Javier’s anger remounted, and he tried to stand straight, but his legs were failing him. Even so, he still managed to say, "I will fucking kill you along with that wolfless!"
The person laughed. "I would gladly like to see you do it, because you won’t be leaving this room alive today."
Javier’s gold eyes darkened even more. "You fucking asshole, I will—"
Javier’s words got stuck in his throat as the person raised his hand and a silver light, like smoke, ca out and wrapped around Javier’s neck, cutting off his windpipe. It lifted him off the ground, and his eyes turned wide in horror at the display of the unexpected ability.
An ability.
Not many werewolves possessed abilities. Only mbers of the Grim Pack carried abilities stolen from the sea creatures in the past and passed down through their bloodline from generation to generation.
So how had soone in Silver gained an ability? And this fucker of all people?
The realization sent a wave of disbelief through Javier. Even as he struggled for air.
"You—" Javier began to speak, but the smoke tightened around his neck and he watched a smirk form on his killer’s face.
"Not only are you my rival for the seat, Javier, but you don’t deserve to live as a Kade. Too bad we never really got to know each other better and more deeply as family. Goodbye."
Saying that, he clenched his fist and the silver smoke tightened until there was a crack from Javier’s neck. His struggling body imdiately went limp and slack, and when he was released from the smoke, he plumted back into the pool of water with a loud splash.
"What a waste." The person clicked his tongue and turned, walking away with his shoes clicking against the floor.
---
Viola looked around at the people fussing over her and felt overwhelmingly cared for as she watched them, hugging the blanket more around herself.
She had been brought back into her penthouse and changed out of her wet clothes, and now she was sitting on the bed surrounded by everyone except the one person she wanted around.
Doctor Gilbert was applying ointnt to her bruises, and Zoe was trying to dry her hair while Nick had gone to make her sothing to eat, and through all of this, she didn’t see Sebastian or Matt.
After bringing her back into the room and putting her on the bed, Sebastian had looked at her face and then told her he would be right back before leaving along with Matt.
Viola felt a pinprick in her heart because that wasn’t how she had expected to receive his return, with a cold detachnt to it and an expressionless face.
Three days ago, before he left, they had both been lovers in bed, embracing each other and not wanting to let go, and she had expected that warmth to still be there when he returned.
But now that he was back, she wasn’t feeling any warmth from him. It was like he had built a wall around himself.
Where did he go to?
She wondered as she looked around at the heads gathered around her.
Her muscles wouldn’t stop trembling. Every few seconds, a violent shudder ran through her body and she found herself longing for his warmth.
As if noticing her shudder, Zoe muttered,
"I hope Javier gets shocked until he is drained of blood! You have a burn at the back of your neck. Doc Gilbert, take a look at this."
She said it while showing him the burn, and he leaned in to take a closer look.
Viola was barely aware of it, or of any of them.
She felt bone-weary and stressed about her husband not being there, but she reassured herself that suddenly revealing himself after faking his death must have required him to face the elders and the people of Silver to clarify things and set them straight before he could co to her.
He was a Supre Alpha. His pack would always co first.
It wasn’t as though she had suffered life-threatening injuries, and she was conscious. He must have been assured enough of her condition to leave her for a little while, and besides, he hadn’t left her completely alone.
Viola clung to that reasoning and slowly began to relax her back against the headboard.
But the devil on her shoulder scoffed at every bit of logic she had made up.
If he was too busy, he should have at least looked at her properly, talked to her, asked if she was all right, before walking out. He had left while she was still trembling violently, and without a single word at that, still wearing that very dark expression that made her feel as though she had disturbed him and forced him back before he was ready to co back. It was sothing she desperately wanted to avoid, because she never wanted to beco a burden to her mate.
Was he angry at her for disrupting his grieving, or whatever it was he had left the pack to deal with on the 30th?
Had she distressed him so much that he now found her tiring?
Or had he noticed sothing when he pulled her out of the water, the portal, perhaps, and was now disgusted by what he had seen?
Fear rose quietly into her chest at the thought of Sebastian growing cold and detached toward her, not after everything they had carefully built together. The portal, the water creature, all of it, she was terrified it would co between them and unravel what little ground they had gained.
But she masked every one of those spiraling thoughts and emotions, keeping them locked tightly behind her eyes, and forced her attention back to the people around her.
Soon, Nick returned carrying a tray with a bowl of porridge he had made himself, along with a warm glass of water. He brought it over and set it carefully on the nightstand.
"A special al made for a special friend!" he announced cheerfully, lifting the bowl and holding it out to Viola with a grin.
She forced a smile and accepted it from him, but her hands were still shaking terribly, too unsteady to hold the bowl properly.
"Let do that," Nick said as he took the bowl back and perched on the edge of the bed.
"It was a good thing Cousin Sebastian ca on ti to stop my brother. I can’t imagine what worse things would have happened otherwise. Your fingers look so pale, I think they should be ward up first."
Nick said with a sigh as he hated that he hadn’t been able to help or do anything for his Vee.
He had lost a chance to be her hero.
However, he was still glad that she was fine now despite the fact that her condition looked fragile and her face looked so pale.
If he had known she would go through all of this, Nick thought as he took her hand in his to help warm it, he would have never allowed her to participate in the Luna competition and would have convinced her instead to leave Silver.
"Luna," Doctor Gilbert called, drawing her attention as he recapped the ointnt. "When you were thrown into the pool, for a mont I would have sworn that you disappeared from sight."
Viola’s breath caught in her throat, her heart skipping anxiously as she stared at him, until he continued.
"I believe it happened because you are underweight. You haven’t been eating well, even before all this, and have been neglecting your health. Being imprisoned seems to have only worsened it. Not taking the dication I gave you isn’t going to help, and being in poor health won’t help you with your wolf either, even if you have one and it’s in hiding."
He set the ointnt aside and fixed her with a firm look. "Which is why I will personally send soone to see to your diet and make sure you are eating properly. I will also be speaking to the Alpha about it."
For a mont she had genuinely feared that Gilbert, and everyone else who had been watching, had actually witnessed her disappear beneath the water. But it seed he was only making a pointed remark about her weight, using the mont to drive ho his concern.
The relief she felt was short-lived, quickly replaced by the hollow ache of wondering whether Sebastian would even act on whatever the doctor told him. Had it finally co to the ti where he was tired of her? Oh moon goddess, she wanted to be a werewolf, nothing more and nothing less. She didn’t want this to co between them, and she didn’t want to find herself on the other side of her people, branded as the enemy.
She had lived her whole life wanting to fit in, wanting to belong sowhere in this world, and now that she had found soone who made her feel wanted, needed, and like she finally had a place to call her own, she was about to lose him because of an origin she knew absolutely nothing about.
If Sebastian knew what was happening to her, what she had done to Ember and what she could do to others, would he finally cast her away? The fear gripped her heart like a vise and refused to let go.
Still, she gave Doctor Gilbert a small nod.
"I will look after myself better," she said quietly, "once the accusations surrounding Ember’s death are off my head."
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