Chapter 23
The fishing skiff lay overturned against the rocks, its hull cracked like an eggshell.
Valrek seized the gunwale and heaved, his claws gouging deep furrows into the weathered wood. The boat groaned but refused to move—wedged between two boulders by the storm surge, trapped as surely as his heart was trapped in his chest.
Useless.
He threw back his head and roared his frustration into the howling wind.
The storm answered with a crack of lightning that split the sky, illuminating the chaos before him.
The sea had become a monster—waves cresting thirty feet high, foam and spray turning the air into a wall of salt water.
Through the maelstrom, he could see the lights of the shuttle flickering in the distance.
Lilani is on that vessel.
My mate is on that vessel.
Another wave crashed against the rocks, and he watched in horror as the shuttle lurched violently to port. Something had struck it—debris from the cliffs, perhaps, or the sea itself rising up to reclaim what the land had stolen.
“No.”
The word was barely a whisper, torn from his throat by the wind.
He abandoned the useless skiff and ran along the shoreline, his bare feet finding purchase on rocks that would have sent any human tumbling to their death.
His beast was fully awake now, clawing at the inside of his skull, demanding action.
But there was nothing he could do—the sea was beyond even his strength, and swimming into that chaos would only add his body to the toll.
I cannot reach them.
The thought was a blade through his chest.
He’d been too slow. Too focused on Korrin’s news about the pack, about the possibility of acceptance. While he’d been dreaming of futures that might never come, the present had been ripped away from him.
My child. My mate.
The shuttle’s lights flickered once more, then went dark.
His knees hit the wet sand.
He had witnessed death before. He knew the shape of loss, the weight of it, the way it settled into the bones and refused to leave.
But this—
This was different.
This was his daughter, his bright and fearless child who had never met a stranger, who hugged everyone she loved with the same fierce intensity, who had asked him just that morning if Ariella would stay forever.
“She smells like the sea, Papa. Like home.”
And Ariella—his mate, his unexpected gift from this same ocean. The woman who glowed like starlight and sang like the tide, who had looked at his scars without flinching and touched his beast without trembling.
Gone.
Both of them, gone.
The howl that tore from his throat was not a sound any human could make. It was the death cry of a Vultor warrior who had lost everything that mattered. The storm seemed to pause for a heartbeat, as if the sky itself recognized his grief.
Then the wind returned with renewed fury, and he was alone on the shore, the rain mixing with the tears he refused to acknowledge.
I should have been there. I should have protected them.
His claws dug into the wet sand, his whole body shaking with the effort of containing his beast. Part of him wanted to wade into those killing waves anyway, to join his family in whatever afterlife the sea provided. What was the point of survival if there was nothing left to survive for?
You promised her, his beast growled. You promised to keep her safe.
I failed.
He didn’t know how long he knelt there—minutes, hours, eternities. The storm raged around him, but he barely felt it. The cold that seeped into his bones was nothing compared to the void spreading through his chest.
And then—
Light.
At first, he thought it was lightning reflecting off the waves. But the color was wrong—not white or yellow, but a deep, brilliant blue that pulsed with an organic rhythm. Like a heartbeat. Like a song made visible.
His head snapped up.
Through the churning surf, maybe fifty yards from shore, something was glowing. The light moved with purpose, cutting through the waves with a determination that defied the storm’s chaos. It grew brighter as it approached, painting the spray in shades of indigo and violet.
Ariella.
His heart, which had stopped beating somewhere in the last few minutes, lurched back to life.
He was on his feet before conscious thought caught up with instinct, wading into the shallows despite the waves that tried to drag him under. His eyes never left that beacon—his mate’s bioluminescence burning against the darkness like a star refusing to be extinguished.
She’s alive.
She’s—
A particularly massive wave crested and broke, and for a terrible moment the light disappeared beneath the foam. He snarled, pushing deeper into the water, his massive body fighting against the undertow with every ounce of his Vultor strength.
Then the light reappeared, closer now. Close enough to see.
Ariella’s face emerged from the spray—pale as moon-washed bone, her dark hair plastered to her skull like seaweed.
