Fated: The Alpha's Unwanted Luna

Chapter 186: The Crazy husband at her doorstep_Part 4

Viola felt her throat go dry at the look in his eyes but she held her ground without moving. "I really wish I could invite you in but I am in genuine need of rest. In my current state I might put salt in the tea instead of sugar without even noticing."

"Don’t worry about that, I drink salted tea just as happily as sugared. So?" He said, tilting his head with that same patient, immovable smile.

Viola had never in her life encountered a man this relentlessly persistent. He was determined to get inside that penthouse one way or another, and she knew with clarity why, the moment he stepped through that door he would catch his mate’s scent in the air. Her palm against the door turned sweaty, and when she took just a fraction too long to respond, his expression shifted.

"I think we both know why I have really come all the way to your door this morning, Luna." Javier said, the pleasantness in his voice thinning just slightly at the edges. "I have no wish to drag this out or waste your time. Tell her to come out. We have a breakfast to get back to."

Viola’s heart dropped clean to her stomach but she kept her face perfectly composed. "I wish I knew what you were referring to, Mr. Kade, but I genuinely don’t follow. Who exactly are you looking for?" She asked, with a look of such unbothered confusion it could have convinced anyone.

Javier’s light gold eyes came down to her slowly. So this was how she wanted to play it. "Sofia. My wife. I was told you brought her here. Call her out." He said, and the sweet smile finally began to slip away, because Javier’s temper was not something that stayed buried for long, no matter how much his mother had trained him.

He had not expected the wolfless to insert herself into his private business, into his wife, whom he had carefully arranged to die quietly in that room so he could move forward and marry someone actually worthy of his name that would help him over throw Sebastian. But the fool had disobeyed him and left, and this nobody had taken her in as though she had any right to do so.

"Oh, you mean the wife you use as a punching bag." Viola said calmly. "I am sorry, she is not here." And she began to close the door firmly on his face, but he shot his hand forward and seized it before it could shut, and Viola felt her heart slam hard against her ribs as he growled,

"You are testing my patience, girl. I don’t care who you are, I can break your skinny legs without a second thought. Get out of my way." He shoved both her and the door aside and walked straight into the penthouse, calling out as he went, "Sofia! Sofia! Come out, I have come to take you home!"

"I told you she is not here!" Viola moved quickly to put herself in front of him, but at that exact moment the guest bedroom door swung open and Sofia came rushing out at the sound of her husband’s voice, descending the stairs toward him like a puppy running toward the very person who fed it and beat it in the same breath.

As much as Sofia had wanted to stay in that room the way the Luna had asked, she simply couldn’t. The moment she heard Javier’s voice, something deep in her brain had fired and overridden every other thought, she knew too well the consequences of not obeying.

"Yes, mi vida. I am here..." She whispered.

Viola closed her eyes for a single moment and counted silently from one to ten before she stepped between them, planting herself firmly in the space separating Sofia from Javier. "She is not going with you. Get out of my home. That is an order."

Javier looked down at the short woman standing in his way issuing orders at him and let out a flat, humorless laugh, as though the image itself was the most amusing thing he had come across all morning. Who on earth did this little thing think she was?

"Just because you were crowned Luna does not give you authority over me, wolfless. Get out of my way." He shoved her aside without hesitation and she lost her balance and went down hard, her wrist catching the edge of the living room table on the way down and sending a sharp bolt of pain shooting up her arm. She hissed through her teeth.

"Pathetic little weakling. Winning a competition among women is an entirely different thing from getting in the way of someone who is your superior in every sense. Get that through your head and stay out of matters that have absolutely nothing to do with you." He stepped right over her and grabbed Sofia’s wrist. "Let’s go." He said, already moving toward the door, and as he passed he deliberately used the toe of his shoe to kick at the woman on the floor without even glancing down at her.

Sofia looked down at Viola on the floor with silent tears streaming down her face before she let herself be pulled forward by the husband who was slowly and quietly killing her. "I am sorry..." She breathed, barely above a whisper, sorry for bringing trouble to this woman’s door on the very first day of her crowning.

Something hot and sharp burst at the back of Viola’s head as she stared at them. Javier’s voice rang through her mind. Pathetic little weakling. She was so tired, tired to her bones, of being seen as weak simply because she didn’t have what everyone in this world considered to be the only measure of strength. A wolf. And more than anything, she hated being helpless.

If she couldn’t protect Sofia right now, what did that say about her ability to protect her sister when she brought her here, if someone decided one day to put their hands on her too?

Viola would never again allow her sister to suffer any form of abuse. Not while she was still breathing. And she would never again allow herself to be stepped on the way everyone had been stepping on her for as long as she could remember.

With that thought, she pushed herself up from the floor.