Word Count: 4130

"So they are onto us?" Alpha Lucas said, as he made his plate and sat down at the table.

"Seems like it," Harper said. "Why else would people be sitting in their car outside our house for hours?"

"Where are they now?" Reese asked.

"We're not sure," Porter replied. "The car stopped at a residence and dropped off a girl, we're watching that house, then it went to a storage unit in South Miami and is still there, we have no idea what they're doing. The place is surrounded by a fence, with cameras, and security coded gates, so there's no way we can sneak in there and see what they're doing without being seen or caught on camera. We're trying to wait them out, but it's a huge storage complex and it has several entries and exits, it's possible they drove straight through and just exited the other side before we even realized what they were doing or had someone posted at the other side to watch."

"If they did that, they knew you were following them," Adam said. "Or they're paranoid as hell and taking counter measures just in case."

"Hopefully they're still there and we can keep following them when they finally decide to leave," Porter said.

"Let's not bank on that, I already called Callum and he's on the way, his flight just left so he will be here in a few hours," Reese said. "He can go over there tomorrow and hack into their system and look at the footage, hopefully we'll be able to see something to tell us what they're doing. He's also researching that license plate number you gave me. But he's on a plane so no telling how the internet connection is on the flight, so he might not be able to find anything tonight."

Just then Matt's phone rang and he stepped into the foyer to answer, a few second later he came back, a wide grin on his face.

"We've finally got some serious backup," Matt said. "Nine sirens just showed up at the Keys pack, responding to Ara's call."

"Nine?" Eden asked, smiling. "This is indeed good news."

"The better news is they are all warriors, triton hunters, eight males and one female. The female and one male are old ones. They are eager to speak to us about our findings and theories on the tritons behavior." Matt said. "They want to come here and meet with us and the Everglades pack, but I told them to let us discuss it because we may have someone watching the house so it might be better to meet at the everglades pack tomorrow during the ceremony. We know that no one can get onto pack lands to spy on us, it might be the safest place to meet, and keep those watching us from knowing we have more sirens here to help."

"That's a good idea," Harper said. "We can..."

The bell for the gate rang, interrupting Harper's sentence and they all exchanged confused looks. They were not expecting company, and all the wolves coming for patrols knew the code for the gate.

Harper went to the control panel for the alarm system and pressed the screen.

"Yes?" Harper said.

"Hello, Hello, can I come in? Please, I need to talk to you." The voice of an obviously very young woman said.

Matt had gone to the computer monitor and pulled up the gate camera, he exchanged a quick look with Harper. Sitting at their gate was the blue camry with a young, scared girl driving it, she was looking around nervously, biting her lip, there was a desperate look on her face.

"Open the gate," Matt said. Harper nodded and pressed the button, and they all hurried to the foyer to meet her at the door. "Stay back a bit, she looks scared, we don't want her to run off before we find out what she's doing here."

Harper and Matt approached the door with Celie close behind them, through the lattice they could see a nervous looking teenage girl who kept looking around fearfully, and checking the backseat of her car.

"Hello," Harper said, opening the door.

"I need your help," the girl said immediately. "You know about them, don't you? You know about the mermen? Please, I need help."

"Yes, we do," Harper said. "Come inside and tell us what's wrong."

The girl glanced fearfully at the car again.

"I don't want to leave him alone, I don't know what to do," She said.

"Don't want to leave who?" Matt said, but the girl just beckoned them toward the car.

Matt held out an arm to keep Harper and Celie behind him and motioned for Eden to join him as they approached the car cautiously, not knowing if they should be worried about some kind of attack. In the back seat of the car they noticed a large plastic bin that took up nearly the entire backseat. The girl opened the back door and motioned for Matt to look into the bin.

Matt sucked in a startled breath and looked at Eden, who approached and looked in as well, he too gasped and looked in shock.

"What is it?" Harper asked when they said nothing, and the girl just stood looking at them fearfully afraid of their reactions.

"A baby," Matt said, looking up at Harper and Celie. "A baby triton."

