To ruin an Omega

Chapter 240: Drag Path 1

FIA

The door to the infirmary burst open.

I heard it before I saw him. The heavy wood slamming against the wall and footsteps rushing across the floor. Then Cian was there, filling my vision with his broad shoulders and wild eyes.

“Fia.”

My name… That was all he said. But the way he said it, in this raw, broken and relieved voice, it made something crack open in my chest.

I smiled. I couldn’t help it. Even with my throat still raw from screaming and my hands shaking and the phantom sensation of chains around my wrists, I smiled at him.

He crossed the distance between us in two strides and pulled me into his arms.

The impact knocked the breath straight from my lungs. His chest was solid against mine. I could feel all of his hard planes and tense muscle. One of his hands cupped the back of my head, his fingers threading through my hair. The other wrapped around my waist and held me like he was afraid I might dissolve if he let go.

I felt every inch of him pressed against me. The way his heart hammered beneath his ribs. The tremor in his hands despite how tightly he held me. And somehow, impossibly, the curve of his shoulder fit perfectly against my cheek.

His scent wrapped around me. I smelled pine and the earth, as well as a tinge of blood and smoke. It chased away the lingering smell of antiseptic and the memory of that damp stone cell.

“I’m so glad you’re alright.” His voice rumbled through his chest, through me. He spoke into my hair, his breath warm against the top of my head. “You have no idea.”

He pulled back just enough to look at me. His hands moved to my shoulders, while his gaze swept across my face like he was cataloging every detail to make sure I was real.

“You are alright. Right?”

I nodded. “I feel fine.”

“That’s good.” He exhaled hard, some of the tension bleeding from his shoulders. “That’s good. Are you hungry? Do you need anything? Water? I can get Maren or Thorne to—”

I caught his hand in mine. His palm was calloused and warm. “I’m fine.”

He looked down at our joined hands. His thumb brushed across my knuckles, the touch was so gentle that it made my throat tight.

“What happened?” He sat down on the edge of the infirmary bed, his weight making the mattress dip. “I felt you.” His voice dropped lower. “I felt you suffer. I felt you hurt and you…” He stopped. Swallowed hard. “You started to disappear.”

My grip on his hand tightened.

He closed his eyes. “I felt you die.”

The words hung in the air between us. Heavy, as it was terrible, and borderline true.

“I’m here.” I held both his hands now, threading our fingers together. “I’m alive.”

“By some miracle.” He opened his eyes and they were bright with unshed tears. “You came here with no scratch on you. How did that even happen? Garrett… Even Garrett was…”

My stomach dropped. “Garrett.”

The memory slammed back. Garrett hovering over me in the wreckage, his face pale and drawn. Blood everywhere as he tried to stop me from bleeding without even caring about himself. The sight of my blood was still engraved in my head.

Even though he had been badly injured too, he had stayed. He had tried to help me while he was probably bleeding out himself. What if something had happened to him while I was unconscious? What if he had collapsed? What if no one had found him in time?

The thought twisted in my mind like a knife.

“Is he fine?”

Cian nodded. “He survived. He has bruises, maybe even worse. But not you.” He looked at me again, really looked at me. “It’s not like I’m not glad some miracle happened. But Fia, the mate bond broke. You were tethering on the other side and you came right back. How the heck is that even possible?”

I glanced past him to where Maren was organizing supplies on a metal tray. Thorne stood near the doorway, his weathered face creased with concern. They were both trying to look busy but I could feel their attention on me. I could feel the weight of the pack’s worry pressing in from all sides.

The infirmary felt too small. Too close. The smell of herbs and antiseptic was cloying in my throat.

“Can we go out?” My voice came out quieter than I meant it to. “The air here is a bit too much.”

“Of course.” Cian stood immediately and helped me to my feet. His arm came around my waist, supporting most of my weight even though I didn’t need him to.

