To ruin an Omega novel Chapter 329

Chapter 329: Sis, manifest 2

HAZEL

Wenzel took his seat at the head of the table.

He looked at me.

I kept my eyes down. I was still working out whether that was the right call. The conversation at the gallery had been almost normal. He had spoken to me like a person speaking to another person, no theater to it. So maybe eye contact was permitted here. Maybe it was expected. But after the Sofiane situation, I needed to be safe. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

I stayed down and waited.

"How was your night, Hazel?" he asked.

His voice was the same as it had been before. Pleasant and measured and giving nothing.

But I knew better.

"It was fine," I said.

"Laslo says he has to punish you."

I let a beat pass before I answered. "I wasn’t privy to how firm the rules were. I’m getting better now."

"Well," he said. "That is good to hear." There was a pause, and then he continued right where he stopped: "You and Lysander can talk to your heart’s full today. I allow it."

I allow it? Allow it?

The two words sitting inside that sentence like a fist inside a glove. He allowed it. He allowed a conversation. He allowed the air I breathed and the chair I sat in and probably the particular shade of blue I had chosen this morning without realizing I had chosen it for a reason.

I thought of the dress. I thought of Delta’s face when I’d told her to find me something with innocence in it. I thought about how deliberate that had been.

All of it seemed suddenly useless in this stifling environment.

"Father—" Lysander tried to say, only to be cut off by his father with the raise of his hand.

The man didn’t want to hear it.

Wenzel turned away to look down the table.

"The food isn’t here," he said.

His voice hadn’t changed. That was the thing. The temperature of it was identical to how he had asked me about my night.

"This streak hasn’t broken in ten years," he went on. "The fact that we have a guest of honor here. And they choose to disappoint at this particular moment." He let that word sit. "Unforgivable."

The side door opened then and two Omegas came through with the speed of people who already knew they were too late. They stopped when they saw him. One of them went to her knees. The tray in her hands rattled but she held it.

"The dish was complex," she said. Her voice shook. "We wanted the guest to feel at home. We did not mean disrespect. We didn’t mean—"

Wenzel snapped his fingers once.

Her mouth closed. Her whole body was shaking. But she still kept her lips sealed tight. The girl still standing behind her had gone the color of dry clay.

Wenzel stood.

He moved the way I had noticed he always seemed to move. Without urgency. Like the room rearranged itself to accommodate him rather than him navigating around it.

"There is a reason for these rules," he said. He picked up one of the small cutlery knives from the table as he passed. "They are there to guide this pack. To keep it from falling into despair. When a rule is broken, it shows the weak links." He looked at the knife for a moment, turning it slightly. "And the best thing to do is cut your losses."

He turned to look at me and that look me off guard. Underneath the table, I fondled with my hands.

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