Word count: 3074

"So, I'm just going to address the elephant in the, uh, jeep," Adam said as soon as they shut the doors. "I guess you've made up your mind on not keeping me as your mate?"

"Yes, I have," Celie said. "I just can't do it, Adam. I can't forget what happened, I can't move past it. I really tried to consider it for a little while, but it's just there constantly whenever I'm around you. There is always this tension in me, like I'm a bow string that's ready to snap when I'm around you. I'm still so angry, Adam, I don't think you get how freakin angry I am at you. I just want to lash out at you every time I talk to you. Not just for what you did, but for having the nerve to come here and lay this on me after everything you did. It bugs the shit out of me that you expect me to just forget it happened and move on and mate with you like it meant nothing."

"I guess, I sort of understand that," Adam said. "I just wish you could see that I can make it up to you, I'd spend my life making better memories to wash those away."

"You can't, Adam," Celie sighed. "Some things create a stain so bad it can never be washed away. Rejection is one of those things. I want to move on, Adam. I want to have a life out from under that shadow, a life where I'm not drowning in those memories. You don't understand, I know you think you do, but you just don't. Not accepting your rejection made the last seven years a living hell of pain, depression, and struggle. I watched Harper's pain fade, I watched her get better, while I never did, I just pretended every single day that I was ok when I was really dying inside. I tried so fucking hard to move on, and I couldn't because I never accepted the rejection, it just stayed there like a weight on my chest. But after I accepted it, I felt like the weight that had been suffocating me for seven years, was suddenly lifted and I could breathe again. I could hope again. I don't want to go back to not being able to breathe or hope."

They made it to the restaurant and Celie parked in the take out spot as she finished her rant.

"Cel, it won't be like that," Adam said. "You can be healed, we can be healed together, that's the power of the mate bond."

Celie reached over and put her hand on Adam's, and he stared at it in horror. There was only a slight tingle, the sparks were almost gone. His wolf howled in pain and anguish inside him.

"It wasn't meant to be, Adam," Celie said softly. "It just wasn't. I'm sorry it happened this way, I really am. A little piece of me honestly wishes things had been different. Note the little piece part of that statement. I wish I was never rejected; I wish I never had to feel that pain. But I was rejected, I did feel that pain, and it changed me, just like it changed you. It changed everything. The life I thought I wanted for so long, is not life I want now. With the rejection pain fading, with the bond not ripping apart my soul every second, I don't want the life I used to wish for. I want the one I have now, I'm happy where I am, and I don't want to go back from here. I can't."

Adam sniffed, the tears that had been filling his eyes slipped down his cheeks and he just nodded, biting his lip.

"What if things don't work out with him?" Adam asked.

"Then things don't work out. But that won't change anything between us." Celie said slowly. "Me and Eden not being together won't change our past Adam, nothing can do that."

Adam drew in a deep breath, sniffed again, and wiped his cheeks.

"She's going to try and break you up, you know. That Sana chic has her eyes on Eden big time." Adam said. "So watch your back, and remember I'll still be here, for a little while anyway, not forever."

"Yeah, I tried to get Porter to take one for the team and get her off Eden's back, but even Port turned it down," Celie giggled. "And he never turns anyone down."

"You're kidding," Adam actually laughed, then he opened the door and stepped out into the restaurant parking lot. "Well, let's grab this food and get back, I'm starving."

**

"Hey Eden," Harper said, tugging the sleeve of his t-shirt. "Got a sec?"

"Of course, Harp," Eden smiled. "I always have a second for you."

"Great, let's walk," Harper hooked her arm through his and strolled out the doors and around the patio. "Wanted to let you know, just in case you were wondering, that Cel is using this opportunity to officially, once and for all, end Adam's hopes of becoming mates. She mind linked me on her way out the door to tell you so you wouldn't get the wrong idea."

"I didn't have the wrong idea," Eden said. "I know he's not the mate for her, she knows it too, he's the only one who hasn't realized it, or admitted it yet."

"And do you know who is the mate for her?" Harper asked, eyes wide and grinning.

"Me," Eden answered with a smile, pointing at himself.

"I can't tell you how happy it makes me to hear you say that!" Harper gushed. "She's been waiting for you for a long time, Eden. A very long time."

"I've been looking for her for a long time," Eden said. "I don't know what it is about her, but I'm just pulled to her, like the tide to the moon."

"It's the mate bond, Eden," Harper said. "It feels different with us wolves, you'll have to ask Mattie for specifics on the actual feeling. But he'll tell you he felt the same way about me, like he was pulled to me the second he saw me. With two wolf fated mates, we feel the bond immediately, forcefully. But with sirens, you don't feel anything until you've been together for a while and it grows gradually. I think when you put a wolf and a siren together you get a combination of those things. Instead of feeling this immediate forceful bond, you feel a pull and immense attraction, then it grows stronger and stronger until you complete the bond and mate. Then you get the full blown bond that fated wolves feel, and the full bond that sirens feel, all at the same time. That's how it was for Mattie and me anyway."

