Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
RIVEN
I knew her schedule better than I knew the currents of my own territory.
I knew she woke an hour before dawn, when the sky was still dark and the ship was quiet.
Knew she spent exactly twelve seconds applying the chemicals that masked her scent, twelve seconds of her hands trembling, her jaw tight with the unfairness of having to hide what she was.
I knew she ate one meal a day, sometimes two, never three.
Knew she gave portions of her food to a younger crew member who didn't get enough.
Knew she worked until her hands bled, until her muscles shook, until she could barely stand.
I knew she flinched when Cort, the alpha, walked past, even if he didn't touch her.
Knew the way her shoulders drew up when Decker's voice carried across the deck.
Knew the exact moment each evening when she would slip away from her duties and make her way to the railing, to us, to home.
I knew everything.
I watched everything.
I planned exactly what I would do to each and every creature who had ever made her afraid.
The water was cold this deep, but I didn't feel it.
I was too focused on the hull of the ship above me, on the faint sounds that filtered through the wood, on the knowledge that she was up there, surrounded by alphas and betas who would hurt her if they knew what she was.
Sirens don't feel cold, I reminded myself. Sirens don't feel anything except hunger.
That was a lie. I felt everything now. Every moment she was out of my sight was a wound.
Every hour she spent on that ship was a knife twisting in my chest. Every time I caught the faint scent of her fear drifting down through the water, I had to fight the urge to surge up there and tear the entire vessel apart with my bare hands.
Kaelan surfaced beside me, silent as a ghost. His dark eyes were fixed on the ship, his expression unreadable, his ink-black hair drifting around his face while his charcoal tail moved in slow, controlled sweeps.
"Your shift ended an hour ago." His voice was quiet, measured, but I could hear the understanding beneath it. He knew why I couldn't leave.
"I know." I didn't look at him. Couldn't tear my eyes away from the ship.
"You should rest." He moved closer, his shoulder brushing mine in a gesture that was meant to be comforting.
"I can't," The words came out harsher than I intended. My claws flexed, extending and retracting in a rhythm I couldn't control. "I can't close my eyes without seeing her up there. Without imagining what could happen if—"
"I know," he replied, his voice soft. Understanding. He felt it too—we all did. But I was the one who couldn't stop watching. The one who couldn't look away for even a moment.
"The big alpha." I said, my voice dropping into a growl, my golden eyes still fixed on the ship's hull. "Cort. He's getting bolder."
"I've noticed." Kaelan's jaw tightened, the only sign of the rage he kept so carefully contained.
"Yesterday he touched her arm when she walked past. Today he stood too close at breakfast, made her back into a corner.
" My claws dug into my palms, and I welcomed the pain.
It gave me something to focus on besides the rage.
"Tomorrow he'll touch her again. And the day after that.
He's testing her. Testing how much she'll let him get away with. "
"And what do you want to do about it?" Kaelan asked, his dark eyes finally leaving the ship to meet mine. I turned to look at him, and I knew my eyes were glowing. Knew the predator in me was rising to the surface, barely contained by the thin veneer of civilization I wore like an ill-fitting skin.
"I want to drag him into the water and hold him under until the light leaves his eyes. I want to tear off the hands that touched her and feed them to the eels. I want to—" I stopped myself. Drew a breath I didn't need. "I want to keep her safe. I can't do that while she's up there."
"She asked for more time." His voice was gentle, but firm.
"I know." The word scraped out of my throat.
"She needs to choose us. Not just run from something worse." Kaelan's hand found my shoulder, gripping firmly.
"I know." The word came out as a snarl. "But what if something happens before she can choose? What if that alpha corners her somewhere we can't reach? What if—"
"Then we kill him." Kaelan's voice was ice. Simple. Absolute. His dark eyes held mine without flinching. "We kill him, and we take her, and we deal with the consequences."
I stared at him, my claws freezing mid-flex. "You'd do that? Break the plan? Take her before she's ready?"
"If he touches her, really touches her, then yes.
" His dark eyes met mine, and I saw the same madness lurking behind his calm facade.
The same desperate, possessive need that was eating me alive.
"She is ours, Riven. The plan exists to make her happy, not to keep her safe at the cost of her wellbeing.
If the plan stops working, we change the plan. "
Something in my chest loosened. Just slightly. Just enough to breathe.
"Thank you." The words came out rough, inadequate for what I was feeling.
"Don't thank me yet." His jaw tightened, and his hand dropped from my shoulder.
"Go rest. I'll watch until sunset." I should have listened.
Should have sunk down to the seafloor and closed my eyes and trusted him to keep her safe.
Instead, I stayed. Watching. Waiting. Counting the minutes until I could see her again.
I had a list. Not written down, sirens didn't write things down. It was carved into my memory, as permanent as the scars on my skin. Every threat on that ship, ranked by danger level, with detailed plans for how I would eliminate each one.
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 her fear. 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. Our omega.
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 her wrist.
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."