Chapter 24
Yes, she sounded shameless and utterly delusional, but what other options did she have? She belonged in the werewolves’ world, not the human world. Here, in this world, she had a chance to uncover what had made her wolf fail to surface, a chance she would never have in America, wherever that place was. The only way to ensure no one would ever humiliate her again was to rise as his Luna, the Supreme Luna, and secure a position no one could strip from her.
Sebastian didn’t know whether to laugh or feel shocked at her words. He simply stared at her for a long, silent moment… then he moved.
Viola almost flinched when he crouched down beside her on the floor, his expensive cologne filling her breathing space and making her wish she could keep inhaling such a delicious scent, even though she didn’t like the person it belonged to.
The delicious scent itself didn’t offend her the way its owner did, the man she wished she could claw at for the way he kept looking down on her, bitterly judgmental, cold, and utterly heartless.
She saw him move his hands in her direction all of a sudden, and she flinched back instinctively, but stopped when she noticed him holding something up. Before she knew what it was, he had slid a pair of glasses onto her face. They rested on the bridge of her nose, and just like magic, Viola suddenly saw everything in vivid clarity, which made her gasp in surprised disbelief.
The man before her became crystal clear. The silver walls of the hall, the fluorescent lights on the ceiling, and the glass walls around them that gave a view of the city with its countless skyscrapers, all came into focus. Yet her eyes were drawn back to the man in front of her.
She gasped again at the utterly handsome face before her. Was this person real, or was she imagining this face to belong to the bastard? She had been seeing him this whole time through a very blurry vision, and now, wearing the glasses, it had suddenly cleared in a way she hadn’t believed she would ever be able to see again.
She had seen Alpha Kade in pictures before, but she realized just how much those online images had failed to do him complete justice.
He had silver hair, the coldest, most hardened silver eyes, and a long nose bridge that cast a shadow above his thin, sexy lips. He was wearing some kind of fancy gold suit that left his tattooed chest partially bare for all who wanted to look, and her eyes involuntarily went to the snake tattoo coiled across his chest, its silver eyes gleaming. She gulped at the terrifying artwork and quickly forced herself to look away from it.
He was crouching before her, elbows resting on his knees, those cold silver eyes of his fixed on her, giving her time to adjust to her sudden clear vision, though he seemed to be the very first thing she found herself studying.
“Now that you have clear vision, perhaps it will give you a clear sense of your state. Tell me, do you see yourself leading as a Luna in this world? Look around you. Take your time,” he said, gesturing toward the glass walls that gave a clear view of the layout of the Silver Pack where almost everything were in different shades of silver color.
The Silver Pack was known for having more glass than bricks; everything was modernized in a way even the human world hadn’t reached yet. Viola didn’t need to look again to see the fascinating world of the Silver pack, she understood what he meant, and what he was implying. A nobody like her could never rule a place like this. He was looking down on her again.
Her fingers curled around her dress, and that small action sent a sharp pain through her cast arm. “I want to be your Luna. I have been trained all my life to be the Luna of my pack. I can p>
“Another reason you can never be my Luna,” he interrupted. “You come from the Moonwillow. I hate every single one of them, from the high to low rank wolves. Besides that, if I had a Luna, she is not supposed to be weak, is she?” He raked his gaze over her cast limbs and small body, lingering on her sling arm that was fisted.
“Should she be incapable of defending herself? I am Alpha,” he gestured toward his world. “Would fate want me to take you to lead by my side? To protect us? You can’t even protect yourself properly p>
’Damn you, man! We saw her kill a wolf that night, she protected herself enough p>
’That is not enough. She’s weak. She will make me weak in the future. She will die easily p>
“You don’t belong here, little girl p>
His tone wasn’t cruel or mocking. It was coldly reasoning, almost like he was speaking to a child, or to a madwoman who had lost her mind, and he was softly reasoning with her.
She knew her current appearance wasn’t convincing enough to make her stand out as a Luna. Being a mate alone wasn’t enough to earn that title.
“I’ve killed for this pack,” he continued when she said nothing. “I’ve been challenged ten times and emerged victorious, with the flesh of my rivals filling my belly. What have you done? Have you earned the rank you want to claim?” His voice was even, and there was pity in his eyes, something that gnawed at her from within, because he knew she didn’t want his pity, so he gave it to insult her even more.
She didn’t need his pity while he reminded her of what she lacked, how she wasn’t enough and might never be enough for anyone or anything. She hadn’t been enough when she had the backing of her parents and Evan, and now that she had nothing and was broken p>
He shook his head. “You are confused and too young to understand what goes on in pack life and what a Luna truly is. Matt will escort you on my jet to America. Enjoy your life being human. The humans will accept you as a weakling more than we ever will p>
Saying that, he began to rise to his feet, but he stopped, not by choice, because Viola reached out and grabbed his sleeve.
Sebastian looked down at her thin fingers clenching his sleeve with so much force that they were trembling, then at her blue eyes, framed by the round glasses that looked a little too big for her small face. Those blue eyes blazed with anger and determination, something that seemed mismatched to her small frame.
“I am not a little girl. I am twenty-three years old. My name is Viola Linden. Moonwillow has humiliated me and turned my life upside down, and my sworn mate rejected me. I want them to pay for it, and the only way is to be your Luna, even though I don’t like you in the slightest bit. You say I haven’t earned it? Have you given me the chance to earn the position of your Luna?” she asked, and without waiting for his response, she added determinedly,
“Give me the chance and see how I make you and everyone eat their words, how I slap you in that arrogant face with your own words. I can be a better Luna than you can imagine. And if I fail,” she met him dead in the eye without flinching, “I will walk away from your damn pack without taking your half-hearted kindness to send me to the human world, you judgmental bastard p>