To ruin an Omega

Chapter 84: The Architect

ALDRIC

The strawberry touched my tongue and the sourness struck me in a way that felt rude. A small violation. A reminder that the world had corners I had not smoothed yet. I let it fall from my mouth and watched it hit the marble with a soft wet slap. The red spread across the floor, lively and wild. A little chaos staining a perfect room.

“Who picked this.”

The sentinel behind me shifted. I heard the slow tension in his leather boots. Fear always had a sound if you were patient enough to listen.

“I am not sure, Alpha.”

“Well find them. Bring them.”

He left without hesitation, which pleased me. I always admired people who knew how to leave a room at the right moment, like good background music fading when the scene demands quiet.

I took another strawberry from the bowl. It was beautiful. Red like a secret. Glossy like a lie. It reminded me of half the people I had known. Perfect on the surface and disappointing where it mattered.

My phone buzzed.

It was an unknown number.

Yet the vibration had a certain pace, a certain timing. Trouble always announced itself with unmistakable rhythm.

I answered.

“If you are calling me, then things are worse than expected. Did Bo fail?”

A stretched silence followed. The kind that tried to hide something but failed because silence itself becomes a confession.

“Bo is dead. Alpha Cian killed her.”

A small laugh escaped me. Not sharp. Not cold. Just honest. The kind of sound only pure amusement can draw from a man. My nephew had taken a life. Not by accident. Not in desperation. Out of decision. That was beautiful. A man is most honest when he kills with intention. It reveals the spine of his soul.

“I did not think he would step into violence so quickly, but he has always had the seed. It is good to see him watering it.”

I rolled the strawberry between my fingers. The seeds pressed lightly against my skin. A simple touch. Yet I felt more truth in that texture than in most conversations I had ever had.

“There is a problem,” the voice said. “Her phone. It is incriminating.”

I stopped rolling the berry. Not in fear. In calculation. I enjoyed calculations. They felt like a private game the world could not interrupt.

“I was careful.”

“Yes. But your number is saved. I wanted to remove it. I feared it would give you away.”

I placed the strawberry down on the desk. Slowly. Ritual is important. Even small rituals. People underestimate how much control small movements offer.

“What number do you think they will find.”

There was silence again. Awkward this time. Hesitant. So I continued.

“They will see it and doubt. Cian knows the version of me I built for him. He trusts that illusion. If they dig deeper, they will find the number is actually Gabe’s. That will comfort him. People always choose the explanation that lets them sleep.”

I moved to the window and studied the gardens below. Order. Geometry. A world shaped by my hands into something predictable. That was how life should be. Controlled. Observed. Contained. Like a creature in a glass bowl.

“Luna Morrigan living is the real problem,” I said. “Her presence ruins more than timing. It ruins architecture. And I hate when someone ruins architecture.”

I picked up the strawberry again, took a bite, and felt a warm burst of sweetness flood my mouth. Pure. Clean. Honest. This was how things should be. Predictable pleasures.

“Good thing I enjoy redesigning things. Even disasters can be shaped.”

I let the sweetness linger. There are not many moments in life worth slowing down for, but this one was. The simple joy of something doing exactly what it was meant to do.

“Do something for me.”

“What.”

“Collect some poisons from the witch. Ophelia.”

“Yes.”

“Use them and kill the fucking witch.”

There was a pause. A breath caught between fear and logic.

“That will be suicide. She is in her place of power when she is in her shop. Protected.”

I smiled. A small smile. The kind I gave to animals that thought they understood the hunter.

“You cannot die for this cause?”

“I am being rational.”

“Then I will send someone else. You on the other hand should at least stay useful and keep me informed.”

“Yes.”

I ended the call and scrolled through my contacts until I reached a name that carried a familiar sting.

Madeline.

She had beauty that wilted the moment she felt unwanted. She had anger that settled into her bones when she was ignored. She had a soul that bruised easily which made her useful.

The sentinel returned then. He pushed a young Omega into the room. She collapsed to her knees and shook as if her bones had turned to water.

“Please Alpha I did not know one was bad, I tried my best, sometimes these things happen, I—”

I raised a hand and she fell silent as if the air had vanished from her lungs.

“I dislike that idea.”

