My Alpha Made Me Rescue His Mistress Instead

The water pressed against me like a vise as I continued my search, Adrianna's taunts echoing in my mind. My underwater light cut through the murk, illuminating small pockets of the seabed. Still no sign of the locket.

"Find it yet?" Adrianna's voice crackled through my comms, dripping with impatience.

"Not yet," I replied, trying to keep my breathing steady. The cold was seeping through my dry suit, numbing my fingertips despite the thermal layers.

I moved deeper, my fins stirring up clouds of silt that further reduced visibility. The third buoy should be nearby. I swept my light across the bottom, when suddenly my right fin caught on something.

"Damn," I muttered, trying to pull free.

The movement only made it worse. Whatever had snagged me was pulling tighter. I reached back with my hand, feeling along my equipment. My primary regulator line had wrapped around a jagged piece of metal debris—probably from an old boat wreck.

"Olivia?" Ty's voice came through the comms. "Everything okay?"

"Fine," I lied, not wanting to distract him or give Adrianna satisfaction. "Just checking something."

I tugged harder, but the line had become tangled in a mess of fishing net and rusted metal. My heart rate spiked as I realized I was trapped. The oxygen gauge on my wrist showed I had less than fifteen minutes remaining.

"Olivia?" This time it was Daniel's voice, cold and demanding. "What's taking so long?"

"I'm working on it," I replied, struggling to keep my voice calm as I worked at the tangle.

The regulator line was now wrapped around my backup oxygen tank as well. Panic fluttered in my chest as I realized how serious this had become. I was running out of time.

"Is it someone's mother out there, I wonder?" Adrianna's voice slithered through my comms again. "How terrible that would be."

My hands trembled as I fought with the debris. The darkness seemed to press closer, and my oxygen levels were dropping faster than I'd anticipated.

"Olivia!" Ty's voice cut through my panic. "I'm coming in."

"No!" I gasped. "Stay there. That's an order."

But even as I spoke, I heard the splash above me. Ty had disobeyed a direct order from Daniel to dive in after me.

"Your oxygen levels are dropping," he said when he reached me, his voice steady despite the danger. "We need to move fast."

He assessed the situation with a quick glance, then pulled a diving knife from his belt. With practiced precision, he began cutting through the tangled lines.

"Hold still," he instructed, his voice calm but focused. "I don't want to cut your equipment."

I watched as he worked, admiration mixing with fear. Ty had been training with me for less than a year, but his instincts were impeccable. Daniel would be furious that he'd defied orders, but right now, I didn't care.

"There," Ty said after what felt like an eternity. "You're free."

He grabbed my arm, and we ascended quickly toward the surface. When we broke through, I gulped in the cold night air, my lungs burning.

"What the hell are you doing?" Daniel's voice boomed from the dock. "Get back down there and find that locket!"

"Not until we check the drowning coordinates," I said, my voice stronger than I expected. "Someone could be dying out there."

"You're defying an Alpha command," Daniel snarled, his eyes flashing in the darkness.

"I'm doing my job," I replied, meeting his gaze steadily. "And so is Ty."

Without waiting for permission, I pulled out my GPS and punched in the original coordinates. "Let's go," I told Ty.

We swam to the location, the water feeling slightly warmer after our ascent. This time, we descended together, our lights cutting twin paths through the darkness.

"Search pattern delta," I instructed Ty. "We'll work outward from the center point."

The bottom here was different—rockier, with more marine life clinging to the surfaces. We moved methodically, our lights sweeping across the seabed.

"There," Ty pointed suddenly.

I followed his gesture and saw it—a dark shape partially buried in the sediment. We approached carefully, and I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the water temperature.

It was a body. Or what remained of one.

"Female," I said quietly as we examined the skeletal remains. "Been down here for at least a week."

The bones were scattered, partially covered in barnacles and sea grass. Fish had been feeding on the soft tissue, leaving behind only the hardest parts.

"We need to recover everything we can," I said, my professional training taking over despite the grimness of the task.

As we carefully collected the remains, placing them in our recovery bags, I couldn't shake the feeling that something about this discovery would change everything.

"Olivia," Ty said suddenly, his voice tight. "Look at this."

He held up what appeared to be a piece of fabric, partially decomposed but still recognizable as part of a dress.

"It's custom-made," he said quietly. "Look at the stitching pattern."

I took it from him, my heart sinking as I recognized the distinctive embroidery along the edge—the same pattern my mother had described when she'd told me about the dress she'd gifted to Daniel's mother.