The Omni-Wolf’s Choice novel Chapter 76

Chapter 76 We need to talk…

Ryder’s POV

I have just finished what might be the best stretch of sex I’ve ever had with my mate, and

I have already told her I’m going to outdo myself later tonight once we’re back in our

room. Lately she has been hungrier-bold about it, too—and I’m not even a little upset. If

anything, the stronger she grows in her abilities, the more her body seems to want mine.

I’m not complaining. Not as her mate. Not as the man who’s meant to share a life with

her.

We started in our bed. Then we ended up on the couch. Then the shower-where things

didn’t exactly cool off. Round three happened. Then four. She has been relentless, and I

have been just as bad. Goddess, I have it good.

“We need to head out,” I tell her, forcing my brain back onto reality. “There are meetings.

We’ve got schedules to lock down-meet-and-greets, royal dinners, all of it before the

coronation.”

Bridget swings a leg over me anyway, settling onto my lap while I’m still in my office chair. She passes me a whiskey, keeps one for herself, and smirks like she hasn’t heard a

word I said. The second my fingers close around her waist, she starts moving against me

-slow, deliberate.

“After all that,” she says, “are they going to leave and give me time alone with my mate

for once?”

“Bridget,” I warn, letting the edge into my voice. I take a sip, staring at her over the rim.

“Tonight. I swear I’ll handle whatever you’re doing right now. But we need our heads on

straight.”

“You better, because-”

She doesn’t finish.

Mom’s voice hits through the mind-link, sharp and urgent.

‘Ryder. Bridget. Now. All of you to Beta Curtis and Eliza’s quarters. Evelyn needs us. I

don’t know what’s happened. Get there. Immediately.”

The link cuts.

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Bridget goes still, sliding off my lap like her body suddenly remembers gravity. “Oh shit,” she breathes.

My eyes narrow. “You know something.”

“No,” she says too fast, guilt written all over her face. “I just-I have a thought. An idea. I don’t know anything for sure.”

I stare at her, piecing it together. “Evelyn… Connor?”

The thought detonates.

“Oh, hell no.” My blood goes boiling-hot. “Is that what he’s been hiding from me? Has he been fucking my sister?”

The rage is instant and ugly. Connor is my best friend. My brother in everything but blood. I had one rule.

If he broke it-and kept it from me-he is dead.

“I’ll kill him.”

I’m out of my office in a sprint, Bridget pounding after me.

“Ryder, stop!” she shouts. “You don’t even know that’s true!”

I halt so hard she crashes into my back. I turn, looming over her.

“What’s your real read, then? Tell me, Omni-Wolf.”

Her lips part, eyes wide-because she knows I’ve caught the one advantage I have over everyone else: she can’t lie to me.

“I think,” she whispers, “they’re sleeping together.”

“Yeah,” I snap. “Same.”

I take off again.

By the time I hit Curtis’s door, Bridget is rounding the corner with Iron Fang at her side. The door opens, and there he is-Connor-with his back to me, holding my sister.

Any sliver of patience I might’ve had evaporates.

Brother? This is how he repays me?

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The darker thought claws up my spine. Did he even wait until she was legal?

I’ll kill him. I’ll kill him, have the doctors drag him back, then do it again.

I cross the room and seize his shoulder, yanking him off Evelyn.

I don’t remember what I said. I remember my fist.

Left eye. Then another punch, straight into his pretty-boy face. Hands grab at me- Bridget’s, others’, everyone trying to separate us while Connor tries to talk through the

chaos.

It doesn’t matter. Not in that moment.

When things finally slow enough for words to land, I learn pieces I hadn’t known. I had

known there was a curse. I hadn’t known it ran through family lines-neither had Connor.

Now we know what it really is: a death curse. It only breaks with someone’s death-or

with the original witch who cast it.

And when I find out it’s the same witch who tried to kill Evelyn, my vision goes red

again.

Fine. Let it be her blood.

Later, we’re seated, planning, voices lowered but tense.

“Grandma Celia,” I ask, “does it have to be you who kills her? Or is it first come, first

served?”

Celia’s expression doesn’t waver. “To end the curse, I either kill her,” she says, “or she

kills me.”

“Well,” Montgomery cuts in immediately, “that isn’t happening.”

Grandma Celia smiles at him like she’s twenty years younger. “My big, strong hero.”

Montgomery chuckles because everyone flirts with Montgomery, and Celia has always

been a flirt in her bones.

“I can get a map of her land,” he says, shifting into work. “I’ll pull my sources, find

tunnels, exits, anything she could use to slip away. Once she knows we’re coming, she’ll

start planning her escape. We move fast.”

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“Alright.” I start listing out loud. “Besides Grandma Celia, we take me, Pierce, Montgomery-”

“I’m coming.” Bridget says, cutting in.

“The hell you are,” I shoot back. “There’s a direct threat on you. Until that’s dealt with,

you stay safe.”

She straightens, eyes flashing. “I’m the freaking Omni-Wolf. You can’t lock me away

when I’m useful.”

“That’s exactly why you stay protected. Pack house.”

“Ryder. I can help.”

