*Marina POV:*

I woke up to the smell of rotting garbage.

My skin felt like it was on fire. The "chemical vat" Silas had thrown me into was a pool of diluted industrial cleaners used for the lab equipment. It had burned the outer layer of my scales and skin, leaving me raw and weeping clear fluid.

I was lying on a heap of refuse behind the Pack House kitchens.

*Marina... it's okay... I'm here...*

A soft voice drifted through my mind.

"Silas?" I whispered, hope fluttering in my chest like a dying bird. Had he realized? Was he using the Mind-Link?

A sharp kick to my ribs shattered the illusion.

"Wake up."

I groaned, curling into a ball. Emily stood over me, wearing pristine white heels. She held a plate of food.

"You must be hungry," she said, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. "Silas said you're not allowed in the house anymore. You're a Rogue now. But I'm a benevolent Luna."

She tossed the plate onto the dirt. It was chunks of raw, pinkish meat.

I was starving. My body needed fuel to heal the acid burns. I reached out with a trembling hand and took a piece of meat. I brought it to my nose.

The scent hit me instantly. It wasn't beef. It wasn't venison.

It smelled like the deep currents. *It smelled like kin.*

"Eat it," Emily commanded.

I took a bite. The flavor was rich, salty, and horrifyingly familiar.

"Do you like it?" Emily giggled. *"I had the scientists extract the hydration glands from a scout we caught. I think it might be your cousin, Triton. Don't worry, he's still alive. Barely."*

I froze. The meat turned to ash in my mouth. My stomach heaved violently. I vomited the flesh onto the ground, retching until bile burned my throat.

"You monster!" I screamed, tears streaming down my face.

"Oh, look," Emily sneered, stepping back. "You got puke on my Louboutins."

She signaled to a guard I hadn't seen. "Teach her a lesson."

The guard stepped forward and kicked me in the stomach. I curled up, gasping for air, protecting my head.

"That's enough," Emily said after a minute. She crouched down, careful not to touch me. *"I need a favor, Marina. My skin has been looking dull lately. The serum Silas takes... it makes him strong, but I want to be timeless."*

She pulled a syringe and a bucket from her bag.

"Fill it," she ordered the guard.

The guard grabbed my arm. He found a vein that hadn't collapsed yet and inserted the needle. My blood-my Essence-flowed into the tube, filling the bucket.

I felt cold. So cold. The *Wolf* inside me-the spirit of the ocean predator-was fading. I was hollowed out.

Emily hummed as she watched the bucket fill. "You know," she said casually, "I need more power. The White Wolf legend says that if you consume the heart of a Royal Mermaid, you gain their immortality. I've been trying with the commoners, but their Essence is weak. That's why I need the White Pearl."

My eyes widened. She wasn't just cruel; she was hunting us. She was the one orchestrating the attacks, not Silas. Silas was just her weapon.

"You won't find it," I whispered weakly. "Only the Queen carries the White Pearl."

"We'll see."

When the bucket was half full, she stopped. "That should be enough."

She left me there, bleeding and broken.

I lay in the dirt for hours. As the sun began to set, I heard a sound. A soft, gurgling cry.

I dragged my body across the gravel. My fingernails tore, but I pulled myself toward the back of the laboratory shed.

Through a grimy window, I looked inside.

Horror, cold and absolute, washed over me.

Hanging on meat hooks were the bodies of three merfolk. Their tails had been skinned. But in the corner, in a small glass tank filled with dirty water, was a small figure.

He was huddled in the corner, his silver tail dull and bruised. He was tiny.

"Orion," I breathed.

It was my little brother. He was only ten. He hadn't even learned to shift legs yet.

He was alive.

*

*Marina POV:*

Adrenaline, sharp and desperate, flooded my dying system. I didn't care about the pain. I didn't care about the silver burns or the fading mark.

I smashed the window with a rock. The glass shattered, slicing my arm, but I didn't feel it. I climbed through the frame, falling onto the concrete floor of the lab.

"Orion!"

My brother looked up. His eyes were wide with terror. "Rina? Sister?"

I scrambled to the tank, plunging my hands into the water to hold him. "I'm here. I'm here."

"Well, isn't this touching."

The door to the lab swung open. Emily stood there, flanked by Silas.

Silas looked around the room, his nose wrinkling at the smell of blood-my kin's blood. He saw the bodies on the hooks. *He frowned, looking at Emily with confusion. "Emily? You told me this facility was for synthesizing the cure, not... butchery."*

*"It's research, darling," Emily said quickly, her voice tight. "Necessary sacrifices."*

She looked at me, then at Orion. Her eyes gleamed with greed. "A royal whelp. He must have a pearl."

"No!" I threw myself in front of the tank. I dropped to my knees, pressing my forehead to the dirty floor. "Please! Emily, Silas! Take me! I have the White Pearl! It's inside me! Spare him! He is just a child!"

I lied. I didn't have the White Pearl. But I would say anything.

Emily stepped forward, a knife in her hand. "Move aside, fish."

"Please!" I grabbed the hem of her dress.

"Don't touch me!" Emily shrieked. She raised the knife.

Orion, seeing his sister threatened, surged up from the water. He was small, but his teeth were needle-sharp. He lunged over the rim of the tank and bit Emily's hand.

"Ahhh!" Emily screamed, dropping the knife. "It bit me! Silas! The monster bit me! My baby! The stress!"

*Silas moved instinctively to shield his pregnant mate, stepping between them. "Orion, back down!" he roared, using the Alpha Voice to subdue the room.*

*But Emily didn't wait for Silas to handle it. Her face twisted into a mask of pure, unadulterated rage. She snatched a heavy iron pestle from the nearby workbench.*

*"You filthy little parasite!"*

*"Emily, no!" Silas shouted, reaching out.*

*He was too late. Emily swung the iron bar with supernatural force.*

*It connected with Orion's skull with a sickening *crack*.*

*My brother didn't even cry out. He just went limp, sliding back into the dirty water. A cloud of silver blood instantly bloomed in the tank.*

"NO!" The scream tore my throat apart.

