Chapter 41
His words made Viola pause. Everything and anything, he had said? She blinked, then moved back slightly to look at his smirking face. Yet, in that moment, she was no longer bothered by his arrogance, because he had just said something that caught not only her interest but made her mind begin to spin around the three wishes he had mentioned.
What was he, a genie? But in this world of werewolves, he controlled power, real power, and she could ask him to bring down things no one else ever could as a wish. Though being his Luna did not only guarantee she would gain status or security, having him behind her meant more influence and authority that no one would dare challenge.
He would grant her wishes.
Viola knew she should be angry that those words had come from his belief that she would never win, but she wasn’t. Instead, she narrowed her eyes.
“You will grant my wishes?” she asked, just to confirm she hadn’t misheard the jerk in any way. He calmly nodded his head.
Viola lifted her chin as she declared, “I want it written on paper with your signature. I have learned not to trust words spoken by people with more power than I have. You could easily go back on them and pretend you never gave your word p>
After everything that had happened in her life, and between her and Evan, Viola didn’t think she could ever trust the words of anybody in power. Evan had given her his words and promises. He had sworn undying love to her and acted the part perfectly, but when the moment came that he wanted to betray her, he had done it as if those words of love had never been spoken at all.
Though this man standing before her wasn’t giving love promises, nor was he her lover or ever would be, she wouldn’t trust his words. She would never let herself fall for words again. She needed proof, and by him signing it down, it would seal a deal he wouldn’t be able to go back on.
Sebastian found the girl even more interesting. She didn’t trust just his words, not that he was someone who went back on them, but he himself was also someone who didn’t trust words alone and needed actions and proof. Hence, he told her,
“Sure, why not? You will have it down on paper right now p>
He pulled out his phone from his pocket and sent a text to Matt, instructing him to quickly and secretly prepare two copies of a contract and keep them ready in the office.
Matt, who was currently planning to go out and have a little fun in Silver City after dinner, and after enduring yet another lecture from his mother about finding his own mate, as if being choked up at home or the office would magically bring one to him, received the message from Sebastian and frowned down at the clauses he was supposed to add to this secret contract he had been asked to print.
“Are you kidding me? Not Viola again,” he groaned in frustration. For someone who didn’t want to be interested in this weak girl, Seb was getting a little too involved with her, far more than he should have been.
Wasn’t Sebastian an expert at discarding his mates and turning his back on the ones he didn’t want? He had done it countless times before, without hesitation. So why was he getting involved with this one so much?
Just that morning, he had been forced to dig into Viola’s past and background, uncovering everything, every little thing that had once been posted about her before it was wiped away by Evan. He had spent hours doing it, even hacking into restricted information because Sebastian wanted it kept secret from anyone. And now, just when he was considering giving himself a break, he had to print a contract?
“Shoot me! I will never find my mate in this lifetime until my friend finally settles down,” Matt texted back, and Sebastian’s reply came almost immediately.
“Don’t be dramatic. We both know you’re not eager to find your mate. We’re on our way to the office. Prepare it before we get there p>
Matt rolled his eyes and took off his black leather jacket to get what Sebastian wanted done. Anyway, he wasn’t really that interested in going mate-searching. After what he had seen people with mates go through in their lives, he didn’t think he was ready for it. If he were truly determined to search, nothing would have stopped him, not even Sebastian and his contract.
Viola silently followed the Alpha into the elevator that took them to the hundredth floor of the building. They didn’t say another word to each other and walked in silence out of the elevator when they reached the floor.
Her legs were already sore. She hadn’t rested them well, and she still had a lingering painful limp. Though she wasn’t wearing heels but flats, it was becoming increasingly uncomfortable.
Nonetheless, she wasn’t about to let this golden opportunity slip by her. A chance to have this handsome devil grant her three wishes, if she ended up being his Luna, was not something that would ever come her way again.
She needed those wishes badly enough that she didn’t mind the mild ache spreading through her legs.
The floor of his office was a little different than the others, Viola took note. There were no ordinary projectors on the walls; instead, the walls themselves were screens displaying a rotating forest scene, wolves scattered between the trees as if hunting.
The leading wolf was massive and mighty silver. Viola stared at it with slightly horrified eyes, because between its jaws hung a person, blood dripping down as if the beast were about to chew.
Was that him in his wolf form? she wondered, and belatedly recalled his words once spoken to her—
’I’ve killed for this pack,’ he had told her. ’I’ve been challenged ten times and emerged victorious, with the flesh of my rivals filling my belly p>
Viola grimaced at the mental image, though she didn’t even need to imagine it. There it was, displayed across his walls. She tightened her arms around herself and deliberately looked away from it.
“You can’t even watch that, and yet you say you can be a Luna,” came his words as he stopped before a door, his head turning slightly in her direction. “Being my Luna, you will fight beside me and watch me do more than what is on that screen, niñita. You are not only physically weak, but your mind is as well p>
Viola raised her head to look him straight in the eye. “You do not know my mind or know what I am capable of doing. Can we proceed to your office, please?” she reminded him, wanting to get away from his judgmental gaze and his constant attempts to talk her out of this.
If only he knew what she was capable of. That she could kill to get her way, yet never wanted that part of herself to rise again or exist within her anymore. That was her past, her selfish, desperate self, and it didn’t belong here.
And if only he knew that without this hope, without this competition offering her even the smallest chance to rise above those who had hurt her and ruined her life, she would have preferred death. He would have understood then that she had absolutely nothing to lose in this competition.
She watched him press in a code on the door in front of him, and it slid open. He didn’t step inside but instead gestured for her to proceed ahead of him into the office. She warily walked past him into his cold, gloomy office, stood aside, and took in the vast space.
Though the space was beautiful, it felt empty.
There were framed images of wolves lined neatly along the long decorative brick wall at the side, but she belatedly realized there were no frames of any of his past Lunas, nothing of them at all, like she had expected, especially with how much he seemed to have favored the first Luna, Natalie. Despite of herself, she couldn’t help but get curious about his relationship with his first Luna but then she pushed the curiousity aside. It was none of her business.
He walked over to his desk and picked up the papers lying there, then turned over his shoulder to order, “Have a seat p>
Viola would have said she was fine standing, but her legs were already killing her, cramping painfully from strain and exhaustion. She didn’t argue with him and made her way to sit down in the chair he gestured to at his desk. Everything in the room smelled like him, and she tried not to breathe in too deeply as she watched him perch his hip against the desk while he read through the contract.
She hadn’t expected everything to be arranged this fast and had thought she would need to wait longer. When he began to reach for his pen on the desk as if to sign it immediately, Viola hurriedly spoke,
“I would like to read what is written there before you sign it p>
He gave her a narrowed look. “You really do have deep trust issues, don’t you?” he questioned with a scoff.