Fated: The Alpha's Unwanted Luna

Chapter 378: The supreme Luna surprise

When no one seemed willing to tell her what was going on, her brother finally did.

"Your boyfriend and Laila are fated mates." Sebastian delivered the news so calmly and evenly that no one would have guessed from his tone alone how much he wanted to break Gilbert’s head, even knowing he couldn’t afford to, not while the doctor was the only one with any real chance of helping Viola recover her wolf and conduct the mermaid sacrifice that will break his curse.

"What?" Zoe muttered, the disbelief hitting her quietly, not loudly. She turned to Gilbert, who already looked guilty enough to answer every question she hadn’t asked yet, and he reached out to her immediately, but she stepped back.

"Why didn’t you tell me?"

"Because there is nothing between us beyond that." He said, and the earnestness in his voice was real and unmistakable. "Yes, she is my fated mate. But I have never accepted that bond and I never will. You are the one I want and the one I intend to build my life with. Please believe me, Zoe."

He meant it so completely that she stopped stepping back. She stood there and looked into his eyes that looked torn.

Zoe understood how fated mate bonds worked. She understood that he must have been fighting it all this while, that every absent-minded moment, every time he had spaced out on their date, every invisible wall she had been knocking against had a name now. And even as her eyes stung with the realization that he was the man Laila had been talking to her about, the one Laila had said she wanted and intended to fight for and seduce if she had to, Zoe didn’t know what to do with any of it.

But then she thought about it properly. Gilbert and Laila’s families were known rivals, a conflict that ran deep and old. And from everything she could see, Gilbert didn’t want Laila. He had been putting real effort into her since this morning, more than he had before, and she could not picture a single day without him now that she had let herself imagine one with him.

She had loved this man for half her life. She wanted to be with him and from every sign in front of her he wanted to be with her too, and he had never once committed himself to Laila in any way for Zoe to feel betrayed.

If she walked away now, she would spend the rest of her life regretting it. Because she knew, with the quiet certainty of someone who had examined it from every angle, that she would never love anyone the way she loved him. And she had long since accepted that her wolf would never return to full strength nor heal completely, that a fated mate of her own was not something the moon goddess had written for her. She had to live the life in front of her.

Viola, watching all of it unfold, saw Zoe’s eyes move from Laila to Gilbert, who was holding out his hand to her, his expression open and pleading and completely unguarded.

Zoe looked at Laila and said quietly, "I’m sorry, but I love him."

Then she took his hand.

He pulled her into his arms, and they held each other. For a long moment, neither of them said anything at all. They simply held on to each other tightly.

Tears filled Laila’s emerald eyes as she watched them, and for the first time in her life, she did something she had never done before. She backed away without causing a scene, without staking her claim on her mate, without letting everyone know that this was where she rightfully belonged.

Her heart twisted painfully inside her chest, sending needle-like stabs of pain through her that she had never experienced in all her life. She couldn’t breathe, and a large lump the size of a golf ball lodged itself in her throat. If she stayed another moment watching her mate turn away from her, she would shatter into dust.

She handed Tess the gift she had brought before quietly saying, "Excuse me. I need some air."

Before anyone could say anything she had turned and was walking away, hurrying out of the hall in her high heels with whispers trailing behind her back.

Gilbert’s eyes went over Zoe’s shoulder to follow Laila’s broken, retreating figure and his arms tightened around Zoe instinctively.

"I’m sorry for not telling you sooner. I wanted the bond with her to fade on its own, and it will, once I mark you someday. After that, you will be the only one I think about."

"I am not blessing this relationship." Sebastian muttered under his breath, and Viola, standing right next to him, heard every word clearly.

She looked up at him. She didn’t entirely know what to think of it herself or whose side to stand on, the relationship felt wrong somehow, in a way she couldn’t fully put into words. But she also knew that with the depth of love Zoe carried for Gilbert, there was no way Sebastian could break it apart without breaking Zoe along with it.

Viola’s mind drifted back to her own situation, Sebastian’s past resurfacing, casting a quiet cloud over their future, and the conversation about Natalie still waiting for tonight. The thought alone dampened her mood again.

She quickly realized that no matter how hard she had tried not to be the reason Tess’s day was ruined, it was already ruined by many factors. The drama with Hailey had been all anyone talked about at first, and then the conversation had shifted to the she-wolf who had fallen from grace and been publicly rejected by her fated mate right there in the middle of the hall.

Even though what was said between Laila, Gilbert, and Zoe had been spoken in relatively measured voices, werewolf hearing had caught enough of it, and the words were already spreading from person to person, accompanied by laughter at Laila’s expense.

Even Zoe and Gilbert had a stiff, fragile air around them now.

Sebastian was making no effort with Kenny anymore, his expression cold and dark, his eyes repeatedly tracking back to his sister and her boyfriend across the room.

Viola could feel his anger radiating off him like heat, the danger of it threatening to break loose, and the atmosphere in the hall had long since stopped being lively enough for her to approach anyone and build the connections she had planned for.

Even the musicians on the stage seemed to have picked up on it, their music matching the deflated mood of the room rather than lifting it. Viola was no longer confident about her plans to surprise Tess and Kenny, and Sebastian, the way she had intended.

But the preparations had already been made. And when she looked over at Tess, who was standing across the room wearing a smile that didn’t touch her eyes, forcing warmth for every guest who approached her on what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life, Viola made up her mind.

She leaned toward Sebastian. "Excuse me."

He finally turned to look at her, a small frown crossing his face. "Where are you going?"

"I need to use the restroom." She told him, and watched him give a reluctant nod.

"Don’t be long."

"I won’t." She stepped away from his side, and Sebastian watched her go, his eyes following her back until she disappeared around a corner, feeling her ruined mood. He was still looking when Matt appeared at his side.

"What a damper for the couple, man. The party was supposed to be about them and your family took the whole spotlight with drama." Matt remarked with a chuckle that didn’t quite reach his heart, and Sebastian said flatly,

"Shut up."

"I wasn’t going to come near your group earlier, it looked tense from thirty feet away. So what do you think about Zoe and the doc?" He asked, and Sebastian finally turned to look at him properly.

"You knew about it?"

"Only found out yesterday. It shocked me too. I walked out and caught them kissing. I had a talk with the doc and made it clear what would happen to him if he hurts her. I’ll tear his limbs apart myself if anything goes wrong in that relationship," Matt said the way he said everything important, plainly, and meaning every single word.

No matter how much time had passed, Zoe was still that little girl he had helped keep happy in order to fill the empty space left behind by the deaths of her parents, and no man was going to hurt her on his watch, not even now that she was an adult.

Sebastian was about to reply when his eyes caught movement in the crowd, someone cutting toward them with an easy, familiar smile on his face.

"What is he doing here?"