Easton was sprinting out of a beat up old car, waving his arms above his head and shouting my name. My response to seeing him should have been relief. I should have felt my legs go weak and tried to run away from Nero, back to the safety of my mate. When the fire-red of Misty's hair came into view, I should have been sobbing.

But I was filled with dread. 

They didn't understand. They didn't know that I had given up because it was the only way. They didn't understand that I couldn't keep running from this monster just as I couldn't fight him. I was sacrificing myself, knowing that I would either die by Nero's hand or my own, but his murder spree would stop, Misty could slip under the radar with Ajax and Keiko's protection as she was not Nero's main prize. Easton could fall in love with another girl, his pack safe. Eddy would live out his dream retirement without me in the picture.

And I would finally pay for letting all of those innocent girls die. This was the only way.

Nero could not be defeated. He was heartless, smirking as he drained the life force out of elderly grandmothers, young girls, pregnant wives. Even underground, we could hear the screams and pleas of the girls he used as hunting practice in the sunlight. And I had even heard him go against one of his own, the battle of claws and jaws above ground leaving him with nothing but bloody hands after he shifted back to torture us once more.

My sweet, kind Easton could not defeat this monster. Neither could Misty. 

But Easton didn't know what I knew. Easton hadn't seen what I lived through. He didn't know that Nero was the most powerful werewolf I had ever encountered.

And because of that, Easton leapt into the air, shifting into his wolf before he landed. 

"Easton, don't!" I screamed, moving to lunge around Nero.

A stiff arm was outstretched over my breastbone, shoving me backwards with so much force that I fell away from the SUV and tumbled into the rocky sand.

Nero stayed in human form, remaining surprisingly vulnerable. Easton didn't care. He lunged, the brown wolf soaring through the air, teeth bared and hackles raised. Long gone was the tender man who cared so much for everyone's well being. In his place was a warrior/

I wasn't able to see what Nero did, still winded in the sand with my hands buried and my lungs quivering. But I did see Easton slam into the ground on his side. 

Nero loomed over him, a sick smile that I knew all too well twisting up his lips. Something about resistance had always excited him, like it made defeat that much sweeter, like knowing that he crushed someone's will to live was the true victory. I was certain he was going to deliver a final blow, letting Easton stagger to his feet just to break him.

Nero spoke instead. "You know, it's a real shame. Your parents had the chance to hand pick the next alpha. They had the opportunity to select someone with fine breeding, someone with an iron fist and a desire for dominance. I'm always stunned that they picked you instead. When King Ajax pardoned your illegitimate inheritance to the pack, I knew that the werewolf hierarchy was falling apart."

Easton flung himself at Nero again, going lower for a damaging, but not fatal, blow on the leg. 

In two movements that were too quick for me to comprehend, Easton was tossed a couple meters away, landing awkwardly but staying upright. The two of them moved into the sand just the same, nearing each other and backing away in a violent dance.

"Were you ever even taught how to fight? Or do you and all the other alphas just trade Christmas cards and decide that nothing is worth fighting over anymore?" Nero taunted. "If you wanted to become an opponent worthy of my time, you should have started training years ago. This is laughable. You're no alpha. You're hardly a wolf at all."

And while I watched my mate struggle through another attempted attack, an arm clapped around my upper arm, dragging me through the sand. I saw wild hair, tangled with sea water and pants soaked up to the ankles.

"Get up and help me," Misty ordered through clenched teeth.

"Nero is too strong," I whimpered, but didn't resist her as she pulled me along.

"I don't care if he has channeled the power of Zeus and Hades all at once!" Misty hissed, now yanking me to my feet like I weighed nothing. Her crystal blue eyes burned with hundreds of emotions. Fear. Pain. Betrayal. Frustration. With a strangled scream, she shoved me in the water until I was drenched from the knees down. "That man loves you and you are going to regret every second if you don't even try to save him!"

I stood numbly in the displeased sea, neither the frigid air nor the icy water bothering me as I stared on. "We can't defeat him. Our powers don't work on him."