"I don't know what to do," the girl started sobbing. "Can you help me? Please? Please, help me. He's sick, he's not...I don't know how to take care of him."

Harper immediately stepped forward and went to the car. After a moment she picked up the infant triton and turned to hurry inside.

"I need to get him to the tank and look at him," Harper said as she hurried past everyone and ran to the back of the house. She went straight to the tiled room and turned on the light, she flipped the switch to start the water flow in the small tank and carefully lowered the baby in and started examining it.

The girl had hurried behind Harper and looked startled as the glanced around the room.

Celie ran to the storage closet and rolled out the carts that Harper's medical tools and supplies.

"How old is he?" Harper asked.

"Two weeks," the nervous girl responded.

"What has he been eating?" Harper asked.

"I've been breast feeding him, and trying to give him formula," the girl sniffed. "But he doesn't want to eat much."

Harper nodded, "Have you been keeping him in salt water or fresh water?"

"Fresh water, I tried putting some salt in it, but I wasn't sure how much to use so I only sprinkled a little." The girl answered. "I went to the beach and got some water in buckets and brought it back."

"What's your name, Sweetie?" Celie asked softly, handing the girl a bottle of water.

"Jenny," she replied.

"How old are you, Jenny?" Celie asked.

"I just turned eighteen, I graduated high school in June," Jenny replied.

"I'm Celie, this is Eden, that's Matt, and Harper," Celie told her. "Don't worry Sweetie, Harper is a pediatrician, so your baby is in good hands."

The girl looked up in surprise, relief in her eyes.

"You're a doctor?" Jenny said, taking several deep, relieved breaths. "Do you know...have you ever treated a baby...like him?"

"No, but I've treated a full grown siren, they should be similar," Harper answered.

"What's a siren?" Jenny asked, confused.

"A merman," Celie answered. "These ones prefer to be called sirens; the ones you know are called tritons."

"I only know one," Jenny answered. "I call him Cole."

"Were you at the beach near Matheson reserve with him last night?" Porter asked from the doorway.

Jenny nodded at him.

"He told me you guys were trying to kill him, but he was acting weird. He told me about this house and where you lived, he said he would come here and stop you." Jenny said.

"Does anyone else know about him or where we live?" Matt asked.

"Just my friend Misty, who sat outside with me today, she doesn't know about Cole, or the baby, I hid my pregnancy. She just knows where you live and that I was watching your house, I only asked her to come with me so I wouldn't be sitting out there alone, she doesn't really know why we came here. She thinks I have a crush on the big guy and was trying to scope him out," Jenny said, looking down. "That's not why I came here, I just said that as an excuse. I came because I figured you might be able to help me, if you know about them too."

"Cel, can you make me a shake? Just fresh fish, no seaweed this time," Harper asked, and Celie nodded, heading toward the kitchen as Harper turned back to Jenny. "I think we need to get some fish in him, siren babies are fed fresh fish from the time they are born, so he probably needs it too. I think being in mostly fresh water has also affected him, sirens can take fresh water for short periods of time, but generally they need salt water to thrive. Otherwise he looks like a healthy infant, I don't see anything that concerns me other than he seems weak and lethargic, which is most likely due to the lack of fish and being in the wrong water."

Jenny let out a deep breath that was almost a sob and put her hand over her mouth as tears slipped down her cheeks.

"Thank you," Jenny said. "Thank you for looking at him and helping him. I didn't know what to do, Cole just said it's the female who takes care of the baby and he won't help me."

"What a dick," Matt said, shaking his head. "Figures a triton would abandon his young."

Celie rushed back in with a small glass of grey sludge and a spoon, she handed it to Harper and then grabbed a towel to wrap the baby in.

"What's his name?" Celie asked Jenny.

"Levi," Jenny smiled a little.

"That's a cute name," Celie smiled. "Are you hungry sweetie? We have some dinner I can heat up for you? You look exhausted."

Jenny's eyes lit up and she nodded eagerly and followed Celie to the kitchen.

