The Alpha's Omega Mate-Chapter 166: Fucking cloaking spell.
~Zarek’s POV~
"She’s dead," I drawled solemnly at the woman who had her back turned to me, fishing for something on her desk that I had no idea what it was.
I leaned against the doorframe, inhaling the harsh smell of disinfectants just as she spun around, her eyes widening, breath hitching before it all came to a stuttering stop when she saw me.
She bowed, her head almost touching the floor. "Alpha, good morning. I wasn’t expecting you here so early."
"I wasn’t expecting to be here so early either." I snapped, but when I saw her flinch, I internally bristled. I coughed. "I’m sorry, I’m just on edge. Zorina died in the middle of the night."
At first I saw her freeze from shock— shock that I had bothered to apologize to her— that was until the weight of my words finally settled in her head. She gasped, her expression darkening like a shutter had been closed down against her face.
When her eyes met mine moments later, I saw the fear in her eyes... the unadulterated anger too and didn’t miss the way she chewed desperately on her bottom lip.
Why? How?
The questions were on her lips but she didn’t dare say them aloud. I could see from the way that her throat worked that she had something— a whole lot of things to say— but she didn’t. Instead, she sighed, turned away from me and resumed rummaging through her table like the answers to all her questions were somewhere in the stash of papers before her.
"Didn’t you hear me?" I growled now, infuriated that she was ignoring me. My eyes latched on her now tense shoulders, and then she stopped to meet my gaze, her eyes now alight with something akin to rage. "I said, Zorina is dead."
"I know." She answered stiffly. "I heard you the first time."
"Yet you do not realize how bad it is for me right? How bad it is for both of us?"
"And I would’ve loved to know how that happened but I’m not sure I’ll be told the truth." She snapped back, momentarily stunning me with the biting edge to her voice.
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that I had her in my closet for the whole of two days, tied up and starved but nothing happened. And she’s only been in the dungeon for six... seven hours? And now she’s dead?"
Remembering how I’d found Jennifer hunched over a fallen Zorina with her throat slit open made my blood run cold. I seethed; "Dr Ava, I think you should watch your mou—"
"Maybe I should’ve stuck to interrogating her my way instead of bringing her to you first!" She seethed, her eyes burning with rage. "But do you know why I did that? Because I wanted to respect constituted authority. I wanted justice to be upheld... this isn’t justice."
"Like that would change anything!" I snapped back, infuriated but understanding Ava’s annoyance so I tried not to be too affected by her insolence. "She would’ve still—"
"No, she wouldn’t!" Ava snapped in a bout of rage, interrupting me, and goddess, I had to grit my goddamn teeth to stop from closing them around her frail neck. "And you know it."
"I understand your frustration right now but don’t overstep your boundaries." I warned her lowly but she simply scoffed derisively before turning to the stash of papers, her face as red as a beetroot from rage.
"And what would you say about me then? Me that’s been very close to finding out the truth from her? Me that’s been able to get her to confess that she was made to do it, and all that was left was to find out who made her?!" She continued, jabbing at her chest with each word that she spoke.
She heard the deep growl emanating from within my chest but paid it no heed as she continued; "Maybe if I didn’t bring her out, I’ll have gotten everything I want... I would know what exact incense she’d used and what exact antidote I could get to cure its effects."
I frowned so hard I feared I may have a unibrow and when she wouldn’t stop muttering under her breath about how everything’s been messed up for her, I folded my arms across my chest and snorted; "What for?"
"Huh?"
"What do you need the incense for... and the antidote?"
Ava rolled her eyes at me for like the very first time I’ve ever seen her. I saw her drag in a deep breath, watched her vibrating hands by her sides. When she looked up at me again, her eyes were a whirlwind of emotions—anger, frustration, confusion, indignation.
And worst of all, she looked at me like I was stupid.
Like she would to a petulant child.
"Because I caught her using the incense on a patient! And because I need to find something to do about Dahlia’s lost memories!"
And then I gasped. The nerves in my body grew so taut, I feared it would snap.
"But Dahlia isn’t here..." I drawled slowly, my voice sounding like metal scraping against ice. "She’s nowhere to be found. Even if you find the antidote, you cannot help her."
Dr Ava huffed at me. "And I made her cloaking spell, remember?"
The weight of her words hit me slowly. Hardly. So painfully that I nearly doubled over.
She could find Dahlia.
She’d made the cloaking spell... she could trace it.
Ava turned to face me slowly as if suddenly realising her slip up, and when she took in the look on my face, she froze. And then she began shaking her head.
"No, no... no!"
"I haven’t even said anything," I drawled quietly, breaking the iciness in the atmosphere. "I haven’t asked you to do anything yet."
"Alpha—"
"I was only wondering how you’ve always known where she is... how you’ve always had a means to find her, but kept your mouth shut throughout the several weeks we spent looking for her."
Something coiled tight in my chest— anger, pain, hurt? I shook it off. "When you knew you had the means to find her."
"It’s not like that." Gone was the angry bird-Ava that was here only seconds ago, now in her place was a woman shaking with panic, her nostrils flaring not with indignation but fear. I savoured it. "She didn’t want to be found. It was no longer safe for her here and she made me promise."
"Yet, I am Alpha. Your Alpha. You should have told me because your loyalty is tied to me and not to her." I snarled.
"I am sorry!"
My wolf, Moartea, was even on the edge of bursting out. He stirred within me, causing my eyes to flash with just enough rage to have Ava backing down, her knees buckling under her weight.
But amidst my rage... the chaos and the restlessness of Moratea, I still heard him speak through our link, his voice firm yet mocking... with a tinge of desperate despair lacing through it.
’So much for caring about her decision to be away from you... from us. So much for respecting her."
The weight of his words lanced through my chest but deciding against listening to him, I slammed down on his voice and turned to Ava. "Do you still have the remaining incense from the one you caught Zorina with?"
"Yes."
"Get it to me. I’ll find out everything you need." I said slowly, stopping to stare straight at her to make her understand that I meant what I said.
She nodded. "But?"
"Huh?" I asked, my eyebrows shooting into my hairline. "What?"
"You’re not doing this for free. I know that. So what’s the catch?" She asked and I smirked.
Sensible. Wise.
"You’ll trace that fucking cloaking spell you created, and you’ll lead me to Dahlia and my daughter."
I froze.
Ava froze too.
It took me a moment to realize what I’d just said. To realize that I’d just claimed Dahlia’s child as mine, and that in itself was more than enough to have heat rising to my face. I flushed, turned away in embarrassment and walked out, all the while stunned by my actions; But what was most infuriating was the fact that I liked how it felt to call Amara mine.
It felt... good. So so good.
It made my chest bloom with warmth and pride, and made my wolf dance in delight.
However, that bubble of delight soon burst when I stepped into my house and the first person I saw by the threshold was Leila, my real daughter, her face a mask of childish innocence, her lips spread into a smile.
She hugged my knees affectionately, her hair bouncing in the wind as she looked up at me. "Daddy!" She called out gingerly but something about it felt wrong.
It felt cold.
"My baby." I cooed, picking her into my arms as I came face to face with Nyx.
Bloody hell.
