DAYNE
Three Months Later
"Luka, where the hell is she?"
Luka turned away from the football game in the den. "Oh, I think she went for a run." At the sound of a roar from the TV, his attention swung back to the game.
Dayne glared at his beta, even though it wasn't Luka he was pissed at.
"I told her to wait for me. I was nearly done with the paperwork," he growled.
"I think she got tired of waiting," Luka said, sounding distracted and not taking his gaze away from the TV.
"But I had plans," he muttered. "Big ones."
After growling again, Dayne turned, ready to go hunt out his mate.
Only the second he'd stepped out into the hallway, Savannah burst through the front door, naked with her long blonde hair forming a cape around her.
Dayne caught sight of something on her neck that had him frowning before the scent of her fear snapped him to attention.
"Savannah, what is it?" He barked as she threw herself at him and cast a desperate glance behind her.
Dayne felt Luka's approach from behind him, even as more of his pack emerged from the kitchen to discover what had upset Savannah.
"There was someone…" Savannah panted, sounding like she'd been running as if her life had depended on it. "I caught the scent of shifters. Merrick pack."
Talis was out there, running. Pregnant. Alone. And there were Merrick pack shifters on his land.
Again.
It wasn't hard to guess what they'd want after his pack had killed half of them, while the others had disappeared.
His attempt to reach out for Talis through the mate bond had no effect.
It could mean something was wrong, or most likely, he'd pissed Talis off by spending too long in his office and she'd shut the bond down tight.
Which meant he'd just have to hunt her down the old-fashioned way, with his nose. "Luka-"
His beta cut him off, "you go. We'll follow."
Dayne took a moment to run his eyes over Savannah to make sure she was okay before he passed her over to Luka.
Then he was tugging his shirt over his head as he jogged out of the house and down the front steps, shedding his boots and the rest of his clothes as he went.
His shift swept over him a second later, and he had her scent almost at once.
He wasn't surprised to find it leading toward the lake, since she spent more time there than she did anywhere else.
When Dayne wasn't trying to close off the financial dealings that had destroyed the Merrick pack completely, he liked to join her for a run and a nap beside the lake.
But this time, it wasn't just a run he'd wanted to go on with her. He'd planned to take her somewhere.
In minutes he'd reached the lake, only she wasn't there, though he spotted a pair of denim shorts and a t-shirt neatly folded under the tree.
With summer fast approaching, although it would have made more sense for her to not bother with clothes at all, Dayne knew she was still working on becoming less insecure about her nakedness. But that would take time.
Already, she'd made more progress than he'd have thought in only a few months after almost a lifetime of Glynn Merrick making her feel worthless.
As he was turning away from the lake, he heard Talis' voice, and she sounded on the edge of an explosion.
"I don't fucking care," she snapped.
"Talis, please, you don't understand… we didn't have a choice we-"
It was a female voice. One Dayne didn't remember hearing, and he crossed the clearing and rounded a couple of trees.
When he saw Talis stood facing down an equally naked older female shifter, and two younger guys, he shifted.
And although everything in him wanted to gut the male shifters for being so close to his pregnant mate, Talis sounded like she'd have loved nothing more than to do it herself, he held himself back.
He didn't recognize their scents from their fight with the Merrick pack months ago, which meant they must have slipped away either before or during the fight.
Dayne turned his focus away from the Merrick shifters and to Talis, who was trembling with anger.
"I was a child. You should have been protecting me, not looking to save your own asses. And my parents, how do you think they would have felt knowing you joined in torturing me instead of protecting me?"
They lowered their gazes to the ground. But Dayne could see it wasn't enough for her. She glared at them with a level of fury Dayne could feel from where he stood.
He almost felt sorry for them.
"We tried, we-"
"All you cared about was yourself. You didn't come close to trying hard enough," she snarled.
When Dayne saw the claws emerging from the tips of her fingers, he knew Talis was losing control.
For the shifters to approach Talis now was the worst time for any of the Merrick pack to come sniffing around looking for mercy.
Talis could be hot-tempered at the best of times, but with her being pregnant? Often, she'd explode at him for no reason he could think of, and just as suddenly burst into tears.
