Fated: The Alpha's Unwanted Luna

"Here, I got you some food and plenty of fluids." Laila said, helping her sit up, sliding a bed tray across her lap before setting out takeout containers of nutritious food, then handing her a spoon to eat.

Viola thanked the she-wolf, someone she never would have expected to look out for her, before a thought suddenly ran through her mind, and she asked, "Am I still pregnant?" She looked at Gilbert, her fingers gripping the spoon tightly as her eyes remained unblinking, her breath catching in her lungs for a moment.

"You still are, but I’m afraid you’ve been in enough dangerous situations lately that you could still lose it." He told her, watching her nod before she bowed her head and began to eat silently.

Viola ate, even without much appetite, because she believed it was the least she could do, for the unborn child, for staying strong, for Sebastian, for helping him against the imposter keeping him trap. She didn’t speak again until she’d finished everything in front of her, even with her jaw still swollen from what Victoria had done to her and chewing was a little bit hard for her.

Once she finished, she lifted her head to look at the people watching her carefully, and asked, "I heard you all talking before I woke up. What happened?"

The three of them exchanged glances, seeming to weigh whether to tell her, until Viola reminded them, "We’re all working together here, and I don’t think we should hide anything from each other, no matter how bad it is. What happened?"

Laila was the one who spoke, rising from where she’d been perched at the edge of the bed. "The moment we took you out of the packhouse yesterday, an announcement went up across every screen in Silver, declaring that Matt was no longer Beta because he’d helped a traitor. Gilbert, me, and Matt have all been banished from the pack..." Laila trailed off for a moment, allowing Viola time to digest the information.

Viola couldn’t believe Sebastian himself would have gone that far as to banish his childhood best friend, whose family had embraced him when he’d lost his own. It made it all the more obvious that he wasn’t himself, and something inside her tightened at the thought that he was being made to destroy his own life and sever the bonds he’d once treasured.

"Did Victoria made the announcement?" Viola asked.

Laila shook her head.

"The Supreme Alpha announced it himself. If you, or any of us, are spotted by pack members, we’re to be killed on sight. He’s handing out weapons specifically designed to kill you, and he told everyone..." Laila hesitated, watching Viola carefully before continuing. "He told them that you’re a mermaid, that that’s why you’re wolfless, and that you can never be allowed to remain among his people. But don’t worry. We didn’t buy any of it," she assured her when she noticed a flicker of worry in Viola’s blue eyes.

Laila had never actually seen a mermaid before, and she didn’t fully believe that Viola was one either. Mermaids weren’t supposed to be able to survive on land, so they all assumed this was Cruella’s doing once again.

"The Cruella has turned everyone against all of us now, and if we don’t act soon, our families will get pulled into this too, banished right along with us."

Viola couldn’t help but feel that all of this was her fault, that she’d dragged innocent people straight into this mess with her. "I’m so sorry for putting all of you through this."

Matt waved off her apology. "What do you mean, sorry? If it weren’t for you, we never would have pieced any of this together, never would have known Victoria is nothing but a fake. And now that she knows we suspect her, she’s made it nearly impossible for us to go back. So now we just need to come up with a plan, fast, before it’s too late for all of us."

Viola’s fingers clenched against the sheets as she realized there was no easy way to get close to Sebastian again, not with everything having spiraled this far out of control. Who was Victoria, really? What did she want? Why was she doing any of this? Was she some past mate of Sebastian’s, seeking revenge?

If she were, Matt would have recognized her.

"Where are we now, since Silver isn’t safe anymore?" She asked them.

"Still in Silver, technically, just on my family’s property, a place that hasn’t been used in years." Gilbert replied. "But we can’t stay here much longer, Luna. We need to move fast."

Viola frowned, something suddenly occurring to her. "What about Zoe? Where is she?"

Matt sighed, exasperated. "Last I checked, she’s out of Silver on business, and now I have no way of reaching her, since the phones are all being monitored."

Viola, who hadn’t seen Zoe since they returned from the Grim Pack, was almost grateful that she wasn’t here while all of this was happening. She needed to do something before Zoe returned, only to be met with the disappointment of finding out what had happened to her brother.

"I have a plan," Viola said, and all three of them turned to her expectantly. "I need to sneak back in and see what she’s doing to him to know how to help him."

"How exactly are you going to do that, when your face is plastered across the entire pack and people are actively looking to kill you, cut out your heart, believing you’re a mermaid?" Laila asked.

Viola smiled carefully. "It’s simple. I need a disguise. I don’t carry any aura, so if I dress as an omega, no one will look twice. I’ll need a few things to pull it off, will you all help me?" She looked at them pleading, knowing she couldn’t pull this off without them.

"What do you need?" Matt asked, all of them ready to help, since whether they liked it or not, Viola’s success meant their own survival too. If she failed, none of them would have homes left to return to, they’d all be packless now, cut off entirely from their own homes and family.

In a single night, they had all been stripped of their positions, cast out by the very man they had once trusted completely, a man now trapped under some kind of spell, controlled by an imposter pretending to be his mate.

Viola told them everything she would need to pull this off.

When they left to gather what she needed, they left her alone with Laila, who looked utterly exhausted, clearly having gone without enough sleep. Seeing how tired she was, Viola made room on the bed for her to lie down.

"I hope you don’t mind if I sleep for a little while..." Laila muttered, yawning.

"Of course not. Sleep and get some rest," Viola told her.

Laila didn’t need to be told twice. She settled onto the bed and soon drifted off.

Viola, however, couldn’t sleep. Instead, she got up to freshen herself up while she waited for the others to return with everything they needed for her disguise.

She was nervous as hell, because if this failed, there would be no second chance, but she’d thought it through carefully, and facing Sebastian without Victoria hovering nearby seemed like the only real option left. And she knew exactly how she planned to make that happen.

Viola stepped into the bathroom and turned on the bathtub faucet, feeling like she needed a good soak, something to calm her frayed nerves before the moment ahead.

But as the tub filled and she began carefully undressing, she noticed the surface of the water start to swirl, forming a dark hole she immediately recognized as a portal. Before Viola could react, the water stretched outward, wrapped around her, and yanked her straight into the tub, pulling her down through the center of the swirling hole.

She vanished into it completely, and the tub stopped swirling as though nothing had happened at all, the water’s surface settling back to normal.

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