To ruin an Omega - Chapter 434: How you get them 2

Chapter 434: How you get them 2

PAULINE

“You promised me.” I scrambled to my feet, my legs shaking. “You gave me your word.”

“Well, I lied.” His mouth curved into something that was not quite a smile. “You know I lied.”

“You would have me judged by the elders?” My voice climbed higher. “Me? The mother of your children?”

He looked at me for a long moment. Then he straightened his shoulders and spoke words that shattered my world.

“Pauline, before the goddess, I reject you in every way and sever what once was, what will be, what could be, and what will never be.”

“No!”

The scream tore from my throat, but it was already too late.

The bond snapped.

Pain exploded through every nerve ending in my body. It felt like someone had taken a blade made of fire and ice and dragged it through my chest, carving out everything that made me whole.

I collapsed to my knees, my hands clawing at my chest as though I could somehow hold the pieces together.

Unimaginable agony assaulted me in waves. Each breath felt like inhaling broken glass. My heart hammered erratically, stuttering and skipping beats as it tried to adjust to the sudden absence of its other half.

He stood over me, unmoved.

“You will no longer be Luna of this pack,” he said. “And you will be judged for your crimes. You need penance for what you have done.”

Between the lancing pain that made spots dance across my vision, I laughed.

The sound came out wet and broken.

“Oh, that is rich.” I forced the words through gritted teeth. “Really. Very noble of you.”

I pushed myself up slightly, my whole body trembling.

“Take it all back,” I said, meeting his eyes. “Right now. Or when I get to that elder’s circle, I will sing like a fucking canary.”

His expression did not change.

“They were experimented on.” I smiled through the tears streaming down my face. “Fleshcraft. It is against the tenets, and you know what will happen to her when that comes out. Let us see what fresh hell befalls everyone when that information gets out.”

I watched him swallow.

“The girl will be exterminated. Even we would be caught in the crossfire. The pack will burn,” I continued. “Our children’s reputations will be destroyed. Do you want that, baby? Everything you worked for, having to crumble, all because you could not keep your promise to me. If that is not enough, what happened with the then Alpha of Skollrend might have to come to light too. What do you think?”

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then he walked back toward me.

His hand shot out, closing around my throat with enough force to cut off my air. He hauled me upright, my feet barely touching the ground.

“Thank you,” he said quietly, “for giving me a reason not to feel guilty.”

My hands scrabbled at his wrist. Panic flooded through me as he started dragging me across the study.

“What—” I tried to speak, but his grip tightened. “Stop—”

He pulled me toward the window.

The large window behind his desk that overlooked the courtyard far below.

Real fear gripped me then. The kind that made my bladder threaten to give out and my vision narrow to pinpricks.

He reached for the latch with his free hand.

“Marcus…” I clawed at his arm, my nails drawing blood. “Dimitri… Are you insane?”

The window swung open. Cold morning air rushed in, carrying the scent of coming rain and distant pine.

“No.” He positioned me in front of the opening. “I have the biggest clarity now. You… You are the insane one.”

He looked at me one last time.

“When I rejected you, and you knew you would have to face penance for your sins, you chose your pride and chose suicide. It just makes sense.”

The words took a second to register.

“Wait—”

“Goodbye, Pauline.”

Then he shoved me.

I reached for him desperately, my fingers grasping for any purchase. At the last second, I almost managed to grab his shirt, trying to drag him with me.

But behind him, I saw her.

Athena.

The apparition stood in the shadows of the study, translucent and terrible. She smiled at me with a victory so pure it made my heart stop.

My grip slipped, and the ground rushed up to meet me.

The fall lasted both an eternity and no time at all. Wind screamed past my ears. My stomach lurched into my throat. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

Then I hit stone.

The impact was beyond anything I could have imagined. Every bone in my body seemed to shatter at once. I heard them breaking, felt them splintering inside me like kindling snapping under pressure.

Pain bloomed everywhere.

My spine cracked with a wet crunch that I felt more than heard. Something sharp punctured my lung. I tasted blood, hot and thick, flooding my mouth and nose.

I could not move.

Could not breathe.

My ribs had caved inward, pressing against organs that were never meant to take such pressure. Something warm spread beneath me. Blood, I realized distantly. My blood, pooling on the cobblestones.

I tried to heal. I felt my wolf desperately attempting to knit the damage back together.

But there was too much. Too many broken pieces. Too much blood was leaking out faster than my body could replace it.

My vision swam. Darkness crept in from the edges, narrowing my world to a small circle of blurred shapes and colors.

Then I heard footsteps approaching.

Someone knelt beside me. I felt their presence more than I saw them, as my eyes refused to focus properly.

“To fight like a worm on concrete to the very end.” The voice was soft, feminine, and far too familiar. “And to still die a pathetic death, not even befitting for omegas.”

Athena.

She leaned over me, her face swimming into view. I hated what I noticed. She was still beautiful, unnaturally young, and the cruelest part of it all, she was victorious.

“How does it feel, Luna Pauline?”

I tried to speak, but blood bubbled from my lips instead of words. My chest hitched with the effort.

Tears pricked at my eyes, mixing with the blood on my face.

“You will not win,” I managed to whisper. Each word cost me. “My children—”

“I already have.” She smiled down at me with something gentle and terrible. “Now only hell awaits you and your seeds.”

She tilted her head.

“After all, a daughter for a daughter is only fair.”

The darkness rushed in.

I fought it. Clawed at consciousness with everything I had left. But my body was giving up. Blood loss and trauma dragging me down into an abyss I would not climb back from.

My last thought was not of my children or my lost position or even Marcus.

It was simpler than that.

I had been right all along.

How you get them is how you lose them.

And monsters always got what they deserved in the end.

Then everything went dark.