Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
THANE
I couldn't stop smiling. We swam through the dark water, the four of us moving in easy formation through depths we'd traveled a thousand times before.
The moon was high above the surface, its light filtering down in silver shafts that barely reached us.
We should have been hunting, or patrolling our territory, or doing any of the things we normally did after nightfall.
Instead, we were swimming in circles, too restless to settle, too full of something bright and overwhelming to focus on anything else.
Lily.
Her name was a song in my chest, a melody I couldn't stop humming.
Lily, with her tangled hair and worn clothes and eyes that held so much wonder it made my heart ache.
Lily, who had jumped from the ship without hesitation, who had trusted us to catch her, who had breathed underwater like she'd been born to it.
Lily, who had let us touch her. Who had leaned into Riven's arms like she belonged there.
Who had held my hand like it was something precious.
"You're doing it again." Vale's voice cut through my thoughts, amused and teasing.
He swam up beside me, his silver hair streaming behind him, his sharp smile soft in the darkness.
His blue-green eyes caught the faint moonlight, glinting with humor.
"That look on your face. Like someone hit you over the head with a very pleasant rock. "
"I can't help it." I didn't even try to deny it.
What would be the point? They all knew. They all felt it too.
I could see it in the way Riven kept touching the pink ribbon at his chest, in the way Kaelan's hand drifted to the pouch at his hip, in the way Vale's sharp edges had softened into something almost gentle.
"She was... she was everything, Vale. More than everything. "
"She was." Vale's voice lost its teasing edge, going quiet and sincere in a way he rarely allowed himself to be.
He tilted his head, silver hair swirling around him.
"When she said my name for the first time, when she heard my voice and looked at me like that—" he broke off, pressing his hand to his chest like he could feel the echo of it still.
"I've sung for centuries. Lured ships. Drowned sailors.
Made creatures weep with the beauty of my voice.
" His blue-green eyes met mine, raw and wondering.
"None of it ever felt like that. Like she was hearing me for the first time. Like my voice finally meant something."
Riven made a sound low in his throat, agreement, understanding, something that vibrated through the water between us.
He swam closer, his massive body a warm presence in the cool depths, his golden eyes burning even in the darkness.
The pink ribbon was still clutched against his chest, like he couldn't bear to let it go even for a moment.
"She didn't flinch." His rough voice was soft, almost wondering.
His scarred face was twisted with an emotion I couldn't quite name.
"When I touched her. When I held her. She didn't pull away, didn't tense up, didn't look at me like I was a monster.
" His claws extended slightly, digging into his own palm.
"She leaned into me. Like she wanted to be there. Like she felt safe."
"She does feel safe with us." Kaelan's voice came from ahead, and we all turned to look at our pack leader.
He had stopped swimming, hovering in the water with his obsidian tail moving in slow, contemplative arcs.
His pale skin seemed to glow faintly in the darkness, and his dark eyes were distant, thoughtful.
"I could feel it. When I held her in the water, when I caught her after she jumped—there was no fear in her.
Not of us. Not of drowning. Not of any of it. "
"She's afraid of something, though," I said quietly, hating the words even as they left my mouth.
It was true. We'd all seen it. The way she looked over her shoulder before coming to the railing.
The way she flinched at sudden movements on the ship.
The way she'd mouthed apologies through three days of not being able to come to us, her eyes full of frustration and something that looked like trapped desperation.
"Something on that ship. Something…or someone that she's hiding from. "
Silence fell over us, heavy and uncomfortable. We'd been dancing around this for days—weeks, really, ever since we'd first realized what she was. An omega. A human omega, hiding on a fishing boat, wearing scent blockers, pretending to be something she wasn't.
Why? Among our kind, omegas were treasured. Protected. Worshipped. The thought of one hiding, running, disguising herself, it didn't make sense. It was like finding a pearl buried in mud, like discovering a songbird with clipped wings. Wrong. Fundamentally, deeply wrong.