"Am I interrupting?" Matt said, sliding up to them, he put an arm around Harper's waist and kissed her hair.

"Nope," Harper said, leaning into him and sniffing his shoulder. She'd scented his unique mate scent after they'd sealed their bond and it was intoxicating to her, ocean, coconut, and hibiscus. "I was just telling Eden a little something about how mate bonds seem to work between sirens and wolves. He said he felt a pull toward Cel when he first met her, isn't that how you felt about me?"

"Yeah, it wasn't a tiny tug either, it was like there was a rubber band stretching out of my chest attached to you and if I tried to back away I felt like my chest would rip open, it was tight and painful whenever you were out of my sight for too long," Matt said, rubbing his sternum with a little bit of a grimace. "It got better once we were a couple, like it was still there but it didn't feel like it would hurt anymore if you went to school or work, and I didn't see you for hours at a time."

Eden's eyes had gotten wider as Matt talked about the bond, and he unconsciously touched his own chest.

"It hurt?" Harper asked, surprised. "I didn't know it hurt you, why didn't you tell me that? Did it hurt this whole time?"

"No, it wasn't painful, per se, that's the wrong word, just uncomfortable and tight, like it would hurt if it got pulled any harder. That mostly eased once we were in a committed relationship and I stopped worrying you were going to dump me." Matt explained.

"I'm not sure what a 'rubber band' is exactly, but the rest of the feeling you describe is familiar," Eden said.

"I have some rubber bands on my desk, I'll get you one," Matt chuckled. "As soon as you stretch it you'll know exactly what I mean."

"Eden, might I speak with you for a moment?" A sweet voice interrupted them, and they turned to find Sana staring up at Eden with a smile.

Harper tensed, she didn't like the female, at all.

"You can speak to him when we are done talking, if he wants to talk to you," Harper said, eyes narrowed on the siren. "It's rude to interrupt when people are obviously having a private conversation. I'm telling you that since you seem to be unaware of this rule of polite behavior. Hopefully you'll remember in the future and I won't have to remind you how to act."

Eden and Matt struggled, unsuccessfully, to keep smirks off their faces when Sana's lips pressed together, and her eyes narrowed in anger. But Harper just raised her eyebrows and glanced toward the door in an obvious gesture for her to leave.

"Harp, you're a beast," Matt chuckled when Sana stomped off.

"I'm a wolf," Harper said. "It might be beneficial to have a little class on werewolf behavior with them, we don't like being challenged, it won't end well for them. She's arrogant and doesn't seem to realize I can take her out with little effort. Ara, I would be nervous fighting, Sana doesn't fucking scare me at all."

"You're fierce, Harp," Eden said.

"I don't like that hoe bag," Harper growled.

Eden and Matt laughed so hard at Harper's words and expression that they had trouble breathing for several minutes. They only sobered up when they heard voices from inside indicating that Celie and Adam had returned with the food.

They were still chuckling when they came inside and sat on stools in front of the bar with their plates, Porter looked over at them curiously.

"What joke did I miss?" Porter asked.

"Just Harper telling Sana off, then growling and calling her a hoe bag," Eden said, laughing again.

"Man...why you gotta be like that?" Porter whined. "You can't be telling off hoe bags when I'm not around to witness it too!"

Matt and Eden laughed until they had tears in their eyes, and even Harper was chuckling at Porter's words.

"Sorry, Port, didn't realize I was gonna need to tell her off when we walked outside to have a private conversation," Harper emphasized the last part, knowing siren hearing was nearly as acute as wolves and Sana would probably hear her remarks if she were trying to listen to them from the other side of the rec room. "Maybe in the future you should just assume a telling off might happen if I am forced to have a conversation with the bitch."

"What bitch?" Ara said, smiling as she approached.

"Really?" Harper replied with a smirk. "You have to ask?"

"No," Ara laughed. "I think she is a bitch too. Her behavior is unseemly, one does not act like that toward their hosts. One most certainly does not approach a male who has an intended mate, it is unacceptable behavior for our kind. Since it takes two years to fully bond, mates are together for a long time before they are branded, that does not mean they are available to others looking for mates."

"That's true, declaring an intended mate, which Eden has done, should stop all advances from the unmated," Sagan said, joining the conversation.

"How did you guys know Eden declared his intention?" Harper asked, curious, since Ara and Sagan had only been back around today.

"He put his arm around Celie when they sat together," Ara said.

"That's all it takes?" Harper asked, a little surprised.

"Yes," Sagan answered. "Affection between male and female is a declaration of intention."

"So as soon as you put your arm around me in front of people, you were declaring your intention to mate me?" Harper turned to Matt, who smiled.

