To ruin an Omega - Chapter 423: Second 1

Chapter 423: Second 1

CIAN

I woke to the sharp sting of a palm cracking against my cheek.

“Alpha. Alpha Cian, can you hear me?”

Garett’s voice reached me through the fog, distant at first, like it had to fight its way in, then clearer the second time his hand struck my face, harder now, enough to snap something in my head back into place. My eyes dragged open.

His face came into focus above me, close enough that I could see the tension pulling at his mouth, the tight line of his jaw. Concern didn’t sit on him easily, but it was there now, plain and unhidden.

“There you are,” he said, a breath slipping out of him like he had been holding it. “You had us worried for a second.”

I tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. My body felt wrong, heavy and slow, like I had been out for far longer than I remembered. Every muscle resisted, stiff to the point of pain. Garett’s hand came to my shoulder, steadying me as I forced myself upright, even as the world tilted slightly under me.

“Seeing the body must have been a shock,” he went on, quieter this time. “I’m sorry, Alpha. I should have been here. I should have found her first.”

The body…

My gaze shifted without me meaning to, drawn to the patch of disturbed earth a few feet away. The soil had been dug up in a rush, uneven, careless. And there she was. Elara.

What was left of her.

The side of her skull had caved in, the damage clear even from where I sat. Her body lay twisted, wrong in ways that made it hard to look for too long, but I couldn’t look away. Not from her hand.

Still positioned like that.

’Father.’

The word surfaced before I could stop it, cutting through everything else. And then the rest followed. The woman. The way her magic hit me, not like something I felt but something that took hold, locked me in place, turned my body against me. The branch tearing into my side. The helplessness as everything went dark.

I grabbed Garett by the front of his shirt and pulled him in close enough that he had no choice but to focus on me.

“Someone is here. Skollrend has an infiltrator.”

His eyes widened for half a second before sharpening. He didn’t question it, didn’t hesitate. “What do you need?”

“Get everyone to the perimeter. I want the entire estate covered. No one leaves. No one gets in.” I released him and pushed myself up, ignoring the way my legs threatened to give out under me. “We need people at the main house too. Now.”

Garett turned immediately, his voice cutting through the air as he started issuing orders. The sentinels behind him moved without pause, breaking off in different directions like they had been waiting for something to snap into motion.

And then I felt it.

The bond hit me without warning.

It flared inside my chest so suddenly it forced the air out of my lungs, sharp and violent, as if something had clawed its way through me from the inside. Fear came first, thick enough to choke on, followed by something worse. Terror, raw and unfiltered, flooded through the connection so fast it made my vision blur. Then despair settled in behind it, heavy, suffocating, pressing down until it felt like I couldn’t breathe.

Fia. She was… Fuck this!

“Eight of you,” I called out, my voice cutting through the chaos around us. “With me to the main estate. Shift. Now.”

They didn’t hesitate. None of them did.

The change came fast, faster than it should have. I forced it. I didn’t give my body time to ease into it the way it wanted. Pain followed immediately.

Bones cracked and twisted, reshaping under pressure that felt like it would tear me apart. My spine arched as everything shifted, my skin splitting in places as fur forced its way through. My jaw stretched forward, the ache deep enough to rattle through my skull. It burned, every second of it, worse than usual because I was pushing too hard, rushing something that was never meant to be rushed.

I didn’t care.

My wolf surged forward, angry and sharp, taking control before the pain had even settled. The others followed, their own transformations just as brutal, just as desperate. I could hear it, bones snapping, claws tearing free, breaths turning into something rough and animal.

Then we ran.

The estate blurred past in streaks of green and stone, the ground barely registering under my paws as I pushed harder and faster.

Each step hit hard enough to leave marks behind, but I didn’t slow. I couldn’t. The others stayed close, their presence steady at my back, their breathing heavy but controlled as they kept pace.

The bond pulsed again.

Weaker.

I pushed harder.

The main house came into view, rising up ahead of us, and then I saw her.

My mother.

She was on the ground near the base of it, her body crumpled in a way that made something in me drop hard. Blood streaked across her face, down her arms, soaking into her clothes. One of her legs bent at an angle that made it clear what had happened. It was broken, and not in just one place.

But she was breathing.

Barely, shallow and uneven, but it was there.

I shifted back before I even reached her, forcing the change again. It tore through me in reverse, just as rough, and just as unforgiving. My human form snapped back into place, leaving me raw and unsteady as I dropped to my knees beside her.

For a second, I didn’t know where to touch her. My hands hovered over her, useless, caught between wanting to help and knowing I could make it worse.

“Keep going,” I shouted over my shoulder, my voice rough. “Into the house. Kill any intruder on sight.”

They didn’t stop.

Eight wolves rushed past us, massive and focused, their claws scraping hard against the stone steps as they charged inside.