"You want to hear it?" I asked, not quite believing.
"I want to understand," he said, his golden-brown eyes meeting mine. "I want to know what they did. What they deserve. So that when the time comes, I can help."
Something warm bloomed in my chest. Something that felt almost like pride.
"Cort first," I said, my voice dropping into the low, dangerous register I reserved for planning. "He grabbed her wrist hard enough to leave bruises. Cornered her. Watched her like she's prey instead of a person." My claws extended, digging into my own palms. "For him, I want to take my time. Hours. Days, maybe. I want to flay the skin from his hands, since he used them to touch her. Cut out his eyes, since he used them to look at her. Take his tongue, since he used it to threaten her."
"What else?" Thane asked, and his voice didn't waver. Didn't flinch.
"I'll drag him to the deepest trench I can find," I continued, warming to the subject. "Somewhere the pressure is so intense he'll feel like his bones are being crushed. I'll heal him just enough to keep him alive, keep him conscious, keep him feeling everything. And I'll tell him exactly why this is happening. Exactly what he did wrong. Exactly who she belongs to now."
"Good," Thane said quietly, and the word surprised me so much I almost lost my train of thought. "That's good. He deserves that."
"What about the others?" Vale asked, and I turned to find him listening too, his silver eyes dark with something I rarely saw in him. "The ones back on land. Her father. Her mother. Marcus. The people who run the breeding houses."
"They're on the list," I confirmed, my voice hardening. "Every single one of them. Her father first, for selling her. For looking at his own daughter and seeing nothing but gold. For teaching her that she was worthless, that she was property, that she didn't deserve to be loved." I bared my teeth in something that wasn't quite a smile. "For him, I want to be creative. Make him feel what she felt. The helplessness. The fear. The knowledge that the person who was supposed to protect you has become your worst nightmare."
"And Marcus?" Kaelan asked quietly, and I saw the same cold fury in his eyes that I felt in my chest. "The merchant who was going to buy her?"
"Marcus gets the worst of it," I said, my voice dropping to a growl. "Because he didn't just want to own her. He wanted to use her. Breed her. Turn her into nothing but a body for making babies he could sell for profit." My claws dug deeper into my palms, drawing blood that spiraled into the water around me. "For him, I want to take everything. Every part of him that makes him male. Every part of him that he was planning to use on her. And then I want to leave him alive, broken and ruined, so he can spend the rest of his miserable existence knowing what it feels like to be powerless."
Silence fell over us. Heavy. Weighted with the violence I'd just described.
Then Thane spoke again, his voice barely above a whisper.
"I want to help," he said, and there was no hesitation in his tone. "When the time comes. I want to be there. I want to make them hurt the way they hurt her."
"You will be," I promised, reaching out to touch his face, gentle despite the violence still thrumming through my veins. "We'll do it together. All of us. For her."
"For her," Vale echoed, his silver eyes glinting.
"For her," Kaelan agreed, his voice rough with emotion.
I looked at my pack. My family. The three males who had been my entire world for centuries, and who had somehow made room for one more. One human woman who had changed everything just by existing. Just by looking at us and seeing something worth wanting.
"She braided our hair," I said, touching my braid again, unable to help myself. "She claimed us. She said forever."
"She did," Kaelan confirmed, and there was wonder in his voice. Ancient, devastating wonder. "She really did."
"So we protect her," I said, the words coming out fierce and absolute. "From everyone. From everything. From the whole fucking world if we have to. We protect her, we keep her, and we never, ever let her go."
"Never," Thane agreed, his voice thick with tears again. "Not ever."
"Never," Vale echoed, his hand finding mine in the water, squeezing tight.
"Never," Kaelan finished, and the word sounded like a vow. Like a promise. Like the most sacred oath any of us had ever made. We floated in the darkness, watching the distant surface, waiting for the sun to rise and set again so we could finally claim what was ours. I touched my braid one more time, feeling the rough fabric, remembering the way her fingers had felt in my hair, the way she'd looked at me like I was something precious instead of something monstrous.
One more night. Then forever.
The thought carried me through the long hours of waiting. Through the darkness and the cold and the desperate, clawing need to go to her right now, tonight, this very second. She'd asked for time. I would give her time. I would give her anything she asked for, anything she wanted, anything that would make her happy.
Because she was mine now…and I was hers.
And tomorrow, we would finally make it permanent.
Chapter Twenty-Two
LILY
