To ruin an Omega

Chapter 157: You’re on your own Kid

CIAN

I sat there with the weight of it pressing down on my chest until it felt physical, like something heavy had been laid across my ribs and left there on purpose.

Madeline. The magic users. The way they had all turned on me.

The pieces had been there for a while now, scattered across days of unease and half formed suspicion, but they had refused to settle into anything coherent until this moment. I had been accused of killing Ophelia Cottonwood, a witch with enough power and experience to put up a real fight if I had even tried. It had never made sense. Not the accusation, not the certainty with which they had delivered it, especially when the evidence had pointed so clearly to one of their own.

None of that had mattered.

The magical community had closed ranks overnight. Doors shut. Voices went quiet. Allies vanished. I had gone from being tolerated to being a pariah, cut off from the very people who could have balanced the threats pressing in on my pack.

And then Madeline had appeared.

Offering help. Offering loyalty. Offering magic.

At the time it had felt like a miracle, like some small mercy in the middle of a slow collapse. One practitioner willing to stand beside me when every other witch had turned their back. Someone I knew. Someone I trusted. Someone with history, with shared memories, with roots tangled deep in my pack’s past.

What if that had been the point?

What if isolating me had been the goal from the beginning, stripping away every other option until there was only one voice left to listen to. Make me dependent. Make me grateful. Make me blind.

It would work better if it came from someone familiar. Someone I already trusted before the ground started giving way beneath my feet.

My jaw tightened until my teeth ached.

And underneath it all was Gabriel. There was no avoiding that truth. Everything rotten that had crept into my life since I took my father’s throne traced back to him somehow. The attacks. The instability. The constant pressure testing the limits of my authority. If Gabriel was involved in this, and I knew in my gut that he was, then that meant the rot ran deeper than I wanted to admit.

The door opened.

I looked up as Alpha Julius stepped inside. His hair was dyed black, streaked lightly with gray that he never bothered to hide, and his posture was as rigid and commanding as it had ever been. He took in the room in a single sweep of his eyes, Fia on the bed, me seated beside her, Madeline standing near the wall.

“Is she alright?” he asked.

“She is now,” I said, and was vaguely surprised at how steady my voice sounded.

The healer gathered her things with efficient movements, packing her supplies without ceremony. When she finished, she turned toward Julius and me and bowed low, respectful and precise. “I’ll be on my way now.”

We both nodded. She left without another word, the door closing softly behind her.

Madeline’s gaze moved between the two of us, her expression knowing in a way that made my skin prickle. “I can tell a conversation needs to happen,” she said lightly. Her smile was pleasant, professional. “So I’ll take my leave as well.”

She crossed the room with easy, graceful steps and paused beside me. Her hand settled briefly on my shoulder, meant to comfort, meant to reassure. I had to fight the instinct to pull away.

Then she was gone.

Silence stretched out in her wake. Julius remained at the foot of the bed, his hands clasped behind his back, studying me the way he always had. It was the same look that used to make me feel like a boy caught in a lie.

“Why exactly did you invite me?” I asked. I did not soften it.

His eyebrow lifted slightly. “You think I had a nefarious reason?”

“You invited Madeline.”

“Did she not help today?” He gestured toward Fia, toward her throat where a vicious wound had been only minutes ago and now there was nothing at all.

“It feels convenient.”

Julius sighed, long and heavy, the sound of an elder indulging a disappointment. “This is why I was against you taking your father’s throne,” he said, shaking his head. “You are not very bright.”

Heat flared in my chest, sharp and immediate. “And provoking a dull man with a lot of power does not strike me as smart either.”

“I can back most of the shit I say with power as well,” he replied calmly. “You are not the only apex predator in this room.”

We held each other’s gaze, neither of us blinking.

“I actually wanted to see you and the girl you bound yourself to out of pride struggle with something simple,” he continued, and there was something almost amused in his voice now. “But I am pleasantly surprised. You work well with her.”

His eyes drifted to Fia. She lay still, her breathing slow and even, her face peaceful despite everything that had happened tonight.

“Do you love her?”

