To ruin an Omega

Chapter 76: You cannot fight fate

CIAN

The sentinels returned quicker than they should have. Their boots struck the floor in a frantic rhythm that set my nerves on edge. But they didn’t come with the bastard I wanted. I waited for the usual report, the stiff posture, the salute. Instead I got silence. Their faces were drained of color. Their eyes stayed glued to the ground.

A warning in itself.

“What the fuck is holding your tongue?” I snapped. “And where is he?”

They traded looks like boys caught stealing from the kitchen. Fear rolled off them in waves.

“Speak,” I said again, this time quieter and cold.

One stepped forward. His throat bobbed. “Alpha, Kayden was found unconscious in his cell. Foaming at the mouth.”

Cold hit me so fast it felt like my blood froze solid.

“We called for the healers right away,” he added. “But it looked critical. Very critical.”

Perfect timing. Perfect sabotage. Right when everything depended on him staying alive.

I pushed past them and ran. The corridors rushed by as nothing more than streaks of stone and shadow. My heart hammered so hard it hurt. Every second felt like another nail driven into my skull.

I crashed through the infirmary doors. The smell punched me. Medicine. Blood. A bitter tang that clung to the air.

My mother was on one of the beds. Pale. Motionless. Covered in a web of wires and monitors that kept her currently fragile body alive. Seeing her like that made something deep in me twist. But I forced myself to look away.

Kayden was the priority.

Maren and Elder Thorne worked on him like soldiers on a battlefield. Their hands moved quickly but not fast enough for my sanity. Kayden’s body convulsed in violent jerks. Foam gathered at the corners of his mouth. His eyes were rolled back as if he was already halfway gone.

“What the fuck is wrong with him?” I demanded.

Maren looked up at me and any scrap of hope I wanted to cling to died. Her face was tight with strain. “It looks like poison, Alpha.”

“How the hell would poison get into his cell?” I stepped closer. Watched Kayden’s chest seize. Watched his limbs jerk beyond his control. “He was locked down. Under constant surveillance.”

“He may have realized he was cornered,” Maren said. She grabbed another vial, plunged a needle into his arm. “Some prisoners choose death over interrogation. It would not be the first time.”

Coward. The word scraped through my head like metal on stone. That fucking coward.

“Then do not let him die,” I said. My voice came out like ice. “I want him breathing. I want him talking. You bring him back if he stops.”

Maren kept working, but her head shook slightly. “We will do everything we can, Alpha. But this is alchemised poison. It carries the same base signature as your mother’s. Not the same mixture, but the same creator.”

A different poison. The same hands behind it.

Ophelia Cottonwood. The neutral zone witch. Too clever for her own good. Too dangerous for mine.

“None of this adds up,” I muttered. My mind tried to assemble the pieces and failed. Every guess brought another question. “Kayden had no access. No contact. No way to smuggle this in to the dungeons. It should be impossible.”

Elder Thorne glanced up briefly. “Yet it happened.”

I looked from Kayden’s trembling body to my mother’s still one. Two attacks. Two poisons. Two perfect opportunities.

“Could there be another accomplice?” I asked. My voice sounded calm, but my pulse was a storm. “Someone even closer. Someone inside.”

Elder Thorne looked up from crushing herbs. His old hands were steady despite everything. “We went with Luna Fia to the dungeons to treat them. We gave them no food. Whatever he took had to be willing.”

“It still does not prove that someone else is not in on this,” I said. The words tasted sour. Wrong. Something was nagging at me. Something I could not quite grasp. “He would have gotten it from somewhere after all.”

I turned back to Maren. “Just try to keep him here. We know who did the poisons. We will get to them soon.”

“We will…” Maren started.

She did not finish.

The machines screamed. A long, flat tone that cut through everything. Kayden’s body went rigid. Then limp.

“No no no.” I rushed forward. Pushed Maren aside. Grabbed Kayden’s shoulders. “Bring the fucker back. Bring the bastard back.”

I pressed my hands to his chest. Started compressions. One. Two. Three. His ribs cracked under the pressure but I did not stop. I could not stop.

“Alpha.” Thorne’s hand landed on my shoulder. Gentle. Firm. “He is dead.”

I spun on him. “Because you two are incompetent.”

Something flickered in Thorne’s ancient eyes. Pain maybe. Or understanding. “We apologize for making you feel that way.”

“I do not just feel that way.” I pointed at him. My finger shook with rage. “I know—”

Then pain hit me like a blade between the ribs.

It was not physical. Not really. But it burned through my chest all the same. Sharp. Urgent. Desperate.

It came with something else as well. A feeling. Almost like a thought but stronger. It rushed through my heart and my skin prickled with goosebumps. Every hair on my body stood on end.

CIAN.

I could sense it was her. It felt like a voice. Her voice. It was thick with her fear. Her terror.

“Goddess,” I breathed. “Fia.”

Then I ran.

The mate bond pulled at me like a rope. Like a magnet. Like gravity itself had shifted and everything was drawing me toward her. I had never felt it like this before. Never felt anything like this. The intensity was staggering.

