Alpha King's Siren Daughter

LILLY

I have to admit, I have been looking forward to this more than I should. The thought of landing a good hit to Zee’s jaw sends a thrill through my body.

Uncle Zade makes the announcement of the match before coming closer and pointing to my spot in the rounded sparring circle, then signaling to his eldest son.

“Winner against winner. Last in, Lilly vs. Zee,” he yells for the crowd of onlookers.

The crowd of fighters goes nuts. You can feel the energy and adrenaline fill the air around us. Everyone knows when it comes to a fight, Zee and I are the best of the best… though I am better.

All of us have put our blood and sweat into honing our skill, making our bodies stronger and readying us for whatever may come our way.

Uncle Zade slowly approaches me, leaning into my ear. “Keep it clean, Mija. No funny business.”

Ugh, well this sucks. I don’t see why I can’t use my Siren. It’s not like Zee doesn’t have powers as well. Tia Flora is the true witch. I guess he is worried I might kick Zee’s ass too hard.

“No surprises. No powers. Nothing more than a sparring match. A little hand-to-hand combat training. We're not winning a battle today. Do you hear me, Lilly… ZJ? No. Losing. Our temper.” He looks back and forth sternly between Zee and me.

I accidentally lost my cool one time and caused Zee to go deaf for a month, and he won’t let me live it down. It’s not like it was all my fault, Zee had it coming when he called me ‘little red riding hooker’.

“Tell him to not be such an asshole and maybe this can stay clean,” I retorted.

“I mean it, Lilly,” Uncle Zade stares daggers at me.

More than half of my slip-ups wouldn’t have happened if Zee would just leave me alone and just learned to keep his dumb mouth shut.

Looking across the mat, I watch him take off his black and white workout shirt. He has one of his stupid looks on his face even now. Pure ego. As if he were hot shit.

Zee directs a cocky smirk at me from across the training center.

I can hear the whispers of the others surrounding us, bantering and betting about who will ultimately win.

“Clean sparring round. Three. Two. One.” He gives us one last reminder before starting the match.

Zee and I walk in counter-clockwise, circling one another. The anticipation builds as we both watch to see who will make the first move and where it will come from.

I keep my hands up and guard my face so that I have a clear view but keep my core tucked away nice and tight. Zee likes to go for body shots to show off. I once watched him body shot another wolf and throw him halfway across the field. I hate to admit it, but it was pretty impressive.

It has been years since the last time anyone has allowed us to spar with one another.

“What are you waiting for? Don’t you have some sort of book you have to get back to?” I tease him.

I mimic his own smirk, hoping that it will get under his skin. Zee likes to think of himself as calm, collected, and strategic. He is… but I was raised next to him. I know all of his tactics and all of his abilities, and I will happily use that against him.

Being the cause of his faltering or second-guessing himself is hilarious to me.

He needs to be knocked down a few pegs.

Zee swings wide, lunging at me in an attempt to try and connect with my left side.

Body shot. How predictable.

Ducking to the side, then stepping back, his shitty hit breezes right by me before I return it. Hiking a leg up, I counter, sending my kick to his lower leg and then repeating the action back to back.

I push him backward just to make him do it. I know he can take the space back and I’m sure he will, but it’s fun to taunt him a little.

Getting him out of bounds isn’t the goal. I want him to know it was easy for me to do it. He thinks he can stay up late just to lecture me about having fun and a social life, I’ll show him who really is in charge.

The memory of him saying all those back-handed comments. Backing me up against that door. The way the room felt at that moment. He did all of it just because he could. Now it’s my turn to knock him down. I demean him too.

He is crazy if he thinks I’m going to hold back even the slightest bit.

Another kick makes him almost touch the furthest line. Noticing it, I can see the anger bloom on his reddening face.

Good. Eat shit, Zee, I internally mock.

Growling from deep in his chest, he goes to attack. Rushing me and shooting two double hooks, I can't move quick enough away from him to avoid getting the brunt of his hits.

One makes the connection with my shoulder, the other barely misses and slides past his target, hitting just off its mark. I quickly feign a turn to get out of his reach.

I throw a jab when he comes at me again and I make sure it hits the dead center of his jaw.

“How's that smirk now? Oh no, Zee, it's all gone,” I sass.

“Are we still all good, or are we ending this pettiness, and need to stop?” Uncle Zade hisses, reminding us to play it safe or he will end it completely.

