. He found a triton corpse floating in the water, photographed it, cataloged it, and then destroyed the body so no one else would see it."
"So it's out now?" Winter asked. "Everyone will know of our existence."
"Not yet," Harper said. "We told him about tritons, said we'd seen them before, Matt had encountered them while diving, and we told them of the attack on the three humans on the beach by our house. I had to tell him that we didn't turn over the body to the authorities and there would be no coroners report or police report on the event."
"He definitely knows we're hiding something then," Celie said, blowing out a frustrated breath. "So now we have to worry about triton armies, Su, finding two more supernatural species, witches, siren organizing, communication, transportation, and housing, and now a human who has pictures of tritons to share with the world?"
"Basically," Harper nodded.
"Did he say he was going to share this information with anyone?" Porter asked.
"He said he didn't think it would be wise to let the information get out," Matt said.
"Can we trust him to keep it to himself?" Celie asked, peering closely at Matt, something about his demeanor was pricking her senses.
"Yeah, I think we can," Matt said. "I just felt immediately that I could trust him, at least for now. But I can tell you that he'll be back, he's not satisfied with the answers we gave him. He's going to dig, and honestly, I would rather have him on our side, and hear it from us than somewhere else. If we try to shut him out or dismiss him, I think we'll have trouble on our hands."
"What kind of trouble?" Eden asked, frowning.
"I just think it would be better to have him on our side than against us," Matt said.
"Plus, having a marine biologist would benefit us, he could help us in a lot of ways," Harper said. "He'll have contacts in that world, he can find out about migration patterns of other species, he can track down info on 'shark' attacks, get information we can't get, or can't get easily. Plus, his whole boat smelled like gun oil and munitions to me. He's armed, and has extensive naval military training, something we could use."
"This just keeps getting better and better," Porter rolled his eyes.
"I want you to meet him, Celie, see if you get any bad juju from him," Harper said. "You should be able to sense emotions, maybe not full-on superpower yet, but I'd think ill-intent will register with you if you meet him."
"The seer will be able to sense it too," Lorelai said. "She might even know something about him already."
"Right," Harper nodded. "Between the two of you, we should be able to get some sense of the man."
"He smelled of the sea," Matt said, exchanging a look with Eden and Winter. "I felt...at ease with him, even after he told us what he knew."
"If he is of the sea he can be trusted," Eden nodded.
"What is this of the sea smell?" Celie asked, eye narrowed on the guys, then turned to Harper. "What did you smell?"
"I smelled whiskey and gun oil," Harper chuckled, but then turned to Matt to see how he answered the question.
"When someone smells of the sea, they smell of sirens," Winter explained. "It is a scent we associate with descendants of sirens or mates of sirens."
"He's the mate of a siren?" Lorelai asked.
"It was very, very faint, I barely caught it at all," Matt said, rubbing his chin, thoughtfully.
"His boat was named for his late wife," Harper said. "If she was a siren, he would know about them."
"I don't think he knew about us," Matt said. "But he knows more than he was saying, so his mate being a descendent would make more sense. The scent would have been stronger if she were a siren."
"So do I smell like I'm from the sea?" Celie asked.
"You're starting to," Winter laughed. "Harper definitely does. I would have immediately known if I met her on the street that she was the mate of a siren."
"Yes," Eden agreed. "It's quite prevalent in your scent."
"Since we mated, right?" Harper asked.
"No, it was always there," Eden said. "I knew instantly who you were."
"Do I smell like the sea?" Harper turned to Celie with wide eyes.
"Not until the marking," Celie said. "Before that, you just smelled like you."
"I doubt a wolf would detect it," Winter said.
"Hey, we have the most acute sense of smell there is," Lorelai objected.
"Not underwater, you don't," Winter said. "It's hard to explain, like we smell like humans to you, yes?"
"Yes, you smell really ocean-y, like you've been at the beach all day, but nothing that stands out otherwise," Celie said. "If you smelled really weird we would all have known immediately there was something...fishy...about you."
They all laughed at Celie's pithy comment.
"It's the same with you," Eden said. "You smell very earthy to me, like forest or just land. But I wouldn't have thought you were anything but human, now that I've been around many more wolves, I might be able to detect others, but it could just be that I'm used to your scents and would not recognize other wolves."
"Well, I guess the only thing we can do at this point is just roll with the punches," Reese said, shaking his head. "We're so far beyond what any of us ever imagined we're in wonderland at this point."
Before anyone could say anything else, Calliope's voice came over the intercom to let them know they'd be starting their descent in a few minutes and asked everyone to stow any belongings and now was the time if they needed to go to the bathroom.
Everyone got settled back into their seats, and there was very little conversation afterwards, each lost in their own thoughts for the remainder of the flight.
*
Calliope was doing her last checks after landing while Harlan taxied them to their gate when Reese waved to her.
"Hi, what can I help you with?" Calliope said, as she came over.
"Can I ask you a personal question?" Reese asked.
"Depends on how personal," Calliope smiled, but her smile faltered a little when she saw Adam and Reese exchange a look.
"You wouldn't have, by chance, met a guy named Ben at spring break a little over seven years ago, would you?" Adam asked a little hesitantly.
The smile on her face instantly vanished, and her eyes narrowed slightly.
"If you did, we know that Ben was a part of our pack, and he talked about you to us," Reese said.
"And what, exactly did he say?" Calliope said, tightly.
"He regretted what he did," Adam said. "He regretted it every day."
"Right," Calliope said, then turned to go back to the cockpit.
"Wait," Reese said, stopping her. "He died, a few years ago, we just wanted to tell you that. You may not care, but we thought you have a right to know."
"Oh," Calliope said, the tension easing from her body. "What happened to him?"
"He took his own life," Adam said.
"Because of me," Calliope said, her eyes narrowing again.
"No, not because of you, because of him," Reese said. "He couldn't live with the choices he'd made, not just that one choice, but some of the things he did which led him to make that choice and some of the things we learned afterward. We're glad you survived. Ben would be glad too. We just wanted to tell you that."
Calliope just gave him a slight nod before turning away without another word.
"Well, that sort of gave me closure," Reese said after a few moments. "One less ounce of weight off my shoulders, a little slice of peace. I always felt that was my fault too, I'm glad we know."
"That wasn't your fault, Reese," Adam sighed. "Some of what happened was, but that wasn't. We didn't even know about that; you had no influence on Ben. You've gotten so used to beating yourself up about anything related to a rejection you're blaming yourself for shit that didn't even concern you. Just let that one go, we've all carried our guilt around for too long, Reese. It's time for us to move on."
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