To ruin an Omega Nov Chapter 212: The thrall of the dark

Chapter 212: The thrall of the dark

FIA

Every pair of eyes shifted from

to the boy from the adows. His expression remained neutral, but sothing 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 sa 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 montum died. His fingers trembled in the air between us before slowly lowering to his side. Sothing flickered across his features. Realization, maybe. Or just the mory 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 ca out wound tight. "And mbers 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

here when I wasn’t supposed to be.

I stepped forward before they could reach . "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

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 ant sothing. I knew they were ant 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

for a long mont. When he spoke, his voice carried disappointnt 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 rember, you are not a mber 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 mbers seated behind him. "The experts."

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

The sentinels moved in then once the damaged against

has been don. Their hands reached for my arms but these were sohow not as rough as I rembered then to be and I knew well enough because they’d done this before with troublemakers who interrupted council etings.

"Wait."

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

The sentinels froze.

"I haven’t talked yet."

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

in my place.

I held my ground as he approached. I t those green eyes directly and refused to look away even though every instinct told

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 amusent flickered in his gaze. "So you were a daughter of this pack."

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

"Well, not anymore it seems." He straightened slightly. "Donlon..."

The way he said my new last na 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 movent was smooth. I wanted to step back but the sentinels stood like a wall behind . His presence filled the space between us. His breath ghosted past my ear when he spoke.

"Do you rember ?"

The question caught

off guard. My mind raced through our brief encounter in the adow. The way he’d helped

and spoken to

through the pain. It was the sa patient quality he was using now.

"I’m sure I would rember a lawless man who thinks everything needs to accommodate him if I t him before."

His chuckle was low. He pulled back enough to et 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 ti.

"Get her out." One of the elders spoke for the first ti.

Hands gripped my arms. They dragged

backward toward the doors. My boots scraped against the floor as I tried to maintain so dignity in the removal.

"This isn’t over." I threw the words over my shoulder but no one seed to be listening anymore.

The chill air that ca from a closing afternoon hit my face as they hauled

through the doors. They didn’t slow down and they didn’t give

a chance to find my footing either. Once they dragged

far enough from the entrance and were certain that no one inside would hear, they dropped .

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

The door slamd shut behind them.

I pushed myself up slowly and brushed the dirt from my hands. "You should be careful with

next ti."

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 sothing minimal. A token punishnt that ant 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 ant sothing. 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 . The elders had made that painfully clear. My father certainly wouldn’t help. He was all about this. And Skollrend’s support ant nothing if Silver Creek refused it out of pride.

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

A thought slithered into my mind then. Dark and as unwelco as it could be. The kind of thought that ca 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 confird preditation. She’d murdered Milo in cold blood and now she was going to escape punishnt because her betrothed ca 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 ti. 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 rely 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 an... 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 beco nothing more than an unfortunate incident that people would whisper about but never truly address?

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