CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
We don't talk that day or the next.
Instead, after we eat leftovers from the BBQ, Dayne carries me back up to our room and we spend the rest of the day and most of the night in bed.
The pack doesn't come back, and even Luka stays away.
I can only guess Dayne has told them to because of my nearly attacking Savannah, which I'm grateful for since I'm sure I'd only do it again if she were around.
And every time he tries to get me to talk, I find a reason to change the subject, or I shift. Or I hide in the forest and run for hours and hours until he has to come and find me.
When I open my eyes, I know even before I roll over that Dayne isn't about to let me slip away again. It seems his patience has finally run out.
Turning over, I meet his gaze.
"No more running away."
Wow, so not even a good morning first.
"I just need to use the bathroom," I lie as I get up.
I'm planning on making a run for it the second I'm within feet of the bedroom door, but Dayne doesn't need to know that.
"After we talk." His hand lands on my bare hip.
Fuck.
Once again, I'm naked since Dayne has been ripping every shirt I attempt to pull on before bed out of my hand.
"About the pack?" I ask, meeting his gaze.
"No." His gaze searches my face as if he's looking for something, only I can't tell what it is. "About something else."
My heart drops. "You mean my uncle then."
I knew it was coming, this talk. The moment I reveal everything uncle did to me. And there'll be no hiding any of it as-like all mates-he'll be able to tell if I'm lying.
Especially, since I felt the strands of our mate bond tightening after we had sex in his office.
"No." He clears his throat. "About your shifting. And about… something else as well."
Shit.
Even talking about my uncle is preferable to talking about my shifting. If Dayne learns it's mostly my wolf controlling all my changes and not me, then it's only a matter of time before he has to do something about it.
He's already sent the rest of the pack away because I tried to kill one of them. They're pack-his pack-which means they'll eventually have to come back, and if I prove to be a threat to them, then he's going to have to do something about the threat. About me.
"There's nothing to talk about."
"Well, about that, I think you're wrong. I think there's a lot to talk about."
"Really?" I ask, playing dumb.
His eyes narrow. "Talis," he growls.
Grabbing his hand, I try to peel it off my hip. "Don't you dare Talis me. Not when you never tell me anything. All you do is stay locked up in the office with Luka all day. Now let go."
My inability to move Dayne is starting to really piss me off. "I said, let go."
"Not until we talk."
"Stop touching me, and then we'll talk."
Dayne raises an eyebrow. "I think we both know the second I let go of you, you'll be down the stairs and in the lake, trying to hide your scent so I can't find you."
Busted.
"I was swimming. It's not my fault you couldn't find me after."
At first, he looks furious, likely picking up my lie, but then his anger just… falls away.
Mmm. Suspicious, much?
I narrow my eyes at him, suspecting he's up to something but not having any idea what it could be.
"Okay, fine." He lifts his hand off my hip, but before I can even think of moving, he's hauled me closer and has me lying under him with his hands braced on either side of my head. Then he smirks down at me. "I've let go now. Let's talk."
"Get off."
"I could find other ways to make you talk," he says, his eyes going to my mouth and moving one hand so his fingers dance over my breast. Although I feel myself responding to his touch, I force myself to stiffen.
"Fine then, let's fuck," I say, glaring up at him.
"That's the third time you've called it that," he says, narrowing his eyes. "Us fucking."
"I didn't realize you were keeping count. Anyway, what else would you call it? It's not like-"
Now Dayne's the one doing the glaring. "Don't you fucking dare finish that sentence."
Shoving at him when he doesn't move, I feel my anger stirring. "And what sentence might that even be? Since when did you become a mind reader?"
"Because I know you. I know what you're thinking."
"Do you now? And what am I thinking?"
"I'm thinking that you're pushing me away. Trying to make this into nothing more than sex."
"And isn't it?" I give up struggling since Dayne, when he really wants me to stay put, is impossible to move. "Then perhaps you might enlighten me what exactly we are?"
"Mates, Talis. We are mates."
"Mates," I snarl, getting close up into his face, "who share nothing except a fucking bed."
Silence. And not the intimidating kind.
I never expected to get the best of Dayne in an argument, but there you go, miracles do happen.
"That's what you think?" he asks, his voice soft.
"That's what I know. Now, let me up."
Surprisingly, he shifts off me and I surge to my feet before snatching up the shirt Dayne tossed on the floor when I tried to wear it to bed.
As soon as I get to the bathroom, I slam the door shut behind me and sag against it, grateful beyond measure he let me go.
In the mirror, my eyes shift from brown to silver and I fight back a need to change. While Dayne seems convinced there's nothing wrong with my wolf, I know better. Something is wrong with her, and with me. Only I have no idea what it is.
Loading up my toothbrush, I brush my teeth and then head for the shower.
