To ruin an Omega - Chapter 465: Moment to moment

Chapter 465: Moment to moment

HAZEL

The dining room smelled like roasted meat and something sweet I couldn’t place. I sat in my usual spot, hands folded in my lap, and watched the servers move between chairs with practiced efficiency. The table stretched long enough that conversations felt like they had to travel miles to reach the other end.

Wenzel sat at the head. Always at the head.

His presence changed the entire atmosphere. Everyone sat straighter when he was around. Spoke quieter. Moved more carefully. Even the way people chewed their food seemed calculated, like making too much noise might draw unwanted attention.

I felt different tonight, though. Lighter somehow.

My plan was coming together. Piece by piece. Delta had agreed. Pauline was dead, which complicated things but also simplified them in ways I was still processing. Tomorrow I would go to Silvercreek and get what I needed. Then everything would fall into place exactly as I’d designed it.

The tension at the table sat thick and familiar. Sofiane picked at his food without much interest. His sisters whispered to each other occasionally but went quiet whenever Wenzel looked in their direction. Lysander sat across from me, focused entirely on his plate like the food held secrets he desperately needed to decode.

I reached for my water glass. The crystal felt cool against my palm.

Wenzel set down his fork. The sound of metal against porcelain cut through the low murmur of conversation, and everyone went silent immediately.

“Hazel.”

My name in his mouth always sounded like a summons. I looked up and met his eyes.

“Yes, Alpha?”

“Do you have an answer for me?”

The question hung there. I felt every pair of eyes at the table turn toward me. Waiting. Watching. Sofiane stopped pretending to eat. His sisters went completely still. Even the servers seemed to slow their movements.

I nodded.

“Yes.”

A small smile curved across Wenzel’s face. Satisfaction and something darker underneath.

“And?”

“Yes,” I said clearly. “I’ll help. However, it will have to happen after heat season.”

His expression shifted slightly. Not quite a frown, but close.

“Why the delay?”

I kept my voice steady and measured. “I have things to prepare for, and I also need to go to Silvercreek tomorrow. My grandmother suddenly passed away and I need to comfort my mother. But that is not only why I am leaving to Silvercreek. Silvercreek happens to have a lot of opportunities, as well as ways to draw Fia out.”

The words came easier than they should have. Smooth and practiced. I’d rehearsed this part in my head multiple times while getting ready for dinner.

Sofiane and his sisters exchanged strange looks. Confusion flickered across their faces. They had no idea what we were talking about, what deal had been struck, what plans were being made around them.

Lysander kept his eyes on his plate. His fork scraped against porcelain in a rhythm that grated on my nerves.

Wenzel leaned back in his chair. His fingers drummed once against the armrest before going still.

“I heard about the tragedy of what happened.” His tone carried something that might have been sympathy if it came from anyone else. “Women tend to have moments of weakness. Hormones, I suspect. Especially with how close heat season is.”

The comment landed wrong. Dismissive and cruel in a way that made even my jaw tighten.

This fucking misogynist. He was lucky he had a nice face.

Lysander stopped eating.

The movement was sudden enough that I noticed. His fork froze halfway to his mouth, and his shoulders went rigid. His siblings looked at their father, too, with expressions that ranged from surprise to disgust. The contempt written across their faces was obvious and immediate.

Then Wenzel shifted in his seat and everyone’s attention snapped away from Wenzel, almost as if they knew better than to give in to that emotion that just poured out of them in waves.

Lysander raised his head slowly. His eyes found mine across the table.

“I’m so sorry for your loss.”

The words came out flat. Mechanical. Like he was reading from a script he didn’t believe in.

“Perhaps when the time is right,” Wenzel continued, “I will visit your grandfather to pay my respects.”

I nodded. The gesture felt automatic.

“Thank you.”

Wenzel’s smile widened slightly.

“Well, you have my permission to leave tomorrow. Lysander will go with you too.”

