Chapter 35
His cold silver eyes locked onto Viola the instant she stepped inside.
No matter how much she looked at him, Viola could never look past the fact that his eyes were utterly terrifying, like they were made of ice, stone-cold and completely soulless. It was as if the world owed him a great debt, and he intended to collect it simply by wearing that expression.
An involuntary shiver went down her spine when she noticed how those cold eyes subtly trailed her from head to toe before settling back on her face. Then, as if he hadn’t seen her at all, he looked away and resumed the conversation that had stopped with the others.
The bastard. Viola didn’t care whether she was acknowledged or not by the Alpha. Her only goal here was the elders, who, just like the Alpha, had already resumed their conversation, ignoring her presence.
“Oops, we took too much time getting ready. We came late,” Zoe whispered the obvious. “Find your seat as quietly as possible. I’ll go sit over there p>
There were only two empty seats left with the guests already seated, one at the edge of the table, far away from Sebastian, and the other one right next to him. Viola silently hoped Zoe would take the seat beside him.
Before Viola could say anything, Zoe had already strode toward the seat Viola had been hoping would be hers.
Almost immediately, Zoe leaned toward one of the men and began talking easily, mingling as if she belonged there, because she did. Viola already had a feeling Zoe was related to the supreme Alpha, who had many relatives present in the hall, judging by the silver strands of her hair and her striking grey eyes.
“I’ll be damned, Zoe. She’s smaller than I thought. Did she get drunk on the wrong wine to come here?” Zoe’s cousin, Nicolas, whispered as he watched the wolfless girl make her way to the only empty chair remaining, on the left side of the Alpha. A big mistake. That chair was empty for a reason. No one wanted to choke on the supreme Alpha’s overwhelming pheromones, not unless they were asking for suffocation.
They watched her sit down with her chin held at the right angle, and one wouldn’t know she was intimidated by the aura of the powerful wolves if it weren’t for how slightly stiff she held herself.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover, Nick. You might be looking at our next Luna. Who knows?” Zoe said, nudging her cousin’s arm and chiding him for looking down on someone she had already taken as a friend.
Nick gave Zoe a sideways look as he chewed his juicy, half-cooked meat. “You and I both know what the competition is like, right? Do you see her winning it?” he asked, almost believing his cousin must be out of her mind for thinking the little woman could win without a wolf.
However, Nick couldn’t help but admire how she was holding herself together, sitting beside the Alpha with that suffocating pheromone surrounding him.
“I like her, though. At least she didn’t come in with arrogance like someone here,” he murmured, referring to Laila, who was sitting opposite Viola and staring at the wolfless for daring to sit so close to Sebastian.
“Wolfless,” Laila muttered with a shake of her head. If she had a wolf that could properly sense the Alpha’s aura, she would have sat on the floor rather than take that seat next to Sebastian, Laila thought with faint amusement as she said to her uncle, Elder Halvrek, in Spanish,
“Approve her joining, uncle. We all know she has no chance of being our Luna. I would like to see her live up to her new title, the suicidal wolfless. It would be really heartless if we didn’t grant her wish to kill herself right before everyone p>
Elder Halvrek had been worried that they were giving a nobody, someone who would contribute nothing to their pack, the chance to rule over them. But seeing her now, he realized just how much those worries had been for nothing, because this girl doesn’t stand a chance.
His niece still had the biggest chance of winning and making their bloodline proud, and this little wolfless would get nothing but death. All that worry had been for nothing.
With that, Elder Halvrek announced to the others in Spanish his decision to finally agree to a wolfless participating, and everyone around the table had no objection after seeing her. Some of the she-wolves even let out a laugh, because she was the biggest joke in this game.
Viola, on the other hand, would have chosen to sit anywhere other than beside Alpha Kade, but there had been no other empty seats available. She wasn’t immune to his overwhelming presence, only capable of ignoring it because she didn’t have a wolf sense.
She tried not to falter and maintained her composure, even though her insides were quivering with both anger and nerves.