Her skin was blazing with bioluminescence, every patch along her collarbones and ribs lit up in brilliant warning colors.
She was exhausted, her movements slower than they should be, her gills flaring with effort.
And clutched against her chest, small and still and terrifyingly limp—
Lilani.
The relief and terror hit him simultaneously, a collision of emotions that nearly drove him to his knees again. His daughter was there, she was right there, but she wasn’t moving, wasn’t breathing, wasn’t doing any of the thousand small things that made her his bright and boundless child.
“Ariella!”
His roar cut through the storm’s howl. She heard him—her head turned, her eyes finding his across the churning water—and he saw something flicker across her face. Relief. Determination. A fierce, protective fury that matched his own.
She pushed towards him with renewed strength.
He met her in the shallows, the water chest-deep and still fighting to pull them under. His arms reached out and gathered them both, mate and child, against his chest. She collapsed into him, her body shaking with exhaustion, but her grip on Lilani never loosened.
“She’s not breathing.” Her voice was raw, scraped clean by salt water and desperation. “Her heart stopped. I felt it stop, but it started again. I made it start again, but she’s not breathing—”
He didn’t wait for her to finish.
He scooped them both up—one massive arm under Ariella’s back, the other cradling Lilani’s small form—and turned towards shore. The waves fought him every step, but he was a Vultor warrior who had just watched his entire world sink beneath the sea. Nothing was going to stop him now.
The sand beneath his feet had never felt so solid.
He carried them up the beach, away from the hungry tide, and fell to his knees in the shelter of a rocky outcropping. Rain still lashed at them, but the worst of the wind was blocked here. It would have to be enough.
“Lilani.”
His voice cracked on his daughter’s name. He laid her on the sand, her small body so still, so wrong. Her wild curly hair was matted with salt water, her skin cold to the touch, her chest utterly motionless.
“Papa…”
The word was so faint he almost missed it—a thread of sound escaping Lilani’s blue-tinged lips. Her eyes fluttered but didn’t open.
“She’s got water in her lungs.” Ariella was beside him, her hands pressing against Lilani’s chest. “I can hear it—there’s so much—”
“Then get it out!”
The snarl was pure beast, pure terror. He knew it wasn’t fair—she had already done the impossible, had already brought his daughter back from the depths—but the sight of Lilani’s still face was destroying him, shredding every rational thought into ribbons of pure animal fear.
She didn’t flinch.
“I need you to hold her still.” Her voice was calm now, steady in a way that cut through his panic. “What I’m about to do is going to feel strange, but you have to trust me.”
Trust.
The word echoed in the space between them.
He had spent six years learning not to trust—not humans, not strangers, not anyone outside the small circle of his daughter’s arms. He had built walls around his heart so high that even sunlight couldn’t reach the places where his soul had shriveled and died.
But Ariella had never asked for his trust before. She had simply earned it.
“Do it.”
He gathered Lilani’s shoulders, anchoring her small body in his arms. Ariella positioned herself at the girl’s side, her hands hovering over Lilani’s chest, her skin shifting from indigo to a deep, resonant blue.
And then she began to Sing.
It wasn’t music, not in any way he understood. There were no words, no melody, nothing that resembled the songs he’d heard humans perform at festivals or in the city’s clubs. This was something older, a vibration that seemed to bypass his ears entirely and settle directly into his bones.
The air itself began to hum.
He could feel it against his skin, a pressure that wasn’t quite physical.
Beside him, the sand trembled, tiny particles dancing in patterns that matched the rhythm of Ariella’s Song.
Even the rain seemed to hesitate, individual drops hanging suspended for a fraction of a second before continuing their fall.
She pressed her hands against Lilani’s chest, and the Song focused.
He watched in amazement as his daughter’s torso began to vibrate—not violently, but with a gentle, insistent frequency. The sound shifted, finding resonances that he could feel in his teeth, in his claws, in the deepest chambers of his heart.
She’s vibrating the water loose.
The realization struck him like a thunderbolt. She was using the same bio-acoustic sonar that let her navigate the dark depths, but turned inwards, transformed into an instrument of healing rather than navigation.
Lilani’s body spasmed.