"Yup," Matt said, and slid his arm around Harper's shoulders.

"You put your arm around me the first time we met when we went and got tacos together!" Harper said, shocked.

"Yup," Matt grinned wider.

"What are you guys over here grinning about?" Celie said, joining them at the bar, since all the chairs were occupied in the dining room.

"Well, let me catch you up, sister." Porter said, giving Celie wide eyes with raised eyebrows and a false serious look. "Harper told Sana off when she tried hitting on Eden while you were gone, she called her a hoe bag, then a bitch. Ara agreed that she is a bitch, then said her behavior was unacceptable because Eden already declared his intention to mate you and Sana shouldn't be hitting on him. Then they explained that putting your arm around someone is a declaration of intent to mate, soooo Eden declared his intent to mate you and that's why Sana was giving you the stink eye so bad last night during the movies. And Harp just realized that Matt declared his intention to mate her the first time they met and had tacos. Did I leave anything out?"

"Nope, that covered the whole conversation," Harper nodded.

"Did you call her a hoe bag to her face?" Celie wanted to know.

"What kind of bag is she?" Ara asked, confused by the term.

Everyone at the bar howled with laughter. After a few moments, Porter wiped his eyes, and cleared his throat.

"A, uh, 'hoe bag', is a derogatory term for someone who may or may not charge money for sexual favors that are dispensed on a very frequent basis to a multitude of people. They are considered somewhat dirty or unwashed, and generally undesirable to clean people." Porter explained helpfully, causing everyone to erupt again.

"Good job, Port!" Harper laughed. "Very informative."

"I had no idea that was the technical definition," Celie cackled.

"It's probably not, I just made that up," Porter snorted.

They all sat laughing at the bar as they finished their food before going back to the sitting area where everyone else was relaxing on the couches and talking after they were done eating.

It was starting to get late, and the wolves were heading back to the pack houses and the hotel, but Porter elected to stay and sleep on the couch again rather than making the drive back out. He was so afraid of missing something that he'd rather sleep on a couch that was too small for his large body than to go home to his comfortable bed.

"I'd have a bed to sleep in if some hoe bag had shown herself out the door when she should have," Porter grumbled, prompting howls of laughter from the others.

**

A soft knock on her door had Sana looking up curiously as she was getting ready to slip into bed, a small part of her hoped it was Eden at the door and she was disappointed when she opened it to find her sister and Hera standing in the hall.

"We need to speak with you, sister," Mena said, indicating Sana needed to open the door and let them in.

Once they came inside, Mena and Hera stood side by side and looked sternly at Sana as she sat sullen on the edge of the bed.

"Your behavior is shameful, Sana," Mena said sternly. "You have been rude to our cousins, insulted our hosts, and made advances on a male who has an intended mate. What are you thinking, sister?"

"He should be mating his own kind!" Sana exploded angrily.

"That is not your decision to make!" Hera scolded her. "He chooses who he will mate, you do not make that choice for him."

"But they are animals!" Sana argued, through tightly clenched teeth. "How could anyone want to mate with a beast?"

"Who are you to judge?" Mena asked, shocked at her sister. "You are the one behaving like a beast, it is against our ways to make advances on a mated siren!"

"He is not mated!" Sana said, her voice raising. "She does not carry his scent or his mark!"

"He has declared his intention!" Hera cried. "It does not matter if she carries his mark or his scent! HE decides who he wants to mate! He has made his choice! It is not up to you!"

"He's made a mistake!" Sana said.

"Then he will discover his mistake in his own time!" Mena said. "And you will leave him alone until that time comes! You will not continue to embarrass us as you have been! You are behaving like a selfish child! What will others of our kind think when they arrive here for council and hear of your behavior?"

"How will anyone hear of anything?" Sana grumbled. "Will you tell them?"

"No, but I am not certain Ara won't," Hera said. "You angered her greatly, and that is one female you do not want to cross. She is warrior blood! A killer of tritons! She will command respect from all sirens who meet her, and she has accepted our hosts and has great affection for them. She trusts them with her young! You must not offend her!"

"You disregard our sacred customs because you are jealous of what you cannot have! You shame yourself and us with your actions, Sana!" Mena hissed. "If you act out again and Harper asks you to leave you will find yourself swimming alone, sister, because I will not be leaving with you. We have greater enemies to face, and you are weakening us by acting like a spoiled child who is not getting her way! If the triton threat is half of what we believe it to be then we need them, and you endanger our kind by putting this alliance at risk by offending them!"

"Grow up, Sana, you are not a child! There are other males to mate, perhaps you should focus on finding one of your own, instead of trying to take one who belongs to another and clearly does not want you." Hera said.

"Have you finished speaking?" Sana asked tightly. "I'm tired, I wish to sleep."

"For now," Mena snapped, as she stormed out of the room.

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