The Alpha's Secret

SIREN

MORIA

"Let her go Anita. the principal is coming."

But she doesn't let me go and my head is slammed against the locker.

"You stay the hell away from me you freak!"

Ever since I could remember, I have never felt like I fit in anywhere and high school had been no different.

By sophomore year, I had already accepted that nothing would ever change.

I would always be the wallpaper in an otherwise exciting room.

The one person you saw in a school year picture of your class and yet could never remember.

I was content, had made my peace with it.

Then Anita moved to my school and everything fell apart.

My throat is beginning to feel a little tight.

I do not want to think about that time in my life.

I really do not.

Lucky for me, before I can totally descend down that grey path, Axe’s voice breaks into my thoughts.

“We’re almost there.”

"Almost where?" I ask, glancing behind me.

"Keeper's Manor. Try to keep up Princess."

We have stopped in front of a set of tall, wrought iron gates.

Four colossal pillars made of what I can only describe as black stone, stand arranged in a sort of upside down ‘L’.

The pillars on the left parallel to the road we had just come on, have a small building of the obsidian stone material between them.

While the other the two, the shorter part of the L, stand dark and imposing in front to create an imposing arch over the gates.

Resting on the top of the pillars are tiny stone figures but no matter how much I squint or narrow my eyes, I am unable to tell exactly what they are.

And yet that isn’t the strangest thing I have noticed.

What was the use a gate and pillars but no obvious fence or barriers extending out on either side?

Before I can ask if everyone here including the architects regularly indulge in drugs, two men step out of the guard house and began walking towards us.

Axe speaks without looking at me or taking his eyes off the approaching figures. “They’re just going to sign us in. Do not say a word”

Okay...not ominous at all.

By now the two guards have arrived at the car and for some reason I can't quite put my finger on, they both remind me of Tristen in the way they carry themselves.

Which is an odd thing to notice out of the blue like that.

This place must be messing with my mind one way or the other.

One of them is tall with muscles that look like they were cast in iron.

The other, what he lacks in height, he makes up for by being almost twice as broad as his counterpart with Atlas shoulders and an Olympian's chest.

The taller one who reminds me the most of Tristen with his dark, bushy brows and the hint of stubble over his jaw, approaches the driver's side. “Axe”

“Cullen.”

Axe’s voice hasn’t lost its slow languid bemusement, which I am starting to recognize as a permanent feature, but it has taken on a quality of authority and professionalism I find slightly fascinating.

The guard points a small scanner in front of Axe’s face till it lets out a small beep.

I turn to look at the shorter, hulk like guard who had walked up to my window and is now silently pointing the same scanner in front of me.

He looks a little more pale than Tristen and the one Axe had called Cullen, but his eyes are the same.

They may be a different color but they still have that cold darkness hidden behind a veneer of quiet intelligence and ruthlessness that made me shiver.

I whisper a "What are they doing?" out the corner of my mouth.

"shhhh" Axe whispers back.

"Don't shush me"

The scanner beeps quietly.

I am sure if it was some sort of facial recognition scanner it would not beep so it must just be something that scans and records the faces of those who use the gate.

For a "magical" world, they sure did use a lot of technology.

Hulk man looks at the scanner then at me.

“Who’s the siren?”

Who's the what now?

His question is directed at Axe but he doesn’t take his eyes off me.

I want to look away but I know that would make it look like I have something to hide so I stare back, trying to hide my confusion behind defiance.

Axe’s reply does nothing to help. “New recruit. We’re taking her up to Commander.”

The tall guard on Axe's side frowns. “This late? I thought recruiting season was already”

And now he is looking at me with what can only be described as undisguised curiosity.

Hey, I'm as bewildered as you are buddy.

Axe smiles, completely unfazed. “Gossip does not become you Cullen.”

Cullen grins back while the other one walks down the car, obviously doing some sort of check. “Can you blame a guy for trying? You field agents never tell us anything”

Then he stands up straight, raises his hand in some sort of signal and the gates slowly begin to open, swinging inwards on their own accord.

A small pat on the back of the car from the second guard and Axe starts the car up again.

“You have any complaints Cullen, Take it up with Tristen.”

The guard lets out a short bark of laughter. “Ah, yes because that would be the smart career building step to take.”

And Axe in response is still laughing at that when we drive inside.

Beyond the gates, the road changes.

No longer the wide gravel road that had led up to the gate, it is now a bumpy dirt path, just wide enough for one car at a time and shaded by tall trees on either side.

The trees themselves tower against a backdrop of golden orange sky and even though they bear a close resemblance to palm trees, their bark is a deep rich red and their leaves, broad and the same green as dark emerald, are bordered with gold lines that catch and reflect the light from the now slowly setting suns.

The land spreads out for miles on either side of the road and through the gaps in the heavy branches and thick foliage, I can just make out patches of far away, beautifully coloured buildings of all shapes and appearances to my left and right.

It is all so beautiful that I am almost distracted.

Almost.

"So are you going to tell me what any of that was about?"

He rests the crook of his elbow on the edge of his window so that it is halfway out the car. "Oh, those are Sentinels Princess. I believe Earth calls them guards."

I sigh, tired. “That isn't...Axe, why did that guar...sentinel call me a Siren?”

“Because it’s what you are."

"Oh I'm a 'what' now?"

"You Know Princess, that mouth is going to get you in trouble one of these days."

"And yet, here I am, riding in the car of the man who kidnapped me with no contributions whatsoever from me or my mouth."

He grins. "Touche"

And it is the tiny things like that make me unable to keep glaring at him.

I adjust myself in my seat. " So you mean like the myth? Last I checked, Sirens were evil creatures of the sea who hypnotized and lured sailors to watery deaths in the arms of an unforgiving sea."

He leans forward and reaches out to fix his side mirror. "I told you, all your Earth myths, they're real in this world. The stories you may know are like a distorted version of the truth."

"So me being a siren means?"

"It is your division under the Clan of Oceanids. Your ability to breathe under water, the way you can sense and feel the emotions of other people; those are the abilities your essence as a Siren gives you. Besides, all Sirens are…”

He pauses to glance at me out of the corner of his eyes. “…exceptionally beautiful and have bright red hair like yours, it’s a dead giveaway. And no, you do not live at the bottom of the sea or get to grow a tail."

He is driving slowly now, careful not to jostle the car on a road that is becoming increasingly rough.

I try my best to make sense of his words in my head.

So I belonged to some group of fairytale water people.

Yay me.

Keeping one hand on the steering, the other resting on the window, he continues, entirely unconcerned by the expression on my face.

“Think of Xesperia like Earth for a second. Each clan is like a country and each division is like a state in that country. Every clan has the same essence source and fuels their abilities the same way, while the people in each division all have the same abilities”

My brain scrambles to organize all this information.

It isn't that his words are difficult to understand in themselves. It is the sheer enormity of what they mean that is causing me to feel so slow.

“How many Clans are there?”

“There are five clans; Lightbearers, Moonspawn, Bloods, Mages and Oceanids-and each of these clans have 3 divisions. You are of the Clan of Oceanids, division of Sirens”

I open my mouth to say something else but all my questions died in my throat as we drive out of the shade of the trees, suddenly breaking out into a plain field and headed towards the most magnificent, yet slightly ominous mountain range I have ever seen.

"Now that, cannot be real"