To ruin an Omega

Chapter 243: Ignorance is Bliss

FIA

I nodded. “It’s true.”

Cian waited, his hand still warm in mine. The water lapped gently at our feet.

“I don’t understand it myself.” I pulled my knees up to my chest, wrapping my free arm around them. “She didn’t feel like an apparition. She felt real. Very real.”

The memory played behind my eyes. That woman on the road, and how strange she looked.

“It was like…” I searched for the right words. “Like seeing her appealed to my sense of justice? I wanted to save her.”

Cian’s thumb traced circles on the back of my hand. He didn’t interrupt.

“That was when the accident happened.” My voice came out flat. The words felt too simple for what had occurred, but I didn’t know how else to say it.

“That’s powerful magic.” Cian’s jaw tightened. “Who do you think did it?”

I stared at the moon’s reflection in the water. The ripples from our feet distorted it, breaking the perfect circle into fragments.

“I couldn’t be sure. I seem to have a lot of enemies now.” I let out a breath. “It wouldn’t be past Hazel or my stepmother to try.”

“Garrett also says you wanted your sister dead.” Cian’s voice stayed even, but I felt it through the bond. A slight pang of jealousy. It was sharp as it was quick. “Did your sense of justice also want that because of Milo?”

I turned to look at him. His face was carefully neutral, but his eyes gave him away.

“I wish I was that noble.” I shook my head. “I did it for you. So you shouldn’t be jealous.”

His expression shifted slightly.

“I did it because…” I paused. My heart picked up speed. “I’m about to say something that will bother your spirit now. But I hope you hear me out without flaring hot.”

“I don’t do that.” He defended.

“You do.”

“I really don’t.”

“You’re doing it right now.”

“Okay. Okay. Of course.” He said it immediately once I had him cornered. “I won’t flare hot.”

“I mean it.”

“I do as well.” His grip on my hand tightened just a fraction.

I took a breath. “One of the emissaries that came for me was Milo’s brother.”

Cian went very still.

“Hazel wanted to escape justice because if Milo’s murder could somehow be proven by his family, it would mean death for her. So his brother, as well as his grandmother, were being hunted.” The words came faster now. “He asked for my help. And he gave me a reason to help him.”

“What reason?” Cian’s voice was quiet.

“Alpha Gabriel had reached out to her.” I watched his face carefully. “I had his business card but it probably got lost in the wreckage.”

His jaw clenched.

“I don’t know what your enemy would want from my sister. But it couldn’t be good and when I got to the elders circle, it started to feel like a power was set out to protect Hazel.”

“The arrival of house Strati.” It wasn’t a question.

I nodded. “That wasn’t all though.”

The water was cold against my feet now but I didn’t pull them out. The discomfort kept me grounded.

“My stepmother’s mother somehow managed to get the heir to the Lily of the Valley pack to save Hazel.” I swallowed hard. “I tried. I wanted my sister dead. I was scared of what was to come. But I had to settle for what I could. Something that would still haunt her mind so badly, she wouldn’t have time for me or you or Gabriel.”

My throat felt tight.

“But it still haunts me that an enemy of yours took interest in her.” I looked at Cian. “And also… when did she even meet Gabriel?”

He frowned.

“Milo’s brother infiltrated her so deep. He knew plenty about her. But it was clear…” I paused, remembering the timeline. “It seemed clear that the time frame she got that card was at Alpha Julius’ wedding.”

Cian’s eyes widened.

“And what I am about to say might be a fucking stretch to you,” I held his gaze. “But you have to trust me.”

“You think Gabriel has more people working in here, don’t you?” His voice was barely above a whisper.

I sighed and nodded.

Cian looked back at the pool. The moonlight turned his face into sharp angles and deep shadows.

“Garrett insinuated that…” He stopped. Started again. “Ronan was one.”

The name hung between us.

“But I know Ronan.” Cian’s voice cracked slightly. “He couldn’t. He’s like a brother to me.”