My jaw clenches. “I need you here, alive. I can’t think if the love of my life is out there

taking hits meant for her. If it comes to it, I swear on the Moon Goddess herself I will call

you. But not now. Please.”

I don’t care that my men are watching.

Bridget exhales, the fight draining just enough. “Okay.” She nods once.

“I’m going,” Connor says.

“You are not needed,” I tell him flatly.

“Ryder,” Bridget warns.

Connor doesn’t blink. “This is my fight. It’s my family curse. I’m not sitting behind a desk

while you handle it.”

I glare at him. “I would forbid you, but you’ve never been great at listening when you’ve

decided something. Fine.”

Bridget slides her hand over my clenched fist beneath the table. The contact knocks the

heat down a notch.

“Guys,” she says to the room, calm but commanding, “take five. Make calls. Line up

whoever can help us end this quickly.”

Chairs scrape as they stand and file out.

Connor stays.

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“Ryder,” he says, voice lower now, “can we talk? Alone.”

“Sure,” I say, though the word tastes like metal. “Let’s talk.”

Evelyn hesitates, eyes moving between us. “Do I need to stay?”

Bridget steps in before I can answer. “Lucas and Pierce, work from here while they

speak.” She leans in and kisses my temple-soft, grounding. “Please.”

“Yes, Luna,” Lucas and Pierce say together.

Connor faces me fully. “Look. I’m sorry. I am. I wish I’d done it differently. I know I broke my word to you, but she’s… she’s my mate. You know what that bond does to you.”

“I do,” I say coldly. “And I also know the first person I couldn’t wait to tell was my best

friend.”

“I had a curse on me,” he insists. “If I talked about it to the wrong person, it could have

gotten her killed. I had to control who knew.”

“Yet witches still got eyes on it,” I fire back. “And you still didn’t come to me-your

Alpha. Your brother. You didn’t think I could be trusted?”

“Of course I did.” Frustration cuts through his apology. “I watched you get hit with new

battles every day. Poisons. Threats. Kidnappings. You were already stretched thin. I

couldn’t bring you a problem I thought I created.”

“That’s why I have a Beta, a Gamma, and a Delta,” I bite out. “To carry weight. And this

wasn’t some random mess-this was my sister. You should’ve come to me. I would’ve

backed you.”

Connor swallows. “You’re right. Pride got in the way. I thought I’d been cursed by some

witch or she-wolf I slept with. I thought it was my punishment to handle. I was wrong. I

screwed up.”

I step closer, temper rising again. “And the sleeping together-was that before or after

you decided to ignore the part where she’s my sister?”

His eyes flare.

“And just so we’re clear,” I add, letting it sting, “did you at least wait until she turned

eighteen?”

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He explodes. “What the fuck, Ryder? I would never disrespect her like that!”

He shoves me. I shove back.

Lucas and Pierce move instantly, trying to wedge space between us.

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Bridget is suddenly there, between our chests, palms up. “No. Enough. You will listen.

Both of you. No fighting.”

Magic snaps through the air.

We freeze-locked in place like statues.

“Bridget,” I growl, nostrils flaring, “let us go. He wants to swing, he can try.”

Connor’s jaw is clenched so hard I can hear his teeth grind.

“No,” she says, firm. “Not until you’re done acting like wolves with no brains.” She turns

to Lucas. “Call me when they’re behaving.”

And then she leaves.

“Bridget! Woman!” I shout after her, useless.

Her mind-link brushes mine-love, warm and steady-then she closes the connection.

I stand there, furious, immobilized, while Lucas and Pierce sit back down like this is just

another day and return to their laptops.

The second I’m free, I’m giving my entire team hell.

Connor’s voice comes quieter. “Bridget is incredible. I don’t think you realize how many

times I’ve watched you two and… wished I could have something like that.”

“Yeah,” I say, staring at the door. “I’m lucky as hell.”

My anger doesn’t vanish, but it shifts. “I still wish you’d trusted me enough to tell me.”

“I do trust you,” he says, urgent. “With my life. I just-I saw you drowning. I didn’t want to add my mess to your pile.”

“You don’t get to decide that alone,” I tell him. “Especially when it involves Evelyn.”

He nods once, eyes tight. “I know. And I’m sorry. I hope you can trust me again someday.

But I am her mate, Ryder. I’m going to be the best mate I can be to her.”

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“You better,” I warn. “Because between me and my dad, my mom wants to kill you first. Don’t forget it.’

He gives a strained breath. “I won’t let any of you down.”

Then he adds, “I didn’t know she was my mate until her birthday. The curse-something in it blocked me. I couldn’t see my mate. But when Evelyn’s powers came in, they got stronger, and that’s when I started feeling the bond.”

I nod, the pieces clicking. “Yeah. These women are powerful. Their magic feeds off the mate bond the same way our strength does. It’s unreal to watch. And when you mark

each other? More will change. More will awaken.”

I tilt my head toward Lucas, a silent signal to reach out to my mate.

Connor’s mouth tightens into something like determination. “I can’t wait.”

Then his eyes harden. “But first we need to go kill a witch.”

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The Omni-Wolf’s Choice