I walked toward her. Each step slow. Measured. Honest. I believed that how a man walked said more about him than his words ever could.

“That idea that the world does things behind your back. That ruin just arrives. That failure is something outside you.”

She trembled harder. Her body seemed to try to shrink into itself.

“If something happened under your watch, it is because you did not look close enough. Weak eyes encourage disasters.”

I stopped in front of her.

“Right now, you know what I will do. It is why you are so terrified. To expect mercy would be an insult to common sense, is that not true?”

Her mouth opened and closed like a dying fish, but no sound came.

“That was a question.”

She nodded fast. Almost violent in her fear.

“So you agree you must die?”

She shook her head even faster. “Please Alpha, I have a family, I have—”

“How dishonest. To expect reality to warp for you.”

My claws extended. Smooth. Familiar. Like slipping into warm water.

I raised my hand. She pulled in a breath to scream.

I cut across her throat. It was clean. Perfect. A line of red that opened like a flower. She fell forward. Her fingers pressed to the wound with desperate instinct but blood still poured through. Her eyes went wide. Then empty. A simple piece of truth.

I wiped my claws with a white cloth and dropped it on her back.

“Clean this,” I said.

“Yes Alpha.”

I walked back to my desk and hit call on Madeline’s contact.

The phone rang once. Twice.

She picked up on the third ring.

“What the fuck do you want?”

Her voice was sharp. Angry. Good. Anger was useful.

I smiled and sat down in my chair. Leaned back and relaxed.

“How would you like to re-enter Cian’s life again?”

There was silence.

I could hear her breathing on the other end. Could almost picture the expression on her face. The way her eyes would narrow. The way her mouth would twist.

“I’m listening.”

Those two words held everything I needed. Curiosity. Interest. Hunger.

I picked up the sweet strawberry and took another bite. Juice ran down my chin and I wiped it with the back of my hand.

“There’s a witch. Name’s Ophelia. She’s might help Cian with something important. Very important.”

“And?”

“I don’t want her to. In addition, if something were to happen to her, Cian would need someone. Someone he could trust. Someone who knew him well.”

“He has people.”

“He has subordinates. He doesn’t have someone who understands him. Someone who was close to him once. Like you were.”

I let the words settle. Let her chew on them.

Behind me the sentinel dragged the Omega’s body across the floor. The sound of fabric on marble was soft. Rhythmic. Almost soothing.

“What do I get out of this?”

“Access. A way back into his inner circle. A chance to be relevant to him again.”

“I don’t need to be relevant. I’m doing just fine.”

She was lying. I could hear it in the tightness of her voice. The way the words came out too quick. Too defensive.

“Of course you are.”

I let the sarcasm drip through.

“But you want more. You’ve always wanted more. That’s why you tried to keep him in the first place even after my stern warning. That’s why losing him hurt so much.”

“Fuck you Aldric.”

“Probably. But first you’re going to do this job.”

“Why should I?”

“Because you must hate her. The new Luna. The one who took your place. And because you still love him. Even if you pretend you don’t. I also know he feels the same way.”

There was more silence.

Longer this time.

I waited. Patience was a skill most people lacked. But I had it in abundance.

“What exactly do you want me to do?”

There it was. The crack in her armor. The opening I needed.

“Visit Ophelia. Ask for her services. Perhaps omething poisoned. Then give her gift of your own. Blossom witches are insanely powerful. So I know you will disappoint. Though, I have to chime this in. Justin case. It has to be something that will kill swiftly. Make it look unnatural. Make it look intentional.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. Simple and clean.”

“And then?”

“And then, I help you. With everything in my arsenal so that you become his Luna.”

I heard her exhale. Slow and deliberate.

“What about Skollrend?”

“Not your problem. Do not set me off, Maddy.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Don’t think too long. Opportunities like this don’t wait.”

I then ended the call.

The room was quiet again. Clean. The faint metal scent of blood still lingered but even that would fade.

I walked back to the window.

The gardens were perfect again. The lines. The colors. The stillness.

Cian believed he was winning. He believed he had caught up to me. Well… Actually… He believed he has caught up to Gabriel.

But he forgot one thing.

I had shaped this story before he ever entered it.

I took another strawberry and bit into it. It was sweet, calm and predictable.

Exactly how things would stay soon enough.