Fated: The Alpha's Unwanted Luna-Chapter 151: Erase the mark
The day Viola had been naive enough to let Evan give her this mark was among the days she hated and regretted the most. Back then she had been so certain they would end up together that she hadn’t hesitated for even a moment to turn and allow him to mark her. It was why his betrayal had been so unbearable and why she couldn’t forget him completely, even when she desperately wanted to.
Whenever she dared to think of another man in an intimate way, it would hurt and close her off to that person, because the mark only ever ached for Evan.
When Sebastian didn’t say anything, Viola risked it and turned to look at him, and immediately regretted it, for he looked twice as furious as before. The corded veins on his neck were bulging and his eyes were burning into her with a glare that could have scorched the floor beneath her feet.
"Why the hell did you tell me to invite him when you know the mark will only strengthen its bind on you every single time you lay eyes on him?" Sebastian demanded, losing all reasonable thought about the fact that her teenage self had been naive enough to let a man she hadn’t even married mark her with a heart binding mark.
Viola was startled by the sharpness of his voice but she didn’t let it show, meeting his harsh tone with one of her own as she replied, "Because I wanted him to remove the mark before I marry you! With this mark on me, I can’t be intimate with you or carry your children in one piece, that is why I wanted him here, to take it away from me!"
Sebastian let out a scoff. "I never knew you were this naive, Viola. That mark cannot be removed by him, it will only grow stronger with every encounter you have with him, and the only way to be rid of it is if you don’t see him for a very, very long time, or if you are marked by your mate!"
"Then the problem is solved, you can mark me and I can be rid of his! Why are you directing your anger at me like I have committed some unforgivable sin?! I was young and stupid and deeply in love when I let this happen, and do you honestly think I would have invited him here if I had known it would only make the bond stronger?!" She shouted back, rising to her feet and facing him with all the fury burning inside her own heart. How dare he speak to her like it was her fault? Anyone could make such a decision when they were in love!
And besides, hadn’t he just said that a mate’s mark could get rid of it? He was her mate, and he would mark her when they married, so why was he working himself up over something that could be resolved? She wanted nothing more than to be rid of this mark from her body and give Evan every last drop of the hatred and pain he deserved from her!
Sebastian’s expression lost its open fury but settled into something blank and more distant as he said, "I have wanted to tell you this, but I thought I should hold it until our ceremony. However, I believe you should hear it now. I am marrying you and making you my Luna, but I can’t mark you. Not just you, I can’t dare mark anyone who isn’t..." He paused, turned away from her and closed his eyes, reining back his feelings and drawing in a slow breath. "I can’t mark you. That is just the way it is. Marking was never part of what I planned for this relationship."
Viola felt as though she had been doused with a bucket of ice cold water at his words, and she stared at him in utter confusion. He didn’t plan to mark her? Wasn’t that the entire purpose of a werewolf’s wedding ceremony, where he would mark her beneath the moonlight before everyone gathered? She thought, until a realization crept in quietly and settled over her. Not wanting to mark her meant not wanting to commit to her with his soul.
How quickly she had forgotten that this marriage was happening because she had won a competition, and not because he had chosen her out of genuine desire. How quickly she had forgotten that he had multiple mates and wouldn’t want to bind himself to just one. Why had she even allowed herself to expect that he would mark her, when they were still in the friendship zone and when he had far better choices among all his other mates?
No man in his right mind would let go of a she-wolf with so much potential, family background, and a wolf, all for a wolfless woman who didn’t even know the true roots of her real family, and one who couldn’t yet sort through her own conflicts and traumas. His tenderness and the way he had been treating her over the past few days had begun to slowly blind her to reality, and she had started to delude herself all over again without even noticing.
Viola almost let out a bitter laugh at her own wake-up call, at the reality of what a friendship truly entailed, and how marking had never been part of it.
Grateful that she hadn’t gone ahead and made a complete fool of herself by expecting a marking, and realizing she should actually be relieved that he wouldn’t bind her to a marking that would only hurt her in the long run, she schooled her hurt behind a composed expression and gave him a slow nod.
"Of course. I had forgotten the circumstances under which this wedding was even happening. I am glad you told me about not being able to mark me. I will find a way to erase Evan’s mark on my own, and if I can’t erase it, I will make certain I never have to lay eyes on him again." Saying that, she turned to walk past him, but he reached out to touch her and Viola stepped aside smoothly, avoiding his hand without a word.
Sebastian’s jaw clenched as he felt his chest tighten. He hadn’t intended to tell her about not marking her this way, not like this, but he had let his hurt and anger override his better judgment. He was certain it wasn’t her fault that she had allowed the man she had believed she would marry to place a heart binding mark on her, but his own mate bond simply couldn’t tolerate the sight of it.
However, he hadn’t expected her to accept his words about not marking her so quickly, without a single question, without curiousity, without demanding a reason. Any other woman he had ever known would have demanded an explanation and would not have so easily swallowed the fact that her own husband would not mark her.
But the way she had turned indifferent and closed herself off so completely, like she was stacking every wall back up that he had believed he had started to slowly bring down, made Sebastian’s jaw tighten even further.
He would have preferred her to rage at him the way he had raged at her, at least that would have shown him that she cared. But her indifference did nothing but make him angrier.
He watched her button her shirt back up, covering the mark he desperately wanted erased, and when she walked back to the bed and lay down, pulling the blanket over herself and turning her back to where he stood, Sebastian knew he needed to leave, to give himself the space to cool down before he shattered things between them even further.
"Do whatever soothes you," Sebastian gritted out, and then turned on his heel and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him with enough force that the sharp sound made Viola squeeze her eyes shut.
"Yes. I will do whatever soothes me!" She yelled back at him, throwing a pillow across the room that landed against the closed door before burying her face back into the pillow beneath her head.
Swallowing the thick lump lodged in her throat, she curled up on the bed and forced herself to rest so the ache in her stomach would ease, though she doubted it would, now that it had been compounded by Sebastian’s words and the dull, unwelcome hurt that had settled deep inside her chest. A hurt she hadn’t wanted to feel. Why was she even allowing him to get to her at all?
He could go ahead and be unfaithful after their marriage and take whatever woman he pleased, and she didn’t need to enjoy any of his intimacy to carry his heir after the ceremony. In fact, she believed it was for the best that she still carried another man’s mark while they were together. It would stop her from foolishly developing feelings for a man she didn’t even want to fall for.
"Go to hell, and don’t call me or come here until the ceremony. I don’t want to see you again," Viola muttered into her pillow, and then she closed her eyes, forcing thoughts of both Sebastian and Evan far from her mind.
For now that she knew Evan couldn’t remove his mark, she no longer saw the point of why she had invited him here at all, because whatever pain that man suffered, her heart would feel it too. Hurting him would only ever mean hurting herself.
"I hate my life..." She whispered thickly into the silence of the room.
