To ruin an Omega novel Chapter 310

Chapter 310: The Making of a Cuckoo bird

HAZEL

The pamphlet was thin. That was the first thing that struck me. Something with this much power over a person’s life should have weighed more.

I read the first rule twice before the words fully arranged themselves into meaning.

"Rule of Male Oversight. Every unmarried woman of substance within the estate must be assigned a male guardian. Even if she is high born. Even if she is a Luna. She cannot attend meetings alone. She cannot leave the grounds without escort. Violation results in confinement."

I sat with that for a moment. I read it a third time just to be sure I had not invented the words out of shock or exhaustion or the particular kind of delirium that came from watching a man die and then being handed a pamphlet about etiquette.

The words stayed the same.

I turned to the second rule.

"Rule of Eye Contact. Women may not hold prolonged eye contact with an Alpha male unless invited. This will be interpreted as a challenge to authority. Punishable by public correction."

The memory arrived before I could stop it. Wenzel’s face leaning toward mine in the gallery. My eyes on his, steady and unflinching, because I had been raised to look people in the face when they spoke to me. I had thought that was basic dignity. Apparently here it was an offense.

My fingers tightened around the pamphlet.

"Rule of Voice. The women of Lily of the Valley do not interrupt Alpha deliberations. They may submit written opinions but cannot speak unless asked directly. Disobedience results in confinement."

I read that one again.

"Submit written opinions."

What kind of backward hell was this?

The last prominent rule on the page sat at the bottom of the page printed in red, which should have warned me before I even started reading. Red meant they knew. Red meant they had done it deliberately, because whatever this said, they understood it would land differently than the rest.

"Male Heirs Clause."

The language was careful and deliberate and vague enough to make my stomach twist, the way legal text was always vague when the people writing it wanted room to maneuver later. It implied that a bride who produced no male heir within a set time frame would face consequences. It did not name the consequences. It did not need to. The red ink was doing that work just fine.

I stared at it until the letters blurred slightly at the edges.

Then I turned the page.

The final rule informed me, in the same elegant script used for everything else, that phones were not to be used after a certain hour because the light disrupted rest cycles and health was wealth and the estate took the wellness of its members seriously. It went on for an additional two paragraphs. Two paragraphs about phone light and sleep hygiene and the importance of communal restoration. Alpha Wenzel had apparently deemed it upon himself to write an essay about bedtime.

I set the pamphlet down on the mattress.

"These people," I said to the empty room, "are completely insane."

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone.

My mother picked up on the third ring.

"Hazel? How is it? How are you settling in?"

"I need you to listen to me very carefully," I said. "Because I am going to tell you something and I need you to not dismiss it and I need you to not tell me I am being dramatic."

There was silence on her end. Then: "What happened?"

I opened my mouth to speak and that was when the door opened.

Delta stepped through first, her eyes finding mine immediately. Then her gaze dropped to the phone in my hand and her face changed. She did not shout. She did not gasp. She just looked at me with wide eyes and mouthed the words "hide it", exaggerating every movement of her mouth like she was trying to communicate through glass, her whole expression tight with something close to panic.

A shape moved behind her in the doorway.

I cut the call. I threw the phone sideways without thinking and it hit the floor hard, skidding a few inches before stopping against the leg of some dresser. I winced at the sound of it landing.

Delta stepped fully into the room. The man behind her followed, and he was tall in the way that meant to take up space, filling the doorway for a moment before he cleared it. A sentinel, by the look of him. His uniform was neat. His face was neutral in the specific way of someone who had practiced being unreadable.

"Who is he?" I asked Delta, keeping my voice low.

Delta glanced sideways at the man as he stepped forward.

"I am your male guardian," he said. His voice was even and unhurried. "Assigned effective immediately under estate protocol. My name is Laslo."

Everything that had been sitting in my chest since the gallery, the tiny little guilt and the cold and the heaviness, burned off in about two seconds.

"Delta." He said her name without looking at her. "I’ll be generous. First day, new arrival. Stand by your mistress tonight. I’ll return in the morning." 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

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