A Cage For The Alpha Mate Who Killed My Brother

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.