CHAPTER 70: GODLIGHT

CIAN

I stood there looking at Fia. She was still breathing hard from running. Her cheeks were flushed. Her eyes were bright with urgency.

Bank accounts. Of course. Why had I not thought of that? If Gabriel was behind this, he would have paid someone. And payments left trails. Even the most careful criminals made mistakes with money.

I felt something shift in my chest. Something uncomfortable. Fia was helping me. She was actively working to save my mother. After I had screamed at her. After I had blamed her for breaking Madeline’s picture frame. After I had treated her like she was nothing.

I looked at her face. Really looked at it. There was no calculation there. No hidden agenda. Just genuine concern. Just a woman who wanted to help save a life.

I could not even let myself think she had ulterior motives. It would be insulting. To her. To myself. To everything I was supposed to stand for as an Alpha of this pack and her... mate

"That is smart," I said. My voice came out rougher than I intended.

Fia tilted her head slightly. Waiting for me to continue.

I cleared my throat. "I will get their phones then."

A small smile touched her lips. Just the corners lifting slightly. It was tired but real. My heart did something strange. A flutter. Quick and unexpected. Like something inside me had woken up without permission.

I killed the feeling immediately. Shoved it down deep where it could not bother me. This was not the time. This would never be the time.

I turned back to the door. Pushed it open. The smell hit me first. Blood. Sweat. Fear. The acrid bite of wolfsbane still hanging in the air.

Being inside for so long, I had not realized it was this bad.

Fia followed me inside. I heard her footsteps behind me. Soft against the stone floor.

I was about to tell her to stay back. To wait outside. She did not need to see this. She did not need to witness what I had done.

But when I turned to speak, the words died in my throat.

Her face had gone pale. Her eyes were wide. Her hand came up to cover her mouth.

"Goddess," she whispered.

I followed her gaze. Saw what she was seeing.

The bodies on the floor. The two sentinels I had tortured earlier. One was now semi-conscious. His face was destroyed. Raw meat where skin should have been. The other was conscious but barely. His eyes were unfocused. His breathing shallow and wet.

The Omega I had dunked was curled on her side. She was whimpering. Her hands pressed to her face where the blisters had formed. Where the skin had peeled away.

Others has suffered the same fate and the ones who still has their faces on were pressed against the walls. Trying to make themselves small. Their faces were tear streaked. Their eyes hollow with terror.

I turned back to face them fully and look away from Fia. She has seen it. My cruelty. So there was no use crying over spilled milk now.

"It is clear we are not going to be getting any answers from you guys," I said. My voice echoed in the chamber. Cold and final.

Some of them flinched. Others just stared at the floor.

"I also understand that some of you are innocent," I continued. "So there is no point suffering needlessly."

A few heads lifted. Hope flickered in their eyes. But it was a cautious and fragile thing.

"I will be taking your phones."

The reaction was immediate. The ones who could still move reached for their pockets. Pulled out their phones with shaking hands. They tossed them forward. The devices clattered against the stone. A sentinel stepped forward to gather them.

One of the Omegas tried to speak. Her voice came out garbled. Broken. Her face was too swollen for her mouth to form proper words.

"Thank you, Alpha," another one managed. The words were slurred but I understood them. "Thank you for your kindness."

Kindness. The word tasted bitter in my mouth.

I counted the phones. Seven. But there had been ten suspects brought in for questioning.

"Three of you do not have your phones here," I said.

The three who had not produced devices shrank back. Their eyes went wide with fresh panic.

"If you do not want more time in wolfsbane juice," I said slowly. "You better start producing one."

"They are in our quarters," one of them said quickly. His words tumbled over each other. "Please. Please, Alpha. They are just in our rooms. We can get them."

"I will get them," I said.

I turned to one of the sentinels standing guard. One who had not been accused of anything. Who had remained loyal.

"Get their keys," I said. "Get into their rooms and get the phones."

The sentinel nodded. He walked over to the three suspects. They fumbled with their key rings and handed them over with trembling fingers.

The sentinel left. The door closed behind him with a heavy thud.

I looked at the group again. At the broken bodies. At the terrified faces. At the blood and wolfsbane pooled on the floor.

"For the meantime," I said. "All of you will be imprisoned while the phones are thoroughly searched for all things strange."

I paused and let the words sink in.

"And to whoever did it," I continued. My voice dropped lower and became something darker. "When I do find you, you will pay for the people you made suffer. You will pay for the audacity you had to make this difficult for me."

