To ruin an Omega - Chapter 466: The Calm before the storm 1

Chapter 466: The Calm before the storm 1

FIA

The Omegas moved around me. One worked through my hair with careful hands, sectioning and styling, while another held up dress options against the natural light streaming through the window. Steam rose from the garment steamer in soft clouds that smelled faintly of lavender.

I sat still and let them work. My body felt looser than it had been for a hot minute, the hot shower having done more for my muscles than I wanted to admit. Every part of me had been scrubbed clean until my skin felt new.

“This one, Luna?” The Omega, holding a deep blue dress, looked at me with hopeful eyes.

I nodded. “That’s perfect.”

She smiled and moved to prepare it while the one working on my hair pinned another section into place. The rhythm of it all felt soothing. Normal. Like I was just a woman getting ready to go somewhere nice with her mate instead of someone who had killed a warlock merely hours ago.

The door opened without warning.

Morrigan stepped inside. She moved with a particular grace that would have made anyone forget she had been thrown through a window recently. Luckily, she had no cast or bandages, and all I really saw when I stared was a slight hitch in her gait that she probably thought nobody noticed.

“Grand Luna.” The Omegas bowed in unison.

She waved them off. “Continue what you’re doing. I just came to see how my daughter was faring.”

The words still made something warm bloom in my chest. Daughter… She said it so easily, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Morrigan settled into the chair near the vanity. Her eyes tracked the Omegas’ movements for a moment before landing on me.

“Moonhaven is beautiful this time of year,” she said. “You two will have a wonderful time.”

“I hope so.”

“Well, I can assure you. I was there once. Do make sure you tie Cian down if his beast starts getting aggressive.” Her tone stayed light, but her eyes were serious. “Don’t take chances just because you’re a healer or because you believe he won’t hurt you. Heat season makes everyone unpredictable. Again, I would know. Being mates will already be intoxicating enough.”

I met her gaze in the mirror. “I promise I’ll be safe.”

She nodded, seemingly satisfied with that answer. Then I noticed it again. That slight shift of weight when she adjusted her position. The way her hand moved to her hip for just a second before she caught herself.

“Are you not fully healed?”

Morrigan’s expression softened into something almost amused. “I’m fine, Fia. Almost completely healed.”

“I could help. It wouldn’t take much—”

“No.” The word came gently but firmly. “The pain is a mortal thing. It makes everyone feel grounded. Reminds us we’re alive.”

I wanted to argue. Wanted to point out that she didn’t need to suffer just to feel… mortal. But something in her expression stopped me. This was her choice, and I had to respect it.

The Omega finished with my hair. She stepped back to admire her work, and I caught my reflection properly for the first time. My hair fell in soft waves that framed my face, and my skin looked healthier than it had any right to after everything.

Morrigan was still watching me. Her eyes held something that looked like fondness.

“I still remember the first time we met.”

The memory surfaced easily. That day at the dinner table when I had been so terrified of making a bad impression. When everything had felt new, scary, overwhelming and impossible.

“Right.” I smiled. “You were quite nice to me.”

She laughed. The sound filled the room and made even the Omegas smile.

“You were my daughter-in-law. What was I supposed to be if not nice?” She leaned forward slightly. “I’m just glad you came into our lives. Into this family.”

My throat tightened. “Likewise. This family healed me too. Revealed things about myself and my own family I might have never known.”

I thought about my mother. About Athena. About everything that had been hidden and buried and lost until I came here and those threads started pulling at me.

A laugh bubbled up before I could stop it. “I guess I have my half-sister to thank for that.” I paused. “Well, she’s my first cousin too, so there’s that.”

Morrigan’s smile turned knowing. “I did hear a few things and all I can say to that is family is complicated.”

“I just didn’t think this would be my life, you know.” The words came out quieter than I intended. “I imagined something a lot smaller. I never imagined being Luna to a pack this grand. Having another actual mother figure. Not making myself small to be palatable.”

Morrigan stood and crossed to where I sat. She placed her hand on my shoulder, warm and steady.

“I believe you were always destined for something big.”

The certainty in her voice made me believe it even more. It made me think that maybe this was the exact moment that my mother had seen when she looked into my future. Maybe she had known I would end up here, in this moment, loved and safe and fucking whole.

“Yeah.” I smiled up at her. “It does feel nice.”

The door opened again.

Cian stood in the doorway. His eyes found mine immediately, and something shifted in his expression. Softened.

“Are you ready?”

“It’ll take a minute.”

He nodded and turned to the sentinels waiting in the hall. “Her bags are ready. Take them to the car.”

They moved past him into the room and gathered the luggage with brute strength. I watched them work while the Omegas helped me into the blue dress. The fabric settled against my skin like water.

I stepped toward Cian. He met me halfway and pressed a quick kiss to my lips.

“You are beautiful.”

Heat crept up my neck. “You always say that.”

“Because it’s always true.”

Morrigan made a soft sound behind us. “You two should have fun.”

I turned back to her. “What about you?”

She opened her mouth, then closed it. Something flickered across her face before she smoothed it away.

