Page 5 of Ruin Me Knot
Wallace slides the needle into my vein and the burning rush hits. Fire sings up my arm, crashes into my chest, then rolls through my abdomen in scalding waves. I’m empty. So, soemptythat it slices instant torment through me. I thrash against the straps, heels slamming against the bed as pain shudders through my bones. From behind the locked doors in my mind, my Omega stirs. Good. She deserves this. She's the reason I’m here.
Wallace connects wires to my temples, my chest, between my legs. Cold pads stick to my skin as slick gushes from me, pooling beneath my thighs. His touch is nothing but clinical, yet I despise the instinct that begs for his skin-crawling touch simply because he’s an Alpha. I bite down hard, the coppery taste of blood filling my mouth.
The induced heat evaporates moisture from my veins, leaving me gasping, convulsing. Every cell shrieks in protest. It’s too soon, too brutal. Cruelty by design.
My vision goes blurry, sound warping in and out. I twist, lost to fever, heart hammering, breath coming up short, body wrung dry and set alight. The last ounce ofmeclaws for air. I turn, spit in Hardwick’s face, voice cracked and shaking. "I’ll be waiting for you at the gates of hell, Senator," I snarl, barely more than a gasp. "Making sure you have a place, front row."
Then the agony claims everything I am, and I fall into flames that eat me alive.
Chapter Three
Ronan
My world narrows to the single moment the Omega’s scent slams into me. Fresh rose, musky anise and bitter copper threaded with bleak hopelessness. Every note pounds my bones as piercing certainty spears through me.
The Omega is our scent-match.
Our fated Omega.
Mate.
Mine.
Everything I am strains toward her; there is nothing, no one, but her in that room.
Gabriel’s shock shoots through our pack-bond. Jax’s astonishment and heartbreak catches me in its backdraft.
But her state.
Gods, her state.
I knew we would be rescuing an abused Omega, but this is…she is…our mate is…
Rage floods through me, white-hot and roaring, drowning out everything else. This isn't mere emotion. It's physical torment. A serrated blade twisting beneath my ribs, ground collapsing under my feet, molten air searing my throat with each jagged breath.
The senator drags our Omega up by the hair, using her as a human shield, and I get a full view of the devastation across her body. The bruises painting her jaw. The way her shoulder droops. The hollows carved under her eyes. How her hands tremble, no matter how hard she tries to stop them.
My knees give.
Beyond the seething rage, a cold promise takes root. A deadly promise. I have rescued Omegas from hellish places, seen bodies broken and eyes gone empty, but nothing has prepared me for this. For seeing my soul's other half destroyed.
Her essence is rich and ruined, but nothing hides her defiance. I can’t help my venom at the dead Alpha walking who dares to touch our Omega like trash. "Mine."
The senator’s gaze snaps to me, and I make sure she can read the promise in my eyes.
I absorb the terror that flashes across her face.Thatfear.Thatanguish. All mine. My soul howls for revenge. My bond brothers snap to my side. I don’t register Adrian’s voice over the chaos, barking at us to follow as the senator presses a gun to Leah’s head and hauls her out of the room. My body moves on instinct. No hesitation. No thought.
We leave behind the sounds of fists striking flesh and enraged Alpha snarls as we charge after our Omega. Pack Blackwood and Pack Mitchell will be merciless. They’ll make sure the commissioner pays his price, but my pack only seesher.
Our world narrows to storm-gray eyes before the senator yanks Leah around a corner and out of sight. We surge after them as enormous figures charge from the shadows. They look like huge, muscled Alphas but they reek of chemicals instead of a true Alpha scent. A sharp, sour manufactured rage.
The first one launches at me. I read his momentum and drive my fist into his jaw. His head snaps back, and he crumples against the wall.
He’s down, but more of them flood toward us.
Every heartbeat without her fractures deeper than bone, a pulse of white noise screaming too slow, too late. My fists are wrecking balls of tendon and rage, knuckles splitting on jaws, cartilage collapsing under the force.
Jax’s elbows are pistons shattering ribs. His roar shakes the walls. Two men drop. A third stumbles. None rise.
