Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
RIVEN
I couldn't stop touching it.
The braid. Her braid. The one she'd woven into my hair with her own fingers, using strips of fabric from the clothes she'd worn while running, while hiding, while surviving everything the world had thrown at her.
Mine now. She was mine now. They were all ours, but she was also mine, specifically mine, and the proof of it was woven into my hair where I could feel it every time I moved.
I ran my claws along the rough fabric for the hundredth time since she'd left, feeling the texture, breathing in the faint traces of her scent that still clung to the threads.
It wasn't enough. It would never be enough.
I needed her back, needed her here, needed her body pressed against mine so I could convince myself she was real.
"You're going to wear it out if you keep touching it," Vale said, his voice soft with understanding rather than mockery. He was floating nearby, his own braid catching the bioluminescent light, his silver eyes still red-rimmed from crying.
"I don't care," I said, my voice coming out rougher than intended. "Let it wear out. She'll make me another one. She'll make me a hundred. A thousand. However many I want, because she's ours now and she's never leaving."
"She's not ours yet," Kaelan said quietly, and the words hit me like a physical blow. He was hovering at the edge of our group, his dark eyes fixed on the distant surface where she'd disappeared. "Not completely. Not until we get her off that ship."
"Then we get her off the ship," I snarled, my claws extending, rage building in my chest like a living thing. "Tonight. Right now. I'll swim up there and—"
"And what?" Kaelan turned to face me, his expression calm in that infuriating way that meant he was barely holding himself together. "Slaughter the entire crew? Drag her into the water while she's unconscious? She asked for one more night, Riven. We’ll give her one more night."
"One more night is too long," I argued, my tail lashing through the water hard enough to create small currents. "Her heat is coming. Every moment she spends on that ship is another moment something could go wrong. Another moment that bastard Cort could—"
"I know," Kaelan's voice cracked, just slightly, and I saw the facade slip.
Saw the same desperate, clawing fear that lived in my own chest reflected in his dark eyes.
"Don't you think I know? I want to tear that ship apart with my bare hands. I want to kill every alpha and beta on board and carry her into the deep where no one will ever find her. But she asked for time, and we’ll give her what she asks for. Always."
I wanted to argue. Wanted to rage and snarl and demand that we go get her right now, consequences be damned.
But I couldn't. Because Kaelan was right, and we both knew it.
She'd chosen us. She'd braided our hair and declared us hers and said she wanted to stay forever.
But she'd also asked for one more night, and if we couldn't give her that—if we couldn't respect her choices even when they terrified us—then we didn't deserve her.
"Fine," I ground out, the word scraping against my throat like broken coral. "One more night. But the moment the sun sets tomorrow, I'm going to that ship. And if anyone—anyone—has touched her, I will make them suffer in ways they cannot imagine."
"Agreed," Thane said softly, and I turned to look at him in surprise.
Sweet, gentle Thane, who cried at the sight of injured creatures and touched everything like it might break.
His golden-brown eyes were hard now, glittering with something I rarely saw in him.
"If anyone hurts her, I want to help. I want to be there when you—when we—"
"You will be," I promised, swimming closer to him, pressing my forehead against his.
"We'll do it together. The whole pack. No one hurts what's ours and lives.
" He nodded, tears still tracking down his face, but there was steel beneath the softness now.
Steel that Lily had put there, somehow. Steel that made me love him even more than I already did.
"We need a plan," Vale said, ever practical beneath his emotional exterior. He was running his fingers along his own braid, the same compulsive touching I couldn't stop doing. "Not just for getting her off the ship. For after. The transformation. The heat. Everything."
"The transformation has to come first," Kaelan said, his voice steadying as he slipped back into his role as pack alpha. "Before her heat fully hits. If she transforms while in heat, it could be dangerous. The magic might not take properly."
"How long do we have?" I asked, forcing myself to think strategically instead of just wanting to kill things.
"Not long," Vale said grimly. "Her pre-heat symptoms were strong last night.
The suppressants are failing. Once her heat breaks through completely.
.." He didn't need to finish. We all knew what would happen.
Her scent would become irresistible to any alpha or beta within range.
The crew would know exactly what she was.
And there would be nothing she could do to stop them.
"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 she fell 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.