"Then we move fast," I said, my mind racing through possibilities. "Tomorrow night. Sundown. We get her off the ship, bring her to the deep caves, transform her immediately. She can ride out her heat as one of us."
"The transformation is probably going to be painful," Thane said quietly, his voice thick with concern. "If her heat hits while she's changing..."
"Then we'll be there to help her through it," Kaelan said firmly. "All of us. We'll keep her safe, keep her comfortable, and when it's over, she'll be ours completely. Siren. Pack. Mate."
Mate.
The word sent a shiver down my spine. I'd never had a mate. Never thought I would. Who would want someone like me—scarred and brutal and barely civilized? I was good for fighting, for killing, for protecting. Not for gentleness. Not for love.
She'd looked at me like I was beautiful. She'd touched my scars like they were precious instead of horrifying. She'd braided her claim into my hair and called me hers.
I touched the braid again, feeling the rough fabric against my claws.
Hers. I was hers. And tomorrow night, she would be ours.
"What about the Alpha…Cort?" I asked, my voice dropping into the register I used when planning violence. "He's been watching her. Getting closer. He knows something's different about her."
"He's a problem," Kaelan admitted, his jaw tightening. "Not one we can solve tonight, though. Tomorrow, when we take her, Vale will handle the crew's memories. They'll think shefell overboard in a storm. Or never existed at all. Whatever's cleanest."
"And Cort?" I pressed, already knowing what I wanted the answer to be. Kaelan met my eyes, and I saw the same cold rage that lived in my chest reflected in his gaze.
"Cort remembers everything," he said quietly. "He remembers her, remembers losing her, remembers that something took her before he could do anything to her. And then..." A pause. A breath. "Then you can have him."
The smile that spread across my face wasn't pleasant. I knew that. Could feel how it stretched the scars on my cheeks, how it showed too many teeth, how it made me look like exactly like the monster I was.
"Thank you," I said, and I meant it. Meant it more than I'd meant almost anything in my long, violent life.
"Just promise me you'll wait," Kaelan said, his voice carrying a hint of warning. "Until she's safe. Until she's transformed. Until she's ours completely. Then you can go back for him."
"I promise," I said, and the words tasted like anticipation on my tongue. "I'll wait. I'll be patient. I'll be so fucking patient it'll make your head spin." My claws extended, catching the light. "And then I'll take my time with him. Make sure he understands exactly what happens to alphas who touch what doesn't belong to them."
"We should rest," Vale said, his voice cutting through the darkness of my thoughts. "Tomorrow will be difficult. We'll need our strength." He was right. I knew he was right. But the thought of sleeping, of closing my eyes and not seeing her, not touching her, not knowing if she was safe...
"I can't," I admitted, the words scraping out of me like they were being pulled by force. "I can't sleep. Not tonight. Not with her up there, alone, with him."
"Then we keep watch," Thane said softly, swimming to my side and pressing his body against mine. "Together. All of us. We watch the ship until she comes back to us." It was ridiculous. The ship was hundreds of feet above us, invisible from this depth. There was nothing to see, nothing to do, nothing that watching would actually accomplish.
When Kaelan nodded, Vale drifted closer and Thane pressed even tighter against my side, I felt something in my chest loosen. Just slightly. Just enough to breathe.
"Together," I agreed, my voice rough. "We watch together." We arranged ourselves in a loose formation, facing the direction of the ship. Waiting. Watching. Counting the hours until she would be ours.
I touched my braid again, feeling the rough fabric, breathing in the fading traces of her scent.
One more night.
I could survive one more night.
The hours passed slowly. Too slowly. Each minute felt like a century, each second like a lifetime. I kept my eyes fixed on the distant darkness above us, imagining the ship, imagining her in it, imagining all the ways things could go wrong.
She was sleeping in her hammock. Or she was awake, thinking of us. Or she was?—
No. I wouldn't let myself think about the other possibilities. Wouldn't let myself imagine Cort cornering her, touching her, putting his filthy hands on what was mine.
She was fine. She was safe. She was counting the hours until she could come back to us, just like we were counting the hours until we could go get her.
"Tell me about the kill list," Thane said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper. "The one you keep for the people who've hurt her."
I glanced at him in surprise. Thane usually didn't want to hear about violence. He normally looked away when I talked about the things I wanted to do to the people who threatened our pack.
