The Alpha Who Killed His Savior Mate

I came ashore to save my Fated Mate from a genetic curse, but he locked me in a dungeon for three years.

Alpha Silas believed my kind killed his parents. He drained my blood daily to feed his mistress, Emily, who claimed my essence was the only thing keeping their unborn baby alive.

I endured the silver chains and the acid burns, hoping he would one day see the truth.

But when my ten-year-old brother tried to rescue me, Emily smashed his skull with an iron bar right in front of Silas.

Silas didn't arrest her. He didn't scream. He stood between us, shielding the murderer.

"She was protecting our heir," he said coldly, looking at my brother's small, broken body floating in the tank. "You brought this on yourself."

I held my brother’s corpse as my heart finally shattered. The bond between us snapped, and my body began to dissolve into sea foam.

"I tried," I whispered as I faded into nothingness.

Moments after I disappeared, the laboratory door opened.

Silas’s parents, the ones he thought I killed, walked in alive and well.

At the same time, the pack doctor rushed in, pale and trembling.

"Alpha," he stammered, pointing at Emily. "There is no baby. She has been faking the pregnancy for months."

Silas looked at his living parents, then at the empty pile of sea foam on the floor where his True Mate used to be.

And for the first time, the Alpha screamed.

Chapter 1

*Marina POV:*

The silver chains burned against my wrists. It was a sensation like dry ice, a cold fire that ate through my skin and hissed against the raw flesh underneath. Silver was poison to werewolves, but for my kind-the deep-sea dwellers-it was an anchor that drained the moisture from our very souls.

I slumped against the damp stone wall of the dungeon. The air here was stale, smelling of mold and old blood, so different from the crisp, salty scent of the ocean I hadn't seen in three years.

I lifted my trembling hand. The bioluminescent mark on my inner wrist, shaped like a cresting wave, was flickering. It was the lifeline that connected me to the sea's magic. When I first came to land, it was a vibrant, glowing azure. Now, it was a dull, dying grey.

Three days.

I knew it in my bones. Without the ocean's embrace, and without the claiming mark of my Fated Mate to ground me to the earth, my body would reject this world. I would dissolve into sea foam.

*Silas.*

Even thinking his name sent a phantom ache through my chest. I remembered the day I came ashore, carrying the treaty to save his pack from their genetic madness. I saw him standing on the cliffs, the wind whipping his dark hair.

The moment our eyes met, the world had stopped.

I had smelled him-not just with my nose, but with my spirit. He smelled like a storm brewing over a pine forest, ozone and rain and deep, dark earth. My heart had hammered a rhythm that wasn't my own. The *Sparks* had danced across my skin, the undeniable electric current that screamed *Mate*.

But he hadn't seen a mate. He had seen a monster. He had seen the daughter of the race he believed killed his parents.

"Get up."

The heavy iron door groaned open. Two Warriors, burly men with scars running down their arms, stepped into my cell. They didn't wait for me to comply. One of them grabbed my hair, yanking me to my feet.

I cried out, my legs too weak to hold me. The lack of water had dried out my skin; it felt like parchment ready to tear.

"Alpha wants you," the Warrior sneered.

They dragged me through the corridors of the Pack House. I was barefoot, my feet leaving faint, wet prints on the polished wooden floors. We passed the grand staircase, and I saw the Omega servants scrubbing the banisters. They stopped to watch, their eyes filled with disgust.

"Smells like low tide," one whispered.

"Heard she eats pups," another replied.

*I tried to speak, to defend myself, but my throat seized. A burning constriction tightened around my vocal cords-the Curse. Every time I tried to speak of the treaty or his parents, it felt like swallowing razor blades.*

They threw me into the Alpha's bedroom. The floor was covered in a thick, plush carpet that felt alien against my skin.

Silas stood by the window, his back to me. His shoulders were broad, the muscles tense under his black shirt. Even from here, his aura was suffocating-a heavy, dominant pressure that forced my head down. This was the power of a True Alpha.

On the bed sat Emily. She was beautiful in a sharp, predatory way, with blonde hair and eyes that held no warmth. She rubbed her stomach theatrically.

"Silas, baby," she whined, her voice grating. "The smell. It's making the baby sick."

Silas turned. His eyes were the color of steel, cold and impenetrable. When his gaze landed on me, I felt that treacherous spark again, that pull of the Mate Bond that demanded I run to him and bare my neck. But his face was twisted in pure loathing.

"Come here," he said. His voice was low, but it carried the weight of a mountain.

I tried to stand, but my knees buckled.

"I said, come here!"

The *Alpha's Command* slammed into me. It wasn't a request; it was a physical force that hijacked my nervous system. My body moved against my will, jerking forward like a puppet on strings. My muscles screamed in protest, but the Command forced me to crawl to his feet.

"Emily has a headache," Silas said, looking down at me as if I were a stain on his rug. "She needs your Essence."

"No," I rasped, my voice sounding like grinding stones. "Please, Silas. I have so little left. If you take more... I will die."

"Do you think I care?" He crouched down, grabbing my chin in a bruising grip. His touch sent jolts of electricity through me-the *Mate Bond* trying to connect us-but he ignored it, treating it like static shock. "You and your kind murdered my parents. You are nothing but a battery. A tool."

He pulled a silver dagger from his belt.

"Silas, please," I begged, tears leaking from my eyes. "I am your-"

*The invisible noose around my throat tightened, choking off the word 'Mate'. I gagged, gasping for air.*

"Silence!" he roared.

He slashed the dagger across my palm. I couldn't scream. I could only watch as my blood welled up. It wasn't red like a human's; it shimmered with a faint, pearlescent glow. This was the Essence-the concentrated life force of the deep ocean, the only thing that could soothe the genetic madness of the Moon Shadow wolves.

He grabbed my bleeding hand and held it over a crystal goblet.

"Drink, my love," he said softly to Emily, handing her the cup.

Emily smirked at me over the rim of the glass as she drank my life force. Her "headache" was a lie. I could smell the deception on her-a sour, metallic scent that clashed with her perfume. She wasn't sick. She just wanted to see me bleed.

"Much better," Emily sighed, licking her lips. "Get her out of here, Silas. She's upsetting the heir."

Silas looked at me one last time. For a second, just a split second, I saw conflict in his eyes. His pupils dilated, his wolf recognizing me. But then the hate returned, burying the instinct.

"Get out," he growled.

The Warriors dragged me out into the hallway. As the door clicked shut, I heard Silas and Emily laughing.

I collapsed on the floor. A group of Omega maids walked by, carrying buckets of ice water for the cleaning.

"Oops," one said, and a deluge of freezing water crashed over me.

I gasped, shivering violently. They threw dirty rags at my face.

"Clean up your trail, fish," the maid spat.

I lay there on the cold wood, wet and bleeding, listening to the laughter from the bedroom where my Fated Mate held another woman. I looked at my wrist. The wave mark was almost invisible now.

*Mother, Father,* I prayed silently to the ocean. *Let the end come quickly.*

*