CIAN PLEASE.

I ran faster. My lungs burned. My legs screamed. But I pushed harder.

The hallways stretched endlessly. Corners appeared and disappeared. Sentinels tried to speak to me and I shoved past them without stopping.

HELP ME.

The Luna Suite doors filled my sight like a target. I did not slow. I did not reach for the handle.

I kicked them open.

The world stopped breathing.

Fia lay sprawled on the floor. Blood soaked the carpet. Her palms were smeared red where she tried to push herself up. More blood pooled beneath her knees, staining her clothes and streaking her arms. And on top of her was Bo. The quiet, obedient omega I had handpicked to guard Fia. The one I had trusted.

She held a piece of glass. Long. Jagged. The kind that could rip a throat open in a single stroke. The shard pressed against Fia’s skin. Already cutting. Already drawing a steady line of crimson.

The roar that broke out of me was pure instinct, a sound from before language existed.

I ran.

Bo’s head jerked up. Her eyes widened with the realization that she had been caught. She hesitated for a fraction of a second. Then she chose violence. She drove the shard toward Fia’s throat. Hard.

I hit her like a storm.

The force tore her off Fia’s body. The glass dragged across Fia’s neck as Bo flew backward. A thin line of blood opened. Too close. Too fucking close.

Before she reached the floor, my hand closed around her neck.

Her body jerked in my grip. She slashed at me with the shard, wild and desperate. She aimed for my eyes, my chest, any place soft enough to pierce.

I caught her wrist. Slammed it into the wall so hard the sound echoed through the suite. The crack of bone was sharp and beautiful. The shard tumbled from her fingers and shattered on the floor at our feet.

Her scream cut through the air, high and sharp. I did not loosen my grip.

My head turned toward Fia. She was upright now, holding her bleeding neck with one trembling hand. Her skin was washed out. Her breathing shallow. Her eyes wide with shock and pain.

Seeing her blood on the floor flipped something inside my skull. Rage poured into my veins like acid. I felt it eat through restraint. Through reason. Through mercy.

“What the fuck is happening?” I growled. The words vibrated from somewhere deep inside me.

Fia swallowed with difficulty. “She works for Alpha Gabriel. I think she poisoned the person helping her in the dungeons.”

I stared at Bo. At the trembling body in my hand. At the snake I had fed and trusted.

“Oh,” I said. Quiet. Almost gentle. “It was you.”

I tightened my grip.

Her face reddened. Darkened. Her mouth opened in a silent cry. Her legs thrashed. Her nails tore at my skin, leaving burning lines along my forearm.

I did not feel a thing.

“Who else is in your league?” I asked.

Her lips moved without sound. Her eyes bulged. She clawed at my hand like a drowning woman reaching for the surface.

I loosened my hold just enough for air to wheeze through her throat.

She sucked in a broken breath. Then she smiled. A warped little thing. The same cold arrogance I had seen in her file. The same deceit I had overlooked when I placed her beside Fia.

“You have no idea what is coming for you and your family,” she hissed.

Behind me, Fia’s voice came soft but urgent. “Keep her alive. We might need her.”

Bo laughed. The sound rattled like something dying already. “I will never betray my ranks.”

My hold tightened by instinct. Her pulse fluttered beneath my fingers, thin and frantic.

She looked at me again. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Your mother will suffer. You will die.” Her eyes slid toward Fia. “And your fake Luna will bleed.”

Something in my head snapped.

A line. A limit. A lock that kept my darkest instincts contained. It broke cleanly.

I leaned in. “Go first,” I said. Calm now. Too calm. “Make the way for us.”

And I twisted.

Her neck cracked like rotten wood. Loud, sharp and final.

I let her drop.

She hit the floor in a violent spasm. Her back arched. Her mouth gaped open. Wet choking sounds gurgled from her throat as her body tried to breathe without a working spine and throat. Her heels scraped helplessly against the ground, making small dragging sounds.

Her eyes rolled. Her limbs jerked. Foam formed at the corner of her lips. Blood seeped from her useless nose.

Then everything went still.

Silence fell heavy over the room. Only Fia’s ragged breathing broke it.

And Bo lay there twisted on the floor, neck bent wrong, eyes wide open, staring up at nothing she could ever report back to again.

I turned to Fia. She was staring at the body. Her eyes were wide with horror. Her face had gone even paler than before.

“What the fuck did you do?” she breathed.

I ignored the question and crossed to her in two strides before knelling beside her.

“Put pressure on it,” I said. My hands found her shoulders. Steadied her.

“Cian—”

“Put pressure on it.”

She pressed her hand harder against her neck. The blood seeped through her fingers. Not arterial. Not fatal. But enough to make my chest ache with something I did not want to name.

I lifted her in my arms. She was lighter than I expected. Or maybe the adrenaline was still pumping through my veins. Making everything feel different. Wrong.

I carried her out of the suite. Stepped over Bo’s body without looking down.