The question hit harder than I expected, landing somewhere deep and unguarded. Too sudden. Too personal.

I did what I always did when cornered.

“You seem to cherish this new mate of yours,” I said instead of answering. “I could ask you the same.”

Julius smiled then, small and genuine in a way that caught me off guard. “I surprise myself,” he said. “It seems I am a lover at heart after all.”

The admission lingered between us, exposed in a way I had never heard from him before, not from a man like Julius. It felt fragile, like something that could shatter if either of us moved too quickly.

“Since you deflected my question, I’ll assume you do care about her,” he said at last, folding his arms across his chest. “Which I suppose also means bringing Madeline here wasn’t as entertaining as I initially hoped.”

Now. Ask now.

“About Madeline,” I said, keeping my voice level even as my pulse picked up. “That was entirely your idea? No pressure from anyone else.”

His eyes sharpened instantly. “Are you fishing for something?”

“You pushed for Gabriel,” I replied, the words coming faster, heavier. “You backed him without hesitation during the contest for Skollrend. Am I really grasping at nothing here?”

Julius was quiet for a long moment. The amusement drained from his face, replaced by something more thoughtful, more guarded. He uncrossed his arms slowly.

“I haven’t been in contact with Gabriel for a long time,” he said. “The only person I could say was involved at all was Aldric.”

My heart slammed hard against my ribs.

“He wouldn’t explain himself,” Julius went on. “But he was desperate. And with the way he’s been scouring for witches these past few days, I’d wager it’s something you both need badly.”

I didn’t respond. I wasn’t about to tell him about my mother or why I’d needed magic at all costs. Whatever he saw on my face, he chose not to press.

“Well,” I said eventually, breaking the silence, “I suppose that’s the end of our conversation.”

“Not quite.”

I looked up at him and waited.

“I hated the hell out of you, boy.”

“I am not a boy,” I shot back, the protest automatic, edged with old defensiveness.

Julius chuckled, warm and unexpectedly gentle. “Old habits.”

He stepped closer, stopping beside the chair where I sat. His presence felt solid, grounding in a way I hadn’t realized I needed.

“The truth is,” he said more quietly, “I see now that I was too hard on you. I told myself I was testing you, that I needed proof you were worth the throne before offering any apology. But I don’t need that anymore.”

I didn’t know what to say. The words lodged somewhere behind my ribs and refused to come out.

“So consider this my pathetic apology for making your life harder than it needed to be,” he continued, his gaze steady. “Skollrend still stands. You have your flaws, but your father’s pack hasn’t fallen apart under you. That earns my respect.”

He paused, letting it sink in.

“Your father would be proud of you, Cian Donlon.”

Everything inside me went still. My breath caught, sharp and sudden, and my heart slowed as if those words had reached in and stilled it by force. I couldn’t speak. My throat closed around everything I might have said.

Julius patted my shoulder briefly, almost paternal. “Your mate’s family is trouble, though. Keep an eye on that. I’d hate to take back my praise.”

Then he turned and left. The door closed behind him with a soft, final sound.

I stayed where I was, staring at Fia as she slept, her face peaceful and untouched now. My mind churned, replaying everything that had been said, everything I’d learned, everything that still didn’t sit right.

Raised voices drifted through the door, muffled but unmistakably angry.

I knew them immediately. Alpha Joseph. Luna Isobel.

I stood, legs stiff, and crossed the room in a few long strides before pulling the door open.

They were in the hallway, Joseph’s face flushed, jaw clenched hard enough to ache just looking at it. Isobel stood in front of him, her stance defensive, eyes flashing with something sharp and volatile that could have been fear or fury or both.

They both turned when the door opened and froze when they saw me.

Whatever argument had been burning between them died instantly. The silence that followed was thick and uncomfortable, pressing in from all sides.

I looked from one to the other and waited. Waited for an explanation. For an excuse. For anything that justified them fighting outside the room where Fia was recovering from what Hazel and Isobel had done to her.

Neither of them spoke.

The tension stretched on, brittle and ready to break.

So I broke the silence.