[BL]Reborn as the Empire's Most Desired Omega
Chapter 143: Let Her Dangle

Chapter 143: Chapter 143: Let Her Dangle

The late afternoon sun slanted through the tall windows of the imperial palace’s eastern wing, gilding every surface in pale gold, though no one inside the office seemed particularly inclined to admire the view.

Caelan sat behind the wide blackwood desk, sleeves rolled to his forearms, his signature pen stilling mid-signature as the door clicked open. The silence in the room was not idle; it was the type carved out by efficiency and too many years of ruling by precision rather than sentiment.

Sirius leaned against the far wall, arms crossed, posture deceptively relaxed. Lucius, meanwhile, paced once in front of the desk, as if trying to shake off the weight of too many threads converging.

The messenger bowed once and handed over a sealed file. Caelan broke the wax with a flick of his thumb, flipped it open, and read the first page in silence.

Then the corner of his mouth curled—just slightly.

"They reactivated Misty Kilmer’s burner," he said. "It was buried under a layer of false IDs and a three-month dormant period, but our team bypassed the last encryption thirty minutes ago."

Lucius stilled. "And?"

Caelan turned the folder around, sliding it across the desk toward his sons. "It’s filled with messages. Every one of them from Odin."

Sirius pushed off the wall in a fluid motion and came to stand beside Lucius, both of them scanning the first few lines as Caelan continued.

"Whoever Odin is," Caelan said, voice low but crisp, "he’s furious about Misty’s delays. They want Lucas immediately. No more waiting. And if she can’t deliver—" He tapped the line on the report with the back of his pen. "They’ll use Ophelia instead. Her and Misty both."

Lucius’s spine straightened, the tension so sharp it could cut steel. "They’d force them into carrying it out?"

Caelan didn’t blink. "I don’t know. But we can use it."

He picked up the burner report again, flipping it between his fingers like a card he hadn’t yet played. His voice dropped, colder with each word. NovelFire

"Put Misty on open trial. High court. Full broadcast. No protection order."

Lucius’s gaze sharpened instantly.

Caelan continued, calm and merciless, "Let Christian Velloran be the one to press charges. Let him tear her apart in front of the world. And we’ll sit back and pretend we don’t care whether she survives it."

Sirius let out a quiet breath. "You want to use her as bait."

"I want Odin out of the shadows," Caelan said. "And Misty’s the hook they bit on once. If we make her look vulnerable, exposed, and irrelevant to us, they’ll come after her. And when they do, we follow the leash."

Lucius nodded slowly, already calculating. "It’s risky."

"It’s baiting wolves," Caelan agreed. "But we’re not the ones bleeding."

Sirius was already pulling up files on the secure server. "I’ll inform the media liaison. If we want it public, it needs to look like a scandal, not a strategy."

"Perfect," Caelan said. "Make it petty. Make it ugly. Let the nobles gloat and the clergy act offended. Meanwhile, we tighten the net."

Lucius closed the file in front of him and looked up, his voice quieter now. "Lucas doesn’t know anything about this yet."

Caelan didn’t answer immediately.

"He doesn’t need to. Trevor will handle Christian, the clergy, and their little pawn Jason Luna. We deal with Misty and Odin. And if we corner them right..." his eyes narrowed, "Agatha will follow."

Lucius exhaled, a slow, deliberate motion as if releasing the last tether of restraint. "Jason Luna wasn’t just sniffing around by chance."

"No," Caelan agreed. "He was placed. Maybe not directly by Odin, but someone connected. And Trevor already started flushing him out. We just need to make sure no one interferes with the fallout."

Sirius’s expression darkened. "We let Misty dangle on a hook, and we watch who comes to feed."

Lucius leaned forward slightly, his voice sharper now. "Do we involve Serathine?"

Caelan’s gaze dropped to the dossier again. He didn’t blink, didn’t rush, just flicked through the next page with a touch too much precision.

"Send her a report," he said finally, quiet but resolute. "She has Ophelia in her care. She’ll know what it means."

Lucius’s jaw ticked. "You think Odin would go after the girl?"

"I think," Caelan replied, eyes still on the page, "Odin doesn’t care who gets hurt as long as the body bleeds the right kind of blood. Lucas is proving harder to get than they planned. Ophelia is loud, prideful, and still has enough of Misty’s arrogance to make her a target."

Sirius crossed his arms. "Then Serathine has to be warned, and Trevor too. Something tells me that even marked, Lucas is still too valuable to them to leave him alone."

Caelan set the glass down with a faint click, the kind of sound that echoed louder than it should in a room where decisions shaped the continent.

"They don’t care about the bond," he said, his voice quiet but cutting. "Or maybe they care too much. They need Lucas, specifically Lucas, to control unawakened alphas. The clergy is in deeper than they’ve ever admitted, and I have every reason to believe Trevor and Dax know more than they’ve told us."

Lucius didn’t flinch, but the tension in his spine said enough. Sirius crossed his arms, jaw set tight.

"They’d risk destabilizing the entire hierarchy for this?" Sirius asked.

"They already are," Caelan replied. "And if they’ve tested this theory before, Lucas might not be their first. Just their last... and their best."

Lucius moved then, finally taking the file that had been waiting between them. His eyes scanned the pages as he spoke. "If Trevor’s hiding something, it’s to protect Lucas. And if Dax is covering for him, then he knows it’s worth protecting."

Caelan’s gaze lingered on the city for one measured heartbeat before he turned back to his sons.

"Maybe," he said, rising from his chair with a grace that never dulled the edge of his words. "But first we deal with Misty and Odin. Prepare the grounds."

Lucius straightened, already slipping into motion. "I’ll coordinate with Treasury and the High Court. Misty’s accounts get flagged under forensic audit by dawn. Assets frozen by noon."

"Use Judge Halden," Caelan said. "He owes me two favors and one humiliation. He’ll approve the warrant without a whisper."

Sirius stepped closer, scrolling through datasets on his wrist comm. "I’ll seed the leak to the palace press pool. Nothing official, just enough rumor to make Misty think we’re letting the vultures circle."

"And Odin?" Lucius asked, closing the dossier.

"Shadow every outgoing signal the moment her name trends," Caelan answered. "IT-4 can backtrace anything that pings her number, even a failed call. When they reach for her, I want the route, the tower, and the burner supplier before they end the call."

Sirius nodded. "We’ll have a live relay to my console."

"Good." Caelan picked up the burner report, tapping the page that mentioned Ophelia. "Package this subset for Serathine only. Encrypt it twice. She guards the girl; she deserves to know why."

Lucius slipped out first, coat already swinging to cloak his urgency. Sirius followed, murmuring orders into his comm, assembling a net of silent watchers around Misty Kilmer’s world. NovelFire

Caelan remained a moment longer, palms braced on the edge of the desk. Outside, the last light of day bled into dusk over Palatine’s spires—beautiful, dangerous, indifferent.

He allowed himself one steadying breath.

Then he reached for a blank sheet of imperial stationery and began the letter that would draw Serathine D’Argente into the hunt.

The game pieces were moving.

By tomorrow, Misty would realize exactly how alone she was.