Fated: The Alpha's Unwanted Luna

Chapter 355: Possessive wife

Viola felt Alpha Daniel’s aura beginning to flare, and realized that if someone didn’t redirect this conversation soon, it was going to tip into something worse.

Even by human standards Alpha Daniel appeared to be in his middle years, but Viola knew he was far older than he looked, and he was not the kind of man who would let a slight against his honor pass, especially in his own home. She could feel her husband’s aura rising beside her in response, like two pressure systems building against each other, and she quickly raked her brain for an interruption, since none of Alpha Daniel’s family or his wife seemed the least bit inclined to provide one.

"You have a truly lovely home, Alpha Daniel. It reminds me of a French castle." She said, speaking up before either man could take the next step, and she meant it, she was genuinely looking around and admiring the place as she said it.

It worked. Daniel’s gaze pulled away from Sebastian and landed on the small woman standing beside him whom he had barely acknowledged until now. Whatever he was about to say to the Alpha of Silver, it stayed unsaid.

The words of challenge he was about to say died on his tongue. No matter how much he protested against greed, Alpha Daniel was clearly a man who enjoyed having his tastes appreciated; even when it came from a nobody like the wolfless Luna of silver. A smile spread across his face at Viola’s words.

"Why, thank you, Luna..." He faltered, having already lost her name as she was unimportant to him, and Viola smoothly extended her hand and supplied it for him.

"Viola." She shook his hand, holding on pleasantly, even by the fact that she was aware that he consider her beneath him.

"Luna Viola." He gave a nod of recognition. "I don’t believe we have met in person before. I recall that at your post-wedding event you didn’t attend, and my Luna and I were quite disappointed not to have the chance to meet the first-ever wolfless Supreme Luna. We’ve only ever heard of people being wolfless but have never encountered one in our pack, and it was quite shocking to hear that one had been crowned, no offense, of course."

"None taken," she said tightly.

"You are not only wolfless but look rather fragile too," he added, his gaze moving over her as though assessing just how delicate she truly was.

Viola recognized forced politeness immediately, and she recognized equally well when an insult was carefully folded inside it. What she also noticed was that the handshake was stretching far beyond what any greeting required, his grip tightening in a way that was either a deliberate test of her pain tolerance or a quiet demonstration of how little power he believed she held. Whatever the intention, she held her smile and gave nothing away about the pain in her hand.

Her husband, however, had no interest in maintaining appearances on that front. He reached across without ceremony and separated their hands.

"Enough handshaking, Daniel. If you don’t want to get on my bad side while I am here, I hope this will be the first and last time you hold my Luna’s hand that long." He said it as a warning, nothing more and nothing less, while he rubbed and massaged her hand in his, having noticed that the man had gripped it too tightly. If it wasn’t for the sake of avoiding conflict, Sebastian believed Daniel wouldn’t have that hand intact. But this was another pack’s territory, and breaking the Alpha’s hand would bring war. Hence, he soothed his wife’s hand instead.

"Of course, Supreme Alpha. Your Luna has more manners than I could have imagined." Daniel said, stepping back and gesturing welcomingly. "Please feel free to treat this house as your own, especially you, Luna Victoria."

Viola didn’t bother correcting him. Someone else did it for her.

"It’s Viola, sir," came a voice from among the small crowd gathered nearby, clear and unhesitating. "She introduced herself as Viola, not Victoria." The speaker then turned to Viola. "I’m Tess, by the way, Kenny’s girlfriend and wife-to-be."

She was a tall, elegant woman in a sunset-yellow dress that stopped above her knees, with brunette hair falling loosely around tanned shoulders that looked as though they had known a lot of sunlight. She had an alluring face, with freckles dusted across her nose and cheeks. She stood beside Kenny, who was watching the whole exchange with a carefully neutral expression, as though choosing not to involve himself unless absolutely necessary.

Viola shook her hand and smiled, and Tess smiled back with the kind of warmth that felt entirely unperformed like Alpha Daniel and his Luna.

"It’s nice to meet you, Tess," Viola said.

Alpha Daniel didn’t bother hiding his reaction. His eyes cut to Tess with a flat glare. She hadn’t yet learned, apparently, that you didn’t correct your Alpha in front of guests, particularly guests of this caliber. She was a girl who had grown up among humans in some part of the U.S. and had met his son, who had gone there for his personal indulgences and returned with the she-wolf who turned out to be his fated mate, a woman who had lived all her life as a human, hiding her wolf and carrying the manners of someone raised without elders.

She acted like humans did, with no regard for the pack hierarchy or the fact that you never spoke when your Alpha was speaking. If it weren’t for his son, he wouldn’t have accepted such an ill-mannered girl into his pack, but his son had threatened to go and live in the U.S. if Alpha Daniel refused to accept his mate into his life, and Kenny was his only son.

Alpha Daniel wanted to part his lips and give Tess a harsh scolding, but with Kenny’s quietly apologetic eyes on him, Daniel let it pass without comment, turning back to his guests instead.

"I’ll leave you to the omegas to show you to your rooms." He said pleasantly enough, and then added as though it were a perfectly ordinary thing to say, "My daughter Hailey has been very much looking forward to your arrival, Supreme Alpha. I do hope the two of you get the chance to reconnect the way you used to. It would be beneficial to make a family alliance with you." He left the foyer on that note, his wife and two other daughters trailing behind him after welcoming their guests.

Viola stood very still for a moment. The man had said that with Sebastian’s wife standing right beside him, without so much as a flicker of acknowledgment that she was even in the room. What did he mean by a family alliance? Wasn’t marriage what he was hinting at?

She had already known this trip would be difficult, but standing here now she understood fully that avoiding drama was simply not going to be an option. She was not about to give any woman in this pack the space to get close to her husband without resistance. And without fully thinking about it, her hand hooked itself firmly and possessively around his elbow.

Sebastian looked down at his wife’s head and felt a smile threaten to spread across his face as he understood that she was finally showing her possessiveness in public. For how long had he waited for something like this? He couldn’t contain the joy of it, because to him Alpha Daniel had just yelped nonsense and there was no chance of him and Hailey ever getting together. Whatever had been between them was long over and finished in the past, and now he belonged only to the woman standing next to him.