Fated: The Alpha's Unwanted Luna-Chapter 78: The wrong person

Viola pushed herself to go back to the resting room she had been given during the first round. Her legs were trembling like they were made of jelly, and her heartbeat was slamming so hard she couldn’t even tell where it was located anymore, as she could feel it pounding in every single pulse of her body.

Her vision, despite the uncomfortable lenses in her eyes that helped her see without her glasses, was blurring away, seeing things in two, and the noises around her were beginning to fade. Still, she shook her head as if to clear the fog crawling its way into her brain and mind.

She hadn’t stayed to be taken by the healers because Viola knew that once she gave in to the weakness of falling unconscious, like Laila had done, she would wake up in the healing house and miss the rest of the competition, as her entire body was now screaming for rest. She could feel her temperature rising so high that she felt cold and hot at the same time.

The wristband Nick had given her immediately came on and began to flash a red light. It vibrated once and then said, "Critical temperature. Toxin confirmed. Survival risk rising. Vee, you need medical attention."

Viola didn’t need to be told what was wrong with her. She had lived her whole life among werewolves, even though she didn’t have one herself now. She had studied different kinds of werewolves and was knowledgeable enough to know that black howlers had poisonous bites and claws. One of the black howler’s claws had dug deep into her chest, dangerously close to her heart, and the more she bled and move, the more that poison would spread toward it.

She shouldn’t have left the arena and should have waited for the healers to take her somewhere she could be given an antidote. Viola chided herself as she stepped into the resting room with great difficulty and then closed the door behind her, pressing her back against it with a grimace. In that moment, she realized why she hadn’t stayed in the arena, she didn’t want to show weakness.

She didn’t want to give them any reason to throw her away from the safe haven she was trying to build for her only family. That Alpha who always found ways to call her weak, she didn’t want to give him any satisfaction or opportunity to mock her again.

That was why she had walked out of the arena as though she hadn’t been affected by the hits and bruises she’d received. But now, she was definitely regretting her decision to play brave and unaffected, because this damn wound was killing her.

Viola looked down at her chest, which was drenched in blood and soaking downward. The beautiful suit made of fine material was torn, and Viola felt worse about the ruined suit than she did about her own wound. It had been gifted to her by Zoe, she thought, as she brought up a trembling hand to touch the claw tear. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

She immediately grimaced and moaned in pain as her fingers brushed the wound just to the left side of her chest, the tear reaching from the top of one of her breasts down below it.

Viola sat there, hoping that Nick or Zoe would come soon so they could help her with the antidote. They were the only ones she trusted enough to show her weakness to, the only people she had added to the list of those close to her heart.

She bit down on the inside of her cheek so she wouldn’t pass out. From the way she had walked steadily out of the arena, everyone must have believed she was perfectly fine. But if Zoe and Nick didn’t come in time, she knew her dead body might be what they would find here, as she could feel her left hand becoming paralyzed and immobile from the wound.

Viola began to feel faint and utterly exhausted, and she started to give in to the darkness calling to her mind. If giving in would make the pain go away, then so be it. She longed for numbness and oblivion.

But just as she began to let go and surrender to the luring unconsciousness hovering just above her awareness, she heard the doorknob rattle above her head where she was sitting on the floor, as though someone was trying to open the door.

She gave herself a mental shake to wake up. It must be Zoe and Nick, she thought, using the little energy left in her battered, weakened body to move aside and use the doorknob as support to pull herself to her feet.

Once she was standing, her head swayed, feeling heavy as though a mountain of rocks was weighing her down. Her breathing felt hollow, and her vision spun. Viola didn’t let herself fall back down as she tremblingly turned the key, then moved away from the door and opened it.

But just as she opened it for whoever was standing outside, her legs gave out beneath her, no longer able to hold her up. The person quickly stepped into the room and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her against a solid, rock-hard chest.

"I got you, cariño," came a deep, husky, accented voice she would recognize even on her deathbed, and she tensed against the comforting chest her heavy head rested on. Wrong person, she thought. He was the last person she needed here. He might mock her and then make her feel even more miserable for being unable to swiftly kill the black howlers.

Though what Viola had done was remarkable, to her, she hadn’t done enough. She didn’t see the good in anything she had done, nor did she believe it was enough to make anyone commend her, especially this man. He wasn’t the one she wanted here right now. She preferred Nick, or even Zoe...

Viola wanted to pull away, to put distance between them before he could insult her, but her exhausted body rebelled fiercely against the effort. His expensive scent was soothing, reminding her of coffee and spice, of everything warm and delicious. She let her weight lean on him, finally giving in to the exhaustion she had been fighting since the first round of the competition.

She was tired, mentally and physically, tired of pushing and trying to prove herself. She couldn’t keep holding herself together when her body was clearly screaming for her to sit and rest. She hadn’t slept well in days, hadn’t eaten properly, nor felt any peace. She was hurting so badly now that Viola no longer cared what this giant bully thought of her. But there was still something she wanted him to know.

"I... I am not weak... I can be your Luna and take on any challenge... I am not weak, do you hear me, Kade? You are such a big bully..." Viola muttered, her speech sounding strange even to herself. Then she belatedly remembered that an unfocused, sluggish mind was one of the first symptoms of black howler poison before it fully numbed and paralyzed you.

"I... am not weak, do you hear me, you giant bully?" Viola murmured, hitting her forehead against his hard chest as if to get her point out to him.

Sebastian’s face, which had been tightened with worry and concern for her, softened, and his lips curved slightly at the corner at the way she dared to address him. But why didn’t he find it insulting in any way, the way he normally would have?