Fated: The Alpha's Unwanted Luna

’Take them away, kill her if you have to, as long as she’s never found.’ said a voice inside Viola’s head that came from memories. ’She’s nothing but a curse, nothing but bad luck and would bring disaster.’

The small eyes of the infant had looked up at the woman speaking those words, looking down at her with disdain, as though she were the worst thing that had ever happened to their lives.

Though Viola had been nothing more than an infant wrapped in cloth at the time, those memories had stayed crystal clear at the back of her mind, all the way into adulthood, kindling a resentment toward her mother she’d carried ever since. Because when they’d been handed over to the orphanage, a note had come with her, describing her as cursed, warning she should be handled carefully and never allowed to leave the orphanage’s grounds unless they wanted her to ruin the world.

Viola had never understood what those notes truly meant, or why she’d been treated so differently from every other child there, even from her own twin, who’d always been treated far better than she ever was. It was exactly why she’d grown into such a rebellious girl, building walls to protect herself, and exactly why she’d betrayed Ivy back at the orphanage, believing no one would ever hurt her twin the way they would have hurt her, if she were the one left behind instead.

Her entire life, she had carried a protective shield around herself, believing she was unlovable, all because she’d been branded a curse, but in truth, it had all been to hide who she really was, right up until her death. Her own mother’s sister had done all of this to her, and Viola had spent her whole life resenting the wrong person.

A choking feeling rose in her throat, and she had to swallow hard just to speak again, staring at the mermaid who had just confessed something so enormous it would change everything now.

"Why did you do that?" She asked quietly, her throat convulsing as she fought back the emotion rising unbidden through her chest, up into her neck.

Natasha looked at her niece with hurt in her eyes, clasping her hands together against herself, seeing the way the other two were staring at her now, as though they no longer knew who she was.

"You have to understand, I didn’t do what I did to be cruel to you. I did it for Madeline. She was going to leave the sea, take both of you to land, and stay there, and I knew it would bring her nothing but trouble staying there. I thought I was freeing her from the burden of raising two half-breeds alone.

"I took you away from her, but I regretted it the moment I saw how broken it left her. I’m sorry. Please, forgive me..." Natasha said, reaching out toward Viola, who swam backward, holding up a hand to stop her from touching her.

Natasha had never imagined this decision would come back to haunt her this way. She had regretted it the instant she’d seen her sister’s devastation, Madeline, who had never forgiven her, who had swum up to the surface searching for her children and never returned, only her body eventually found and the hazy memories of her brutal death. Natasha had sworn to avenge her after that, had tried, in her own way, to make amends by taking in the very children she’d once given away.

But as she tried to explain further, she saw Viola’s eyes had already hardened, and Viola said, "I don’t want to hear your reasons. Right now, I need to get back to my husband and fix the mess waiting for me there, before it’s too late for both of us, and I won’t let you stand in my way, Natasha."

Saying that, Viola began swimming upward, though she had no real idea whether that would even lead her to the surface, given how deep they seemed to be. She just needed real air, needed distance from Natasha and her past.

As much as everything she’d believed since childhood had just been proven false, as much as her mother had never actually hated them at all, Viola pushed the emotion down, forced it to the back of her mind, determined to face the trouble waiting for her before she allowed herself to feel any of this properly.

"She can’t swim all the way to the surface, she’ll kill herself." Natasha said to the two mermaids, who were both looking at her strangely now and she turned to explain to them instead.

"Ivy," she began, turning to her other niece, but Ivy pulled back and swam after her sister instead. Natasha turned to her daughter with a pleading look, and Yasmin reached out, took her mother’s hand briefly, before saying,

"I’m sorry, Mama. I have to go after them. I’ll be back, and we can talk then. Go home." Saying that, Yasmin followed after the twins as well.

She wasn’t as angry with her mother as the twins clearly were, because she believed that whatever her mother had done must have been for the good of her twin sister. However, she couldn’t let her two cousins attempt to reach the surface alone in their current state. They would need her there to guide them safely out of the water.

When Yasmin caught up with them, Ivy already holding her sister’s hand, swimming upward, she moved to the other side and took Viola’s free hand, helping pull her along faster.

"What do you plan to do now?" Yasmin asked Viola, whose face had shut down entirely, closed off from every emotion she felt.

"Tell me everything you know about the sea witch, Yasmin. I think she might have something to do with Victoria." Viola voiced her suspicion about the fake she-wolf currently standing at her husband’s side.

"I don’t know much about the sea witch, but what I do know is that she wasn’t always a witch, she was related to us by bloodline, until she was cast out after taking on dark powers. Rumor has it she was our ancestor Azmira’s twin sister, and that she turned into what she is after her twin was killed by the werewolf, Vaelor. And—"

"Did you just say Azmira and Vaelor?" Viola stared at her cousin, shocked, hearing names she recognized instantly from her dreams, names she had convinced herself, until this very moment, were nothing but fabrications her subconscious had invented to fill the ache of missing Sebastian.

"Yes. Azmira was a child of the sea, born with powers that connected her closely to our Sea Goddess. But she let her heart sway her, used those powers to give herself legs, to go find the man she loved. In the end, he killed her brutally, and worse, showed his people exactly what a mermaid’s heart could give them, how valuable it truly was. Ever since then, we became creatures they hunted, creatures they wanted for themselves. And ever since then, the sea witch was born, filled with nothing but hatred toward werewolves, especially the Silvers. Some even say she placed a generational curse on Vaelor himself."

Viola took in every piece of information carefully, with a grain of salt, since everything Yasmin described seemed to contradict what she’d seen in her own dreams, because the Vaelor in her dreams had looked madly, hopelessly in love with Azmira, the way he’d kissed her so passionately when she’d snuck away to meet him in the woods.

Viola wanted to say as much, wanted to tell Yasmin everything she’d seen, but decided to keep it to herself for now, at least until she understood the full truth behind why the sea witch was doing any of this. Still, one thing had become undeniably clear through all of this.

"Sebastian is a descendant of Vaelor. And if she really is the one who cursed him, then she’d do anything to stop Sebastian from ever breaking a century-old curse by finding me." Viola said, her lips settling into a grim line as another piece clicked into place. "I think Victoria is the sea witch in disguise. She must have realized Sebastian was close to finding out, close to marking me, and came into our lives to stop it, to make him kill me himself instead."

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