DAYNE
Dayne finished tucking Talis into bed, and bent to press a kiss to her forehead.
Briefly, he touched the side of her head, still matted with blood from the force of Abel's attack.
Although he'd been tempted to wash her hair for her, she'd looked so peaceful sleeping in the bath that he didn't want to do anything to wake her, especially after the horror-filled stories she'd told him.
Now when she'd told him Abel cutting off the tip off her finger wasn't the worst thing he could have done to her, he understood the relief in her voice.
She'd been expecting to lose even more and counted herself lucky that she hadn't.
The fact she'd been able to drift off to sleep at the tail end of her childhood of terrors still amazed him.
At least, he'd hoped it was the tail-end, since she'd stopped talking just after she'd killed a shifter trying to bite her leg off.
Dayne doubted she'd told him everything.
She hadn't gotten to the part about Uncle Glynn beating the shit out of her, or why she'd been trying to tear Abel's throat out.
And something told Dayne that those parts were going to be hard, if not downright impossible to listen to.
Still, he could guess why Talis had shifted, and why she'd been so determined to kill Abel.
Especially after what she'd said about finding Abel staring at her from the door of her room in the middle of the night.
With a heavy sigh, Dayne straightened from the bed.
He turned and walked out, leaving the lights on since he couldn't stomach the idea of turning the light off and having Talis think she was back in the basement for a single fucking second.
Luka was waiting for him outside, his back against the wall, and his arms crossed. A smile touched his lips. "Alpha dick, huh?"
Despite himself, Dayne found himself smiling. "Fuck off."
Just before he closed the door, he stared in at Talis lying bruised and battered in bed, but looking more at ease than she had before. "She's the strongest person I know," he breathed.
"That we know," Luka corrected him. "For her to have survived all that…" He shook his head.
Dayne didn't say a word. He turned and started downstairs, Luka following. "We need to start thinking about how-Dayne? Dayne, where are you going?"
He shoved the front door open, ignoring his pack as they emerged from the den to find out what was going on.
Dayne tore his shirt off. "To gut Abel, and when I'm done with him-"
"You can't-"
Before Luka could react, Dayne had him pinned against the wall with his hand locked around his throat. "Don't you fucking dare tell me what I can and cannot do," he snarled.
"Dayne?"
At Savannah's low voice, he glanced at her and looked away. "Don't interfere, Savannah."
"Dayne you can't just go off like this on your own," she said.
He growled. "Again with the can't. You're treading a dangerous path. I'd step off it if I were you."
"You wouldn't hurt me," she said.
She was right, he wouldn't. But he had no intention of hurting her. He had no intention of doing anything except going after Abel and Glynn Merrick and putting them out of their misery.
Dayne dropped his hand from Luka's throat and turned to leave without another word.
He'd had enough of words. It was time for action.
"She's going to need you," Savannah said, her words stopping him in his tracks.
Dayne didn't respond, and he didn't turn around.
"We heard," she said. "And I know. You know I know. She's going to need you when she wakes up."
Anger surged through him, and he spun around with a snarl on his lips.
"They need to die. Now. Right this fucking second. They need to suffer and they need to die for what they've done."
Savannah nodded, looking untouched by his rage. "And they will. But right now, Talis needs you. Your mate needs you. None of us can do for her what she needs you-her mate-to do."
None of them could. Dayne knew that.
They might be on the way to caring for her, to viewing her as pack, but no one knew Talis like he did.
None of them knew when she was trying to hide, and when she lashed out because of fear or pain. None of them could read her the way he could. None of them knew what she needed the way he did.
"Dayne?" Luka asked, when he did nothing but stand there.
"One night," he snarled, turning his back on Glynn Merrick and Abel. "One night."
He started back up the stairs. To Talis. To his mate.
"Then, they die."