And worse than wrong, obscene. We'd watched her work.
Watched her haul ropes and scrub decks and carry loads that would strain a creature twice her size.
We'd seen her calloused hands, her worn clothes, the dark circles under her eyes that spoke of too little sleep and too much labor.
An omega. Working herself to exhaustion.
The memories made me sick. Made all of us sick.
Riven had nearly lost control when he'd realized what those calluses meant, had snarled and raged and sworn to burn the ship to the waterline with every human on it.
Kaelan had gone so still and cold that even the witch had noticed, had commented on the murder in his eyes.
Vale hadn't spoken for hours, just wound her ribbon through his fingers and stared at the ship with an expression that promised violence.
I had felt something ancient and terrible stir in my chest. Something that wanted to rise up, take her and never let her work another day in her life. Omegas didn't work. Omegas were cherished. The very concept of our Lily laboring while we circled helplessly in the water below...
"We need to find out what's happening." Kaelan's voice was hard, decisive, the voice of a pack leader making a decision.
His dark eyes had gone sharp, focused, all that contemplative softness burning away into something fierce and protective.
"We need to understand why she's running.
What she's running from. And then we need to fix it. "
"How?" Riven's golden eyes were blazing, his massive body tense with barely contained energy. His tail lashed the water, sending currents swirling around us. "She hasn't told us anything. We don't even know where she came from, why she's on that ship, what—"
"She will." Vale's voice was certain, calm in a way that made the rest of us pause.
He was swimming in slow circles, his silver hair trailing behind him like a banner, his blue-green eyes thoughtful.
"She gave us her name tonight. She jumped into our arms without hesitation.
She let us touch her, hold her, show her our world.
" His sharp smile curved his lips, but there was something tender beneath it.
"She's learning to trust us. And when she trusts us enough, she'll tell us everything. "
"What if it's something we can't fix?" The question slipped out before I could stop it, and I felt the others turn to look at me. I pressed my hand to the cream ribbon at my throat, drawing comfort from its familiar softness. "What if she's running from something too big, too dangerous, too—"
"Then we'll destroy it." Riven's voice was a snarl, rough and savage and absolutely certain.
His claws were fully extended now, glinting in the faint light, and his golden eyes burned with a ferocity that would have terrified anyone else.
"Whatever it is. Whoever it is. We'll tear it apart.
We'll drown it. We'll make it so it can never hurt her again. "
"Agreed." Kaelan's voice was quiet, but it carried the weight of absolute conviction. His pale hand had drifted to the pouch at his hip, fingers curling around the pearl inside. "There is nothing on that ship, nothing in the human world, nothing anywhere that we won't destroy to keep her safe."
I nodded, feeling the same fierce protectiveness rising in my own chest. Sweet, gentle Lily, with her uncertain smiles, her lonely songs and her eyes full of wonder.
The thought of anyone hurting her, scaring her, making her run, it made something dark and dangerous stir in the depths of my soul.
Something I usually kept carefully buried.
"Did you see how she looked at the reef?" I asked, letting the memory wash over me, letting it soften the hard edges of my anger. "The way her face lit up. The way she said it was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen."
"She cried in the glowing cave." Vale's voice was soft, almost reverent.
"Tears, underwater. I didn't know humans could do that.
But when she looked at the bioluminescence, tears streamed from her eyes and she said she didn't have words.
" His sharp smile trembled slightly. "I've never wanted to give someone words before.
Never wanted to find the perfect poem, the perfect song, just to put language to what they were feeling.
But for her—" He broke off, shaking his head.
"For her, I'd compose a thousand verses. A million. However many it took."
"She held my hand the whole time." My voice came out thick, choked with emotion I couldn't quite contain.
I looked down at my own hand, remembering the feel of her small fingers interlaced with mine, the way she'd squeezed when something amazed her, the way she hadn't let go even when she could have.
"Like it was the most natural thing in the world. Like she'd been doing it forever."