I crawled to Orion. I gathered his small, broken body into my arms. His eyes were open, staring at nothing.

He was gone.

I looked up at Silas. *He stood frozen, his hand still outstretched, staring at the dead child. The horror on his face was genuine. He looked from the boy to Emily, as if seeing her for the first time.*

*"You..." Silas stammered. "He was a child, Emily. You just... crushed his skull."*

*"He attacked me!" Emily shrieked, clutching her hand, though the bite was barely a scratch. "I'm pregnant, Silas! I protected our heir!"*

*"He was ten years old!" I wailed.*

Emily slumped against Silas, clutching her belly. "Oh, god, Silas! The baby! I think... I think I'm losing it!"

"Guards!" Silas roared, shaking off the shock, his duty to his unborn child overriding the horror of the moment. "Get the doctor for Luna Emily!"

"And her?" a guard asked, pointing at me.

Silas looked at me. I was rocking my dead brother, covered in his blood and mine.

"Leave her," he said, *his voice hollow.* "She's done."

He scooped Emily up and ran out.

I was alone with the dead.

I looked at my wrist. The wave mark was gone. There was nothing left but pale skin.

I felt a lightness spread through my limbs. My legs began to tingle. I looked down. My toes were becoming transparent. The dissolution had begun.

*Suddenly, the lab door creaked open again. Not guards. Not Silas.*

*Two figures limped in, looking haggard and thin, wearing the tattered remains of Alpha robes.*

*"We heard screaming," the woman rasped.*

*I blinked, my vision blurring. It was the former Alpha and Luna. Silas's parents. They weren't dead. They had been kept here, in the sub-basement.*

*"Marina?" the former Alpha gasped, rushing to the tank. "Child... what happened?"*

*"He killed him," I whispered, pointing to Orion. "They killed my brother."*

*"No..." The woman covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face. "We were too late. We dug through the walls... but we were too late."*

I was fading fast now. My waist was turning into bubbles.

"Tell him," I whispered, my voice sounding like wind chimes. "Tell him I tried."

*My chest dissolved into sea foam.*

*

*Silas POV:*

*I paced the hallway outside the infirmary. The image of the dead boy-Orion-wouldn't leave my mind. The way his small body had gone limp. The way Emily had swung that bar with such practiced brutality.*

*Something was wrong. The pieces didn't fit.*

*"Alpha," the Pack Doctor stepped out, looking pale. "We've examined the Luna."*

*"Is the baby safe?" I asked.*

*The doctor hesitated, glancing around to ensure we were alone. "Alpha... there is no baby."*

*I froze. "What do you mean? Did she miscarry?"*

*"No, sir. There was never a baby. Her womb is empty. It has been for months. She's been faking the hormonal scent with herbs."*

*The world tilted on its axis. No baby. The attacks. The cruelty. The dead boy.*

*"Where is she?" I growled.*

*"She went back to the lab," the doctor said.*

*I didn't wait. I sprinted.*

*I burst into the lab, my heart hammering against my ribs.*

The scene before me stopped me dead.

My parents-my dead parents-were kneeling on the floor, sobbing over a pile of sea foam.

"Mother? Father?" My voice cracked. "You're... you're alive?"

They looked up. Their faces were masks of grief and fury.

"You fool!" my father roared, his Alpha aura shaking the room. "We have been prisoners in your own home! Emily kept us in the maintenance tunnels! She used us to extort the merfolk!"

"But... the boat..." I stammered.

"The Mer-King saved us!" his mother screamed. "We were dying of the Feral Curse! Marina came to bring the cure to you! She saved us!"

I looked at the tank.

There was no body. Only a pile of glistening white foam on the concrete floor, mixed with the silver blood of the boy.

"Marina?" I whispered.

I lunged forward, my knees hitting the blood-slicked concrete. I reached out to grab the foam, to mold it back into the shape of the woman I had tortured.

My fingers passed right through it.

It felt like dipping my hand into champagne bubbles-cool, ticklish, and insubstantial.

"No, no, no!" I scrambled frantically.

*SNAP.*

A sound like a suspension bridge cable breaking exploded inside my chest.

The pain was blinding. It wasn't physical. It was my soul being ripped in half. My wolf, Fenrir, threw his head back and let out a sound that wasn't a howl-it was a death scream.

*MATE GONE. MATE DEAD.*

I collapsed onto the foam, burying my face in it. It smelled of salt and tears. It was wet against my cheek, and then it started to dry, leaving nothing but a salty crust.

"Silas," my mother sobbed, touching my shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" I snarled, flinching away. I looked at my hands. They were stained with the blood of her brother.

I looked at the empty space where she had been.

"I did this," I whispered. My voice sounded broken, like glass. "I killed her."

"Son," my father said, his voice grim. "We need to get you to the healer. The bond breaking can kill you."

"Let it!" I screamed, clawing at my chest. "Let it kill me! I deserve it!"

I stood up, swaying. The pain in my chest was a constant, throbbing agony, but underneath it, a cold, dark fire was igniting.

Emily.

She had whispered poison in my ear for years. She had faked the pregnancy. She had murdered a child. She had enslaved my parents.

I turned to the door.

"Silas, where are you going?" my mother cried.

"To finish it," I said. My voice was devoid of humanity. The man was gone. Only the monster remained.

I threw my head back and let out a howl. It was a sound of pure desolation, a song of regret that shook the foundations of the Pack House.

*I am coming for you, Emily.*

And when I was done with her, I would walk into the sea and never come back.

*