Water erupted from her mouth and nose—not a trickle, but a torrent, as if the sea itself was being expelled from her small frame. She coughed, gagged, coughed again, each spasm bringing more liquid up from her flooded lungs.
And then—
“Papa!”
The scream was hoarse and terrified and absolutely, perfectly alive.
Lilani’s eyes flew open, wide with fear and confusion, and she reached for him with desperate hands. He gathered her up, crushing her against his chest, his whole body shaking with the force of his relief.
“I’m here.” His voice was a broken growl against her wet hair. “Papa’s here. You’re safe. You’re safe.”
“There was water everywhere.” Lilani was crying now, great hiccupping sobs that shook her small frame. “And dark, so much dark, and I couldn’t find you, I couldn’t—”
“I know, little one. I know.” He rocked her in his arms the same way he’d rocked her when she was an infant and nightmares would wake her screaming in the dark. “But you’re here now. The Star Lady found you. She brought you back.”
Lilani’s tear-streaked face turned towards Ariella, who had collapsed on the sand beside them, her bioluminescence fading to a dim, exhausted glow. The girl reached out one small hand and touched her cheek.
“You saved me.”
It wasn’t a question.
She managed a weak smile. “I couldn’t let the sea have you. Your papa would never forgive me.”
His free arm shot out and pulled her against his side, his grip fierce enough to leave bruises. She didn’t protest. Instead, she collapsed against him, her body trembling with exhaustion.
They sat there in the rain, the three of them, tangled together on the storm-lashed beach. Lilani’s sobs gradually quieted, her small fist clutching Ariella’s tattered sleeve as if afraid she might disappear. He held them both, his beast finally, finally settling into something like peace.
Alive.
They’re both alive.
He pressed his face into Ariella’s wet hair, breathing in her scent—cold sea and warm honey, now mixed with salt and blood and exhaustion.
His mate. His chosen. The female who had turned her back on everything the human world had offered her, who had dived into the darkness to save a child that wasn’t hers.
“Merrick?” The name tasted like ash in his mouth.
She was quiet for a long moment before she spoke. “He’s gone.”
She didn’t elaborate, and he didn’t ask. Some things didn’t require explanation.
“The shuttle went down.” His voice was rough. “I watched it sink. I thought…”
“I know.” Her hand found his in the darkness, their fingers interlacing. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I scared you.”
A broken laugh escaped his throat. “Scared? I was—”
Terrified. Destroyed. Ready to walk into the sea and never return.
But the words wouldn’t come. They stuck in his throat, too raw, too real.
Instead, he pulled her closer.
“We need to move.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “There will be search parties. Merrick had people. Powerful people. If they find us—”
“They won’t.”
The certainty in his voice surprised even him. But as he looked down at the two females in his arms—his daughter, finally breathing steady and deep, and his mate, glowing faintly in the darkness—he knew it was true.
He had failed to protect them once. He would not fail again.
“Can you walk?”
She tried to stand and immediately stumbled. He caught her before she hit the sand, his arm banding around her waist.
“Never mind. Take Lilani.” She didn’t argue, gathering Lilani against her chest before he wrapped his arms around both of them and rose, lifting them as easily as if they weighed nothing at all. “I’ll carry you.”
“Both of us?” Despite her exhaustion, there was a note of amusement in her voice. “I’m not exactly—”
“You’re mine.” The words came out as a growl, his beast rumbling beneath the surface. “Both of you. And I carry what’s mine.”
Her skin shimmered a soft, warm blue that had nothing to do with danger or fear. Her head fell against his shoulder, her breath warming his neck.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Take us home.”
Home.
The sea cave waited in the darkness, hidden among the cliffs where no search party would think to look. Safe. Sheltered. Theirs.
He turned his back on the storm and began to walk.
Behind them, the sea continued its ancient rhythm, washing away the evidence of the night’s violence. The shuttle was gone, swallowed by the depths, taking with it a golden cage and a gilded prince and all the chains they had tried to wrap around his mate.
Let it sink, he thought. Let it all sink.
Ariella was here. Lilani was breathing. And somewhere ahead, warmth and safety waited.