"If I were you," Dayne said, stepping out of the shade of the tree, startling the shifters who'd been so focused on Talis they'd missed his presence. "I would walk away since not even I will be enough to save you from my mate's fury."
As he approached them, they backed up.
When he reached Talis' side, she didn't take her eyes from them, and she didn't reveal even a hint of her emotions through the mate bond.
He guessed she must still be pissed at him for spending too much time in the office.
Since it always seemed to ease her, he placed a hand on her lower back, the exact spot that she seemed to complain about aching in the morning.
Usually massaging her in that spot soothed her, or at least got him back in her good graces, but this time she turned to leave without so much as a glance in his direction.
"You can deal with them," she said.
"Talis, please-" The older female shifter stepped forward as if to stop Talis from leaving.
Stupid, Dayne thought, the second before Talis moved.
All he had time to do was blink before Talis had her pinned to the ground with her hand wrapped around the woman's throat, and her claws pressed tight against her skin.
Gently, Talis squeezed and blood beaded on the woman's neck.
"You're pissing me off, Maria," Talis growled.
Dayne knew if he could see into her eyes, they'd have gone wolf.
No one moved, and no one said a word.
"Talis?" Dayne said.
She ignored him.
After several seconds passed, Talis' claws retracted, and she rose to her feet.
Then she turned and walked away. Back toward the lake. "My mate can deal with you. I… I don't give a flying fuck about you anymore. Come back again and I'll end you."
Which left the three shifters staring at him.
The woman picked herself from the ground and massaged her neck as she backed away.
"Get off my land," Dayne snarled and turned to go after Talis.
"But we don't have anywhere to go. We don't have-"
"I don't give a shit where you go. Just as long as it isn't here." Dayne didn't even bother to turn to face them.
One of the male shifters snarled as he walked away. "They said you were cold-blooded."
Dayne stopped. "For years, you stood by and watched as Talis was beaten, tortured, and damn near raped. And you did nothing. Not one fucking thing. And you have the balls to call me cold-blooded?" He turned so they could see the wolf in his eyes. "You heard my mate. Get the fuck away from here or I will take you apart."
The scent of their fear hung in the air for a second before they turned and ran.
"Luka?" Dayne turned his head to the dense trees in the opposite direction the shifters had fled.
His beta emerged. And he wasn't alone. He'd brought the rest of the pack with him. "Make sure they do. And not just our land. Hardin too. I don't want them settling anywhere near here."
The lean brown wolf nodded his head and took off after the three shifters, taking the rest of the pack with him.
Dayne found her stood facing the lake.
"Talis?" he called.
She didn't respond.
He didn't bother calling her again. Instead, he stalked over to her, grabbed her arm, and tugged her hard enough for her to crash into his chest.
Dayne waited for the inevitable explosion since her biggest complaint recently seemed to be how much he loved hauling her about.
He couldn't even deny it.
But this time there was no explosion.
Talis wrapped her arms around him and pressed her face against his neck. Her face was wet.
Glaring into the forest in the direction the shifters had taken, Dayne raised a hand and stroked it down her hair.
"I knew I should have killed them," he growled.
There was a long pause, and then she sniffed. "I love you."
As always, something inside him softened whenever she told him.
He pressed his lips against her hair. "Are those pregnancy hormones again? Or do you mean it this time?"
She peeled her face away from his chest and blinked watery eyes at him. "I always mean it."
He grinned.
She glared viciously at him. "Sometimes, more than others."
"Wow," he muttered, "and I didn't even have to say anything this time."
Talis raised herself on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips before she pulled away, far sooner than he wanted her to. "You were looking too smug. I didn't like it."
Since Dayne couldn't think of anything else to say that wouldn't piss her off, he grabbed her hand and pulled. "Come on. I have to show you something."
He didn't bother to ask if she was okay. He knew her. She'd be fine. And if she wasn't, he'd know that too.
"Okay." Talis followed along in silence.
"I wasn't expecting you to just agree like that," he told her, tugging her closer so their bodies brushed against each other.
She grinned up at him. "I know. Drives you crazy, doesn't it?"
