Chapter 35 #2
"She still flinches sometimes, did you know that?" I asked, breaking his left ring finger with a sharp twist. "When someone touches her unexpectedly. You did that…well…one of them who did that. You put that fear in her."
When both his hands were ruined—swollen masses of purple and red, fingers bent in ways nature never intended—I let them drop. He cradled them against his chest, curling into himself, trying to make himself small. As if that could protect him from what was coming.
Kaelan knelt beside him, his movements elegant even in this blood-soaked hold.
"You thought she was helpless," he said, his voice soft as silk, one hand tilting Cort's chin up with deceptive gentleness.
"A lone omega, fleeing from her fate. Easy prey.
" His hand shot out, gripping Cort's jaw, forcing his tear-streaked face upward with bruising force.
"She was never prey. She was a queen without a kingdom, searching for her throne.
And you—you were nothing but an insect in her path. "
"Tell us what you did to her." I drew one claw down his cheek, just hard enough to draw blood, watching the crimson line well up in my wake. "Every touch. Every threat. Every moment of fear you caused. Confess, and perhaps I'll let you die quickly."
It was a lie. We both knew it. But desperate men will cling to any hope.
He confessed. Between sobs and screams, as Kaelan and I took turns reminding him of the consequences of his actions, he told us everything.
The way he'd corner her in narrow corridors, blocking her path with his body.
The comments he'd whisper when no one else could hear—filthy things, degrading things, promises of what he wanted to do to her.
The lingering touches disguised as accidents—a hand on her hip as he passed, fingers trailing down her arm, pressing against her in cramped spaces.
"I didn't know what she was," he gasped between sobs. "Not until the end—not until she was almost off the ship—I swear I didn't know—I thought she was just a weird beta until she started smelling different."
"You didn't need to know what she was," I snarled, driving my claw into his shoulder, relishing his scream. "You knew she was afraid. You knew she was alone. And you enjoyed it."
Each confession earned him new pain. When he admitted to grabbing her breast through her dress once, I broke his arm.
The bone snapped cleanly, the sound sharp and final in the quiet hold.
His scream was almost satisfying enough to make up for the image his words had painted in my mind—my Lily, terrified and alone, subjected to this creature's violations.
Almost.
"What else?" I demanded, my claws tracing patterns on his tear-stained face. "What else did you do to her?"
He told us about the time he'd trapped her in the galley, pressing her against the counter while the cook's back was turned. How he'd run his hands up her sides, laughing quietly at her frozen terror, whispering about how no one would believe her if she told.
For that, Kaelan stepped forward. My pack leader's face was carved from ice, his dark eyes bottomless pools of fury. He gripped Cort's thigh and squeezed—his siren strength crushing muscle and grinding against bone until Cort's screams reached a pitch I hadn't thought human throats could achieve.
"She was not yours to touch," Kaelan said, his voice terrifyingly calm even as he crushed the man's leg. "She was never yours. She belonged to us before she even knew we existed."
He told us about the nights she'd locked herself in her tiny cabin, and how he'd stand outside her door, describing what he'd do to her if she ever came out. How he'd made her afraid to sleep, afraid to eat, afraid to exist on that ship.
"You made her feel unsafe," I said, each word punctuated by a new cut across his flesh. "You made her feel hunted. Trapped. Helpless." I leaned close, my breath hot against his blood-streaked face. "Do you know what that feels like now? To be trapped with something that wants to hurt you?"
He sobbed something that might have been an apology. I didn't care.
I dragged my claws across Cort's chest, opening shallow furrows in his flesh. Not deep enough to kill—not yet—but deep enough to hurt. Deep enough to scar, if he'd lived long enough to heal.
"She's ours now," I told him, watching the blood well up in neat lines.
"Did you know that? She wears our marks.
Our treasures. She carries our scent in every inch of her skin.
" I leaned close, letting him see the savage satisfaction in my eyes, letting him smell the death on my breath.
"We've had her in ways you couldn't even imagine.
Claimed every inch of her. Filled her over and over until she screamed our names.
She'll never think of you again—but you?
You'll think of nothing but us for the rest of your very short existence. "
"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 it broke 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 pack leader, 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.
"Now it's done," I said, watching the last fin disappear into the depths.
Kaelan nodded, something like peace settling over his features. "He's gone. As if he never existed."
"Good." I rolled my shoulders, feeling the tension finally begin to ease. The hunt was over. The debt was paid. And the ocean had swallowed every trace of the man who'd dared to touch our mate.
We left the ship in silence, diving from the railing into the dark water. The sharks scattered at our approach—even in their frenzy, they recognized apex predators when they saw them. We swam through water still tinged with blood, and I felt nothing but satisfaction.
The ocean welcomed us as we dove deeper, washing the last traces of violence from our skin, the evidence disappearing into the current. We swam in silence, but the pack bond hummed with shared satisfaction. Dark. Primal. Complete.
Halfway home, I felt Lily stir through our bond. A flutter of consciousness, a whisper of concern as she sensed my emotions.
Safe, I sent back to her. Coming home.
I felt her relax, her trust absolute. She didn't need to know the details.
She just needed to know it was done. That she was protected.
That no one who threatened her would ever draw breath again.
The cave system embraced us as we entered, bioluminescence guiding us through familiar passages.
Vale and Thane looked up as we approached the nest, their eyes taking in our expressions, reading the satisfaction in our movements.
"It's finished," Kaelan confirmed, his voice quiet so as not to wake Lily.
Vale nodded once, silver eyes gleaming with approval.
Thane's jaw tightened with grim satisfaction.
She was already stirring, drawn by our presence through the bonds.
Her eyes fluttered open, dark and sleepy, and a soft purr rumbled in her chest as she saw us.
"You're back," she murmured, reaching for me with one hand, her voice thick with sleep but warm with relief.
"We're back." I slipped into the nest beside her, gathering her against my chest. She fit perfectly—she always did. My arms around her, her head tucked beneath my chin, her warmth seeping into my bones.
"Is it done?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Her fingers traced idle patterns on my chest, not flinching from the violence she knew lived beneath my skin.
"It's done." I pressed the words into her hair, letting them settle between us like a promise kept. She didn't ask what we'd done. Didn't ask for details or explanations. She simply nodded, pressed closer to me, and reached out with her other hand to pull Kaelan down beside us.
"Good," she breathed, her body relaxing fully against mine. And then, so quietly I almost missed it: "Thank you."
I pressed a kiss to her hair, breathing in her scent—safe, content, mine. The violence that had burned through me all night faded into something softer, something warm. She was here. She was protected. She would never have to fear again.
Kaelan settled on her other side, his hand finding mine across her body. Our fingers intertwined, blood brothers in truth now, bound by the violence we'd done in her name. A pack. A family. Complete.
Vale hummed a soft melody, the sound washing over us like a benediction, and Thane's hand stroked gentle patterns on Lily's tail. We surrounded her—four ancient predators, four devoted mates, our omega at the center of everything.
I closed my eyes and let the peace of it wash over me. The hunt was finished. The debt was paid. And Lily—our Lily—was safe in our arms.
Forever.