Fated: The Alpha's Unwanted Luna

Chapter 189: Stay away from my woman

Viola looked at Sebastian and then at Javier, whose teeth were bared, he was snarling with his gold eyes locked onto her like he wanted to tear her apart piece by piece.

Though she was fully aware that she had crossed a line by interfering in a matter between mates, she had done it with the conviction that no one would suffer in her presence if she could help it, that she would give protection to any helpless person even at the cost of herself.

Inner peace, one might call it. And saving Sofia had felt right. Had she possessed a wolf and had Sebastian marked her properly, she would have carried the Luna energy that naturally transferred from mate to mate, and that energy would have given her the power to command even a regular wolf.

But she was a Luna without a wolf, which meant she stood entirely at Javier’s mercy, a mercy she had already seen with her own eyes that he simply did not possess. Even though she understood that Sebastian was deliberately giving his cousin the opportunity to step forward and cross a line by attempting to punish her, it was clear that Javier didn’t see the trap being laid for him. He was too consumed by his own offense at her interference to see anything beyond it.

Javier didn’t care that Sebastian was daring him. All he could see was the wolfless and the way she had dared to put her hands on him, and all he wanted was to make her pay for it. He lunged forward without hesitation, leaping into the air to bite her hand clean off.

Viola saw him coming and simply closed her eyes, surrendering herself to whatever punishment came for her interference, an interference she didn’t regret. Not even slightly. If she could turn back time she would do it again without a second thought.

However, before Javier could get even an inch closer to where she stood, Sebastian’s mighty paw slammed into him and drove him into the floor. He bit into the back of his cousin’s neck and hurled him into the wall.

"You defy me! You have gone against the rules, dear cousin, you have proven that you answer to someone other than me! Now I will punish you the way I see fit, too!"

Sebastian moved and bit down on his leg and threw him against the wall again. He was reaching for him a second time when a crowd began rushing to the scene, Sebastian’s energy had been flaring and bleeding into every corner of the building, reaching every person within it, and they had all felt that something was deeply wrong.

Among the crowd pushing to the front were Zoe, Nick, and Camila, and seeing her oldest son pinned beneath the supreme Alpha’s massive paw, covered in blood, Camila’s eyes went wide and her heart turned over in her chest.

"What is happening here?" Camila demanded, rushing forward, but Sebastian’s burning eyes swung to her and stopped her.

"Your son has defied me. That is an offense punishable by death."

"I—I did not defy you! Your wife —!" Javier began, but the Alpha’s claws dug into his side, sinking through fur and into flesh, and he choked on the rest of his words.

Camila looked genuinely worried and confused, she hadn’t even realized her son had come this way and had assumed he was still in the hall trying to get acquainted with their female guests to find a new wife.

But the moment her eyes fell on Sofia standing behind the Luna, clean and dressed in proper clothes, something clicked into place and she put together what must have caused this chaos. That stupid daughter-in-law of hers! What had she done now?

Camilla stepped forward immediately, her pride swallowing itself as she said,

"Forgive him his crimes, Alpha. You know how your cousin is, he never truly meant to defy you. Please release him. I will see to his punishment myself, I give you my word." Camila said, keeping her voice steady even as her pride stung at being made to plead in front of a growing crowd.

But Javier was her son, her most valuable piece in every plan she had, and his death would set everything back irreparably. Her younger son was as good as useless to her, all of her hopes lived and died with Javier.

"Do not plead for me, Mami. You—" Javier gritted.

"Shut up!" Camila rebuked sharply, unable to help but think that Javier was just plain stupid. Couldn’t he see that she was trying to save him? And how could he had gone on to offend the Alpha when she had warned him to learn to control his anger?!

"You remember how the previous Alpha always forgave him, he used to say Javier’s temper made him act recklessly, and he used to say the two of you were his favorites because your tempers were a match." She deliberately brought up his father, the way she always did whenever the boy was about to destroy everything she had carefully built.

If there was one thing she knew about Sebastian, it was that he would never go against a promise made to his parents. He might be the most ruthless and cold-blooded Alpha Silver had ever seen, but Camila knew he tolerated her and her son because of his late father, who had always told him never to turn on family, and she had used that to her advantage every single time, even when she made no secret of the fact that she despised him and would do whatever it took to remove him from the Alpha seat.

But this time, Sebastian didn’t listen to her words; he only dug his claws deeper into her son’s side, his teeth bared as he snarled.

"Zoe, tell your brother to spare your cousin. Nick, you too." Camila pulled both Nick and Zoe forward, both of whom had arrived at the scene just as confused as everyone else gathering around them, trying to piece together what had happened and what had caused this, especially with Viola standing in the middle of it looking like she had been hit, her dress ripped and the torn train lying on the floor behind her.

Though Zoe didn’t particularly like Javier and had heard more than enough over the years about how his temper made him do things before his brain could catch up, how he could kill before he even realized what he had done, and had been warned to stay well clear of him, she looked at her brother’s enormous wolf form with visible nervousness, and biting her lip she said quietly, "Hermano..."

"Don’t kill my Javier!" Sofia cried, running out from behind Viola and dropping to her knees beside Javier’s head where it was pressed against the floor. "Let him go, he didn’t do anything wrong to anyone. It was my fault. It was all my fault. Please don’t hurt him."

Viola, who was watching the scene unfold in front of her, didn’t know what to think anymore. The woman she had put herself on the line to defend had just thrown herself on the ground and pleaded for the man who had been slowly poisoning her.

She pressed her fingers against her aching temple. She had never intended to cause a family scene or ignite a fight between cousins or drag a crowd of guests out of the breakfast hall to witness any of this. All she wanted was to protect a woman in need, but it seemed that woman still had a chain of loyalty to her husband.

"Cousin Seb... please spare him." Nick also pleaded, albeit reluctantly, when his mother dug her fingers into his arm and pinched him hard enough to make the words leave his mouth, even though Javier had spent most of their shared childhood making his life miserable and had never quite stopped even now.

Sebastian slowly withdrew his claws and then leaned down low, growling directly into Javier’s ear, "I don’t care how much you abuse your wife or how often you beat her, that is your business. But the moment you lay a hand on mine, you have crossed a line you cannot uncross. Do whatever you want with yours, but stay away from my woman."