After the girls left the others came into the room, all silently watching Harper spoon small sips of the fish mixture into the baby's mouth, the first few spoons he spit out, but after a few seconds began swallowing them eagerly.

"I think this is definitely what he really needed," Harper said, glancing up at the others. "He wasn't getting the proper nutrition and was in the wrong kind of water. He'll probably be fine after a day or two in the tank with some fish in his diet."

"Why don't you just kill it?" Sana asked.

Everyone in the room turned and glared at her.

"We don't murder babies," Porter spat at her.

"It's going to grow into a triton, which we will kill," Sana argued.

"It doesn't matter what he might grow into," Eden said glaring at her. "He's half human, we don't know what he will be, he could turn into a human child when he's a year old, similar to a siren child."

"We have no idea what to expect from a hybrid. If he's raised right, he won't be a danger to anyone," Adam said. "They're as smart, or close to as smart as humans, they can probably be domesticated if they are raised with language and taught how to be a civilized being."

"What if that's how sirens evolved the way they did?" Harper looked up at them. "What if tens of thousands of years ago sirens were like tritons, but started mating with early humans and their offspring are the sirens we see today? It would explain how your people learned language, and the ability to change into your human form at will, it's probably how your ancestors learned how to create a civilization."

"Sirens have always mated with humans, there have always been sirens who live on land with their human mates. It's definitely possible that practice is how we came to be as we are, and why tritons never did." Eden mused, rubbing his chin. "They have always hunted humans as food, the idea to mate with them probably never occurred to them."

"Wonder why this one did?" Matt asked. "I have a lot of questions for Jenny, once she's finished eating."

"She looks like hell," Harper shook her head. "I can't imagine being in her shoes, taking care of a newborn is hard enough, taking care of a triton baby when you don't really know anything about them has got to be much, much worse."

"At least we know now that there are not a group of humans out there helping them fight us," Porter said. "That's a huge relief, she's probably aided him without realizing it, by just talking to him about humans and exposing him to human ways. But she seems way too young to be an important part of some organization set out to help tritons."

"Let's go talk to her," Eden said. "We need some answers about her friend Cole."

The baby had swallowed about a third of the fish soup in the glass and was drifting off to sleep in Harper's arms, so she slipped him gently back into the tank, then pressed a few buttons to circulate the water and raise the temperature in the tank.

"Yep, it's definitely time for some answers," Harper said.

They came into the kitchen where Celie was sitting and making small talk with Jenny at the island. Jenny had already finished off a large plate of food and was drinking a glass of milk.

"Jenny, we really have a lot of questions for you," Harper said. "Do you feel like sitting down and talking to us?"

"How is he?" Jenny asked immediately, wiping milk off her top lip.

"He's sleeping, I was able to get him to eat about a third of the glass of fish, and I turned the heat on in the tank, he's going to be just fine Jenny," Harper assured her. "You did the right thing coming here, it must have been scary as hell, and you have a lot of courage."

Jenny smiled a little sadly and nodded.

"Can I see him?" she asked.

"Of course, you can," Celie answered, standing up. She guided Jenny back to the tank room and stood silently by the door as Jenny knelt beside the tank and reached in to stroke the cheek of her sleeping baby.

After a few minutes, Jenny stood and Celie led her into the rec room, where everyone was waiting.

"Jenny, how did you meet Cole?" Eden asked.

"He was hurt, I found him floating face down in the bay two years ago," Jenny replied. "I was able to get him into my kayak and I brought him to my uncle's house. My uncle lives on the water, he and my aunt were out of town and I was house sitting. I dragged him up to their pool and put him in there, so he'd be safe."

"You didn't tell anyone about him?" Matt asked.

Jenny shook her head, "I was afraid they'd hurt him. Like take him and put him in a tank and do experiments on him, or just dissect him or something."

"So you helped him?" Harper asked. "Gave him medical attention, and food, and took care of him?"

Jenny nodded, "he was unconscious for a few days, but he healed really fast, like in a couple of weeks he was totally normal."

