Chapter 29
Viola stood before the door where Zoe had finally left her after hours of helping her settle into the new place. She had set a keycode on the door and had been shown every single room and corner, which now left her completely overwhelmed.
Viola turned away from the door to look back at the room and the large screen Tv on the wall, playing on mute. She pushed up her sliding glass and stood there for a moment, digesting everything Miss Zoe had told her.
There would be a competition that would prove who would fit well into the Luna position, and many other she-wolves of Silver Pack would be taking part.
Not just that, she would also be required to meet the elders for dinner tomorrow night. Viola’s stomach suddenly knotted in dread, and the palm clutching her crutch turned sweaty. She had not expected Alpha Kade would let her prove herself this way, or she would have prepared long ago. She had truly thought he had dismissed her back in that room.
When she had been expecting to be thrown out, she was instead told she would be part of a competition she was absolutely not prepared for, and on top of that, a dinner with the elders tomorrow night.
Did he do it on purpose, just so she could give up on her own? The pretentious bastard! She wouldn’t be surprised. Still, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her quit. She would become his wife if she had to, even if it meant losing a limb in that competition.
Though she didn’t like him in the slightest, she couldn’t help but admire how he had built the Silver Pack and how he wouldn’t just let anyone be his Luna. Looking out at the pack from behind the glass wall, she couldn’t help but feel scared and sick with anxiety in spite of herself.
Even the elders of Moonwillow were not people you could simply sit with and have dinner without feeling as though you were balancing on the edge of a knife, not to mention the elders of the Silver Pack, the largest pack in the world, with the greatest population and power. The thought alone made bile rise up Viola’s throat, her nerves tightening painfully, especially when her mind drifted back to the curse Miss Zoe had mentioned.
Viola forced herself to dismiss it for now, pushing the thought aside before it could take root and consume her with worry.
The silence inside the penthouse was suddenly deafening when she shut down her thoughts.
She walked to the shinning piano at the side with a plush chair, using her finger to press a key that echoed through the space and into her empty heart.
Just like the black-and-white keys of the piano, Viola realized her life was like that at the moment: if she made a mistake and did not become the Supreme Luna, she would fall into an abyss of darkness; and if she did succeed, her life might finally have a chance to be bright again.
Though she doubted she would ever be happy, happiness came when one was at peace, Viola had forgotten what peace felt like. She had forgotten what warmth felt like, and with every secret and every pain of her past she carried, she might never be bound for happiness ever again.
She pressed another key as a bitter smile settled on her face. Happiness wasn’t what she sought now; revenge and atonement were more her propriety.
She was scared, terrified, and utterly alone, but that wouldn’t change the fact that she needed to fight her fears and face her worst nightmares.
Many years ago, she had thought she would never look back on what happened that day the Lindens came to the orphanage, and that it would never come back to her. Now she realized nobody could run from their sins and past, and once it caught up to you, you had to pay a bigger price for it.
And her own price was rejection and being unwanted. If she hadn’t done what she did in that orphanage years ago, perhaps she and Ivy would have had their wolves by now, and would have found a fated mate. She wondered if Alpha Kade would still have rejected her for appearing weak, and if she would need to prove herself by joining a competition.
Viola found herself pressing the piano keys and playing a piece of music, a very sad one that tugged at every part of her empty heart and made her feel like a needle lost amidst a pile of hay.
She’d always liked music, and as the future Luna of Moonwillow, she had been taught many skills, but music was the one she loved wholeheartedly and could play skillfully even with one hand.
The sound filled the room, wrapping around her like a blanket and making her feel more like she was home.
Home, where she would play in the Linden living room and they would sit around her listening to her music, her father looking at her with pride. Only he wasn’t her father; their real parents had not wanted them and had left them at the orphanage with a note that tore at her inside whenever she was reminded by the people of the orphanage.
Viola played until her fingers burned and her eyes stung. When she stopped playing, the silence she hated so much consumed her again, and she stepped away from the piano, not wanting the sad music to break her and remind her of everything she had done wrong in her life.
Zoe had advised her to try to learn to walk without the help of the crutch before tomorrow night, and Viola carefully put it aside against the sofa and slowly let her aching feet touch the polished floor. If she were to stand before the people who would determine her future, she didn’t want to appear weak in any way, and certainly not fragile.
Viola walked around without the crutch and ate the food Zoe had sent someone to bring her. For the tenth time that day, Viola wondered who this Zoe was and why she was so kind. All she knew was that the shewolf was a fashionista.
Done eating, she walked upstairs toward the bedroom, and though Viola had seen it earlier with Zoe, she was still mesmerized by its elegance and beauty when she entered it for the second time. It had a gray theme. The bed was king-sized, with fluffy pillows and blankets.
She hadn’t explored all the space yet because she hadn’t felt comfortable with Zoe, so now she walked in and opened the side-by-side doors attached to the room. One led to a bathroom that looked like it could only belong to a king, with a big bathtub and different kinds of showers. She gently closed the door and opened the other one, and Viola’s breath caught in her throat.
No way in hell did this belong to her! she thought, stepping into the big closet with walls lined with shelves. One side was filled with different kind of shoes and heels from floor to ceiling; another side had bags and different arrays of dresses that made her mouth go dry. When she stepped into the closet, the shelves lights automatically came on, illuminating everything even more.
She pinched herself to see if she was dreaming, but it wasn’t a dream. This was a walk-in closet that looked like a mini shopping mall, and it belonged to her. No, not yet; if she failed, it wouldn’t be hers.
She hadn’t owned something like this even when she was still liked by everyone in Moonwillow.
Moonwillow didn’t have this level of grandeur.
One wall was a full mirror, and when Viola made the mistake of looking at her reflection, a gasp left her mouth.
She looked like a mismatched old piece fit into beautiful surroundings, utterly and completely out of place. Her hair was a tangled mess, and her face was pale with no color, but filled with dark bruises. Her hospital gown hung like a sack on a stick on her skinny body.
Ashamed and horrified of her own reflection, Viola turned away from the mirror, unable to look at herself in that state because it only made her doubt herself further and feel how much she didn’t fit into this type of world anymore. She feared she would find it justifiable if Alpha Kade threw her out.
As much as she wanted to look through all the dresses in the closet, Viola didn’t want to see herself in the mirror. She only carefully took a set of pajamas with a rabbit print on it and left the closet, shutting the door behind her.
She went into the bathroom, turned on the bath water with her left hand, as her right hand was still not smoothly usable yet.
As the bath water filled the tub, she took off her hospital gown and began to apply leave-in conditioner to her tangled hair without using a mirror. The task wasn’t easy with one hand, but she did it anyhow before she turned to the filling water in the tub, which made her feel like weeping again because it looked too good to be real.
“I have my own bath and water p>
Since her vision was so terrible, bathing without her glasses was like bathing with her eyes covered in clouds, everything hazy and blurred. But the moment she stepped into the water and settled into the bathtub, her vision immediately cleared a little more.
She didn’t think too much about it, though, as it had happened a few times before when she was in the hospital.
Water always does the trick, she thought with a heavy sigh, unaware that it was more than relief, it was a link to who she truly was and what she had been searching for all along.
If Viola had been holding a mirror at that exact moment, she would have noticed a sliver of gold flickering inside her pupils, and a strangely shaped shadow hovering behind her within the bathtub, a shadow that didn’t belong to her.