I took a step forward. Several of them pressed themselves harder against the wall.

"I promise you," I said. "You will beg for the sweet release of death. And it will simply not find you."

The silence that followed was thick. Heavy. No one dared to breathe too loudly.

I turned to another sentinel. "Take them all and throw them in a cell."

The sentinels moved forward and started pulling the suspects to their feet. The ones who could not stand were dragged. Their bodies left smears of blood across the stone.

I heard footsteps behind me. Turned to see Fia approaching. Her face was still pale. Her eyes still wide with horror.

"Is that not a bit much?" she asked. Her voice was quiet but steady. "They have wolfsbane burns."

My heart broke a little. I could feel it through the mate bond. The horror radiating from her. The disgust at what I had done. At what I was capable of.

But this was about sending a message. About making sure everyone in this territory , my territory, knew that attacking my mother came with consequences. Severe ones.

"We are wolves," I said. "We will heal."

I walked past her and headed for the door. I needed to get to the technical department. Needed to start going through those phones with the technical team immediately.

Fia followed me. Her footsteps quick behind mine.

"Omegas are not that strong," she said.

I kept walking.

"Their immune system will be compromised," she continued. "And healing is extremely slow as well."

I pushed open the door to the hallway. The cooler air hit my face. I sucked in a breath.

"The unlucky bunch will die," Fia said.

"No," I said. "They will not."

I heard her footsteps speed up. Then she was in front of me. Blocking my path. Her hands came up like she might push against my chest if I tried to move past her.

"No," she said. "You do not know that."

I stopped. Looked down at her.

"You do not have the lived experiences of an Omega," she said. Her voice was rising now. Getting stronger. "You do not know what it feels like to be like this."

Her eyes were blazing. There was fire there. Conviction.

"I know you have every right to be angry about your mother," she continued. "But there are good people there. Good people who got caught in the crossfire."

She paused and then swallowed hard.

"People who will die because their ranks are not important enough."

The words hit me like a physical blow.

"Are you that kind of man?" she asked.

The question hung between us. Heavy. Impossible to ignore.

Those words resonated inside me. Bounced around in my skull. Was I that kind of man?

Was I? Was I the kind of Alpha who let innocent people die because they happened to be Omegas and Sentinels? Because someone in that bunch wronged me, was I going to view the rest as collateral damage and not important enough to save?

"No," I said quietly.

Fia’s expression softened slightly. "Give Maren and Thorne access to treat them. You have no concrete proof against them yet. So you cannot treat them as sub-wolves."

She was right. I hated that she was right. But she was.

"Fire away," I said. "I will be in technical. And I will find something."

Fia nodded. "Okay."

I started to walk past her. To head up the stairs. To get to work on those phones.

But the guilt ate at me. Gnawed at my insides like a living thing. I stopped and turned back around.

"Fia," I said.

She had already started walking away. Back toward the interrogation room. Back to help the people I had hurt. She stopped and turned to face me.

"Yes?" she asked.

"I am sorry for lashing out at you," I said.

She looked at me for a moment. Her expression was unreadable. "I understand."

"No," I said. I took a step toward her. "I was rash. I was rude and I took out an unhealed part of myself on you."

The words felt heavy coming out. Like pulling splinters from a wound. I didn’t like apologizing.

"And for that I am sorry," I finished.

Fia nodded slowly. Her eyes met mine and held my gaze for a long moment before looking away.

"I am also grateful," I added. The words came easier now. Like a dam breaking. "If it was not for you, none of this would have come to light."

Fia reached up. Tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. The gesture was small. Almost shy.

"Someone would have figured it out eventually," she said.

I crossed over to her. Closed the distance between us. Her scent hit me. That familiar combination of sweet and the musk that was just her. It made something in my chest tighten.

I knew I should not do this. I knew it was crossing a line I had drawn for myself. But I could not stop.

I wrapped my arms around her. Pulled her against my chest. She was small in my embrace. Warm.

"You should do less self deprecation and just take the praise," I said quietly. My voice rumbled in my chest.

I felt her tense for a moment. Then slowly relax. Her arms came up. Not quite hugging me back but not pulling away either.

"Thank you, Fia," I said.

We stood like that for several heartbeats. Her face pressed against my chest. My chin resting on the top of her head. The hallway was quiet around us. Just our breathing. Just the steady thump of my heart.

Then I pulled back and let her go. She looked up at me. Her cheeks were flushed again. Her eyes were softer now. Less horrified. Less angry.

"Go help them," I said. "I will find who did this."