Dayne grumbled under his breath as he led the way through the forest to the area he'd warned the pack away from since the trees made the area dangerous.
At least that was what he'd told Talis.
"Where are we going?" she asked after they'd been walking for several minutes in silence.
"It's a surprise."
"I thought it was dangerous here. Because of the trees falling without warning."
"I lied," he admitted simply. "Well, they fall but not without warning."
When he felt her resistance and sensed her anger stirring, he tugged her around the last tree and pointed.
"I wanted to surprise you with this."
Talis stopped moving. She stared in wide-eyed amazement at the log cabin set in a small clearing. "It's the cabin from the picture on your laptop," she murmured.
Dayne tugged her toward the small structure. It was only one room, similar in size to Savannah's cabin, but it had two floors instead of one.
That had been the reason for the delay in getting his surprise ready for her.
"Yeah. It's a little different from what I'd planned. But I think you'll like it better this way. Come on inside, I want to show you the top floor."
Beside him, Talis was completely silent as he led her inside the one-room cabin with natural wood, tartan throws and blankets, a homemade bookcase, and other furnishings from a local carpenter who'd made a lot of the pieces for the main house.
Her expression was utterly blank, and she still wasn't letting him get even the smallest hint of emotion through the mate bond.
He led her through the room with its snug kitchenette, small bed, and living area, and to a narrow staircase for the second floor, or mezzanine area.
They climbed the stairs and emerged into a space about half the size as downstairs.
There, Dayne gave Talis a second to take in the floor he'd covered with a small mountain of blankets, throws, and cushions before he led her to the small double balcony doors.
The balcony had been the bane of this project and cost more money, more time, and been nothing but a headache to construct.
He pushed the double doors open, and they stepped out onto the balcony.
Then Dayne glanced into Talis' face and knew it'd all been worth it.
Her face was bathed in tears.
"Dayne…" Her voice was a whisper.
"Yes, baby?" He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer.
"I can see the Rockies."
"Hmmm."
"Dayne?"
"Yes, Talis?"
"Why did you bring me to this cabin in the woods?"
"It's not just a cabin in the woods. It's your cabin in the woods. Your sanctuary when you want somewhere quiet to go when the house gets too loud."
Talis sniffed as she pressed her cheek against his chest and wrapped her arms around him. "Was this cabin here all this time?"
"No. I had it built. You remember me mentioning tree felling in your first pack meeting, right? Hence the need for everyone to stay away from this part of the forest. All I can say is it's a good thing you sleep so late otherwise I have no idea how we'd have explained all the sounds of building work from you."
"So." She cleared her throat. "Are you telling me you built me a cabin in the woods with a view of the Rockies to function as my sanctuary?"
"Mmmm."
"Dayne?" She peeled her face from his chest and lifted her head.
Although her eyes were wet with tears, she had the most beautiful smile on her face. As always, it left him feeling stunned she was his.
He tucked a lock of hair behind one ear. "Yes, baby?"
"I was going to make you wear the frilly apron and serve me milk and cookies as payback, but I don't think I will now. This is… I have no words."
Dayne laughed. He couldn't not. Then he bent and scooped her in his arms and headed inside.
"As long as I don't have to wear that apron, I have no complaints about doing just that." He lowered her on the rugs and blankets strewn over the floor but left the balcony doors open so she could still have a view of the mountains from inside.
"Are you saying that…" Her voice trailed off as Dayne pressed a brief kiss on her lips, then slowly kissed his way down her body.
Her fingers clutched at his hair as he settled for several long moments on her breasts, fuller now than they'd been before, and much more sensitive if the hungry moans she was making were anything to go by.
But he continued down her body, pausing to press a kiss against her rounded belly.
"Dayne?"
He lifted his head and met her eye. "Yes, love?"
She smiled at him with such love, such happiness, and then he could feel it. All her love pouring out of her. The same feeling, no, more intense than what she'd sent him when she and the Blackshaw pack had come after him in Dawley.
"I know," he said. And then he bundled up all his love and sent it back to her.
When her smile widened, he knew she felt it.
Then he lowered his head and focused on showing her in other ways.
Ways guaranteed to make her scream.