Fated: The Alpha's Unwanted Luna-Chapter 177: Morning effects

In the depth of the night, while most of the guests had made their way to their assigned rooms after the ceremony and after the chaos of the unknown female sexual scent that had hit almost every unmarked male in the building and sent them into a state of sexual confusion, the hallways had gone entirely quiet. It was 2:46 am, and except for the patrol werewolves on a few select floors, the Silver Pack High Tower was completely silent.

A figure walked down those seemingly quiet hallways, his shoes barely making a sound against the polished floors, his broad back and silver head disappearing through a set of double doors tucked deep into the innermost part of the building.

When the man entered the room, two elders still dressed in the ceremonial robes from the marking were sitting inside, waiting with visible impatience. The moment he entered they rose to their feet and greeted him in unison,

"Good morning." The elders were none other than Elder Halvrek and another Elder, Solomon.

The man dismissed their greeting with a wave of his hand and made his way to the seat across from them in the dimly lit room where no lights had been switched on, only the glimmering glow of the city outside spilling in softly through the glass walls.

"Why did you call me here? Have you found it before Sebastian?" The figure questioned, his fingers tapping impatiently against the table as he studied the two elders across from him.

"No, we have not found it. The Alpha is maintaining extremely tight security around his search for the so-called cure. The last information we received indicates they are currently searching within the human world, but our men are trailing them in disguise." Elder Halvrek informed him, remaining standing rather than sitting, for this was not a person even he could afford to be casual around.

The figure’s brows drew together beneath the silver strands of hair falling across his forehead as he demanded, "Then why was I called here? Did I not make it abundantly clear that unless it is a direct report about the cure the fucking Alpha is searching for, I cannot risk being seen meeting with either of you?"

His eyes darkened and the energy he kept carefully hidden and concealed, an energy that carried an almost identical weight to that of the supreme Alpha himself, flared outward, causing both elders to drop their heads in involuntary submission. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"I apologize deeply, but the reason I called you here is just as important as any such report." Elder Halvrek said quickly.

Serving this person in secret was among the most difficult and dangerous things he had ever undertaken, which was precisely why he had wanted his niece to carry the next heir, but until that day came, his loyalty here could not waver, or death would follow swiftly.

"Then what is it?" The figure whose face remained hidden in the shadows asked.

Elder Halvrek swallowed carefully. "It concerns the pheromone scent that filled the building earlier this evening. Did you also perceive it?"

"Yes. It was strong. It came from her. What of it?"

"It was abnormal," Elder Halvrek continued, choosing his words with extreme care. "It reminded me of something from the past, back when the Silver Pack Alphas were cursed." He paused, looking deeply thoughtful, almost haunted.

"It has been a very long time, but I can’t forget the tantalizing and seductive scent of those creatures when they need a man. Though hers isn’t as strong as theirs, something about the undertone reminds me—"

"Are you seriously trying to tell me she might be one of them?" the person cut in with a low, mocking laugh that held no humor. "How is that even possible? She’s hiding behind glasses because she can barely see. She carries no scent of those creatures on her, and from what I know, she eats fish. Those bastards don’t eat fish, they can’t even stand the sight of us werewolves. Or have your senses finally started to dull with your age, Elder Halvrek?"

Elder Halvrek’s fingers tightened into white-knuckled fists at his sides. His reply came out strained. "I must have been mistaken. After all, our kind and theirs are similar in many ways, and our scents can overlap. She wouldn’t have survived this long if she were truly one of them, she would have been eaten or sacrificed long ago."

"Good." The man’s voice was cold. "Don’t waste time looking for shortcuts or chasing ghosts. That girl is not our problem right now, as long as she doesn’t do anything to help the Alpha regain more power or strengthen his hold on the Alpha seat. She’s not a threat to me. Leave her be."

He told them firmly before rising to his feet, and both figures in the room bowed their heads.

"Before the cure is found, I need a real opportunity to end the Alpha once and for all. Focus your efforts on that instead of hunting imaginary creatures among us."

The two elders bowed deeply as he turned to leave.

But he stopped at the door, a dark, thoughtful expression crossing his shadowed face. When he spoke again, his voice had shifted to a more calculating one. "On a second thought, Elder Halvrek... there is no harm in keeping a very close eye on the girl. There’s something distinctly fishy about her, and I can’t quite place my finger on it yet."

He turned his head slightly, the corner of his lip curling into a predatory smile. "Here’s what you’ll do: make sure every single dish at her first Luna gathering in the morning is prepared with fish. We will test your little suspicion tomorrow. If she turns out to be one of them..." He paused, the corner of his eyes crinkling from his smile.

"...then we will finally be one step ahead of Sebastian. We will rip out her heart and use it to achieve the goal he has failed to reach."

---

The next morning, Viola woke disoriented, her mind still thick and foggy with sleep as she reached automatically for her glasses the way she did every single morning without thinking. She put them on and was about to get up from the bed when she paused, her brows drawing together as she noticed that her vision hadn’t cleared the way it was supposed to. What the hell?!

She squinted hard through the lenses and yet everything remained stubbornly and disturbingly hazy. Viola decided that perhaps dust had accumulated on them since she hadn’t worn them at all the day before, opting for lenses instead. She took them off with the full intention of cleaning them, but froze. The moment the glasses left her face, her vision cleared completely.

Viola blinked repeatedly, convinced her mind was still caught in the lingering fog of sleep and that she wasn’t yet fully awake. She tried the glasses again. Blurry. She removed them, and everything sharpened into perfect clarity. She frowned in deep confusion. How was that possible? She could see clearly without her glasses...

Viola got off the bed, not yet paying attention to any details around her, not even to the fact that it was the morning after her wedding, as she made her way to the bathroom and came to stand before the sink and mirror, staring at her own reflection.

Her eyes stared back at her, clear and sharp without any aid. She cupped water in her palm from the tap and splashed it onto her face as if to fully shake herself awake, and then gasped sharply when she thought she caught a flash of something gold in the mirror. But it was gone before she could make sense of it.

She splashed water on her face again, but this time there was no gold flash, and she let out a slow breath, deciding it had been nothing more than a trick of the bathroom light playing against her tired eyes.

Her mind circled back to what could possibly have cured her eyesight overnight. She raised her hands and used her fingers to widen her eyes and inspect them more closely in the mirror, but then the reflection of the wedding ring on her finger caught the light, and Viola was hit with a rush of memories from yesterday all at once. Her wedding day. The marking ceremony.

The marking ceremony. Sebastian had marked her with a temporary mark. Could the mark be the reason her vision had cleared this morning? Did it perhaps carry some kind of after effect that healed things?

She had never heard of such a thing, but then if it did have a healing effect, why on earth hadn’t it cleared the red marks and hickeys scattered all over her neck?! She leaned closer to the mirror, her eyes going wide. Did Sebastian really leave all of these hickeys on her?!

Her eyes closed in utter embarrassment and disbelief. She had almost managed to forget everything when she first woke up, but the hickeys brazenly marking her neck brought it all crashing back in vivid, merciless detail, not just her own completely unhinged jealousy, but her own utter shamelessness, and everything that had followed after it.

Viola’s cheeks turned the deep, vivid shade of rose petals and she buried her face behind both palms, cursing herself under her breath. "How on earth did you do all of that?"