Chapter 57
Sebastian was aware that she was a very smart and intelligent woman, as he had seen through her phone the way she spent her time, solving even the hardest puzzles.
He had even dug deeper into her life himself and realized just how much more foolish Evan had been to let someone like this slip away for someone like Leni, who had no academic achievements and no Luna potential, unlike this one who had clearly displayed both in the past during their academy days.
If Sebastian were an ordinary Alpha of a normal pack without a prophecy, he could see himself keeping and protecting this little woman and having her rule next to him. He liked smart, intelligent women who didn’t shout about their achievements or capabilities but let them speak for themselves.
Only he wasn’t an ordinary Alpha. He thought this as his gaze drifted to the IV drip attached to her wrist, the clear liquid sliding steadily into her veins. Her being stronger than he had initially assumed still didn’t change the undeniable fact that she was wolfless, for reasons even he could not understand or explain.
Being wolfless was almost unheard of within their kind unless one was born between a very weak omega and a human, a rare and unfortunate pairing that often resulted in diluted bloodlines. But her parents were not omegas at all, her father was a beta, and her two siblings in Moonwillow both possessed their wolves without issue.
So what, exactly, was wrong with her?
If she were merely a late bloomer, she should have received her wolf two years ago after the day of her Awakening, at the age of nineteen, when the Moon Goddess granted their kind their inner beasts and marked them as complete.
Yet that clearly did not appear to be the case here. She carried no wolf scent at all, none of that faint, underlying presence that even the weakest wolf could not fully conceal. There was only her own human-like fragrance and essence, without the layered undertone of a second soul dwelling within her.
The doctor had said she had fallen into this condition because she had pushed her body beyond its limits and hadn’t been getting enough sleep due to all the stress. That, combined with exhaustion, had led to her collapsing and developing a fever.
Her hands were covered in blisters when her gloves were removed, and so were her feet, proof of how much she had worked herself to exhaustion. Though wolfless, if she could hold on to such strength, Sebastian couldn’t doubt that she would do fine in the Silver.
’Are you there?’ Sebastian said, reaching for his wolf who had gone quiet since that afternoon. Of course, the wolf didn’t answer, not after the decision Sebastian had made hours ago that deeply upset his wolf.
After seeing the pain in the girl’s eyes and everything she was doing just to be his Luna, which he was impressed by in spite of himself, he had decided to send her away to the human world and disqualify her from the competition the moment he returned home today.
Not because she was weak, but because now he was certain there was a great chance of her winning it. And winning would bring her nowhere but closer to him, and closer to death.
If his prophecy didn’t take her life, his enemies would use her against him and bring about his downfall. And Sebastian feared weakness more than he feared anything else.
Laila would be great for him, because despite the mate bond, he didn’t feel any risk of attachment to her that went beyond physical attraction. Meanwhile, this one made him curious and stirred his protective side awake. She made him want to protect her, to keep her away from anything harmful, even from himself.
So she has to go. Far, far away from his life and fight and heal her inner demons.
’Fuck you, man! I am never speaking to you again. In fact, I will break our ties. You saw how she was willing to die and how determined she is aiming to be your Luna, but you want to make her miserable by disqualifying her after she has worked this hard! Don’t you know people like her, who are willing to die for something, could kill themselves if they don’t get it?’ his wolf had said incredulously, before withdrawing to the back of his mind and shutting him out completely.
’Fuck yourself!’ the wolf had said.
Now, Sebastian tried to reach for his wolf again, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t. So he took a deep breath and then slowly said,
’Muffin, stop sulking. We need to talk p>
Immediately after he said that, the wolf came forward and scoffed, ’You finally decided to use my name p>
’And that would be the first and last time,’ Sebastian mused, disgusted.
When he had first found and awakened his wolf’s spirit inside him at the age of fourteen, his wolf had introduced himself as Muffin, a name Sebastian thought was ridiculously outrageous and one he would never use to address something inside him. But the wolf hadn’t been adamantly unwilling to change it, so Sebastian had simply never addressed him by name at all.
Muffin? How could the supreme Alpha bear a wolf named Muffin? That was a good insult to not just his pride but power.
Now he had no choice but to use it to draw the wolf out so they could talk.
’From now on, you will call me by my name or I won’t answer you. What do you want?’ Muffin grumbled.
’I have decided to let her stay and let her participate,’ Sebastian declared, expecting his wolf to be happy, but instead, Muffin only scoffed.
’You keep changing your mind nonstop like an old hag today. What makes you change your mind again now? I can’t become hopeful knowing you’ll just change it again and send her away while she’s unconscious p>
What made him change his mind? Sebastian wondered. She would make a good Luna, yes, but more than that, he wanted to see if she could survive the game without her wolf. Someone like her, facing the Silver’s trials as a human… it was unprecedented. He needed to know just how far she could push herself, how much strength and cunning she really had.
There was another reason entirely, one buried deeper than he cared to acknowledge, one he wasn’t ready to confront. Yet for now, he would let her participate, and watch closely.
She wanted to be his Luna, right? Fine. He would let her fight for it, so the elders would have no reason to oppose a wolfless as their Luna. If she won the competition, no one could stand in the way of crowning her.
’She wants it. I will let her fight for it, but on one condition,’ Sebastian said to his wolf.
’What condition?’ Muffin asked suspiciously and when Sebastian told him the condition, the wolf hesitated a little bit before agreeing.
’Deal. No more talk of sending her away then p>
’No more,’ Sebastian agreed.
’And you will eat my shit if she wins p>
’Shut up p>
Sebastian closed the connection and then turned his eyes to the peacefully sleeping girl, who was still holding onto him.
“It seems you have earned yourself another supporter, four eyes. Wake up soon before you miss your chance to fight,” he whispered.
Using his other free hand, he gently moved the hair that hovered and covered half of her face, disturbed when she had turned restlessly in her sleep. He smoothed the strands away from her face, then traced her porcelain-white cheek with the back of his finger, letting it slide slowly down to her parched, slightly parted lips. He felt the uneven edges beneath his touch and fought a stupid, foolish urge to lean down and soften them with his mouth and tongue, to lick, taste and sooth the dryness.
“You are going to be trouble, little twig p>
’But I like trouble and I like her. She will make you miserable. He he he.’ Muffin said.