The Silver Siren

“Brad,” I shouted to him. He ran over, still in wolf form. “Round up all the survivors. Mind link an update to the Alpha and tell him we will be bringing in the survivors to the dungeons. Burn the dead bodies. I’m taking my mate to the hospital. She’s been shot with silver bullets.”

“Oh, man,” he said, mind linking me back. “I’ve already updated the Alpha. He has sent some reinforcements and an ambulance for Ben. Are you sure you don’t want to wait for the ambulance for her? Is she ok?”

“No. It will be quicker if I take her back to the hospital now. She’s breathing and showing some signs of healing already,” I explained. I had noticed that the bleeding had already stopped around the bullet wounds when I had put my shirt on her. And some minor scratch marks and bruises had already disappeared. Werewolves had accelerated healing abilities, but this was nothing like I’d ever seen before.

“How can that be if she was shot with silver bullets?” he asked.

“I have no idea. I have no idea about anything that happened here,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. 

“The force field that threw us back must have come from her. That shaft of light was coming from her, right?” Brad asked. 

“Yeah, it was. How did she manage to conjure a force field? Is that even possible for a werewolf?” I asked, puzzled.

“It is possible, but I’ve only read about these types of powers,” he said, “But it doesn’t make sense, they are extinct.”

“What are?” I asked.

“Sirens,” he said.

I’d only ever briefly heard about sirens once, many years ago when some Elders were visiting the pack. So, I knew virtually nothing about them, except that they were, as Brad said, thought to be extinct. This was getting weirder by the minute.

“I don’t know what is going on, but we will have to find out later. I need to get her to the hospital and talk to Dad”

“Sure,” he said, “I’ll update you once we have all the rogues back to the holding cells. There’s 28 still alive. Assuming she was the only victim here, she killed 6 before she knocked the rest out with the force field. Some of them are coming to now.”

Whoa. She was so small. How did she do that? I shifted back to my wolf. If I was going to get her back to the hospital quickly, running in wolf form was going to be the quickest way. I nudged my head underneath her small frame and scooped her up over my shoulders until she was settled across my back. Brad quickly shifted to human and helped secure her by tying my sweatpants around both of us so that she wouldn’t fall off whilst I was at top speed. I would have to run carefully but it would be much quicker than waiting for the ambulance. Her long hair flopped down and tickled my sides and her glorious scent wrapped around me. Maddox was purring his delight and we started towards the hospital. Thankfully, the hospital was slightly closer than the main entrance to the pack house. Running as smoothly as I could, I mind linked the doctor at the hospital, so he knew to expect us soon. 

Running towards the hospital, I had a brief moment to try and figure out what just happened. I couldn’t make sense of any of it. As much as I had anticipated an attack at some point, I never for one moment could have imagined the events of tonight would unfold the way they did. Until she woke up, we could only guess what had happened and only she could answer some of the many questions I had. And as strange as the night had been, nothing could wipe the smile off my face at finding my mate. I felt like a completely different person. All the anxiety and unsettledness had vanished. Finally, I could think straight.

The hospital wing came into view soon, as it was based on the north side of the pack house grounds, adjoined by a direct corridor to the pack house. I couldn’t see anybody to help unstrap her so, to not waste any more time, I laid down on the floor so she wouldn’t fall and shifted back to human. She slipped softly to the floor. I untied the sweatpants from around her and threw them on and picked her up, holding her close to me. She was still breathing steadily. I walked through the doors and the doctor and a nurse were waiting with a gurney. I gently laid her on it, instantly feeling the loss of contact with her. I didn’t want to let her go, but I knew she needed to be treated. She was still unconscious, so the doctor looked to me for information.

“Reece, what happened?” he asked. Doctor Stevens was an older guy and had been working at the hospital for as long as I could remember. Good friends with my dad, I knew him well and trusted him to look after my mate. 

“We were called to a rogue attack. When we arrived, she was unconscious and had been shot with silver bullets, but they look like they have already begun healing,” I said, and he looked confused. “I don’t know her name or how old she is, but I do know that she is my mate.”

The Doc looked at me and a gentle smile crept onto his lips. “Congratulations,” he said softly.  

“There is something else I think you should know. We think she is a siren,” I told the Doc.

“How can that be?” he gasped, “They are thought to be extinct!”

“I have no idea, Doc. We are going to have to wait for her to wake up to give us those answers.”

He looked down and found her wounds underneath the shirt. “We’ll have to remove these bullets as soon as possible. Her healing powers are indeed accelerated. If we leave them in any longer, the wounds will close completely with the bullets still inside her. You did the right thing bringing her straight in, Reece,” he said. They wheeled her to a treatment room. The nurse began rummaging around in storage cupboards, quickly gathering the equipment they would need to remove the bullets. The Doc scrubbed up and began the procedure, expertly plucking two large silver bullets from her delicate body, one from her shoulder and one just below her ribcage.

“She has been extremely lucky. Both bullets missed all the vital organs and vessels,” he said, cleaning out the would tracks to prevent infection. He looked puzzled as he examined the wounds.

“What is it, Doc?” I asked moving closer to the gurney.

“I can’t see any burns from the silver. The wound tracks are completely clean and have already started healing,” he explained. 

