Fated: The Alpha's Unwanted Luna

Chapter 375: Real damage

Viola had been quiet for too long about too many things in their world. Laila had been right, some people only understood when they were put firmly in their place. She had been knocked down time and again even while standing in the highest position in their entire world, and the hollow had humbled her so deeply she had almost forgotten who she once was and what she was capable of.

But Sebastian had told her again and again that he had her back, and today he had proven it in front of everyone, and that proof had given her back something she had spent years losing.

She had the room’s full attention and she used it.

"Your daughter came to our room the night we arrived here. She disrespected me right there at the door and I let it go. As for me sleeping with omegas, you can ask her how she arrived at such a thing, because I remember that night very clearly. I was far too occupied with my husband to have had any visitors." She said, looking directly at the she-wolf still hiding behind her father and brother.

"That wasn’t the Supreme Alpha in that room. She’s lying—"

Sebastian’s arm came around Viola and pulled her against his side as he looked straight at Hailey. "What exactly made you think it wasn’t me? I was with my wife every night, that night included, and I heard you disrespecting her through the door of that room quite clearly."

Viola looked up at him in genuine surprise. She had believed until this moment that he hadn’t heard any of what had passed between her and Hailey that night outside the door.

But in fact Sebastian had heard every word of it, and had smiled to himself in quiet amusement and even participated in making sure the she-wolf heard exactly where she stood while he was here. However, it turned out Hailey’s head was filled with mush and she lacked the brain to see that he was completely and madly in love with his wife.

He had assumed she had gotten the picture, had assumed that was the very reason she had kept herself out of his presence for the rest of the visit. But who could have anticipated she would come up with a scheme this crazy to humiliate Viola publicly?

"How could that have been you she was with? You—" Hailey began to argue, but her father turned hard eyes on her and shut her up cold.

He could not believe she had been stupid enough to come up with an accusation she hadn’t even witnessed with her own eyes. Alpha Daniel had believed her completely and had thought she was positioning herself closer to Sebastian by shedding light on his wife’s supposed affairs, only to realize now that she hadn’t seen a single thing she claimed to have seen.

And to think she was still talking, still pushing when things had turned this way, with the Supreme Alpha standing there looking the way he was looking.

Alpha Daniel would have had far more to say in this situation had his daughter not been so clearly in the wrong, but if he kept defending her now, everyone in this hall would see him as complicit and stand firmly on the Supreme Alpha’s side.

He cleared his throat and said, "Hailey, apologize to the Supreme Luna for the misunderstanding you have caused and let us put this to rest."

Hailey looked ready to crack her own head open before she would give that bitch a single word of apology. She was already parting her lips to tell her father exactly that, that she would not apologize because she was not the one in the wrong here, when Sebastian spoke.

"My Luna does not need her apology."

Hailey exhaled and began to let a smile form on her face, but Sebastian wasn’t done talking.

"Because an apology is far too little for the damage she has caused. If she is allowed to walk away from this with only an apology, your daughter will believe it is perfectly acceptable to shame any she-wolf she takes issue with, especially my Luna. Every action should carry a consequence equal to the damage it has done."

Alpha Daniel tried to laugh it off and play it cool. "There hasn’t been any real damage done beyond anything that requires more than an apology, Supreme Alpha. Hailey was only acting on what she believed was helping you. Everything was just a big misunderstanding."

Sebastian’s eyes narrowed on the man. He reached out, took his wife’s hand, and opened her palm to the room, showing the visible pinkness there from the force of the slap Hailey had received through it.

"Here is one damage. Your daughter did this to her. And let’s not even get into the ruining of her mood and mine, that alone is worth more than a simple punishment."

Viola looked at Sebastian, unable to believe he was adding pettiness to the argument and yet not parting her lips to tell him to let it go. She wasn’t kind enough for that, not this time. She knew that letting it slide would only make Hailey believe she was an easy target and do it again.

"I didn’t do that to her, you used her own hand to slap me in the face!" Hailey cried out from behind her father, her face still throbbing from the pain of the slap.

"Your daughter walked herself straight into range of being slapped, and she will be punished for it. That is my final verdict, unless you want me to withdraw every benefit you receive from my pack and declare war against you." Sebastian said seriously.

Alpha Daniel could not say another word at the mention of war. Had he been the one to push for war against Sebastian first, he might have gathered enough supporters behind him, but not now, not like this, not when the murmuring around them was making it clear that most of the guests believed Hailey was in the wrong and should accept her punishment. People were already whispering about how she could have pulled a scheme like this on her own brother’s big day.

"All right. I will have her locked in her room as punishment." Alpha Daniel said, and Hailey went pale behind him and grabbed at his arm. "Daddy!"

"Shut up!" Alpha Daniel snapped at her.

"Neither of us will be deciding her punishment, Daniel." Sebastian said, and then turned to his wife with a voice so warm and tender it was a completely different sound from the one he had been using on everyone else in the room. "My Luna will have the full say. What would you like to happen to her?"