"Your going to try until your body gives out, do you hear me?" Misty demanded. 

She didn't wait for a response. She stood in the water beside me, watching my mate battle with a creature that was more beast than man. And orders gushed out of her mouth. Her hair rose above her head as if she were a mermaid under the currents. Those ocean eyes shone, narrowed on Nero.

I felt I had no choice but to follow. I channeled all the power I could out of the sea. I called upon the vengeful water, begging it to help me as I uttered a thousand different commands. I told Nero to back away from Easton. I commanded him to leave my mate alone. I ordered him to fall to his knees. When those didn't work, I went to smaller tasks, asking him to pause, to give Easton a chance to get his bearings after a particularly brutal blow was delivered. None of it worked.

But I pushed on, ignoring the tears that streamed down my face, freezing to my cheeks and the pounding hum that filled the back of my mind. My voice rose with each blow Nero landed, my words more shrill every time Easton wobbled onto his paws, breathing hard and starting to bleed from his muzzle. 

When Nero began laughing and fur started sprouting out of his skin, I knew that it was only a matter of time. 

I could do nothing but watch my mate's last moments.

Through giving up, I called upon everything I had. It was my last chance, my last resort. I stopped using my commands that were evidently so useless. I stopped focusing on Nero, stopping flinching every time Easton was struck.

I just listened to the humming in the back of my mind that evolved into clear, concise words. They were words of perhaps a great grandmother who channeled the sea, a woman searching for a lost lover in the water or wishing her drown son would come home. My mouth opened and I sang in a language I didn't know for all I was worth. The words were Gaelic, but English rung out in my head, a song so long forgotten that it made my heart ache when I had the melody on my lips.

My body felt like it was carrying the weight of the ocean, like I was turning into a whirlpool with every passing second. My eyes flashed open, my vision so sharp and so precise it was painful. I could see every fleck of blood on Easton's coat just as I could see every twitch of his lips. His claws dragged through the sand as he worked in a circle around Nero.

I had never seen Nero in wolf form. He never showed the sirens what a true beast he was. Seeing him now, was shocking. The hump of his muscular shoulders dwarfed Easton, making my lean mate seem like an adolescent. His paws were large enough to outsize a hand print and sharp daggers protruded from the fur there. Jagged teeth filled his mouth, reminding me more of a grinning shark than a wolf. And those dark eyes were filled with hate. So much hate and loathing as he watched Easton limp around him. 

Then, with no warning, he lunged. 

And those predatory teeth captured Easton's neck before the smaller wolf could even skitter away.

Easton fell. 

Blood poured out of his neck, onto the sand beneath him. Bright red.

Something within me broke, like a mighty slab of ice crumbling off into the ocean. Waves slammed into my body, against my chest, against my heart. A scream rained out of my mouth and I flung my arms forward, so far away but still trying to get between the whimpering brown wolf and the growling monster that stood over him. 

I was certain that I was watching Easton's last moments. 

Something came between Easton and Nero, something fluid and fast. It snapped like a whip, an awful ominous sound droning after it. The movement was so sudden that I was sure I was hallucinating, Nero moved towards my mate, then his legs were knocked out beneath him, the sand surrounding him soaked.

No one moved. 

Easton peered up in shock, but was unable to lift his body back to his feet. I didn't know if it came from fear or blood loss. 

I froze, unsure if I could even decipher what I had just witnessed.

Misty gawked at me.

Then she plunged her hands into the water, muttering words in some Celtic language that wasn't quite Gaelic. It must have been the language of her Irish ancestors. She had heard me sing the song of my people and now she was singing hers.

At first I didn't understand what she was doing. I kept one eye on her with her palms against the water, her brow furrowed and coated with sweat. And I watched Nero shake his head and heave back up into a standing position.

Something foreign touched me. Something so different, yet so the same filled my body. I knew the familiar rush of power from the water, but it felt like it had some kind of accent, like it wasn't my power.

It was a gift. 

Misty was pouring her energy into me.

