Fated: The Alpha's Unwanted Luna

Chapter 357: Hailey and the Luna

Viola saw the look of confusion settle on the she-wolf before a deep scowl crossed her face, as though she had been expecting the door to be answered by Sebastian. Viola understood immediately that Hailey had come here expecting to meet him alone, and it became clear that she wouldn’t even live one day in the Grim Pack before trouble brought itself to their doorstep.

It wasn’t that Viola was insecure about her place in Sebastian’s life, not after everything he had shown her and given her that no one else ever had. It was simply that the mate bond was unpredictable and made people act unlike themselves around whoever they shared it with.

A part of her feared he might still be connected to this woman, and she had wanted to avoid them coming face to face if she could help it, delaying it for as long as possible before anything could mess with Sebastian’s mind and create any bridges between them. Laila had once been his mate until Viola came into the picture, and the mate bond had shifted, causing the attraction to fade and settle on her instead.

Now she feared that if Hailey came into the picture, it might come between them, and she didn’t want that.

So the moment she saw it was Hailey at the door, Viola glanced briefly back and confirmed her husband was still occupied on the balcony, and then she stepped out of the room and pulled the door closed quietly behind her, placing herself squarely between Hailey and the door.

"Why are you the one answering his door?" Hailey demanded, staring at the woman who had not only had the audacity to answer but had closed the door behind her without even letting her make her presence known to the person she had come here to see.

Not to mention, what was she even doing in this room when Hailey had specifically instructed the omegas to put her somewhere far away from here?

She was going to deal with them later for not adhering to her instructions and making her come face to face with this pest before she had even met Sebastian!

Viola arched a brow. "What sort of question is that, Miss Hailey? Unless you lack common sense, isn’t it a perfectly normal thing for a wife to answer the door of the room she shares with her husband?" she said with a calm expression, keeping her voice level so Sebastian wouldn’t hear anything from the balcony.

She took in Hailey in one quiet sweep, noting how completely she had dressed herself up, how deliberately stunning she looked, as though she had come here with a specific purpose in mind.

"I should actually be the one asking what you are doing here. Do you want something?"

"What I want has nothing to do with you. I want to see the Supreme Alpha," Hailey said with narrowed eyes.

"For as long as you are standing on my doorstep, Miss Hailey, it has everything to do with me. And Sebastian is busy. If you want to leave him a message, I will be more than happy to relay it to him on your behalf," Viola said matter-of-factly, not letting the fact that this wasn’t her house intimidate her into letting Hailey get her way.

Hailey could not believe she was being spoken to this way by a nobody who clearly had no idea of her place. And did she just address the Supreme Alpha by his name? This wolfless has no idea where she truly belong.

But Hailey had always enjoyed putting women like this in their place.

She arranged her expression into something smugly amused and said, "Oh right, I forgot. You are his pretend Luna and message keeper. I know he only kept you around to silence the elders about marriage, so it’s all right. I am here to relieve you of that burden. I am here to see the Supreme Alpha personally, not leave a message through you, so if you don’t mind, move out of my way." She said it mockingly, as though the outcome had already been decided and she already belonged in there with the Supreme Alpha.

Viola wanted to laugh. She only smiled instead at what Hailey believed their marriage was, a performance, a convenient arrangement. As much as she wanted to shatter that particular illusion on the spot, she knew the she-wolf would only believe whatever she had already decided to believe. And Viola would be cold in the ground before she moved out of the way and gave her access to the room behind her.

She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against the door, looking at Hailey with the calm expression of someone who had not heard a single word of those instructions to move.

"Are you deaf? Move out of my way, bitch."

"Unless you plan to fly in through the windows, Miss Hailey, there is no way you are getting through this door, because I already told you he is busy," she said. Then she turned her attention idly to her newly painted black nails, clenching and unclenching her fingers as she admired them, genuinely pleased because she had stopped chewing them and they finally looked normal, as though the she-wolf standing in front of her barely warranted a second glance.

Hailey was genuinely taken aback. She had heard the rumors, that the Supreme Alpha didn’t give a second thought about this wolfless girl, and yet here she was, being denied entry with an ease that suggested the opposite entirely. No one denied Hailey anything. It was a foreign sensation and she did not like it.

"Are you aware that you are standing in my father’s territory?" Hailey said, drawing herself up and staring at Viola in disbelief.

Viola shrugged without concern. "Oh, I am glad you reminded me, I had almost forgotten this isn’t home. But then I suppose one tends to forget their place sometimes, just like you seem to be forgetting that the man you are here to see is mine. Married to me." She raised her hand just enough so the wedding ring caught the light between them.

Anger surged through Hailey and she clenched her fingers at her sides. "For your information, bitch, he is my mate. Get out of my path before I move you myself."

And that, Viola thought to herself, is exactly why you will not be seeing him today.

She didn’t move an inch from the door.

Hailey reached out to shove Viola out of her way and get through the door, but Viola held her ground and caught Hailey’s wrist, stopping the hand before it reached her. She felt the familiar surge of her ability rising the moment she made contact with her skin and forced it back down before she would accidentally drain the she-wolf, like she had Ember.

It seemed her days of practicing to control the draining ability was finally coming to use now.

"You cannot see him. Is that really so hard to understand? I said he is busy. Heavens, don’t people understand simple words anymore?" Viola gritted in genuine annoyance, unable to believe this desperate she-wolf.

"Busy with what?" Hailey demanded, yanking at her wrist, but for some reason she couldn’t pull free, the wolfless girl’s grip far stronger than it had any right to be.

"Busy with his wife. What else? Until you interrupted us."

Hailey scoffed. "Sebastian doesn’t take fragile little women like you to bed. I guarantee he is missing having someone like me in his arms, someone who can give him the kind of ecstasy you clearly can’t. So if you know what’s good for you, you will move out of my way and let me in."

Viola smiled. "You underestimate me so much, Hailey."

"There is nothing to underestimate about you. Weremen don’t desire women like you. You’re wolfless, unripe, and painfully ordinary. I honestly can’t imagine what any werewolf man would find appealing enough to want in your bed, let alone the Supreme Alpha."

Viola smirked at the she-wolf and said, "Oh, I’ll show you exactly how this one wants me, and if you know what’s good for you, you won’t stand here long enough to listen."

With that, she shoved Hailey back with enough force that the she-wolf staggered on her impossibly high heels. Before Hailey could recover her footing, Viola stepped back through the door and swung it shut against Hailey’s face, throwing the lock the moment the latch caught.

She could already hear Hailey on the other side knocking, and she knew there was absolutely no way Sebastian wouldn’t hear it once the knocking started.

Sure enough, he came in from the balcony. "Who’s out there?" he asked, his eyes moving from her face to the door, but before he could wonder who she had been talking to outside, Viola did something completely unexpected that caught him off guard.