Fated: The Alpha's Unwanted Luna

Chapter 319: The unexpected mate_Part 2

Sebastian had left his wife at the arrival of someone outside his office, expecting it to be work-related, or perhaps even one of the elders, since he was aware that if it had been Matt, his Beta would have simply spoken to him through the mind link. He should have known better than to answer that call so readily, because the moment the door opened and the very last person he wanted to see walked in, he felt his wolf cringe all the way down inside him, and irritation rose sharply in his chest.

A dark scowl settled immediately onto his face, his eyes darkening and narrowing on the she-wolf who was smiling from ear to ear as she walked toward him, her heels clicking against the floor.

"Seb..." Laila called softly, her throat tightening with emotion as she took in the sight of him standing there, handsome and completely irresistible with a disheveled look that made it seem as though he had just stepped out of the shower moments ago. Though his face looked exhausted, Laila thought it only made him more gorgeous. She would sell her soul to possess him as her man.

But the look on his face brought her to a sudden stop before she could close the distance and give in to any illusions of receiving a heated kiss and a warm hug from him. His expression looked as though he wanted to burn her down where she stood, and she felt that look settle deep into her bones.

"How have you been?" She asked, watching him, still struggling to believe he was standing here, alive and healthy, after she had spent time mourning him.

Seeing him appear before everyone yesterday had left her stunned, and then elated, she had wanted to go to him immediately. But when he had walked past her, he had treated her as though she were invisible, as though she were nothing more than air, and gone straight to Viola instead.

Laila had felt that like a blow. But she had told herself he simply hadn’t noticed her in the chaos, and that she would catch him alone later, pay him a visit, and reassure herself properly that he was all right and still her man.

At her concerned question, rather than answer it, he asked her flatly, "What are you doing here?"

Laila’s smile slipped from her face and her hand clenched around the fabric of her dress. "I missed you. That’s why I’m here. I really thought you were dead, even though something in me never quite believed it." She moved to approach him again, but when she came within five feet of him, he took a step back, and it was only then that she became aware of another scent clinging to his body, layered over his own. Her face soured instantly.

"Didn’t I tell you that while I am married, there is nothing between you and me, Laila? You are not to come to my office floor for private meetings with me." Sebastian said, his voice cold and detached.

He had tolerated Laila for far longer than he should have, mostly because he hadn’t wanted to create more enemies for his hellcat after marrying her. But there was no reason left to tolerate her now, not when she had lost most of her backing in the wake of Ember’s murder accusations, and her uncle had turned his back on her completely.

Sebastian had been thoroughly briefed on everything that had happened in Silver during his absence, and Laila’s fall from grace had been among it. He couldn’t have been more relieved. From the very beginning, he hadn’t even been the one to bring her into his life.

That had been Alex, back when he lost Natalie and convinced himself that being with another woman might dull the pain. He had turned to Laila, who happened to share a mate bond with Sebastian but he had initially tried to keep her at a distance.

Alex had been immediately consumed by guilt afterward, having slept with another she-wolf so soon after his wife’s death.

He had punished himself harshly for taking Laila to bed twice in the wake of Natalie’s death and using it to mask his grief before eventually deciding to leave it all behind and disappear into the underground world they had built for themselves.

Alex had always been the type to give a woman whatever she wanted. He had treated every female he discovered a mate bond with that way, simply so they wouldn’t become a complication in the life he shared with his wife. After taking Laila to bed, the guilt had driven him to give her gifts twice as expensive as those he gave his other mates.

It had been Alex who first showered Laila with gifts, long before Sebastian inherited that particular habit, and it had given Sebastian, early on, the mistaken belief that every she-wolf could be bought with expensive things. That belief had held, right up until he met a certain someone who proved it wrong entirely.

Sebastian had adopted many of Alex’s habits and made them his own, being naturally the kind of man who had never quite known how to treat women properly.

But now that Laila no longer posed any threat to Viola or to his reign, now that the pack she had once used as leverage had abandoned her, Sebastian had decided it was time to draw a permanent line. He would give this she-wolf no more hope, none at all, that there could ever be anything between them again beyond what had already happened in the past.

Sebastian watched her expression shift into something hurt, but the bond between them had grown so faint over time that he could barely feel it the way he once had.

"I just wanted someone to talk to. Your company." She said, masking the hurt as best she could. "I thought you’d always need me, that you wouldn’t turn me away."

In truth, Laila had wanted to attend Javier’s wake, but Mrs. Kade had thrown her out the moment she arrived. And everywhere she went afterward, it felt as though she was carrying some invisible filth on her body, something only other people could see, something she couldn’t, because all she could hear was whispering behind her back and feel the weight of fingers being pointed at her from every direction.

Laila had never once felt self-conscious in her life. But today, she had, and she hadn’t known where to go, where to hide from people in general. Her so-called friends had been quick to turn their backs the instant the advantages she once offered them disappeared.

She had come here clinging to the wild, desperate hope that Sebastian would at least be glad to see her, that he would welcome her presence the way he once had.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she had been hoping for something else too, crazy, mindless sex, something to bury all the bad thoughts and anger churning inside her. Sebastian had always turned to sex when he was carrying too much, and she could tell, just from looking at him, that he was carrying a great deal right now.

"I’m busy, Laila. You should leave, and please don’t come back to this floor. If you need to relay a message to me, you can go through Matt." He set the boundary firmly, already making a mental note to instruct his warriors stationed on this floor to revoke whatever free access she had been granted in the past, effective immediately.

"She’s here, isn’t she?" Laila asked, glancing behind him. "I can smell her on you. Is that why you’re sending me away?"

"Don’t make me call the Gammas on you, Miss Serrano. Find your way out, please." Sebastian said, his tone utterly indifferent.

Laila composed herself and tried again. "I’ll leave. But I want to speak to the wolfless girl, and—"

Sebastian’s eyes went darker, and his aura flared outward as he cut her off. "The next time you call her that again, Serrano, I will make sure you lose your tongue. It’s Luna. To you, and to everyone else."

He would not tolerate that word from anyone’s mouth anymore, not from Laila, not from the elders, not from anyone. She was his Luna. Their Luna. Whether the rest of them wanted to accept it or not.

Laila felt cold sweat break out down her spine, and her body bent into a bow of submission before she could even fully process it. "The Luna, is she here? I want a word with her."

"She’s not." Sebastian lied without a flicker of hesitation. "And if you want a word with her, you can speak with her once she’s back among the she-wolf council." With that, he turned his back on her and made his way to sit behind his desk, dismissing her completely. There was nothing more he had to say to Laila.

Laila knew the sound of a door closing when she heard it, even one that hadn’t physically shut yet. Her fingers curled into fists at her sides until her knuckles turned white, and then, slowly, she released them. She bowed and backed away, leaving the room.

She had seen this coming from the moment that woman had walked into his life. She had felt him drifting, piece by piece, further and further away from her.

But Laila hadn’t expected it to happen now, not when she needed someone, anyone, on her side this badly. And the worst part was that she no longer had a single thing left to hold over him, nothing to use to drag his attention back to her the way she once could.

She had lost everything until she stepped out of that office and came face to face with her fated mate, someone she had never expected to be.