Chapter 530 Rude Guests

In another part of High Tower, the guests had finished dinner without either the Alpha or his Luna ever joining them at the table, something many of Sebastian’s aunties found unforgivably rude, and couldn’t resist commenting on the moment the meal wound down.

“We’ve traveled all the way from Steel Pack to be here and present, out of respect, and not once has that boy bothered to come greet us himself. He clearly has no manners at all, no one ever bothered instilling any in him.” Remarked Sebastian’s step aunt, who was his late mother’s stepsister, dabbing her mouth with a napkin, and her sister echoed her with a scoffing “Humph.”

“Of course, who exactly was supposed to instill manners in him? Isadora died when he and Alex were only ten, and a boy raised without a mother grows up mannerless, plain and simple. And that wife of his, she showed us no respect either, when she ought to be the one serving us tonight. Girls of this generation have no respect left for their husbands’ families anymore, and—”

“Aunt Tabitha,” Laila called out, smiling tightly from across the table, seated between Ivy and Tess. The three of them had been doing their best all evening to keep the guests entertained, hoping to spare their friend the burden in her current condition, but clearly, there was no pleasing people like this.

The moment Sebastian’s grandmother, Eleanor, had excused herself from the hall with Alex, the conversation had swiftly turned to insulting Viola, with plenty of shade thrown at Sebastian, and Laila, listening to these aunties complain endlessly, women who were currently enjoying every luxury Silver had to offer purely because of their connection to Sebastian, finally reached her limit.

“You seem to have a real problem with girls of this generation, so much so you’ve apparently forgotten the person you’re discussing is your Supreme Luna, and she doesn’t owe anyone here her constant attention. You didn’t come here to see her in the first place, you came for a memorial, which you’ve now attended, and should—”

Laila’s words cut off the moment her own mother, seated across the table beside the gossiping she-wolf, shot her a sharp warning glare, since apparently, no matter how modern the world had become, one still didn’t talk back to one’s elders in their culture. Laila, however, had never much cared for that particular rule, and she ignored her mother’s look entirely, continuing to defend her friend against the gossipmongers.

“I’d suggest we all focus on the actual reason we’re gathered here today, rather than gossiping about a pregnant woman who needs rest, and an atmosphere free of toxic guests. If everyone’s finished their meals, feel free to retire to your rooms and let the omegas clear up.” Laila instructed, and her words did nothing but draw every eye at the table straight toward her, attention she could have happily lived without. All twenty something guests seated around the table turned to look at her at once.

“Laila, is it?” One of the elder aunties asked, studying her with mild surprise, since everyone present already knew her as the smart, perfect she-wolf once believed, long ago, to be destined to marry the very boy they all considered so disrespectful now.

“Yes, that’s me.” Laila said, taking a sip of her wine and setting the glass down, even as she felt her mother’s stare boring a hole clean through her.

“Agnes, your daughter really is something, talking to us like that.” Sebastian’s aunt Becky remarked, a longtime friend of Laila’s mother, turning to address the woman directly. “We’d heard rumors about her, some time back, but none of us took them seriously. Seems they were true after all. You didn’t raise this girl with a firm enough hand, clearly, and with an attitude like that, she’ll never get anywhere in life.”

Laila opened her mouth to respond to the woman directly, but her mother beat her to it. “Children of this generation, I tell you, Becky, but Laila isn’t usually like this. Laila,” Agnes turned to her daughter, whose eyes had already narrowed in open disapproval, still glaring at the Alpha’s aunties everyone else at the table treated with such deference. “Apologize to your elder, dear.”

Laila let out a short, humorless laugh at her mother before saying, “I’m not apologizing to anyone, because nothing I said was wrong. If anything, they’re the ones who owe the Luna an apology, for badmouthing her behind her back all evening, when she’s the reason they are welcomed into Silver again. If you’ll excuse me.” Laila pushed her chair back and, with one last glare at the table, walked away, entirely done entertaining any of this.

The moment she left, the two gossiping women turned to her mother in open disbelief. “Oh, my word, Agnes, you’ve clearly lost all control over that daughter of yours. You let her speak to you that way? My daughter would never dream of looking me in the eye like that, let alone humiliating me in public.”

Laila’s mother flushed with embarrassment as murmurs about her daughter’s conduct rippled around the table, since in their world, above almost everything else, a mother’s control over her children, and her children’s respect for her, was meant to be absolute and unquestionable.

Almost as if on cue, almost everyone began talking about Laila’s wild lifestyle and how she had been living her life, further humiliating Agnes as she listened to her daughter being called a bitch who opened her legs for every man.

“If you’re not careful, your entire bloodline dies with that one. She’s your only daughter, unmated at her age, speaking to her elders like that, you’ll be stuck raising a single daughter for the rest of your days, because I promise you, men don’t want women like that.” Becky pressed, salting the wound of a mother who had raised her daughter to be independent, and was now, apparently, expected to regret it.

“Had she been a polite girl, it would have been wonderful to be tied to our family through marriage, especially since my son has come of age to find a mate. But unfortunately…” Becky trailed off, shaking her head in dismay, as she believed her son was a prize any she-wolf would be lucky to have, simply because he was related to Sebastian to some extent, and someone like Laila wasn’t worthy of him.

“If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go make sure she apologizes properly.” Agnes excused herself and went after her daughter, the whispers of the other guests trailing behind her the whole way.