"Did he know how to speak or communicate when you found him?" Laro asked.

"No, he couldn't talk at all, I taught him," Jenny smiled a little sadly. "He stayed with me all summer and lived in the pool, then he just turned into a guy one day at the end of summer."

"Then he went back to the ocean?" Harper asked.

"Yeah," Jenny nodded. "But he came back to the shore all the time to see me, and when he couldn't turn into a guy anymore I took my uncle's kayak out and hung out with him in the bay."

"Has he made any other human friends that you know about?" Eden asked.

Jenny shook her head, looking confused.

They all exchanged relieved glances hearing that.

"Did you teach him?" Harper asked. "More than just how to talk, like did you teach him about history, and things like that?"

Jenny nodded, "once he learned how to talk, he asked a million questions."

"So he was trying to learn as much as he could?" Celie asked.

"Yeah, he was really curious about people. When he could turn into a guy, I took him places and he would just watch people and ask a ton of questions until I had to take him back to the water. He said he wished he could stay on land, he liked it better here, he said it was safer."

"And then you...got pregnant?" Harper asked, carefully.

"Yeah," Jenny said, quietly, her cheeks turning pin. "Last year, when he could turn into a guy again, he was able to change for almost three months that time. Longer than before, but it was harder for him to change after the normal month, like it would take him hours of trying and concentrating before he could do it, then it only lasted about an hour."

"So they have the ability and just don't know how to use it, or they are slowly evolving and developing the ability to change at will," Harper said. "That's not great news for us, if we have to start watching for them all the time."

"Why would that be bad?" Jenny asked, her head tilted in confusion.

"Jenny, they are not what they seem," Celie started explaining. "Your Cole is different from the rest of his kind, he bonded with you because you saved his life. That's the only reason you're still alive. They prey on humans, they hunt and eat humans, we're food to them."

"What?!" Jenny exclaimed, her eyes wide.

"Yes, we hunt them, to protect humans from them." Eden said.

"No!" Jenny said, shaking her head. "No, you're wrong, he's sweet and kind. He doesn't kill people."

"I'm afraid he probably does, he just didn't kill you," Matt said.

"Last week three of them attacked some people on that beach right down there," Celie said, pointing toward the ocean. "They were eating the guy alive when we got there, he was fighting them with all he had, but by the time we pulled him out of the water it was too late, he died from the wounds."

"What?" Jenny asked again, her face looked desperate. "Why?"

"Because that's what they do," Harper said. "They're predators, Jenny, they prey on humans. Just like lions prey on zebras, they are pretty much wild animals. They're smart, they have the ability to reason, but they are unevolved. Think about it, he couldn't talk when you found him, you had to teach him everything. It's just like if you found a wounded wolf or panther cub and nursed it back to health, it would be friendly to you, but it would still be wild."

"Are you going to hurt my baby?" Jenny asked, tears leaking from her eyes. "If you think he's a dangerous wild animal?"

"No, Sweetie," Celie assured her immediately, rubbing her back. "We don't murder babies; we only kill those who are a danger to people. Which so far, has been all of them, but Levi will probably be different when he grows up, because he's half human, and he has you as a mother."

"But I can't take care of him!" Jenny said, starting to sob again. "I need Cole to take him, I have nowhere to keep him, I can't take care of him, I don't know how to, he'll die if he stays with me."

Celie hugged Jenny and cooed at her, trying to calm her down.

"We'll help you, Jenny," Celie said, instinctively, causing the others to glance around. She glared at them over Jenny's head when she saw it.

Celie mind linked Harper angrily.

Harper tried to soothe her ruffled feathers.

"Listen Honey," Celie said when Jenny's crying had calmed to just a hiccup. "You look tired, you need to get some rest and it's getting awfully late. Why don't you go home and get some sleep? Levi will stay in the tank here, Harper and I will watch over him and make sure he's ok. You can come back in the morning and see him, and we can talk some more."

"You won't hurt him?" Jenny asked.