The words hit me like cold water. I opened my mouth to object, to say that wasn’t necessary, that I could handle this myself. I did not need him watching me like a goddamn hawk.

Lysander spoke first.

“I do not think that is necessary.”

His voice came quiet but firm. There was something in his tone that sounded almost like defiance. It made me think perhaps he did have a spine after all. Not in the ways that mattered. But a spine nonetheless.

Wenzel’s expression didn’t change but the temperature in the room dropped noticeably.

“I insist.”

Two words. That was all it took.

Lysander shut up immediately. His mouth closed and his eyes dropped back to his plate. Whatever resistance he’d tried to muster collapsed under the weight of his father’s will.

I watched it happen and something like disgust curled in my stomach. This was the man I was supposed to marry? This spineless creature who couldn’t even stand up to his father for one conversation?

Pathetic. I was saving myself even further with this decision I had made and the plan I was carrying out.

Wenzel turned his attention back to me.

“It will get you two closer.” He paused, letting that sink in. “Hazel, do you not agree?”

I forced a smile.

“I do.”

“It is settled then.” He picked up his fork again. “But what is your big plan? How do you intend to draw the girl out?”

I had prepared for this question too. The answer sat ready on my tongue.

“Her mother is buried in Silvercreek.” I kept my voice steady, stripped of anything that might betray intent. “Fia and I are not close, and she won’t be fooled by anything that sounds like sisterly concern. But she will understand a threat. If her mother’s grave were ever put at risk, she would stop thinking clearly. That kind of loyalty doesn’t fade just because the relationship was complicated or because the person is gone. With her, family still holds weight, even in death.”

It was how my mother and I were able to get her to take my place at the altar in the first place.

“I have the plan thought out. I just need time to execute it properly.”

Wenzel nodded slowly. His eyes stayed fixed on my face like he was searching for cracks in my composure.

“You have it.”

Relief flooded through me. I didn’t let it show.

“Thank you, Alpha.”

The conversation shifted after that. Wenzel turned his attention to Sofiane and started discussing pack business. His plan for this heat season and how he needed to take control as a man and ensure his sisters did not get into it with low-class wolves. I stopped listening and focused on my food instead.

My plan was working. Everything was falling into place exactly as I needed it to.

Tomorrow I would go to Silvercreek with Lysander in tow. I would get the aphrodisiac from Delta. I would set everything in motion. Then, during heat season, when everyone was distracted and vulnerable, I would drug Wenzel and make my move.

I would become Luna instead of some pathetic bride to his weak son.

I would have power. Real power. The kind that couldn’t be taken away on a whim.

My smile felt genuine this time. I lifted my water glass and took a sip.

Then I felt eyes on me.

The sensation was immediate and unmistakable. That prickling awareness that came from being watched too closely.

I turned my head slightly and found Lysander staring at me.

Disgust.

That was the only word for what I saw written across his face. Pure, undiluted disgust. His eyes held contempt so thick I could almost feel it pressing against my skin.

His words from earlier burned through my mind again. Clear and accusing.

“Make sure you aren’t the one scheming right now.”

I held his stare and refused to look away first. Refused to let him see that his judgment meant anything to me.

He knew. Or at least suspected something was off about me. But what could he do about it? Nothing. He was too weak to act. Too spineless to stand against his father. Too pathetic to be anything except a bystander in his own life.

I was so close to having what I wanted.

I had survived being stripped of my Luna title and had survived the goddess’s punishment, and had survived being sent to this nightmare pack where Omegas and sentinels disappeared, and fear ruled everything.

I would not let a coward like Lysander stop me now.

His disgust meant nothing. His warnings meant nothing. He was nothing except an obstacle I needed to work around.

I broke eye contact first. Not because his stare bothered me, but because looking at him any longer made my skin crawl.

I turned my attention back to my plate and cut another piece of meat. The knife sliced through cleanly. I brought the fork to my mouth and chewed slowly.

Across from me, Lysander went back to pushing food around his plate.