She hadn’t learned Spanish in school or during her Luna practice, and the language flowed around her now. Even without understanding the words, she knew they were discussing her rudely right in her presence, using a language she had never bothered to learn because she hadn’t thought she’d ever need it. Now, she realized she should have added it to the four languages she had learned.
The she-wolves who would be participating were included in whatever discussion was happening around the table, everyone except her.
Still, she didn’t let it bother her and tried to eat her dinner, even though she was clearly bothered by not being addressed, the very reason she had been invited here. But even eating proved difficult, as her right hand was still unstable and couldn’t properly cut the meat or hold a fork, having only recently been freed from the sling.
Viola gave up on the meat and reached for the soup instead. But as she used her left hand, which was trembling like a baby learning how to use it, the soup spilled over her lap as she brought the spoon to her mouth. The hot liquid soaked into her dress, making her gasp softly.
“Idiot,” she heard someone mutter under their breath beside her.
Viola jerked her head to look at the Alpha sitting to her left, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was busy cutting the meat on his plate as if he were cutting an enemy, all aggression and force, yet she could have sworn she’d heard him call her an idiot. Did she imagine it?
No one else was looking at her. Everyone was too busy to pay attention to a little wolfless who, after seeing her, they no longer cared about, having already decided she was a failure. That alone made Viola seethe with silent rage, and as hungry as she was, she didn’t touch the food again, though her stomach growled softly.
It wouldn’t be anything new to go hungry tonight, she hadn’t come here for the food, exactly, but to hear if the elders approved of her joining their pack and having a big opportunity to belong somewhere and secure a home where she would bring her sister to.
Still, she couldn’t stop her stomach from letting out little noises.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, or perhaps because she hadn’t been paying attention, a plate slid in front of her.
Viola lowered her head and saw a plate of neatly arranged, juicy red meat placed before her. She adjusted her glasses and turned to look at the Alpha with a deep frown, but he wasn’t paying her the slightest attention, as he was busy speaking in Spanish with the elders.
Did he put this in front of her? She wondered, but the idea was so unimaginable and outrageously impossible that she turned to look at the quiet she-wolf sitting to her right, who had been watching her this whole time.
It was as if the she-wolf was sick or something, because she dressed strangely and wasn’t talking like the others. She looked no more than eighteen years old.
When Viola met her gaze, the she-wolf quickly ducked her head as if she were shy, her hair falling like a curtain around her face.
“Thank you,” Viola muttered to the she-wolf, who seemed just as left out of the conversation as she was.
At her words, the she-wolf stiffened slightly, glanced toward the Alpha again, then lowered her head without answering, her fingers tightening in her lap.
Viola found the girl’s behavior strange but didn’t think much of it, telling herself the she-wolf was simply kind, perhaps like Zoe.
She began to eat the sliced meat, now able to pick it up easily with her fork. When she took the first bite, she found it impossibly delicious, and she couldn’t help but feel a quiet gratitude toward the kind, silent she-wolf sitting next to her. Kindness hadn’t come easily to her over the past four years, so even the smallest gesture warmed her heart. She ate the meat slowly, savoring it along with that unexpected warmth inside her.
’Aww, she’s eating our dinner,’ Sebastian’s wolf purred, trying to force Sebastian to look at the girl.
He had found her childish and completely against everything he stood for, yet annoyingly cute for being unable to even cut her own meat and for spilling soup on herself like that. The little idiot.
’Killjoy. Isn’t she adorable in that dress? I want to spoil her, pamper her until she can’t help but depend on us. She’s using the same fork we used. Come on, don’t be a party pooper and look at her savor the meat. I know you want to look p>
Sebastian ignored his wolf. He had long since considered that part of himself a completely stupid creature, one that would drag him into situations he wouldn’t know how to escape or one he didn’t want to be in at all.
Viola had just finished eating the delicious sliced meat when she finally realized she was being addressed by one of the elders.
“Viola from the North Pack,” a female voice spoke. It was Elder Ysara, the elder Viola had learned possessed a spiritual connection to the Moon Goddess and was a seer. Being addressed by her made Viola’s throat go dry.