"She's our mate," Kaelan added, his voice cold as the deepest ocean. He stood behind Cort now, one hand resting almost casually on the man's shoulder—a mockery of comfort that made Cort flinch. "Bonded to us in ways your simple human mind could never comprehend. She'll live for centuries at our side, loved and protected and worshipped. And you'll be nothing but a forgotten nightmare. A stain we washed from her memory."
I was methodical about the rest. I'd had centuries to learn exactly how much a body could endure before itbroke completely. Every time he started to slip toward unconsciousness, I'd pull back, let him recover just enough to feel the next wave of agony.
I opened cuts on his arms, his legs, his torso—none of them fatal, all of them agonizing. Kaelan added his own contributions, breaking ribs with precisely calculated blows, dislocating joints with cold efficiency. We worked in tandem, predators who had hunted together for centuries, now united in the singular purpose of making this man suffer.
"You know what the worst part is?" I asked, carving another line into his flesh. "She almost didn't tell us. She was so ashamed, so afraid, that she almost kept it to herself." I gripped his face, forcing him to look at me through swollen, blood-crusted eyes. "You made her feel like it was her fault. Like she had done something to deserve your attention."
Something shifted in my chest—a rage so pure, so absolute, that for a moment I couldn't breathe around it. My Lily. My sweet, brave omega. Carrying shame that should never have been hers.
I looked at Kaelan. Saw the same fury in his eyes.
"Make it last," Kaelan said quietly. It wasn't a suggestion.
I did.
By the time I was finished with him, Cort was barely recognizable as human. A broken thing, held together only by my will that he remain conscious enough to feel every moment of his punishment. Blood pooled beneath him, dark and spreading. His breath came in wet, rattling gasps.
I wasn't finished. I needed him to understand—needed him to feel every ounce of the fear he'd inflicted on Lily, magnified a thousandfold.
"Beg," I commanded, my voice echoing through the hold like a death knell.
"Please..." The word was barely audible, wet with blood that bubbled at his lips. "Please... kill me..."
"Not yet." I stood over him, a god of vengeance, ancient and terrible. Blood dripped from my claws, pooling on the wooden floor beneath us. "First, you understand. First, you know exactly why you're dying. Not because you were cruel—the world is full of cruel men. But because you were cruel to her. Our omega. Our mate. Our heart."
I crouched down one final time, gripping his hair and forcing his fading eyes to meet mine. The light in them was dimming, but I needed him to see. To know.
"You touched what was ours. You terrorized her. You made her feel small and afraid and helpless." My voice dropped to a whisper, intimate and terrible. "And for that, there is no mercy. No forgiveness. Only this."
I killed him slowly. Methodically. Taking him apart piece by piece while Kaelan watched with cold approval. Not because I needed to—the message had been delivered—but because I'd promised Lily I would be thorough. Because every second of his suffering was a second of justice for her fear. Because I was exactly the monster he'd always suspected lurked in the depths, and monsters don't offer mercy.
His final scream faded into a wet gurgle, then silence. The cargo hold reeked of blood and death, the floor slick with what remained of the man who had dared to touch my mate.
When it was finally done—when the light faded from his eyes and his last rattling breath echoed through the hold—I stood and looked at my hands. Covered in blood. Stained with the price of touching my mate.
"It's done," Kaelan said quietly, his hand coming to rest on my shoulder. His own claws were dark with blood—he'd added his own marks to the body when the mood struck him. Our packleader, our watcher, just as much a monster as me beneath his controlled exterior.
"Not quite." I looked down at the ruined thing that had once been a man. "I don't want him found. I don't want anyone to mourn him, to remember him, to speak his name. I want him to disappear. Completely."
Kaelan's lips curved into something cold and satisfied. "The sharks."
I nodded. We hauled what remained of Cort through the ship, leaving a trail of blood that the crew would puzzle over come morning. Up the stairs, across the deck, to the railing where the dark water waited below.
I threw him overboard without ceremony. He hit the water with a splash, the sound swallowed by the endless ocean. For a moment, the body simply floated there—a dark shape against darker water.
Then Kaelan began to sing.
It wasn't like Vale's music—wasn't beautiful or enchanting. This was something older, darker. A call that resonated through the water, reaching out to the predators that lurked in the depths. A dinner bell, ringing across miles of open ocean. I added my voice to his, the two of us standing at the railing, calling to creatures who understood hunger the way we did. Who knew what it meant to hunt, to kill, to devour without mercy.
They came quickly. Shadows moving beneath the surface, drawn by our song and the blood spreading through the water. I counted at least six fins cutting through the waves—massive shapes, ancient and hungry. The first shark hit the body with enough force to drag it under. The water churned, dark shapes thrashing, the frenzy building as more arrived. I watched with cold satisfaction as they tore into what remained of Cort, fighting over pieces of him, reducing him to nothing but chum and memory.
Within minutes, there was nothing left.
No body.
No evidence.
Just blood dispersing in the current, fading to nothing as the sharks circled, searching for more.
