To ruin an Omega

Chapter 424: Second 2

CIAN

“Mother,” I said, my voice rough. “Can you hear me?”

Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused at first, like she was still somewhere else, then slowly sharpened as they settled on my face. She tried to breathe in, but it caught halfway and turned into a cough. Blood followed, spilling past her lips and trailing down her chin.

“I’m fine,” she rasped.

“You’re not.” My gaze moved over her again, more carefully this time, taking in every detail whether I wanted to or not. Too many injuries. Too much damage. My jaw tightened. “Who did this to you?”

She coughed again, her whole body jerking with the effort. When she spoke, it came out thin, barely there. “A girl. Young, with dark hair.”

The same one.

Something in me snapped into focus. The girl from the tree line. The one who had locked my body in place and left me helpless. She was the same one who had done this…

Heat surged through me, fast and sharp, turning my thoughts into something narrow and dangerous. I lifted my head, eyes catching on the broken window above us. Glass still clung to the frame, jagged edges catching the light. The drop from there was high enough to hurt, high enough to kill if done right.

But my mother had been stronger than that.

My mother’s hand shot out and wrapped around my wrist. The grip wasn’t what it used to be, but it held—enough to stop me from moving.

“Cian,” she said, forcing the word out. “Listen to me.”

I looked back down at her.

“Aldric is in Gabriel’s body.”

The words didn’t settle right away. They hit, then kept going. The feeling could be best described as something crashing through me instead of stopping at the surface.

Everything I had been trying to ignore since the trial came rushing back. That feeling that something was off. The way Gabriel had carried himself. The pauses that lasted a little too long. The way his voice had felt wrong, even when the words made sense.

It all fell into place at once, and I felt it in my chest, tight and heavy.

“Stay here,” I told her, already pulling away. “Someone will get you to the infirmary.”

Her hand loosened around my wrist, slipping off as I pushed to my feet.

The jump came easily. Too easy. My body coiled on instinct, and I launched myself upward, fingers catching the edge of the window frame. Glass bit into my palms the second I grabbed hold, sharp enough to cut, but I didn’t slow down. I pulled myself up and through, landing hard inside the dining room.

The space was a disaster.

Tables were overturned. Chairs were splintered. Pieces of wood and shattered glass were scattered across the floor, and the air smelled wrong, sharp with blood and dust.

The wolves I had sent in were already there, back in human form now, standing near the far wall. Their bodies were tense, their shoulders tight. Their eyes also moved like they were waiting for something to come at them again.

“Where is my wife?” The question tore out of me before I could stop it, harsher than I intended, but I didn’t care. “She is supposed to be here.”

One of them stepped forward, careful, like he didn’t want to say the wrong thing. “We will check the other rooms, Alpha.”

“Seal this building,” I said, my voice steady in a way I didn’t feel. “No one gets in. No one gets out. I want every exit covered.”

They moved right away, breaking off without hesitation, spreading through the room and toward the hallways beyond.

I turned.

Gabriel stood near the overturned table.

For a second, my brain tried to make it normal, to place him where he should have been, but it didn’t fit. His posture was wrong. The way he held himself wasn’t him. Even the look on his face felt off, twisted into something that didn’t belong there.

Blood ran from his nose, smeared across his mouth, and his eyes followed me as I moved. There was nothing familiar in them.

“You bastard.”

I didn’t remember crossing the distance. The only thing that stayed was the impact of my fist connecting with his face. His head snapped to the side, his body stumbling back, and I followed before he could recover. My hand fisted in his shirt, dragging him forward before slamming him into the wall hard enough to rattle the frame behind him.

I hit him again.

This time, his jaw took it, and I felt something give under my knuckles.

“I know you did this,” I said, the words coming out low, tight. “You killed her, too, didn’t you? You killed Elara because she figured it out.”

His head snapped back with the next hit. Blood sprayed against the wall, streaking across it in uneven lines. I hit him again. Then again. My knuckles split, skin tearing open, but I didn’t feel it the way I should have.

I only stopped when he laughed.

The sound didn’t belong to Gabriel. It came out rough, dragged up from somewhere deeper, something that scraped against my ears the wrong way.

“Yes,” he said, voice low and grating. “Give in. Let it take you.”

My fist hung in the air, just for a second.

“If I die,” he went on, lips pulling into a smile that didn’t fit his face, “you will never find her.”

Fuck this sicko! I hit him anyway.

“What did we ever do to you?” The question broke out of me, raw and uneven. “Why? Why? Tell me why!!!”

He barely reacted to the hit this time. Blood kept running from his nose, dripping down over his mouth as he spoke.

“I think my parents would be proud,” he said, almost calm. “To see how far I’ve come. How much I am willing to do and how far I am willing to go to get what I want.”

His hand came up, slow, deliberate, and brushed against my face.

My skin crawled where he touched me.

“So, dear nephew,” he murmured, his voice dropping lower, “how far are you willing to go? Will you kill this meat suit of mine to get what you want most right now? Revenge.”

My grip tightened on his shirt.

“I want her name,” I said, each word measured. “And I want to know where my wife is. If you think wearing Gabriel’s face will stop me, you’re wrong.”

“I do not think—”

He stopped.

Mid-word.

His expression shifted without warning. The smugness drained out of him like it had been pulled away, replaced by something else entirely. His eyes widened, then flickered, like he was fighting for control of his own body.

When he spoke again, it wasn’t the same voice. There was a different cadence to it.

“I have access to his memories,” he said, faster now, like he was running out of time. “This wasn’t his plan. Something changed, and now the bastard is grasping at straws.”

“Uncle Gabriel?”

“Before he takes over,” he said, his gaze locking onto mine, sharp and clear in a way it hadn’t been before, “you need to know this. It’s Valentine. There are others who will come for her too. He sent letters. To Northern Ridge’s Nocturne. And Lily of the—”

He winced, his entire body going rigid, muscles locking under my grip.

“What… What is happening?” I demanded.

“He’s trying to take back control.” Gabriel’s voice strained, each word dragged out with effort. “You need to go. Lock me up while you can.”

I held his gaze for a second longer, searching for anything that told me this wasn’t real. I didn’t find it.

I nodded once and stepped back.

“Secure him,” I said to the sentinel near the door. “Put him in a cell.”

The sentinel moved forward without hesitation.

I stepped away, my hands still trembling, the urge to keep going still there, sitting just under the surface, waiting for an excuse.

But Fia was still out there.

And standing here wasn’t going to bring her back.

Valentine needed to go. No. He needed to die.