To ruin an Omega

Chapter 212: The thrall of the dark

FIA

Every pair of eyes shifted from me to the boy from the meadows. His expression remained neutral, but something in his stillness felt deliberate and calculated.

It was like he was a predator deciding whether its prey was worth the chase.

I waited for him to speak. To respond to my challenge with the same smooth rhetoric he’d been wielding all day. The silence stretched longer than it should have.

And my father took that as a sign to move first.

He took quick and purposeful footsteps that echoed across the polished floor. I turned to face him and saw his hand already raised. My body tensed on instinct, bracing for the impact I’d learned to expect from that particular angle and that particular expression on his face.

His palm however stopped inches from my cheek.

The momentum died. His fingers trembled in the air between us before slowly lowering to his side. Something flickered across his features. Realization, maybe. Or just the memory he has with Garrett and his gun earlier that reminded him that he couldn’t do that anymore. Not as freely as he once had.

“Honored elders,” His voice came out wound tight. “And members of Lily of the Valley. I apologize profusely for my daughter’s behavior. Her disrespect. Her complete lack of understanding regarding matters far beyond her comprehension.”

He turned toward the doors. “Sentinels. Inside. Now.”

The doors opened and four sentinels filed in, their expressions carefully blank. They knew better than to show surprise at finding me here when I wasn’t supposed to be.

I stepped forward before they could reach me. “I’m offering Skollrend’s forces to you.” My words cut through my father’s apology. “Take it and this would be no trouble. We can stand together against this threat.”

My father’s hand shot out. His fingers wrapped around my upper arm hard enough to bruise. He jerked me close. His breath hit my ear in a harsh whisper that none of the others would hear.

“You think I want the one decent daughter I have to die huh?”

The words should have meant something. I knew they were meant to harden the anger burning in my chest. But they didn’t.

I pulled away from his grip and faced the lead elder directly. “It seems my father is in on this. He doesn’t want Skollrend’s help with the threat that Lily of the Valley poses.”

The lead elder studied me for a long moment. When he spoke, his voice carried disappointment rather than anger. “No Alpha and no pack wants to be subjugated by another pack or Alpha in any way. Good or bad. There is a reason there is not one big convergence even if we have an Alpha King. Last I remember, you are not a member of this pack anymore.”

The words landed like stones in my stomach.

“I suggest you let the voices that this pack has and needs do the work.” He gestured to the council members seated behind him. “The experts.”

Something cracked inside my chest. A small fracture that I tried to ignore.

The sentinels moved in then once the damaged against me has been don. Their hands reached for my arms but these were somehow not as rough as I remembered then to be and I knew well enough because they’d done this before with troublemakers who interrupted council meetings.

“Wait.”

The single word came from the boy with green eyes. His hand lifted in a gesture that somehow commanded absolute authority despite its casualness.

The sentinels froze.

“I haven’t talked yet.”

He walked toward me. His steps were measured and unhurried. The representative from Lily of the Valley watched with an expression of pride. They were so sure he was going to put me in my place.

I held my ground as he approached. I met those green eyes directly and refused to look away even though every instinct told me this man was now dangerous in ways I didn’t fully understand.

“Seems like I win.” His voice was soft. Almost gentle.

“No.” I kept my chin up. “Not yet.”

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Real amusement flickered in his gaze. “So you were a daughter of this pack.”

There was something in how he said it. Some undercurrent I couldn’t quite identify. Not mockery exactly. I would not call it curiosity either. It was something else.

“Well, not anymore it seems.” He straightened slightly. “Donlon…”

The way he said my new last name felt deliberate. Like he was testing the weight of it.

“You are now a woman of Skollrend.”

I frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”

He leaned in. The movement was smooth. I wanted to step back but the sentinels stood like a wall behind me. His presence filled the space between us. His breath ghosted past my ear when he spoke.

“Do you remember me?”

The question caught me off guard. My mind raced through our brief encounter in the meadow. The way he’d helped me and spoken to me through the pain. It was the same patient quality he was using now.

“I’m sure I would remember a lawless man who thinks everything needs to accommodate him if I met him before.”

His chuckle was low. He pulled back enough to meet my eyes again. “Really?”

Then he turned away. Just like that. As if the conversation had reached its natural conclusion and I wasn’t worth any more of his time.

“Get her out.” One of the elders spoke for the first time.

Hands gripped my arms. They dragged me backward toward the doors. My boots scraped against the floor as I tried to maintain some dignity in the removal.

“This isn’t over.” I threw the words over my shoulder but no one seemed to be listening anymore.

The chill air that came from a closing afternoon hit my face as they hauled me through the doors. They didn’t slow down and they didn’t give me a chance to find my footing either. Once they dragged me far enough from the entrance and were certain that no one inside would hear, they dropped me.

I hit the ground hard. My palms scraped against gravel. Pain shot through my wrists as I caught myself.

The door slammed shut behind them.

I pushed myself up slowly and brushed the dirt from my hands. “You should be careful with me next time.”

The sentinels were already walking away but I kept talking anyway.

“You should be able to see what happens to sentinels who bite more than they can chew and how this pack treats them when they finally bite more than necessary. Milo was your brother too. In many ways than one.”

They didn’t respond. They didn’t even slow down.

I stood there for a while. My breath coming in short bursts that had nothing to do with physical exertion and everything to do with the rage coiling in my chest.

Garrett and Baruch were still in the secret passages. They didn’t know the way out like I did. But they were trained sentinels. They’d figure it out eventually. They had to.

My thoughts kept circling back to Hazel. To the smug satisfaction that would be on her face when she learned that the Lily of the Valley delegation had delivered their ultimatum. To the way she’d stand now at trial, knowing she was going to get away with murder.

Because that’s what would happen now. Once the trial was called again, they’d slap her with something minimal. A token punishment that meant nothing. Justice would be abandoned for politics and Milo would still be dead and Hazel would walk free.

I couldn’t let that happen.

The thought burned through my mind with crystalline clarity. I’d promised to speak for Milo. To make sure his death meant something. To ensure that justice was served even when everyone else wanted to look away.

But how?

I paced in small circles outside the hall. The calm air cooled the heat in my face but did nothing for the fire in my chest. Every option I considered led to dead ends. The circle wouldn’t listen to me. The elders had made that painfully clear. My father certainly wouldn’t help. He was all about this. And Skollrend’s support meant nothing if Silver Creek refused it out of pride.

My boots crunched against gravel as I walked. The sound seemed too loud in the quiet.

A thought slithered into my mind then. Dark and as unwelcome as it could be. The kind of thought that came from desperate places.

Why don’t you poison her?

I stopped walking.

The idea sat there in my consciousness like a serpent coiled in tall grass. Waiting and patient.

Hazel deserved to die after all. The evidence proved her guilt. The audio recording confirmed premeditation. She’d murdered Milo in cold blood and now she was going to escape punishment because her betrothed came from a powerful pack.

That wasn’t justice.

But poison was murder. It would be a cold and calculated thing to do. Exactly what I’d been condemning Hazel for.

I started pacing again. Faster this time. My thoughts raced ahead of my feet.

It wouldn’t even be hard. I knew plants. I knew which ones were deadly and which were merely painful. I knew how to prepare them so they’d work quickly or slowly depending on what I wanted. I knew how to make death look like natural causes if I was careful enough.

I mean… what else could I do? Stand back and watch Hazel walk free? Accept that power and politics mattered more than truth? Let Milo’s death become nothing more than an unfortunate incident that people would whisper about but never truly address?

Let whatever Cian’s uncle wanted from her come to fruition by letting her live?