It was endearing, the way he treated me like something fragile that might shatter. Like porcelain or spun glass. When the truth was I felt perfectly fine. Better than fine, actually. There was no pain, no weakness, or lingering ache from injuries that should have killed me.

He led me through the infirmary doors and out into the night. The cool air hit my face and I breathed it in deep, filling my lungs with the scent of pine and earth and growing things.

The moon hung at its peak. It was full, bright and impossibly large. It painted everything in shades of silver and shadows of grey.

Cian guided me toward the pool. The water reflected the moonlight like a mirror, the surface so still it almost looked solid. It was beautiful.

I sat down at the edge, ignoring how the thin infirmary gown did nothing to protect me from the cold ground. The chill seeped through the paper-thin fabric but I didn’t care. I needed to be here, outside, under the open sky.

“You’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you.”

Cian sat next to me. He pulled off his shoes and socks, setting them aside before dipping his feet into the water. Small ripples spread across the surface, distorting the moon’s reflection.

“Try me.”

I looked at him. Really looked at him. The strong line of his jaw. The way the moonlight caught in his dark hair. The patience in his deep blue eyes as he waited for me to find the words.

“I remember the seat belt cutting when we had the collision.” My voice sounded steadier than I felt. “I remember hitting glass and scraping my skin on the road.”

My hand moved to my throat without thinking. The skin there was smooth and whole. No ragged edges. No torn flesh.

I swallowed hard. “I even had a jagged piece of fucking glass sticking out of my throat. I was covered in blood.”

Tears burned at the corners of my eyes. I blinked them back but more came, blurring the moonlight into streaks.

“I didn’t want to die.” The words cracked in the middle. “I still had so much to live for and it seemed so unfair. I thought about you. How you would feel. How it would hurt you and I couldn’t bear it.”

I should have said something deeper. Something about how I never thought I could have a family like this. How I never imagined I could belong somewhere, to someone, so completely. But I didn’t need to say it. The words lived between us already, in the space we shared in our mind.

“You had me and… I had you,” I said instead. They were simple words and goddess were they true. “I didn’t want to even imagine what hel.you would have gone through if I didn’t make it.”

I took his hand again. Our fingers slotted together like they were made for it. I looked him in the eye and said, “I saw her.”

“You told me.” His voice was gentle. “Your mother.”

I shook my head and laughed. The sound came out wet and broken. “I wish. No. I didn’t see my mother. I saw Lady Selene.”

The bewilderment that crossed his face would have been funny under different circumstances. His eyes went wide, his mouth opening slightly before he caught himself.

“See?” I said. “I told you you wouldn’t believe it.”

“No.” He squeezed my hand. “I believe. I believe you.”

“She told me if I didn’t want to perish, it was my choice and my choice alone.” My voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “So I chose. I dragged myself back to you.”

Tears formed in Cian’s eyes. They caught the moonlight as they spilled down his cheeks, tracking silver paths across his skin.

“I thought I lost you.” His voice broke. “I was so afraid I lost you.”

I cupped his face in both hands, my thumbs wiping away the tears. His stubble was rough against my palms. “You will never lose me. I assure you.”

Then I kissed him.

His lips were warm and soft. They tasted faintly of salt from his tears. He made a sound low in his throat and his hands came up to cradle my face, angling me closer. The kiss was gentle at first, almost hesitant, like he was still afraid I might disappear.

But I was here. Solid, real and alive.

I deepened the kiss, pouring everything I couldn’t say into it. All the fear… All the relief and the desperate gratitude that I got to come back to this. To him. His fingers threaded through my hair and I felt his heartbeat against my chest, strong, steady and sure.

When we finally pulled apart, he rested his forehead against mine. Our breath mingled in the small space between us.

“I love you,” he whispered.

The words settled over me like a blanket.

“I love you too.”

We sat there by the pool with our feet in the water and the moon overhead, holding each other like we could keep the whole world at bay. And for that moment, maybe we could.

Then he asked; “Garrett says you saw the apparition of a woman before the accident.”