I focused on Easton and Nero. My body rose up. Slowly, ever so slowly. Inch by inch. My sneakers left the sea floor. Water twirled around my legs and waist, holding me upright. One minute I was hovering in the shallow water. The next, I was soaring in the night sky, water my only tether. 

Rage filled me, beyond what I could contain myself. It was the anger from the sea. It was ferocity from the rain that refused to fall. It was loathing from the god himself. And it commanded me, telling me what I needed to do. 

I extended a hand outward again, moving slowly. This slow burning rage was not to be rushed. This was a revenge that was years in the making. there would be no impulsive mistakes, no room for miscalculations. Poseidon would not allow it and neither would I.

I was no longer singing, instead I was screaming to some kind of skewed melody, my body trembling with the effort of controlling the sea.

I didn't need to know Gaelic to know what I was repeating: It's not my fault. It was never my fault.

Water surged forward out of the sea, moving steadily up the shore in one, pointed wave. Liquid pooled around Nero's massive paws, going far beyond what high tide manage. And when the water circled got too close to Easton who attempted to wriggle away like a worm on concrete, I snapped my arm back. The water retreated with frightening speed, the sea claiming its debt.

Nero fell to the instantly dry sand as the water shifted the ground beneath his feet.

Easton mustered up the last of his energy to scramble away while the beast turned his attention to me now. 

I thought Nero was an emotionless creature. I had watched him kill, watched him torture. I thought that no man capable of that could feel anything. 

But fear was written all over his wolfish features when he saw me, perched on top of a wave, channeling every ounce of power that my body could manage. A full moon beamed on above my head, circling me like a halo as I stared down my opponent. 

Kaia with so many meanings in so many languages: the name of the pure, the name of the moon, the name of the sea.

I was all of those things. And I was more.

Daughter of Poseidon.

And my creator deemed it time for much deserved revenge.

I released the water that I was restraining, the water that was holding me up, two stories up. With one mighty thrust that sucked all of the strength out of my muscles, I shoved the water forward. It surged away, racing up the shore. A hundred tons of water crashed onto the ground, roaring as it went. And I rode the wave down as easily as I would have skied down a powder slope. It carried me until I was planted back on the sand. The flood swept up Misty, who gave out a pitiful cry before I tossed out a hand, raising her up as she reorganized her gift.

The massive, daunting wolf that had controlled my life for so long was fleeing like a coward. He had lorded over my life and hundreds of others, playing god. Now, as the sea swirled around him, he seemed to be no larger than a pebble. I stepped forward, guiding the water until there was nothing showing of Nero aside from his muzzle and forepaws desperately kicking to keep himself afloat.  

When I heard Easton whimper, I called the sea back to me. 

As gently as the water had placed me on my feet, it picked me up again. It spun around my feet and waist, like a dozen helping hands tenderly hoisting me off the sandy surface, back to my throne of liquid. 

The sea coiled beneath me, growing tighter and tighter, lifting higher and higher. I rose towards the heavens with each passing second. My body was fully encased, each limb coated, but it  didn't impede my movement as I lifted my arms, one pushing Nero out to open sea, the other guiding Misty to the shore. 

And once my fellow siren was safe in the shallows, I raised both arms above my head. I didn't need Misty's power now. Below me, around me, and within me, the sirens who fought for lives, the sirens who did Poseidon's bidding, the mothers and daughters who had been forgotten, all swam through me.

And when I flung myself away from Aberdeen, into the raging waters, their spirit created huge, heaving waves that carried Nero further and further away from dry land.

I bobbed in the open sea, only my head above water. 

The last thing I saw was the haunted black wolf spinning in some kind of unnatural whirlpool. As my eyes drifted closed, Nero was sucked downward. 

Poseidon would have his revenge yet.

~~~Distraction Section~~~

I kind of forgot what my update schedule was, my bad. Does the super long chapter make up for it? I feel like the stretch between Christmas and New Years just muddles my brain. I've been at my job for almost three years, but you'd think it was my first week with how much I have forgotten!

Question of the Day: What is your biggest irrational fear?