Chapter 4

Aislyn’s words sang to them all about how they were her individual saviors, keeping their focus up at the ceiling until the light stopped racing up to her platform. The cloth that was there, quickly released into a ring of fire, disorienting them further. 

Still, Derek kept his eyes on Aislyn. He knew her style was less about theatrics and more about how she felt. All he needed to see was the lift of her palm to know for sure. 

Just as she did, Derek lost his breath. 

She used to do that and claim she was feeling for him. His aura was something she could reach for regardless of being a human, and she wanted him around. Granted, he never showed her his human form, Derek reminded himself and fear set in. She wouldn’t know him if he approached her. It would be like starting fresh if he reached out to her. 

The thought of leaving his pack reared up once more. If he did, he could tell her. He could help her see… until then, he had to make these mutts give her the respect and space she needed. Leaving now, before knowing for sure that Aislyn was still the same woman he fell in love with all those years ago, would ruin his family even more than he had in the beginning. 

He watched as she picked up her movements, her fingers continued to weave their way through the air as she moved her entire palm back and forth around in the space. He watched her as if he was back in the woods with her, in her special opening… the one she’d always retreat to. Dancing was a release it seemed back then, until that first time she felt his presence. 

Aislyn was a runt, like he was back then. The first thing he noticed was that she was young and again that she was alone. The thought of picking her off just to do it, to clear his name of being the weakling he was to the pack crossed his mind, but he quickly shook it from his memories. Aislyn was brave and kind. She did more than the rest of his family had to reach him in one day, stealing his heart away completely. It became a necessity to be out in the woods and meet her every day, even if he refused to cross the flimsy wall between them made up of tall grass and shrubbery, he’d still go to see her. 

The bass dropped quickly, thudding deeper than before, interrupting him once more. The moment his eyes flicked back up to hers, she pinned him in place with her own. Derek tried not to mouth her name. Instead, he let his jaw go slack and inhaled deeply through his parted lips. 

Aislyn kept herself steady as more dancers met the stage but he couldn’t look away from her. He didn’t care about his insecurities because she was always there back then, assuring his wolf that he was handsome and that she didn’t need another soul besides him in her life. 

She kept his hold despite how she leaned into her performance, dancing to her own music, which had been growing on him the moment he knew it belonged to her. Derek’s mind remained blank, save for needing her down from there at once, and keeping her safe from everyone once she did. 

Remaining fabric around her torso revealed itself only slightly. She kept her body moving, distracting them all from it until the tempo changed once more. Aislyn followed her right hand, the one which entangled him in the first place, down and back behind her. Her movements were artful and displayed what Sirens was supposed to truly be. It was a surreal work of art, ruining their senses, and calling them back nightly, just for the chance to make sense of what happened the night before. 

Aislyn brought that to them. 

She brought life wherever she went. 

Derek’s paranoia spiked all over again at the sound of a wolf howling beside him. It wasn’t Maleki. That one was still coming down from his high and struggling with the loss of his mistress’ touch. No, this one was one he knew and well. As Derek’s head jerked away from Aislyn’s connection with him, Zane purposely tried to claim her, despite his own very obvious interests. 

His bark, opposing Zane’s intrusion, drowned in the continuation of her performance, deep within the thunder of her ongoing music. Dancers on the floor with her parted ways, giving the Alpha his rightful place regardless of the disappointment from the other eye candy feeling him up all night. Derek’s panic threatened to overtake him. What if she chose Zane instead? It would be him and her consummating their mateship in the pack house next. 

In her grace, Aislyn ignored the Alpha approaching. He waved his hand as if he could change her opinion. It didn’t work like that with werewolves. Making fun of her would be his end, he thought. Again, the mix changed to accommodate a partner in all of this. The words she wrote, the depth of the singer’s voice on the track, it all called to a place deep inside of him. While he had no business imagining that he was who she was describing, Derek still made his way to the stage. At the very least, he’d find out once and  for all, if he was wrong about this Aislyn and all he hoped for tonight. 

His heart leapt in his chest as she ignored Zane’s advances. She continued moving, weaving her way through the falling cloth, unrolling from the ceiling while Zane did all he could to crowd her within her own space. There wasn’t any more Derek could take from who was supposed to become their pack’s leader. His crudeness, his expectations based on his designation alone. It was all too much to stop his own reaction to the Alpha. 

Derek sneered as he caught the man’s wrist before Zane could do the unthinkable and touch his mate. He can’t help the way that his hold barrels down onto his brother. His anger spiked wildly around the three of them, telling Zane he’d gone too far. 

“This bitch? This one? This is the one you want?” Zane challenges Derek, breaking his own wrist in the Beta’s hand. “You know humans can’t take us, right?”

Derek held his tongue and continued his hold on Zane’s wrist. His attention to Zane threatened the man’s ego. Zane ran his mouth once more, ending his rights to their pack if he didn’t submit. 

“That human is mine to ravage…” he began. 

“I don’t belong to you,” Aislyn sang for all in the building to hear. 

“The fuck you do,” Zane growled, pinging its way through her speakers. “I am the Alpha.”

“In your head you are,” she belted out, “I can’t be the only one who knows this story…”

Her chorus struck a nerve in the rest of the pack, seeming to wake them up further to their scenario. It was as if she knew what she was talking to. As if she had a message for all of them. Not only her, but the dancers there weren’t items to be bought. Derek fought his eye roll at the thought of the one Maleki was with, but Aislyn was right. Even if she didn’t pick him, he could live with knowing Zane would never get his way with her.