Fated: The Alpha's Unwanted Luna

Chapter 289: A smile that turned around

Viola was looking down at her palm when she heard a curse from the she-wolf who had finally regained consciousness. "Fuck."

Viola turned to look at Laila, who was trying to sit up, but her chest was aching badly with the effort. Pursing her lips, she said, "If I were you, I wouldn’t try to move. That wound is pretty deep. Sleep and let it heal before morning."

Laila became aware of the wolfless woman sitting across from her, and her expression immediately turned sour as everything that had happened came rushing back to her. She pushed her hair away from her face irritably.

"Where am I?" she demanded, sitting up anyway and grabbing at her chest as pain flashed across her face.

"Zoe’s penthouse. Please keep your voice down, Zoe is resting. If you want to go home, you are free to leave, but if you take my advice and stay so you can heal, then do it quietly," Viola said with a sigh. "Because I am trying to pray."

Laila looked toward the full moon and then back at Viola before she scoffed.

"What are you praying for? A miracle to happen so you can become a normal werewolf with a wolf?" she taunted, and when Viola ignored her, Laila rested her back against the couch and continued speaking. "It’s hopeless. You can never be anything but wolfless, and as much as I would love to wring your useless neck and send you to your grave beside Sebastian, I think it’s best I pray to the Moon Goddess to make your life a lot more miserable in Silver."

Viola, who heard every word the she-wolf was saying, couldn’t help but let out a silent sigh. Some people simply didn’t deserve a reply, and right now she believed the she-wolf was merely bored and looking for someone to bully. But when Viola peeked at her from the corner of her eye, she noticed that Laila was indeed staring at the moon with a bitter look on her face, genuinely praying for her misery.

"Do you know something, Miss Serrano? Bullying someone you believe is beneath you just to make yourself feel better about what you lack, or fear you might lack, is one of the worst flaws a person could have," Viola said quietly without taking her eyes away from the moon.

"One day everything might backfire on you, and you’ll realize you have no one who genuinely cares about you, and trust me, it’s one of the worst feelings a person can ever experience. Hate me as much as you want, but try seeing the world through another lens and looking at people without constantly feeling like you are better than them..."

Viola had once been there herself, and falling from that place hadn’t been pleasant. And though the she-wolf was trying to get to her with those harsh words about praying for her suffering, Viola found herself feeling sorry for her instead, because believing you are better than everyone else can blind you to many things around you.

Laila turned to Viola with offended eyes. "How dare you talk to me like that?" she rebuked sharply.

But Viola had already continued her prayers with her eyes closed, shutting the she-wolf out completely, which only made Laila even angrier. She began reaching out as though she intended to shove Viola off the couch when a loud knock suddenly rattled against the door.

The loud knock drew their attention to the door. It was immediately followed by a commotion that made Viola stand up with a frown, and even before she could go and check who was knocking that violently, Zoe had come out of her room and gone to unlock the door, only to be immediately shoved aside as men poured in alongside Javier and Matt, who appeared to be trying desperately to stop him.

"...you can’t arrest her on such flimsy evidence. Listen to me at least!" Matt was saying but Javier shoved him aside and gritted his teeth.

"If you don’t want to end up in prison alongside her, I advise you stay out of my way right now." He warned, glaring dangerously at the beta before turning his eyes to the room. "Seize her!" He ordered, looking at Viola.

The men who had come in with them hurried toward Viola, who looked stunned and completely taken aback. What was going on? she wondered as she watched the warriors advancing toward her.

"May I ask what my crime is?" Viola spoke up as the two warriors under Javier’s command grabbed her arms roughly.

She hadn’t committed any crime that she knew of, and she certainly didn’t recall any rule stating that the former Luna could simply be arrested because a new one was about to be crowned, which meant something entirely different was happening in the middle of the night.

"Isn’t it obvious?" Laila said with a scoff and a smirk from the couch where she sat looking entirely too relaxed. "My prayers have been answered, and you are finally about to become miserable. You are being arrested for being a loser who doesn’t belong here. Take her away and—"

"Take her too." Javier ordered, turning to look at Laila with undisguised disgust. "How convenient that the two of them are in the same place, seeing as they haven’t bothered to go anywhere after committing the crime."

Laila’s eyes went wide with confused disbelief and she stepped back away from the men coming to grab her on the couch. "What did I do to be arrested with her?! I haven’t committed any crimes!"

"Can someone explain to me what is going on here and why my sister-in-law is under arrest?" Zoe asked, looking from her cousin to Matt and the men surrounding Viola.

This was completely confusing to her, and Viola hadn’t done anything that deserved an arrest. Perhaps Laila might have, Zoe thought, but certainly not her friend.

Javier turned to Zoe with narrowed eyes. "You should stay out of this, little cousin, if you don’t want to join them in the dungeon. These two have been found responsible for Ember’s death four hours ago and they will be tortured until they reveal the powers they used on the late Luna to be. Take them away!" He ordered, angry veins standing out against his forehead.

Viola’s blood ran cold hearing that Ember was dead, but she kept her expression neutral even as panic consumed her from the inside and made cold sweat break out on her forehead. Had that ability she used unintentionally been powerful enough to kill a she-wolf?

What had she done?

If anyone found out she had used water abilities there was no going back; she would be sentenced to death because it was a power belonging to outcast creatures! Sea creatures...

She hadn’t intended to kill Ember and the shock of the news was hard enough that Viola didn’t fight the men pulling her out, not that she could have fought them with their firm hold on her anyway.

"Beta Matt, what is he talking about? Vee didn’t do anything to Ember!" Zoe said urgently as she watched her friend being dragged away and tried to stop them, but Matt pulled her back.

"We don’t have the power to stop her arrest. Only your brother can stop anything from here on, because all the elders are agitated over the unknown powers used on Ember. They said it’s something similar to powers from the past associated with something they could never forgive. Javier’s investigation supposedly proved that they used some sort of power to kill Ember because they both wanted to become Luna."

Zoe’s eyes widened in horror. "But that’s not true!"

"I know," Matt replied with a sigh. "But we can’t do anything to prove otherwise when the eyewitnesses are all saying that Luna Viola and Laila were the last people Ember came into contact with."

Laila, who was also being dragged out, struggled furiously against the warriors when she heard some of what the beta had said about the crime she was being arrested for.

"I didn’t fucking do anything! Ember stabbed me with glass, can’t you see I’m still healing from the injury? How could I have done anything to kill her?!" she yelled furiously, turning toward Javier. "My uncle won’t like that you are arresting me for something I didn’t do!"

"Don’t worry, your uncle is one of those who approved your arrest along with the wolfless. Do yourself a fucking favor and move," Javier warned coldly.

He had thought Laila had enough sense not to stoop so low, but it seemed she was just like every other woman who acted the moment she felt her position being threatened. Only, unlike the others, he had no intention of forgiving either of them.

"My uncle would never allow my arrest!" Laila yelled out, convinced Javier was lying because her uncle had his own plans for her, and with how desperate he was to place one of his own beside the Alpha, he would never allow her to go through this before getting what he wanted.

"Let go of me!" she ordered furiously.

Nobody listened of course, and when she refused to go willingly she was knocked unconscious and dragged out powerless.