To ruin an Omega

Chapter 117: Roulette 2

FIA

“Do you not?”

Silence followed.

The word hung between us. Heavy and thick. I couldn’t look away from him. His eyes held mine like a predator watching prey decide whether to run.

“Goddess, you two hate each other.” Elara’s voice cut through the tension.

I blinked and turned toward her. She was staring at both of us with wide eyes. Her fork hung suspended over her plate.

She shook her head. Took one more bite of her food and pushed back from the table. “Whatever you all got going here, I want none of it.” She stood and smoothed down her dress. “So I’ll just find the pool.”

Aldric’s smile returned. That warm, fatherly expression that made my skin crawl. “I have no idea what you mean, but good idea, sweetheart.”

She left without another word. The door clicked shut behind her.

I turned to the Omega who stood silently against the wall. My throat felt tight. “Could you step out for a minute?”

The Omega stiffened. She had to have felt it. The weight pressing down on the room. The way the air itself seemed to constrict around us.

“It’s a private conversation. You must understand that.”

She bowed low. “Of course, Luna.”

Then she was gone too. The door closed with another soft click.

The room felt smaller now. It was just me and him. No witnesses. No buffer.

My phone sat in my pocket. I could feel its weight against my thigh. I slipped my hand down slowly. Carefully. My fingers found the device and I pressed the record button without looking.

“Are you ready to confess?”

Aldric lifted his cup. Took another long drink. When he set it down, that smile was still plastered on his face. “I really am confused about what you mean.”

My hands trembled. I pressed them flat against my thighs under the table. “You poisoned your own sister-in-law. Did you not?”

He stood.

The sound of his chair scraping against the floor made my heart jump into my throat. He moved around the table. Each step was measured. Deliberate. He wasn’t rushing but he also wasn’t hesitating.

I gripped the edge of my seat. Every instinct screamed at me to run. To call for help. To break through those shields around the mate bond so Cian would feel my terror and come running.

But I couldn’t. Not yet. I needed proof. I needed him to say it.

Aldric stopped beside me. He was so close I could smell his cologne. Something woodsy and expensive. He reached past me and adjusted my plate. Moved it half an inch to the left. Then he picked up my cup and repositioned it.

Like the arrangement bothered him. Like we were having a normal breakfast conversation and he was simply fixing the table settings.

“I…”

He paused.

The silence stretched. My heart hammered so hard I thought it might burst through my ribs. But I kept my breathing steady. I kept my face neutral even though terror clawed at my insides.

My hand tightened around the phone in my pocket.

“I believe recording is the oldest trick in the book.”

His hand shot out.

I jerked back but he was faster. His fingers closed around my wrist and he yanked hard. The phone tumbled out of my pocket and he caught it with his other hand.

“Did you think I would just say I committed a crime and you would get it?” He looked at the screen. His thumb moved across it. “I didn’t do anything.”

He tapped. Swiped. The recording disappeared.

“You have nothing on me.”

My breath came too fast. I tried to pull my wrist free but his grip was iron.

“Cian would know, you know.” I managed to whisper.

His eyes flickered. Back and forth between mine. Searching. “Know what?” His voice dropped lower. Quieter. More dangerous. “Who do you think he would believe right now? The Omega who came into his life through a lie?” He leaned closer. “Or me?”

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.

“Not that I did any wrong though.” He released my wrist and I pulled it back against my chest. He tossed my phone onto the table. It skidded across the surface and stopped just before falling off the edge. “Whatever you believe I have done, you have to prove it.”

I stared at him. This man who had sat across from me at breakfast. Who had smiled and laughed and talked about building things and giving his daughter a comfortable life.

This monster.

“I must have been sloppy.” He straightened and rolled his shoulders back. “And I would admit that it is because I wanted to punish you.”

The words hit me like a physical blow. “What?”

“But I am not the only one who has given in to my mortal nature and done something stupid.” His smile was cold now. All pretense gone. “You had something over me and you revealed your cards so quickly. How stupid.”

My hands shook. I pressed them together to stop the trembling.

“So now I have to make sure you go down.” He tilted his head. Studied me like I was something interesting under a microscope. “It’s a an eat or be eaten world and I don’t want to be eaten.”

“What sort of monster are you?”

“I am just like you.” He said it so simply. So matter-of-factly. Like we were discussing the weather again. “Just as you are an opposition to me, I am to you.” He paused. Let that sink in. “I will be kind to give you a head start though.”

My throat closed. I couldn’t swallow. Couldn’t speak.

“Fucking my nephew will not save you.” The vulgarity of it shocked me more than the words themselves. “If you want to save yourself, run now.”

He lifted his hand.

“Or better still…” He pointed to my wrist and made a slicing notion across it. The gesture was made slowly. Deliberately. “Because today is the only day you will matter to him.”

The blood drained from my face. My vision tunneled. All I could see was him. This man who had just threatened my life. Who had admitted to wanting to punish me. Who had poisoned Luna Morrigan and was now standing here telling me to kill myself.

He picked up my phone and proceeded to hold it out to me. “It was nice talking to you.”

I took it. My fingers felt numb. Disconnected from my body.

He turned and walked toward the door. Each step was calm. Unhurried. Like he had all the time in the world. Like he hadn’t just destroyed everything.

The door opened.

He paused in the doorway. Looked back at me over his shoulder. “Oh, and Fia?” His smile returned. That warm, fatherly smile. “Good luck.”

Then he was gone.

I sat frozen in my chair. The phone felt like a lead weight in my hand. My chest hurt. Each breath came shallow and quick. Too quick.

He knew. He knew everything. And he had just walked away because he knew I had nothing. No proof. No recording. Nothing but my word against his.

And he was right. Who would Cian believe?

Me?

Or Aldric? His uncle. His father figure. The man who had been there his whole life. Who had helped raise him after his father died.

I looked down at my hands. They were still shaking. I couldn’t make them stop.

The mate bond pulsed in the back of my mind. Still locked away behind those shields. Still hidden. I could break them right now. I could flood Cian with everything I felt. The terror. The despair. The absolute certainty that I was now afraid.

But what would that prove? That I was scared? That didn’t mean Aldric had done anything. It didn’t mean I was telling the truth.

It just meant I was emotional. Unstable. Exactly what an Omega would be if she was lying and getting caught. It was just stereotypical. Exactly what Aldric wanted.

I swallowed hard. My stomach rolled. I covered my mouth with one hand as nausea climbed my throat.

Aldric believed he had already won. That he had ended the game before it even began. That was why he could smile. Why he could walk away.

I stood, legs trembling. The chair scraped against the floor, loud in the empty room that now felt hollow and ruined.

I had thought I was clever, that I could trap a man like Aldric with something as simple as a recording. Instead I revealed my hand and he sank his teeth into the opening.

Run or die. Those were the choices he believed he left me with.

I looked at my wrist, at the thin blue veins beneath the skin. His gesture echoed in my mind, cold and unhurried.

I laughed. It was quiet but it stayed sharp. Nothing was funny but at the same time, it was.

Who did he think he was?

This was not a loss. It was confirmation. Absolute proof in everything except a sound file.

Alpha Aldric poisoned Luna Morrigan. He had to be entangled with Alpha Gabriel as well. His mask had slipped in front of me, and he did not even realize how much that gave me.

With Maren and Thorne, I could protect Luna Morrigan. I could watch him. I could drag him out of the shadow he hid in and force him into the light.

This was not a defeat.

This was the beginning.

And I would make sure he regretted speaking to me like I was already dead.