Cort. Primary threat. Alpha. Big, aggressive, fixated on her. He watched her the way a shark watched wounded prey—patient, calculating, waiting for the right moment to strike. Kill method: Slow. I would drag him deep, deeper than any human could survive. I would hold him there until his lungs burned, until he begged for air, until he understood exactly what it felt like to be helpless. Then I would let him surface, just for a moment, just long enough to hope, before pulling him down again. I would do that for hours. Days. Until his mind broke. Then I would start taking him apart, piece by piece, keeping him alive as long as possible so he could feel every moment of it.
Decker. Secondary threat. Beta. Cruel in a different way, he didn't want to claim her, just wanted to hurt her. He enjoyed herfear. Enjoyed making her flinch. Kill method: Quick but painful. I would drag him under and let the pressure do the work. Let him feel his body crushing in on itself, his eardrums rupturing, his eyes bulging. A death that matched his cruelty.
The other alphas. Varying threat levels. Most of them watched her with vague interest, not the focused obsession of Cort. But any of them could become dangerous if they figured out what she was. Kill method: Efficient. I would take them fast, before they could raise an alarm. Claws across the throat, a hand over the mouth to muffle the screams. Nothing personal, just eliminating threats.
The captain. Not an active threat, but complicit. He saw what happened on his ship and did nothing. He let alphas like Cort operate freely, let betas like Decker torment whoever they wanted. Kill method: Last. I would make him watch the others die first. Make him understand that his inaction had consequences. And then I would ask him, very politely, if he had any last words before I added him to the list of sailors who had disappeared beneath the waves.
I ran through the list again and again, refining the details, imagining the fear in their eyes, the blood in the water. It helped. Gave me something to do with the rage that was always burning just beneath my skin.
Soon, I told myself.Soon, she'll be ours. And then none of them will ever touch her again.
The sun was setting when I felt it. A change in the water. A shift in the currents. And then—her scent, drifting down through the waves. Faint but unmistakable. Omega.Ouromega.
But there was something else underneath it. Something that made my vision go red at the edges. Fear. Sharp and sour, cutting through her natural sweetness like a blade. Underneath that—another alpha. His scent on her skin. On herwrist.
I was moving before I could think. Surging up through the water, my tail propelled me faster than any human could swim. The others were behind me, I could feel them following, drawn by the same instinct that was driving me to the surface.
She was at the railing when I broke through. Climbing down the ladder, her movements quick and jerky, her face pale in the fading light. I could see the red marks on her wrist even from here. Finger-shaped.He had grabbed her.
"Lily." Her name came out as a growl, rough and barely human. I reached for her the moment she was close enough, pulling her into my arms, pressing her against my chest. "What happened?"
"It's nothing." Her voice was shaky. Wrong. She wouldn't meet my eyes, her body tense against mine. "Cort just—he grabbed my wrist. That's all. I'm fine."
That's all.
THAT'S ALL.
The sound that ripped from my chest wasn't a growl. It was something older, darker, more primal. A sound that had made sailors throw themselves overboard just to escape it. A sound that meant death was coming, and nothing in the ocean could stop it.
"Riven." Kaelan's voice was sharp with command. His hand closed on my shoulder, anchoring me, his grip tight enough to bruise even through my scales. "Control yourself."
"Hetouchedher." The words barely made it past my teeth. My claws were fully extended, my body rigid with the need to hunt, to kill, todestroy. "He put his hands on her. He leftmarks."
"I know." Kaelan's voice was strained, his own claws digging into my shoulder.
"I'm going to kill him." The words were calm. Certain. A promise carved in bone.
"Yes." Kaelan's voice was calm. Certain. "You are. But not tonight."
"Tonight." I tried to pull away, to surge toward the ship, but his grip tightened. And then Vale was there too, and Thane, all of them holding me back from the violence I craved.
"Look at her." Kaelan's voice dropped into alpha register, and even though he wasn't my pack alpha in the traditional sense, even though I didn'thaveto obey—I looked.
Lily was shaking. Not from the cold. Not from fear of the water. She was shaking because ofme. Because I was snarling and raging and half-feral with the need to tear something apart, and she was caught in the middle of it.
You're scaring her, some distant part of my brain whispered.Stop. You're scaring her.
I couldn't stop. Couldn't calm down. The rage was too big, too consuming. It had been building for days. Every moment of watching her suffer. Every time I had to let her go back to that ship. Every night I spent circling in the dark, imagining all the ways they could hurt her while I was helpless to intervene. Now one of them had actually done it. Had put his filthy human hands on her. Had left bruises on her perfect skin.
"Riven." Her voice was small and scared, but reaching for me anyway. Her hands cupped my face, forcing me to look at her. Her fingers trembled against my scarred skin, but she didn't pull away. "Riven, I'm okay. I'm here. I'm safe."
"You're not safe." The words came out broken. "You're not safe up there. You're never safe up there. And I can't—I can't?—"
"Breathe." Her thumbs stroked my cheekbones, her touch impossibly gentle. Her eyes—those impossible human eyes, held mine. "Breathe with me."
I couldn't breathe. I didn't need to breathe. But I tried anyway, for her. Drew water through my gills in a rhythm thatmatched hers, focused on the feeling of her hands on my skin, her body pressed against mine.
"That's it." Her voice was steadier now. Soothing. She pressed her forehead to mine, her breath warm against my lips. "That's it. I'm right here. I'm okay."
