To ruin an Omega - Chapter 447: Blood is thinner 1

Chapter 447: Blood is thinner 1

CIAN

I caught her before she hit the ground.

My arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her against my chest. The weight of her body pressed into me, and I had to lock my knees to keep from going down myself. Everything in my torso screamed in protest. The pink scar tissue stretched and pulled with the movement, sending sharp waves of pain through my ribs.

I ignored it.

Her head lolled against my shoulder. Her eyes were closed, and though her breathing was shallow, it was steady.

I shifted my grip, hooking one arm beneath her knees and the other behind her back, and lifted her fully. She didn’t wake. Her body went completely limp in my arms, trusting even in unconsciousness.

I turned toward Garrett.

He stood near what could only be called the entrance now with three other sentinels, all of them staring at the scorched mark where Valentine had been moments ago. The smell of burnt air still lingered, acrid and wrong.

“Take care of this.”

Garrett’s eyes snapped to mine.

“There’s no need for us to cover our tracks.” I kept my voice level, casual, almost. “Primrose witches are strong. If we show that we have something to hide, they might be bold enough to dare to want blood.”

I paused, letting that sink in.

“But if our tracks are present and they see exactly why Valentine suffered the fate he suffered, they’ll know to tread carefully. They’ll understand the canker worms this will bring to the Blossom family. Even Primrose will feel it, given the sins their current supreme has committed. So, unless they want a whole expose, they would know better than to seek revenge.”

Garrett bowed low, one fist pressed against his chest.

“I will not fail you.”

“I trust you.”

I didn’t wait for a response. My legs carried me upward.

Though the house had become a maze unto itself after what Fia had done to it, I still managed to find my way through the broken doorway and out into the afternoon light.

The somehow cool air hit my skin, reminding me that I was still naked. I’d shifted back without thinking, too focused on Fia collapsing to care about clothes. The sentinels had scattered around the property, securing the perimeter, none of them meeting my eyes as I passed.

The car waited near the treeline.

I pulled the back door open with my free hand, careful not to jostle Fia, and laid her across the seat. Her dress had torn during everything, hanging in tatters around her legs. I reached into the bag I’d left earlier and pulled out clean clothes. A simple shirt, soft fabric that wouldn’t irritate her skin, and I worked slowly, easing her arms through the sleeves, pulling it down to cover her. Then pants. Her body stayed limp and cooperative, making it easier than it should have been.

Once she was dressed, I grabbed my own clothes.

Jeans first. Then a shirt. The fabric caught on my damp skin, still sticky with dried blood, but I managed. I slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine. The low rumble filled the silence, grounding me, giving me something concrete to focus on.

I pulled onto the road and drove.

The path to Skollrend stretched out ahead, mildly sunny and familiar. Trees lined both sides, their branches casting shifting shadows across the road. I kept my speed steady, one hand on the wheel, the other resting near the gearshift.

Twenty minutes passed in silence.

Then I heard movement in the backseat.

I glanced at the rearview mirror and caught Fia stirring. Her eyes opened slowly, unfocused at first, before sharpening into awareness. She pushed herself up into a sitting position, one hand braced against the seat.

“How are you?”

My voice came out rougher than intended.

She blinked a few times, looking around like she was trying to remember where she was.

“I feel much better.”

Her hand moved to her belly, pressing against the fabric instinctively. The gesture was small, as it was protective, and the act of it made something in my chest tighten.

“Is anything wrong with the baby?”

“No.”

The word came out quick, almost too quick, and she swallowed hard. Her throat worked like she wanted to say something else, but couldn’t find the words. I watched her through the mirror, waiting.

“What?”

She hesitated.

“There were moments there that I thought I was going to die.”

Her voice stayed quiet, barely above a whisper.

“But I didn’t. Not by my own power either.” She looked down at her hands, turning them over like she was seeing them for the first time. “I think our baby will be just like me. A healer.”

I nodded slowly.

“It’ll be fine.”

I meant it. Whatever came next, whatever our child turned out to be, we would face it when the time came. I would face it with her, and the pack would have to do the same. Fia had survived today. She had done things I still could not make sense of, things I had never seen in all my years, and yet she was still here beside me, still breathing, still warm, still real. In that moment, nothing else carried the same weight.

The private road came into view.

I slowed the car, turning onto the long stretch that led toward pack territory. The trees grew thicker here, older, their roots breaking through the asphalt in places. I rolled down the window, letting the night air pour in.

That was when I caught it.

The scent hit me immediately, foreign and wrong, layered with the presence of other wolves, several of them, close enough that they had saturated the air around us. My fingers tightened around the steering wheel until my knuckles blanched, the reaction happening before thought could catch up. Something primal moved through my chest then, an old territorial instinct flaring hot and sudden, demanding I treat whatever waited ahead as a threat before I had even seen it.

“Is something wrong?”

Fia’s voice pulled me back slightly.

“Do you smell that?”

She leaned forward, breathing in through her nose, and her expression shifted.

“Other werewolves are around here.”

I looked toward the forest on the other side of the road. Shadows moved between the trees, too deliberate to be wind, too coordinated to be coincidence. My wolf pressed against my skin, wanting out, wanting to defend what was ours.

“Are we being attacked?”

“No.”

I would have been informed. Any threat to the pack would have reached me through direct communication. The sentinels would have howled. But there’d been nothing. Just silence and these unfamiliar scents invading our territory.

“But mourning moon…” Fia whispered.

I couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped.

“If they got wolves to infiltrate and corner us, they’re about to meet a very bitter and painful end.”

The thought almost amused me. Rival wolves creeping this far in, bold enough to think they could move unseen, only to stumble into the deadly Mourning Moon’s path. They would be dead before they understood their mistake. Still, something about it sat wrong in my gut, the lack of warning, the timing, the sheer nerve of stepping onto marked land without challenge or announcement.

“I’m curious as to why I wasn’t informed at all though.”

Then and there, my phone rang.

The sound cut through the car, sharp and insistent. I pulled it from my pocket with one hand, keeping the other on the wheel, and glanced at the screen. It was an unknown number, but the area code matched the pack lines.