“How is that possible? They are definitely silver bullets,” I said, confused. Silver burns werewolf flesh on contact causing painful and extensive injuries the longer the silver is in contact with flesh. In the case of silver bullets, once inside the body, they begin to poison the bloodstream. The longer they are in, the worse the poison gets, and healing times are extended because of it.

Doctor Stevens finished cleaning the wounds and taped some gauze over each of them. “Before their believed extinction, sirens were very rare. I only ever knew of two sirens within this pack, and a handful of others I met at other packs across the country. I never met the sirens in our pack, our paths never crossed. As you know, an average werewolf has far more speed and strength than that of an average human. And, of course we have our healing abilities which allows us to heal quicker than humans. For sirens, these abilities are amplified tenfold. Each siren was also blessed with a special gift, a power, directly from the Moon Goddess. Hers could be an immunity to silver. It’s one of the known gifts they could possess. But there are also unknown gifts too.”

“That makes sense. We were responding to a rogue attack. When we got there, she had already killed several rogues and as we approached, we think she let off a force field that knocked the rest unconscious. It also knocked us all off our feet too, but we weren’t injured as we were much further away than the rogues were,” I explained.

“What do you mean, force field?” the Doc asked. His face had lost all colour and he looked like he had just seen a ghost. I had the feeling he already knew the answer but needed it confirmed with words.

“We were knocked back by a surge of energy and light. When we managed to get closer, the light faded except for a beam of light coming from her, then she collapsed unconscious and shifted back to human,” I explained.

“Oh, my Goddess! She has two gifts!” he gasped, “This is extraordinary.”

“Two gifts? But you said sirens only got one gift each from the Moon Goddess,” I asked. This was getting confusing. What was he trying to say?

“If I’m correct, it means she is extremely powerful, Reece. Far more powerful than you,” he said, “And that is the reason for their presumed extinction” 

The doors to the hospital burst open and Cole and another warrior wheeled Ben in on a gurney. He had regained consciousness but looked like hell. He had also been shot with silver bullets and was suffering the effects of it. Deep slash marks covered his neck and arms, his clothes in tatters. And he was covered in his own blood. 

“We’ll pick this up later, Reece. I need to get those bullets out of Ben. Now.” The Doc rushed over to treat Ben. He was weak and the silver was damaging his body with every second that passed. I stayed with my mate and tried to process everything that the Doc had said. The nurse stayed with us, and I helped her put a hospital gown on her. I took the t-shirt she had been wearing and put it over my head. It was covered with her scent and calmed my nerves, allowing me to think coherently among all the chaos of this evening. When the hospital gown was on, I laid her down and covered her with a blanket.

“I’ll come and check on her shortly,” the nurse said as she double checked the IV and fluids that my mate was hooked up to. She bowed her head and left the treatment room. Left alone with her, I looked down at my mate. She was tiny, but perfectly formed. She wasn’t slight but had generous luscious curves. The type of curves that could drive a man wild. Every inch of her body was toned to perfection and her skin had a golden glow that was mesmerizing. I think I could sit and stare at her all day. Sleeping peacefully, she looked angelic. Her hair was a chocolate brown colour and extremely long, reaching her waist. The glossy strands fanned out across the pillow. Her face held delicate features and a very fine dusting of petite freckles across her nose which you could only see on closer inspection. I wish I knew the colour of her eyes. I reached out to touch her hand, covering it with my own. It dwarfed mine and was incredibly soft. Delicious tingles soared across my skin and had Maddox practically melting. He started to purr, and I finally felt some of the panic and adrenaline leave us. I breathed deeply allowing her scent to invade my senses and started to feel calm be restored once more. 

I heard someone clear their throat behind me and turned around quickly to find Brad standing in the doorway, his eyes filled with concern for his future Luna. I beckoned for him to enter.

“How is she?” he asked.

I told Dad everything the doctor had said, which tied in with what he had initially said. “The Doc can’t see any reason why she won’t make a full recovery, but at the moment she is in a deep sleep, her body’s way of recovering after the force field. It must have taken an extraordinary amount of energy to summon, and her wolf is weak,” I explained. 

“Shit,” he said, shocked, “Have you found out who she is? I mean, where did she come from?”

“No, we are still in the dark. She had no clothes nearby so no ID,” I said.

Conversation turned to the rogues. They had all been transported back to the dungeons to be held for further interrogation. Brad reported that some were still suffering the effects of the force field, so some hospital staff had been sent to check they were all ok. There were a lot of them, one of them had to talk. We needed more information urgently. 

“The Alpha is on his way here to see you,” Brad told me. 

“Ok, let’s check on Ben,” I suggested. As much as I didn’t want to leave my little mate, I had a responsibility and duty to ensure the safety of the entire pack. I might not be Alpha yet, but I soon will be now that I’ve finally found my mate. It took me a few seconds to actually let go of her hand, and the loss was almost painful when I did.

Brad and I left the room to check on Ben. The silver bullets had made him weak but had avoided anything major. Doctor Stevens removed bullets from his thigh, abdomen and his right forearm. When we arrived, the doctor was just removing the last bullet. He looked pale and clammy and was hooked up to a shit load of IV’s pumping him with fluids trying to flush the poison from his system. As the last bullet came out, the doctor discarded it into a metal pan, the clanging echoed throughout the room. Doctor Stevens breathed a sigh of relief. 

“Gotcha”, he said, triumphantly.