To ruin an Omega

Chapter 287: Men and their complex 2

VALENTINE

Two years later, after the child had been born, a girl. Small and almost sickly, but alive.

I held her in my hands and examined her.i checked her eyes and ears and the formation of her bones. I looked for any sign that the experiments had taken root.

But there was nothing. She was just a normal Omega werewolf pup. Weak like her mother. The potential I’d been so sure was there had failed to manifest.

My disappointment tasted bitter.

I’d wasted two years. Two years of careful monitoring and controlled conditions. Two years of keeping Athena healthy and well-fed so the child would develop properly.

All for nothing.

I looked at Athena. She was watching me with desperate hope in her eyes. Like she thought this might mean I’d let them go.

“She’s useless.”

The hope died. Athena’s face crumpled.

“No. Please. She’s is still just a child. Give her time. Maybe when she’s older—”

“I’ve given enough time.” I handed the child back to her. “But you’re still viable. We’ll make up for lost time.”

I increased the frequency of Athena’s treatments after that. No more waiting. No more careful spacing to let her body recover. I pushed her harder and faster as I tested the limits of what a werewolf body could endure and survive.

And she started to bear fruit.

The first manifestation came three months later when she tried to escape. Athena had grabbed the bars of her cage and they’d started to corrode. Not with rust. This was actual decay spreading outward from her touch like rot in wood.

I’d watched through the observation window and taken notes. My heart had raced with the thrill of success.

She was creating death where there should have been permanence. Accelerating entropy on a cellular level. It was exactly what I had been trying to achieve. The kind of miracle only gods were supposed to perform.

But there was a cost.

Something I eventually deemed was the rot started to spread through Athena’s body. Black veins and bark like lesions crawled up her arms from where she’d touched the bars. Her skin started to slough off. The flesh beneath turned almost gray and necrotic.

She’d screamed and let go, falling to the floor convulsing while her body tried to fight off its own power.

I’d documented everything. The progression of the rot. The way it ate through healthy tissue. The time it took for her healing factor to kick in and start repairing the damage.

Forty-seven minutes. That was how long she’d suffered before her body stabilized.

I noted that she could use her ability for approximately thirty seconds before the rot became life-threatening. Anything longer and she risked permanent damage or death.

Useful information. I could work with these limitations.

The memory jumped forward again.

Athena was trying to escape yet again. She’d been in captivity for almost four years at this point. Four years of experiments and pain and watching her daughter grow up in a cage.

She grabbed the bars again and poured everything she had into that touch. The metal groaned and warped. The decay spread faster this time. She’d gotten stronger with practice.

But the cage was reinforced. Triple-layered steel with spells woven into the structure. It would take more power than she had to break through.

The rot started before she could finish. Black veins crawled up her arms. She kept pushing anyway. She kept trying even as her skin started to peel away.

I watched through the camera feed and leaned forward in my chair. This was the moment. The push beyond normal limits. People always surprised you when they had no other choice.

I expected a miracle. But Athena fell.

Her body hit the floor and she started convulsing. The rot spread faster than I’d ever seen it. Up her arms and across her chest. Toward her heart and brain. Places it couldn’t reach without harming her badly.

I reached for the intercom to call my assistant. We’d need to intervene or lose the subject.

Then the child moved.

Number Two had been huddled in the corner of the cage. Small and quiet like always. She’d learned early that drawing attention was dangerous.

But she crawled to her mother and put her tiny hands on Athena’s chest.

Light bloomed beneath her palms.

I remembered standing up then and pressing closer to the monitor. What the hell was this?

The black veins in Athena’s skin started to recede. The necrotic tissue turned pink again and healthy. The convulsions slowed and then stopped.

The child was healing her.

Number Two was a late bloomer. The abilities I’d tried to force into her as a fetus had finally manifested. Just years later than expected.

I smiled, picking up my journal as I started writing. This changed everything.

I collected Number Two the next day. Put her in her own cage for observation and testing.

She wasn’t as strong as her mother. The healing took effort. More than that. It drained her. But she could bring someone back from the edge of death if they were close enough.

And the rot affected her too. Every time she used her power, black veins crawled up her arms. Every time she pushed too hard, her body started to decay.

But she could heal others. That was worth the cost.

I tested her limits. Brought in subjects with various injuries and had her fix them. Documented how much she could do before the rot took over.

She never complained. She never begged like her mother. She just did what I told her with this empty look in her eyes that reminded me of a doll.

The memory shifted one final time.

Number Two was older now. Maybe eighteen. I couldn’t even remember nor did I care much. I did know she was old enough that she’d stopped growing. Old enough that her secondary abilities had started to show.

“I can see the future.”

She said it during a routine examination. Casual. Like she was commenting on the weather.

I’d stopped what I was doing and looked at her.

“What?”

“The future.” She met my eyes. “I’ve been able to see it for a while now. I just didn’t tell you.”

My pulse quickened. “Show me.”

She’d smiled. The expression looked wrong on her face. Too knowing.

“It plays out exactly like I saw it. Today. Now.”

“What did you see?” I had asked.

“I saw you letting me go.”

And then like a fucking trick of light, she walked out of the room.

I tried to stop her. I remember using my magic, shouting for my assistants. The alarms. The wards flaring to life one after the other. Every protocol we had ever written triggered at once.

It did not matter.

Every step I took felt late. Every command already outdated before I spoke it. Doors that should never open stood waiting. Traps that had never failed misfired or simply did nothing at all.

It was like chasing a memory instead of a person.

By the time the silence returned, she was gone.

She’d escaped. Without taking her mother with her. But I would come to learn that Athena had known about it all along and I was played like a fool.

The memories released me then.

I was back in my lab. On my knees next to Wilhelm. My hand had started to heal while I was lost in the vision. The flesh was knitting back together slowly. The burns fading from black to red to pink.

Wilhelm looked better too. The blisters on his face had flattened. The raw skin had started to close. He’d stopped crying. His breathing had evened out.

“You’re alright.” I said it again. I meant it this time.

I looked at the exploded vial. At the white flames still burning on the table. At the blood splattered across my equipment.

That was Athena child…

I didn’t know how. I didn’t care to know how. But I knew with absolute certainty that this was a creation of mine. A created child of a created child.

The bloodline had continued. Number Two had survived. She’d grown up and had a child of her own.

And that child… That child was this Fia.

I turned back to Wilhelm. He looked at me with eyes that were clearing. The pain medication in the healing spell was taking effect.

“I have to speak to your sister.” My voice came out steady despite the tremor in my hands. “I have to know more about this girl. A girl who could only be connected to her.”

“Her?” Wilhelm managed.

I nodded. “My Athena.”

Because if Fia had inherited even a fraction of her grandmother’s power, even a shadow of her mother’s gifts, then she wasn’t just some Omega caught up in Aldric’s games.

She was a weapon.

And Aldric couldn’t know it. He could never know it.