“There it is again.” I shifted to face him fully. “The cognitive dissonance.”

He looked at me.

“You’re terrified that the reality and truth you hold might break.” I reached for his other hand, holding both now. “Trust me, I’ve been there. I was raised with love as little as a mustard seed and I made excuses. I wore those rose colored glasses because I couldn’t bring myself to face it. How could I?”

My voice dropped lower.

“That my father… the one person that should love me… didn’t truly love me and he tolerated me because I was palatable at the time.” The words tasted bitter. “But I know that’s not a life, Cian.”

He was looking at me now, really looking.

“I know Ronan is more than a friend for you. He is practically your brother.” I squeezed his hands. “But are you his?”

Cian went rigid. His head turned sharply to the left.

“Who’s that?” His voice cut through the quiet.

I followed his gaze. A figure stood in the shadows just beyond the moonlight’s reach.

Garrett stepped forward into the light. Bandages wrapped around his ribs and his left arm hung in a sling. He bowed his head.

“I apologize for being in the shadow but I wanted to see if other ears and eyes were watching.”

My heart hammered against my ribs.

“Luna Fia is right.” Garrett’s voice was steady despite his injuries. “And… Beta Ronan is not the only enemy from within. There is another.”

He walked toward us. Each step was careful, measured. When he reached us, he extended his good hand to Cian.

A business card lay in his palm. The white surface was now painted red with dried blood. But the black indented lettering could still be seen. Gabriel Donlon.

“Luna Fia put it on me to watch Beta Ronan and I found out things.” Garrett’s jaw tightened. “He is super close to Alpha Aldric. Unnaturally so.”

Cian took the card. His hands trembled slightly.

“No…” His voice was hollow. “He can’t be.”

But I felt it through the bond. The way his heart was breaking. The way the foundation he’d built his trust on was crumbling beneath him. The devastation of betrayal cut deeper than any physical wound ever could.

He stared at the card. The moonlight caught on the bloodstains, making them look almost black. His breathing had gone shallow.

“All this time.” The words came out broken. “He was right there. All this time. Why would he? Why would they? It doesn’t make sense. Does it—”

I moved closer, pressing my shoulder against his. I didn’t say anything. What could I say? That I was sorry? That I understood? Words felt useless against this kind of pain.

Garrett stood silent, giving Cian space to process.

Cian’s fingers tightened on the card. For a moment I thought he might tear it in half. Instead, he just held it, staring at Gabriel’s name like it held all the answers to questions he’d been too afraid to ask.

“I have to know this myself. I have to know for sure.”

I drew a slow breath, the words pressing at the back of my throat before I could stop them.

“Do you want to confront him?” I asked.

Cian stilled.

The bond tightened, sharp and sudden, like I had touched a bruise he did not know was still raw. His gaze dropped back to the card, to the darkened smear of blood.

“I don’t think letting him catch a whiff that we suspect him is—”

“No,” he cut in before I could finish. He shook his head once, decisively. “Not yet.”

I waited.

“I knows what will happen if we mess this up somehow, they’ll prepare,” Cian continued. His voice was steadier now, colder. “I don’t want that. What I want… I want to see what he does. It is the only way I can believe this to be true. It is the only way it can somehow make some twisted sense.”

He turned and held the card out to Garrett.

“Take this to Ronan,” Cian said. “Tell him it’s something you forgot in the chaos. Say you only remembered it after. Say you think Gabriel could somehow be connected to what happened. To you. To Fia.”

Garrett accepted it, eyes narrowing. “And if Ronan asks questions?”

“Don’t give him any answers,” Cian replied. “Just the card.”

Garrett inclined his head. “Understood.”

When he stepped away, the night felt heavier, like it was listening.

I looked back at Cian. “You’re testing him.”

“Yes,” he said quietly.

His fingers curled, empty now without the card.

“I want to know what he does,” Cian said, “when he thinks he can cover something up.”