<h4>Chapter 24: Too Late</h4>


    "Are you okay?"


    Truthfully, no. Though Inez waspletely fine physically, her body was aching as if it had been run over by a bus. Every nerve in her body was pulsating, and her head was throbbing like she had spent the night breathing booze.


    Something that Inez had never done. She liked drinking, but she was also scared that she would end up telling the people around her that she was part siren.


    Because of this very reason, she had never drunk a single drop of liquor when she was with someone or somewhere outside. Why? Because sirens were hated and despised for their powers and abilities that had nothing to do with strength.


    Shifters respected the strong and the powerful, while the sirens relied on their beauty and charm to bring the shifters to their knees. In the eyes of shifters, sirens were weak, and they despised weakness.


    There was also a small problem that sirens were connected to water and shifters didn’t like water.


    But as much as they hated sirens, shifters were also attracted to their power of healing. Siren’s tears could be used to bring even the dead back to life. Because of this, many shifters tried to use their overwhelming strength to imprison sirens and make them their ves.


    Inez didn’t want a life simr to that; thus, she had hidden her secret from the pack. She didn’t want to be locked up and forced to cry every day. They would hope that one day she would be able to cry tears of siren.


    And Inez didn’t know much about the lives of ves, but she didn’t fancy one.


    She had also held back from running away from the pack, even though she was treated like shit. Her packmates didn’t trust her; her mate tormented her for a woman who was not even as good as the toothpick that Inez used, and her mother only saw her as a quick and easy way for her son’s inevitable sess.


    But how was she supposed to stay there any longer when her mate had humiliated her in the worst way possible? Not to mention the pain that he had given her wasn’t something that Mia was going to forget in a hurry.


    After what Dominic had done to her, Inez was sure that she would never be able to trust men, especially Alpha men in general. She could still hear his moans and groans, which made bile rise in her throat again.


    "Here," Killian handed her a trash can, which Inez took at once. She hurled whatever was left in her stomach before wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.


    "How long was I out?" she asked. Looking at the golden and orangish glow outside the window, she was sure that she had been knocked out cold for more than just a few hours.


    "For twenty hours," came the prompt reply.


    Shit.


    Inez rubbed her forehead as she looked around the small infirmary. She turned to look at Kin with a questioning gaze, and the man simply shrugged in response. He said to her, "You passed out in the middle of the parking lot. What was I supposed to do? Given the circumstances, I don’t think you would have liked it if I took you back to your pack."


    No, she wouldn’t have.


    True, she and her wolf had craved Dominic like their next breath, but now that this had happened, Inez just knew that it was no longer going to be the same case.


    Shifters were territorial and possessive creatures. Though they could ept their mates’ past before they found out about the mating bond, they would no longer ept another person’s im on their mates once they sensed the bond.


    To make things worse, Inez was part siren. They were arrogant and prideful creatures as they took themselves as the rulers of the sea and the ocean. Pride was something that sirens wore like another skin; this was also the reason why Inez would rather break her spine than her pride.


    Sirens never came second to anyone, and their pride wouldn’t let them take in someone who had discarded and reced them. Whose body had been tainted when it should have belonged to them?


    Since that was the case, she and Dominic were pretty much done. Her wolf would never forgive him, nor would her siren part.


    Of course, sirens were also vengeful, which meant that Inez had to get her ass out of the pack. She could control her siren side just fine, but as she sensed the rage bursting through her veins, she knew that a part of her wanted to rip Dominic’s d*ck and then stuff it in the grinder before cooking it and feeding it to the woman with whom he slept.


    This was a grudge, and sirens never forgot a grudge.


    "Thank you," she said to Killian. Though the man had caused her trouble, he also helped her by bringing her to her pack, and Inez was not going to be ungrateful.


    Killian simply shrugged. He paused for a moment before asking, "What are you going to do now?"


    "I haven’t thought about it. Yet," Inez lied. Though she was grateful towards Killian for bringing her to his pack, she couldn’t trust him. The man was in an alliance with Dominic. Thest thing she needed was that man to find out that she was nning to run away.


    Killian studied her for a moment before nodding. "Alright, I will send you back to your pack—"


    He was still speaking when Inez’s phone started to ring. It was only then that she noticed that Dominic, Luca, ke and Tao had called her countless timesst night. In the past, she would have answered this call in a heartbeat, but —


    ’They are toote,’ Inez thought as she swiped the reject button and switched off her phone. She turned to look at Killian and asked, "Can I take a shower?"