Fated: The Alpha's Unwanted Luna

Chapter 191: Stupidity

Nick, who had made it clear from the very beginning of this family’s silent war for the Alpha seat that he wanted absolutely no part in it, looked at them both for a long moment. Sometimes he genuinely wondered how he could have come from the same woman as this man and share blood with someone this unhinged and crazy.

He never quite understood what battle they thought they were fighting, one they could never win, because even if Sebastian were removed from the picture entirely, Javier didn’t carry strong enough Alpha blood in his veins to take that seat and hold it. His wolf couldn’t even force werewolves to submission, so how would he rule the pack?

He couldn’t even recall the last time he had willingly stepped into a space his mother and brother occupied, he had avoided them as much as humanly possible for years, only ever getting caught like this when the timing was wrong. Being sent away didn’t hurt him the way it once might have. He gave a small nod and an easy, carefree smile that hid the bitterness sitting quietly behind it.

"Whatever you are planning, I want you to remember that the Alpha will not let either of you off so lightly a second time if you go after the people who matter to him." Nick said, looking his older brother directly in the eye.

"Who do you think you are talking to, you dirty little shit? Mamita, I am already in a terrible mood, don’t let your son add to it, or I will break both his legs so he can never walk over to their side again." Javier snapped, jabbing a trembling, furious finger in his brother’s direction.

Nick held both hands up calmly. "I came in peace and I leave in peace." He turned to go, but paused, reached down and helped Sofia back to her feet first, and then walked out without another word.

Camila watched her younger son’s retreating back with narrowed, calculating eyes before she turned them back to Sofia and then to Javier, who was practically vibrating with barely contained fury.

"The fucking fool has grown the voice to talk to me, and this is your fault, Mami. You don’t allow me to discipline him like the shit he deserves!" Javier rebuked.

"Indeed. Nick is talking back to us now, Javier. He is finally finding his spine." She said, her voice quiet. "And by the moon goddess, if you continue to be a fool who lets his anger do all of his thinking for him, I will start grooming your brother for the Alpha seat instead, because I am beginning to see that he carries far more sense in him than you ever have."

Javier let out a short, mocking laugh. "That loser? Nickolas could never be anything more than the tech boy he is for Silver. I am your only hope, Mami, and you know it." He said, and then reached out and placed his hand on top of Sofia’s head, patting it with a tenderness that was deeply jarring after everything that had just taken place. "You did well standing by me back there, my love. I love you for it." He kissed the top of her head.

Camila stared at her son with an expression of undisguised disgust before drawing in a slow, steadying breath. "Sit down and tell me everything from the beginning. What on earth led to that fight? Why did you defy the Alpha?"

As if the memory of it rekindled everything he had been trying to hold back, Javier gritted his teeth and raised his hand and smacked it hard against Sofia’s head, shoving her away from his side as he spat,

"This bitch caused it. I told her to stay in our room and eat quietly but she went out and got herself tangled up with that wolfless who thought she had the right to order me around!" He kicked out at Sofia at the thought, his anger surging back fresh as he remembered Viola wrenching his arm up his back.

"Women." He clicked his tongue in contempt. "I wish we never had any use for them, they are nothing but a nuisance to a man!"

Camila’s eyes narrowed sharply at her son. "Watch your mouth, muchacho. Your mother is a woman, and it is because of me that you will be Alpha someday. Now tell me, since when have you started feeding Sofia yourself?"

Javier cleared his throat and fumbled with the blanket around him, shifting uncomfortably. He hadn’t told his mother that he had been trying to kill his wife. Sebastian had killed his wives and gotten away with it cleanly every time, and Javier had fully expected to do the same.

"She wouldn’t agree to let me take another wife, so I thought to give her something to put her to rest, the same way Seb put his past wives to rest." Javier grumbled, and Camila closed her eyes and pressed her fingers to her temple in quiet despair.

"Just once, why can’t you use your head just once, Javier? Did you truly think you would get away with Sofia’s death the way the Alpha got away with his wives? That man is cursed and the entire world knows it, there is an explanation for what happens to his Lunas. But you, if you kill your wife, what excuse do you have to offer anyone?!"

Javier snorted. "She killed herself, of course. Simple as that."

Unable to help herself, Camila snatched off her shoe and slammed it across his face as she fumed, "You absolute idiot, don’t you understand that we will lose her family’s support entirely if that happens? When you need more power and allies behind you, the Claws Pack won’t give you a single thing! Can you not use your brain to think even one step ahead for once in your life?!"

Javier hadn’t thought that far at all. All he had wanted was to be rid of Sofia, but sitting with it now he could see that he had acted recklessly and had nearly destroyed something he still needed. "Okay, okay, I was wrong. I won’t do it again." Javier said, and Camila stopped hitting him and lowered her shoe.

As he straightened up, his fingers found a scratch on his cheek left by the heel of it and he gritted his teeth, the sting of it pulling his mind straight back to the humiliation of the wolfless twisting his arm behind his back. She didn’t only disrespect him, she humiliated him in front of his wife!

"I won’t let this slide, Mami. I will make her regret every bit of this. That wolfless bitch!"

"You will not do a single thing to her without my approval first." Camila fixed him with a hard, unwavering stare. "It is becoming very clear to me that there is more to why Sebastian married her than he is letting on. He carried her on his back today, a place that is reserved for a fated mate and no one else. Until I am one hundred percent certain of where she stands with him and exactly what she is to him, you will not touch a single hair on her head. Do you understand me?"

"Yes." Javier grumbled, but he would be damned before he let this insult go unanswered. The wolfless would pay for what she had done to him. And so would his cousin.

"Go take off her fucking clothes and burn them up!" She shouted at his wife who was quick to obey him and ran towards her room.