I make it halfway before a painful need to shift has me crying out in surprise and dropping to my knees as I fight the urge back.
In a second, Dayne is there, smoothing my hair from my face as my body goes from hot to cold, then back again. It feels like I'm burning up, and I push Dayne away because he's only adding to my heat.
"Talis-"
"I'm fine."
"You are not fine."
Tension rises at his words.
Right now, the last thing I need is for him to be blaming me for doing this to myself. I know it's my fault, and I don't need to hear it. I broke my wolf. I unbalanced myself. Now I have to face the consequences of that.
Even if it means Dayne will have to kill me because I can't control myself.
"Let go, I need to shower."
"We need to talk," he says, ignoring me.
"No." I attempt to brush him off. "We don't."
"Talis, will you for one fucking-"
With no warning, I'm shifting, giving Dayne seconds to yank his hand away. And then I'm in my wolf shape with my ripped shirt lying around me.
It can't be a good sign that this shift came as much of a surprise to me as it did Dayne, can it?
Dayne stares at me for a long moment, then scrubs a hand over his deeply furrowed brow.
"Okay, fine. Maybe this way you can't argue back at me, and you can't leave since I closed the bathroom door."
I glare at him. Considering this is what he wanted-me to discover my alpha self, for him to be complaining about me arguing seems a bit rich.
"So, how about it?" His hand strokes over my fur as he gazes into my eyes, sounding uncharacteristically hesitant. "Will you listen?"
Snarling in his face, I tear myself free and stalk over to the bathroom door, growling.
"I guess not," he says and sighs.
I growl again because Dayne isn't paying attention. To me, or his nose.
"Change back," he says, sounding tired, "and then you wouldn't have a problem with opening the door."
I turn to face him, curling my lip at him. Then I inhale deeply and give him a significant look. But then I'm picking up a new scent, an unfamiliar one.
With only me and Dayne in the bathroom, it has to be one of us, and I'm sure his scent hasn't changed. But why would mine?
Dayne's sudden growl distracts me, and then I don't have time to follow the threads of my thoughts. He's finally understood what I've been trying to tell him.
There's someone in the house.
A stranger.
I don't quite know how Dayne manages it. But through a combination of speed, a well-placed tread on my paw, and brute force, I find myself still in the bathroom even though I'm sure I charged out the second he yanked it open.
I hear him hammering down the hallway and sprinting down the stairs.
Dayne knew there was danger, and he left me behind to confront it alone? And I can't even shift because I'm not sure if my wolf will even let me, and second, he knew I'd be trapped in here until I do since I can't open the door.
I fill the house with my howl of fury as I throw myself at the door.
Since mine and Dayne's mate bond is still only just forming, I'm not able to get any emotions from him. Just a vague sort of awareness of him when he's in the house, or when he's close by. But when what little awareness I have of him is very suddenly cut off, I stop howling and stare at the door.
It's as if Dayne left the house. But why would he do that when there was a stranger inside?
Unless it was to chase them out.
But then, I hear the tread of someone coming up the stairs, and I know it's not Dayne, nor is it any of the pack.
There's no way Dayne would leave the house with a stranger in it, not after he'd trapped me in the bathroom.
I'm going to assume it was his stupid alpha way of trying to protect me, even if he did step on my paw to do it. Which means something is wrong. Something has happened to him.
My back legs tense as I ready myself to launch at the man as soon as he opens the door. I know it's a man from the way he walks, even if I'm not picking up any scent from him, which is… more than a little weird.
But, whatever.
It doesn't matter who he is because I have a feeling he's done something to Dayne, and that is not okay. Not my mate. So, he has to die, whoever he is.
The stranger shoves the door open.
Only I don't spring forward. I stumble back. Already I'm cowering, whining low in fear as he steps into the bathroom.
Slowly the figure approaches and crouches down in front of me.
My wolf has only ever behaved this way with one man before.
One.
And I still have no idea what he did to her to make her so afraid. All I know is, for the first and only time, I have no memory of my time as a wolf. It's as if she shut the human side of me out, or the bad is so bad, I've blocked it out.
Either way, whatever it is, it can't be good. Not when the only memory I have is the rage I felt as my wolf did everything it could to kill him.
"Ah, I see you still remember who's your alpha." Uncle Glynn grins as he reaches a hand toward me.
And then my human side wakes up.
The newly discovered alpha part at least, and I growl, preparing to attack.
But too late, I see the needle in his hand and feel the sharp jab in my neck. Whatever is in it fills my head with confusion.
A bubble of strangeness surrounds me, and I sink back on my haunches as I shake my head. Struggling but failing to clear away a rising fog.
Uncle Glynn's face is twisted. His eyes black, and his smile a vicious thing.
"Time to go home, Talis."
Everything swirls and dips, and suddenly the ground reaches up and smacks me in the face.
And then my world goes black.