To ruin an Omega - Chapter 384: Say your oath

Chapter 384: Say your oath

CIAN

The hall erupted into noise.

People were shouting. Protesting and demanding to know what was happening.

I raised my voice above all of it.

“Put your hand to your chest and swear your loyalty to Skollrend and me. Now!”

The command rang out clear and absolute.

For a moment, no one moved.

Then, slowly, people began to obey.

Hands came up and pressed against chests. Some people looked terrified. Others looked defiant. A few looked resigned.

Moira raised both of her hands.

The air around her shifted, barely noticeable at first. A strange stillness settled in, like the room had drawn in a breath and forgotten to let it go.

“Repeat after me,” she said. “I swear my loyalty to Alpha Cian Donlon and to the pack of Skollrend. I swear to serve with honor and truth. I swear this on my life and on the goddess who watches over us all.”

The words echoed through the hall.

Then people started repeating them.

Slowly at first. Then louder.

“I swear my loyalty to Alpha Cian Donlon and to the pack of Skollrend. I swear to serve with honor and truth. I swear this on my life and on the goddess who watches over us all.”

Something shifted as the voices joined together.

The space around Moira seemed to draw tighter, like the air itself was being pulled toward her. Not visible, not something I could point to, but it was there, settling over the room.

It spread with the sound of the oath. Each voice added to it, deepening it, until it felt like it was pressing against my skin.

By the time the last words were spoken, it wrapped around every person in the hall, quiet and steady, holding them there.

Most of them reacted for a moment, a subtle shift in posture, a breath caught, a hand tightening at their side. Then it passed, and they stood as they were before.

But not all of them.

A woman near the back screamed.

It was sharp and sudden, cutting through the last echoes of the oath. She grabbed at her throat, fingers digging into her skin like she could pry something off.

Her eyes went wide. Her mouth opened, but nothing came out. Not a word, not even a breath.

She staggered once.

Then she dropped.

Her body hit the floor and did not move again.

Another scream came from the left side of the hall.

A man this time. He doubled over, clutching his neck, choking on nothing anyone else could see. His chest heaved, desperate, useless.

He tried to run.

His legs gave out beneath him.

He fell hard, convulsed once, then went still.

More screams followed.

Twelve people in total.

Twelve traitors who had sworn false oaths.

The goddess had judged them and found them wanting.

The hall had gone completely silent now.

Everyone stared at the bodies. As proof that the goddess’s small gifts to Moira were real. That the goddess was watching. That lies could not survive in her presence.

I looked at Callum.

His face had gone pale. He was staring at one of the bodies. A woman who had been sitting in the front row. Someone he probably knew well.

“I did not hear you say a word, Elder Callum,” I asked quietly. “The oath concerns all.”

For a moment, he said nothing.

Then slowly, he turned his head, not toward me, but toward someone else.

“Elder Saiorse,” he said.

The shift in the room was immediate, subtle, but unmistakable as attention followed his gaze.

Saiorse stilled where she stood.

“You as well,” Callum added, his voice calm in a way that felt deliberate.

A pause settled over her as my eyes wandered to her.

“Right… You did not say your oath as well.”

Then she lifted her chin, but it came a second too late, like she was forcing herself into composure rather than holding it naturally.

“I am loyal to Skollrend,” she said.

Her voice held, but her eyes had already moved, flicking to Callum with something sharper than confusion. Shock. Betrayal. A quiet, dawning realization of what he had just done.

Callum did not react to it.

“What about me?” I asked.

The question hung between us, heavier now.

A few people shifted where they stood, watching closely, sensing something unraveling.

Saiorse’s composure faltered for just a moment. It was small, almost imperceptible, but it was there in the way her shoulders tightened and her breath caught before she could steady it.

“Of course,” she said.

I held her gaze, unmoved.

“Then say the oath.”

The silence that followed pressed in on all sides.

Saiorse did not move at first.

Her eyes stayed on Callum, searching his face as if waiting for something to break, for some sign that this was not what it looked like. There was none.

Then she turned back to face me, and something in her expression shifted.

No hesitation this time. This looked a lot like a decision.

Then she turned and ran.

The crack of gunfire tore through the hall before she made it three steps.

The first shot hit her high in the back, jerking her forward. The next followed almost immediately, then the rest came in rapid succession, a controlled, merciless barrage that left no space between impact and impact.

Her body struggled to keep moving, driven by instinct even as it failed her. Blood sprayed across the stone, across the hems of robes, across the feet of those closest to her.

She collapsed hard, but the shots did not stop.

They continued until there was nothing left to resist them.

By the time the gunfire ceased, her body lay twisted and unrecognizable, torn apart by the force of it.

The silence that followed felt heavier than the noise that came before it.

One of the sentinels stepped forward, unhurried, as though this had already been decided long before the moment arrived.

He reached down, gripping her hair, and pulled her head back to expose her throat.

The machete came down with a single, decisive strike.

The sound was wet and final as bone gave way.

Her head separated cleanly enough, rolling once across the blood-slick floor before coming to a stop.

No one spoke.

No one moved.

What had just happened did not need to be explained.

I let the silence stretch just long enough to settle over them again.

Then I turned back to Callum.

“Are you going to let the goddess handle her business,” I asked, my voice even, “or will that be me?”

For a fraction of a second, he didn’t answer.

Something in his expression shifted.

Then he moved.

Fast enough that most of the room didn’t react in time.

His hand twisted as he lunged, bones shifting beneath skin, fingers lengthening into something sharper, something made to tear rather than grasp.

He came straight for me.

I didn’t step back.

I caught his wrist mid-strike, stopping the motion before it could land. The force of it traveled up my arm, but it wasn’t enough. Not even close.

I twisted.

There was a sharp crack as something in his arm gave, and before he could recover, I drove my foot into his chest and sent him flying back.

He hit the ground hard, his body skidding across the stone before crashing into Saiorse’s corpse.

For a moment, he didn’t move.

Then he sucked in a breath, panicked now, no longer composed. His eyes darted around the hall, searching for something that wasn’t there anymore.

A sentinel stepped forward.

Machete already in hand.

Callum saw him coming.

“I swear—” he started, the words tumbling out too fast, too late. “I swear my loyalty to Alpha Cian Donlon and to the pack of Skollrend—”

He didn’t finish.

Something caught him.

Not hands. Not anything visible.

But his body jerked upward, lifted clean off the ground like he weighed nothing at all.

His words cut off into a strangled sound as his limbs tensed against whatever held him.

Then his neck snapped.

The sound was sharp. Final.

His body went slack immediately after, whatever held him releasing just as suddenly.

He dropped to the floor in a heap beside Saiorse.

Dead, dead, dead.

Only then did I turn to address the rest of the hall.

“Let this be a lesson,” I said. My voice carried clearly. “Treason will not be tolerated in Skollrend. Lies will not be tolerated. Aldric Donlon built his power on manipulation, fear, and betrayal. That ends today.”

I paused and let the words settle.

“Anyone who cannot swear true loyalty to this pack should leave now. You will not be harmed. You will not be pursued. But you will not be welcome here.”

No one moved.

I waited.

Still nothing.

“Good,” I said. “Then we move forward. Together.”

I looked at the sentinels guarding the door.

“Remove the bodies. Clear the hall. The trial is… over.”