To ruin an Omega - Chapter 439: Your Oath, Alpha

Chapter 439: Your Oath, Alpha

CIAN

The perimeter was locked down tight within minutes.

I stood at the front gate, watching my wolves spread out in practiced formations that we had drilled a thousand times. They moved silently and efficiently through the grounds, cutting off every exit, every window, every crack in the walls where a rat like Valentine might try to slip through. The house loomed ahead of me, all stone and dark windows, looking exactly like the kind of place where someone would drag my mate to hurt her.

My wolf paced beneath my skin, restless and violent, begging me to tear through that front door and find her. The bond pulled at me, tugging me forward with an urgency that made my teeth ache.

But I forced myself to wait. To plan. To think like an Alpha instead of a frantic mate.

Garrett appeared at my side, his eyes already shifted to wolf gold as he scanned the upper floors. He carried the same tension I felt, coiled and ready to spring.

“East side is covered,” he reported. “North and west secured. Nothing moves without us knowing.”

I nodded, my gaze locked on the front entrance. “We go in through there. Fast and hard. He knows we are coming by now.”

“Agreed.” Garrett’s jaw tightened. “The longer we wait, the more time he has to prepare.”

The bond pulsed again, stronger this time, and I felt her. Fia. She was alive. She was fighting. The sensation flooded through me with enough force that I had to lock my knees to stay upright.

I lifted my hand, signaling the others to hold position.

Then Garrett and I moved.

We crossed the distance to the front door in seconds. I did not bother with the handle. My shoulder hit the wood, and the door exploded inward, lock and hinges tearing free in a shower of splinters. The entrance hall opened up before us, but all that stared back was polished floors and expensive furnishings that I did not give a single fuck about.

The shift came easily. Partial, just enough to let my claws extend, and my bones thicken beneath the skin. My senses sharpened immediately, the world snapping into focus with predatory clarity.

Beside me, Garrett did the same. His shoulders broadened, his hands curving into talons that could rip through steel.

He lifted his head, scenting the air, and his expression went dark.

“Blood,” he said. “A lot of it.”

I smelled it too. Copper and iron, thick enough to coat the back of my throat. Fresh and scarily recent. The scent trail led deeper into the house, winding through corridors I could not see from here.

My wolf snarled inside me, clawing at my control.

Then the pain hit.

It tore through me without warning, sharp and electric, like someone had shoved a live wire into my spine. My vision whited out. My muscles seized. Every nerve in my body screamed at once, and I could not breathe, could not think, could not do anything but feel it.

The bond.

Fia was hurt.

She was dying.

The pain vanished as quickly as it came, leaving me gasping and shaking in the middle of the entrance hall. Rational thought fled. Strategy, caution, everything I had spent hours coming here learning, it all disappeared beneath the flood of pure animal terror.

“Fia!”

Her name ripped out of my throat, and I was already moving.

Running.

My feet hit the floor hard enough to crack the floor, but I did not slow down. The bond pulled me forward like a thread of connection that burned hotter than anything I had ever felt.

“Alpha Cian, wait!” Garrett’s voice chased after me, but I did not stop.

I could not stop. My wolf had taken over, driving me toward her with single-minded focus that drowned out everything else.

I followed the scent of blood through a sitting room, down a hallway, past furniture that blurred into meaningless shapes. The bond grew stronger with every step, pulling me toward a door at the end of the corridor.

I hit it running.

The door exploded off its hinges, and I stumbled into hell.

Smoke hung thick in the air, burning my lungs with every breath. The smell hit me next. Burning flesh. Charred meat. Blood, so much blood that the floor was slick with it. Bodies littered the room, at least six of them, all wearing Valentine’s face. Some were missing heads. Others had been torn open, their insides spilling out across the expensive carpet.

My vision swam.

Through the haze, I saw movement. Two figures near the far wall, one standing, one hanging limp in the other’s grip.

The smoke began to clear, and the scene came into focus with brutal clarity.

Valentine stood there, alive and whole despite the corpses of him surrounding him. His clothes were torn and bloodied, his face pale and drawn like he had been pushing himself past his limits. But that was not what made my vision go red.

He held Fia.

His arm was wrapped around her waist, keeping her upright even though she looked barely conscious. Her skin was burned, blackened in places, raw and blistered everywhere else. Blood ran down her neck from a fresh cut, dripping onto her ruined clothes, which could not even count as clothes anymore because she was practically naked now. Her head lolled forward, hair hanging in her face, and she did not move when Valentine adjusted his grip.

Around her throat, pressed tight against the bleeding wound, was a blade made of pure air. It shimmered in the dimly lit space, sharp enough that I could see it biting into her skin.

Rage filled me.

It started in my gut and spread outward, hot and consuming, until every part of me burned with the need to tear him apart. My vision literally turned red, blood rushing behind my eyes until the whole room looked like it had been dipped in crimson.

My bones began to break.

The shift came whether I wanted it or not. My spine curved, vertebrae cracking and reforming. My jaw extended, teeth sharpening into fangs that could rip through bone. My height increased, muscles bunching and swelling as my body restructured itself into something larger, something built for killing.

Behind me, I heard Garrett enter the room.

His sharp intake of breath told me he saw what I saw.

Valentine’s eyes went wide. He took a step back, dragging Fia with him, and the blade at her throat pressed deeper. Fresh blood welled up around it.

“No no no.” His voice came out high and panicked. “You two stay right fucking there.”

I stopped.

Every instinct screamed at me to keep moving, to close the distance and rip his head off his shoulders, but that blade was too close to her throat. One wrong move and she would bleed out before I could reach her.

Garrett stood frozen beside me, his claws extended, his whole body vibrating with the effort of holding still.

My voice came out deeper than usual, roughened by the partial shift. “I am going to enjoy killing you.”

Valentine’s expression hardened. The panic faded, replaced by something colder and more calculated. “I suggest you watch your tongue, wolf. Your bride is at my mercy.”

He shifted his grip, and the air blade moved with him, following the line of Fia’s throat with surgical precision.

“And I really do not think I will be on the chopping block.” He smiled, and it looked wrong on his blood-spattered face. “If you want your mate to remain untouched, you must make a soul kiss with me. Right now. Right here. With my own terms.”

“Go to hell.”

The words left my mouth before I could think them through, and Valentine moved.

The blade sliced across Fia’s neck.

Not deep. But just enough to open the skin, to let blood flow freely down her collarbone and chest. She made a small sound, barely audible, and my heart stopped.

“I will admit,” Valentine said, his voice perfectly calm now, “she is a strong healer. But she is not invincible. She cannot resurrect. So I suggest you let go of your pride and see reason.”

The truth of it hit me like a physical blow.

He was right. Fia could heal, but she had limits. Everyone had limits. Push her too far, hurt her too badly, and she would die just like anyone else.

And I would be the one who let it happen. The reason it happened. No!

My hands curled into fists, claws digging into my own palms hard enough to draw blood.

“What do you want, you fucking monster?”

Valentine’s smile widened. “A soul kiss. Binding and unbreakable. You will swear on your life, your pack, and your mate’s life that you will not harm me. That none of your pack will harm me. That no assassins, no hired killers, no one affiliated with you in any way will touch me. And should anyone break this vow, should I suffer so much as a scratch from anyone connected to you, the pact will activate and your mate will die.”