Fuck that! I’m not stopping.

Using the part of the mat to close in on him, I go in for another hit.

“Whoa,” he looks off, his line of sight going over my shoulder causing me to stop in my tracks.

The look he gave has me instinctively turning my head to look at whatever he saw.

Zee takes my lapse in judgment and sucker punches me in the gut. He then picks me up over his shoulder before slamming me back onto the ground.

The air is forced from my chest as I wheeze out on impact. His body weighs a ton, not to mention the strength of his hit on my body.

Fuck, that was good.

I catch myself, momentarily, praising his strategy, then becoming annoyed because of how easily I fell for it.

My face is the red one now.

I try to catch my breath, lying still for a second while he starts to pull off me.

“Since you like spending so much time on your back, I thought I’d be nice and help you feel more at home,” Zee smirks, standing up as he looks down upon me.

WHAT THE FUCK DID HE JUST SAY TO ME?!

White hot anger engulfs my bloodstream like nothing I’ve felt before.

The feeling of it anchoring to me so intensely, I can’t hold it back.

Shooting up to my feet, my eyes locked on Zee’s arrogant retreating body. The word comes from somewhere inside me I have never been to before.

The sound of my voice doesn’t even sound right.

“Burn.”

My arms push outward, aiming toward Zee,

I panic as I feel the power bubble up inside me. Flowing like lava under my skin, racing down my arms until it reaches my fingertips, unable to hold it back.

“NO!” I scream in horror, before I quickly slam my hands to the ground, hitting the center ring right as I feel the power escape my grasp.

What looks like blue flames flow from the palms of my hands in shocking waves, melting the surface below us and continuing like a ripple further out.

“Lilly!” I hear Zee yell for me but I can’t stop it.

Screams come from those closest to the match. The blue flames devour the field and send many of our warriors running away from the scene.

I can hear and see the terror in their faces as they try to escape my attack, fearing for their own lives because of my mistake.

“Lilly, stop!” Uncle Zade yells.

Instead, the wall of my flames grows, taking with it more of the training area and destroying everything in its path.

It hurts and I can’t stop! Goddess, help me!

“Lilly!” Zee yells, trying to step forward to get to me, but the wall of my blue flames won’t allow it.

I can see the pure agony on his face as his skin begins to melt away from the heat of my flames.

No. No! No.

Stop! Stop! Stop!

No!

I don’t want to hurt him!

“Lilly, I’m here! I’m coming for you!” I hear Zee call over the crackling.

Growing with everything it turns to ash.

I don’t want to hurt him.

“No,” I cry, begging him to stay away.

I can feel the tears begin to pour down my face as I watch him ignore his own pain in an attempt to reach me.

Breathe. In.

Breathe. Out.

Stop and breathe.

I swear I hear Zee’s voice inside my head, instructing me. His voice is calm and soothing, and yet when I look at him, his lips never move.

It feels like an eternity, but it is likely only seconds before Zee crosses through the flames and his hand grasps the top of my own.

He lifts his head up and looks calmly into my eyes.

“Lilly, you’re okay. I’m here with you,” he chokes out.

The memory of years ago when we were both children rushes back to my mind. Zee and I must have only been 4 or 5, and he was alone, crying in his room, afraid for his mother when she went into labor. He was inconsolable, so I snuck in and held him and said those exact words to him before humming him to sleep.

The blue fire begins to fade away with the calming memory now in my mind. The color goes first before taking the heat away with it.

“To the castle! Right now! The both of you!” We hear the boom from Uncle Zade from a patch of grass still smoking with gray ash all around him.

My heart breaks the moment I see Uncle Zade's face. That isn’t anger. It’s fear. Fear of me.

I almost burned him alive. I could have killed them both.

They could have died because of me. How could I have done this? How did I even do this?

I didn't want this. I didn't.

I realize this means I have to go back to the pack house and see my father. I have avoided seeing him for months, but I guess there is no way around this now.

My father and I keep our distance from one another. I don’t think it’s intended, we just have a hard time around one another.

He doesn’t see me, he sees my mother when he looks at me and it kills me to see his face so full of anguish when he looks at me.

Both of us have our own thing going on and rarely communicate. Now we have to end the good thing we had going and I’ll have to see that sorrowful look again.

Now I have to explain this to him and I don’t even know why this happened.

I don’t even understand how I could have done this.

I don’t understand anything.

I could have killed everyone and now I have to face my Father.