Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 877: Untrustworthy ()

Neveah saw it coming before it did. She’d known better than to trust a desperate man whose son was a depraved tyrant. But she wasn’t fast enough to get out of the way.

Lothaire was much faster than she’d originally guessed, and definitely stronger than he’d let on. He moved in the blink of an eye, swinging the chain wildly. The silver chain wound tightly around her neck, and then he pulled with crushing force, suffocating her.

Sharp searing jolts of pain shot through her as the silver burned into her skin, at a faster rate than usual with how tightly it was pressed against her skin.

He tugged her weight up with the chains so she was on level with him, and leaning against the side of her face, his rotten breath invaded her senses as he whispered,

"Why challenge Alessio to a battle I’m sure to lose, when I can just as easily trade your life for it?" He asked, his tone still hoarse. "It is unwise to do, don’t you think?"

Neveah didn’t struggle. She kept as still as possible, suppressing the urge to thrash as life was choked out of her.

She could tell he’d expected her to panic, or be caught off guard. But when you’d dealt with many untrustworthy men, you learnt vital lessons.

No one in this eclipse palace could be trusted. It was akin to law in Neveah’s mind at this point.

"I’ve been starved, tortured, and stuck in this freezing place for months. A duel with Alessio is sending me to my death and you know it." He snarled lowly, "Isn’t it selfish of you to send your father to his death?"

"Both my children are truly disappointing." He clicked his tongue, his tone portraying a false sense of hurt.

Neveah opened her mouth to respond but her vocal chords were crushed too tightly to form any words. Instead she clawed at the chains in an attempt to loosen them, the skin of her fingers sizzling as they were burned on contact.

Seeing her struggle, Lothaire was finally satisfied. Enough to let his guard down...

"Do you know why Alessio was able to defeat me?" Lothaire whispered coldly, "It was because he had your mother in his hands and used her as a tool like he’s been doing to you. And just like he used my weakness against me, I will do the exact same to him."

He laughed, a hollow, grating sound that Neveah guessed would haunt the nightmares of pups if they were unlucky enough to hear it.

"Only that I won’t be as merciful to let you live afterwards. I don’t need to keep Eira docile with the life of her daughter like Alessio did with you... she can’t leave me even if she wants to."

It must have been amusing to him because he cackled again.

Neveah felt disgust stronger than anything she’d ever felt churning in her gut.

Between father and son, she wasn’t certain who was ahead of the other in this depravity.

Alessio wanted to force her into submission by dangling multiple lives over her head. But Lothaire was perfectly satisfied keeping Eira in a state of perpetual frozen death.

Where she was bound to be by his side for as long as he willed it and had no opportunities to make any other choice, even to choose death.

Neveah’s vision spun, dark spots dancing across the corners of her eyes. At this rate, she would lose consciousness at any moment if she didn’t do something now.

Reaching into her belt, Neveah pulled out the silver dagger she’d asked from Scott and stashed away for an important moment.

In a cautious move, she unsheathed the blade soundlessly. Ignoring the burn in her palm, she drove it backwards, eliciting a satisfying groan of pain from Lothaire as the blade pierced straight into his side, jabbed between his ribcage.

His grip loosened as he snarled, doubling over to clutch his injured side where the small dagger was buried hilt deep.

Neveah quickly tugged the chains off her neck, retreating a few steps to put some distance between them.

Lothaire lifted a hateful glare to her, his eyes blazing with fury. "You little bitch!" He hissed sharply. His eyes shone with murder as he struggled up to his feet.

Neveah didn’t waste any time. Summoning a portal, she threw a blast of magic that sent Lothaire flying backwards, right through the portal. And the tear in space snapped closed.

Only then did she exhale the breath she’d been holding. Her hand went up to feel around the bruised and charred skin around her neck, and a pained hiss escaped her.

Gritting her teeth against the pain, she glanced around the ice chamber, exhaling a slow breath before attempting to execute what she’d practiced repeatedly. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Somehow, Neveah felt it should have been simple magic. But it greatly exerted her as it flowed out of her, forging a thin wall of golden light around the ice platform in the middle of the chamber.

She’d tried it with multiple little items, building a small shield around them that created the illusion that they were no longer there.

It took much longer than Neveah had expected and left her panting and gasping for breath, but at the end of it, the platform where Eira had been looked just as it did before, only for the obvious fact that Eira was no longer there.

She was.

Neveah wasn’t certain it was okay to move her yet. And she wasn’t sure where to at this time.

But with this, anyone coming down here to involve Eira in the events to play out in the palace would find her gone.

Magic wasn’t common amongst werewolves. They would be easily deceived.

The only problem was Karan. He was a witch, Neveah had been told by Colleen. Which meant he had magic himself.

Neveah wasn’t certain this would be enough to mislead him, but she could only trust that it was. There wasn’t much more she could do for Eira at this time.

Not when there was no safe place in the entire domain.

____________

A light scent of lavender wafted through her wash room as Neveah lay back in the bath. Her eyes were closed, and her expression was perfectly relaxed... maybe too relaxed for one about to be wed to the man of her nightmares.

The bath water was calm and soothing. Neveah reveled in the silence, knowing it wouldn’t last for much longer.

As if on cue, the doors came open and a group of attendants walked in. Neveah didn’t bother acknowledging them, she could only tell from the sound of their footsteps that there were about six of them.

Three had already been here previously to prepare her bath. They’d left on her request for some time to herself and her insistence to wash herself in private.

It’d been almost an half hour since and Neveah knew she couldn’t stall any longer. Dawn had already gone by. The preparations for the Luna ritual to be performed on her, just as Alessio’s had been last night, was already completed.

The ritual would hold before they were wed.

Afterwards, she would be dressed and join Alessio in the throne room where the elders waited to join them in matrimony, with all Eclipse Alphas and Lunas present to bear witness to the union.

While the ritual was being prepared, the execution ground had also been made ready and the prisoners on death row would be marched out soon.

An oppressive tension had taken hold of the palace since Alessio’s ritual was concluded at dawn, and he discovered that half of his prisoners had escaped.

If she had been under suspicion, it wasn’t made known. Alessio had rushed to her quarters a few hours earlier and confirming her presence, he’d left without a word, barking orders as he went.

The search for the escaped prisoners had extended from the palace to the rest of the pack and even the human settlement.

With an ultimatum of noon when the execution would officially begin, simultaneous with the beginning of the Luna ritual.

The sun was already high up in the sky and noon drew near. It was time for Neveah to make her first appearance for the ritual.

The attendants quickly got to work, combing through her hair. They applied oil after oil till her strands were softer and silkier than they’d ever been, and scented of rose, jasmine and sweet spices.

The process took a short time and when they were done, Neveah got out of the bath. She dried herself and the attendants helped her into a silken white dress. It was by no means simple, but it was surely simpler than the emerald green dress she would have to wear later.

When she was dressed, another attendant brought out a thin leather strap belt from a delicate wrapping.

"It’s known as a sash of fertility. It is an important tool for the ritual. To pray for the domain to be blessed swiftly with healthy heirs." She explained, "A Luna’s worth is directly tired to her womb. The ritual is the most important event in a Luna’s life."