“Someone needs to be here to steer things.” She made a shooing motion with her hands. “Go. Have fun.”

I understood then. This was about her mate. About whatever complicated grief still lived between her and his ghost even after all those years. I didn’t press.

“Thank you.”

Cian’s hand found mine, and we headed toward the stairs. My phone buzzed in my pocket halfway down. I pulled it out and the name on the screen made me stop walking.

Hazel.

Cian saw it too. His expression hardened immediately.

I declined the call and slipped the phone back into my pocket.

“I would have expected you to block her by now,” he said.

“I did. For a while.” I started walking again, and he fell into step beside me. “I don’t know. I feel like something is about to happen soon. I can just almost taste it.”

His hand tightened around mine. “A premonition?”

I smiled at that. “Not quite.”

We reached the ground floor and headed toward the main entrance. The morning sun cut through the windows in golden slants that made everything look softer than it was.

Someone waited outside.

I caught the motorcycle helmet first. Then the leather jacket and the way he stood with his weight shifted to one side like he was already halfway to leaving.

It was Alpha Gabriel.

He saw us coming and smiled. That genuine expression that looked so different from the haunted thing that had lived on his face when Aldric still controlled him.

“I guess this is it.” Cian’s voice carried something heavy. “Your final goodbye.”

The words hit me wrong. Final goodbye?

I looked at Gabriel properly then. Really looked. Took in the way he held himself, the freedom written across his features, the motorcycle behind him that promised distance and escape.

He was leaving.

He had only just gotten his life back, and he was leaving.

Then I understood. If I had been in his place, if I had spent months or years trapped in a cell like an animal, and then had my body taken from me, used like a puppet by my own brother to try and destroy everything I cared about, I would probably have made the same choice.

It made logical sense to start over somewhere new. Somewhere where nobody would know my name or my history or what had been done to me.

“This is not a final goodbye.” Gabriel’s voice came firm. “I’ll always be there when you need me.”

He sighed, and his shoulders dropped slightly.

“I just need this for me.”

Cian nodded. “I know and it still hurts but I understand. I do.”

Gabriel then turned his full attention to me. His eyes held something that looked like awe.

“It’s fascinating to see a healer from the age of legend reborn. And one at that has saved my life multiple times.”

He bowed. It was a deep, formal and completely unexpected thing to see him do.

“I owe you my life, and I swear I will be in your service and that of your children if I am ever needed.” His voice carried the weight of ceremony. “It’s an oath I hope gets to the ears of the goddess so I never break it.”

My throat felt tight.

“You don’t have to…” I said softly, my voice almost catching as I tried to meet his gaze, then faltered. My fingers twisted together in front of me, restless, unsure. “I mean, I didn’t do it for that.”

I swallowed, forcing a small, uncertain breath. “I’m glad you’re alive. That’s enough for me. That is enough for anybody.”

He shook his head, slow and certain. “It may be enough for you,” he said, his tone steady, unyielding, “but it is not enough for me. A life like mine does not go unbound after being given back. I choose this.”

I shifted my weight, glancing down for a moment before looking back at him. “You cannot owe me forever,” I murmured, quieter now, almost pleading. “Just… live well. That would be enough.”

“It is because I intend to live well that I make this oath,” he replied. “Let it stand. If the day ever comes, I or those after me will answer.”

There was something in his expression that told me arguing further would only circle us back to the same place. I let out a small breath, my shoulders easing just a little.

“Alright,” I said, not quite meeting his eyes this time, a faint, uncertain smile tugging at my lips. “Then… I’ll hold you to it.”

A brief pause lingered between us and I broke it by saying to him, “Have a lovely journey.”

He straightened and smiled again. “If you’ve said it, I probably will.”

He pulled the helmet on and swung his leg over the motorcycle. The engine roared to life, loud enough to make my ears ring. He raised one hand in farewell, then twisted the throttle and pulled away.

We stood there and watched until he disappeared around the bend in the drive. Until the sound of the engine faded into nothing.

Cian’s hand squeezed mine once before letting go. “Come on.”

The car waited where the sentinels had left it. Packed and ready. I slid into the passenger seat while Cian rounded to the driver’s side. The leather was warm from sitting in the sun, and the interior smelled like new car and faintly like him.

He settled behind the wheel and started the engine. It purred to life, quieter than Gabriel’s motorcycle but just as ready to carry us somewhere new.

“Ready?” he asked.

I looked at him. At the man who had become my entire world in such a short time. At the future we were building together despite everything that had tried to tear us apart.

“Yes.”

He pulled out of the drive and onto the main road. Trees lined both sides, their branches creating a canopy overhead that filtered the sunlight into dancing patterns across the windshield.

I leaned back in my seat and let myself relax, letting the tension bleed out of my shoulders, letting the knowledge that we were leaving everything behind, even if just for a little while, settle into my bones.

Moonhaven waited ahead. Safety, isolation and a chance to just be together without the weight of more pack politics, other vile supernatural threats or family secrets pressing down on us.

I reached across the center console and found Cian’s hand. He laced our fingers together without looking away from the road.

The bond hummed between us. Content, as it was steady. I could get used to this.