Chapter 163

Viola herself had been caught in scandals and rumors, and she knew all too well what it felt like to be attacked by things that were fundamentally untrue. Or perhaps it was simply that other side of Viola, the part that despised injustice and couldn’t stomach watching anyone be treated unfairly, had refused to let her walk away. Either way, rather than turning around and leaving the she-wolf alone the way everyone else apparently did, warning each other that she was dangerous without her husband there to manage her, Viola moved forward.

She crouched down beside her and reached out, gently wrapping her fingers around the wrist of the hand still scraping against the wall, tearing the skin and letting blood ooze steadily onto the floor.

“You’re bleeding…” Viola murmured softly.

But the moment her fingers closed around her wrist, Sofia reacted instantly. She whirled around and yanked her hand back violently, and in the process her hand swung directly into Viola’s nose, drawing blood from it. Viola hissed sharply but didn’t let go, and Sofia began to scream, crying and pleading desperately,

“Don’t hurt me…. don’t hurt me…!”

Her voice rang and echoed through the entire stairwell as she thrashed and pulled against Viola’s grip.

Viola, with blood now trailing freely from her nose down over her lips and jaw, said quickly and steadily, “I won’t hurt you, I promise. Calm down. Please, I need your help.”

Viola understood the deep, bone-level fear of anticipating being hit, she had lived in it herself, and she knew what she would have needed to hear in that state to make the panic recede. She used exactly that on Sofia, and almost immediately the she-wolf stopped struggling and pressed herself back against the wall, hiding behind the curtain of her hair and watching Viola through it with wide, wary eyes.

“I will let go of your wrist now, but please don’t run. I won’t hurt you, I just want to ask you something…” Viola said gently. But if Sofia heard her, she gave no reply, only continuing to watch her through the dark curtain of her hair with deep and open distrust.

Viola released her wrist, and the she-wolf immediately curled up against the wall, pulling her knees tightly to her chest as though trying to make herself as small as possible.

Viola kept her eyes on her as she used her sleeve to wipe the blood from her nose, and then she settled herself down onto the floor as well, crossing her legs and letting out a quiet sigh.

“My name is Viola, but you can also call me Vee. What would you like me to call you?” Viola asked, but only silence met her, and she realized that Sofia’s trust was not something that would be given easily, if it would be given at all.

“I guess you are hiding here away from the guests. I understand completely, because I also wish I could hide. With all those Alphas filling the building and their combined aura pressing down on everything, it is suffocating.” Viola said conversationally, keeping her eyes on the wary she-wolf.

Sofia said nothing and only stared.

“You know, I used to love being around people, especially important ones, but now they drain me completely. And I am getting married tomorrow and will have to mingle with all of them and act like a Luna.” Viola said quietly, wanting to give the she-wolf something to hold onto, something that might slowly coax the wall down and make her talk. “You know, I haven’t let it show to anyone, but I am genuinely afraid of tomorrow. Afraid of meeting all the Alphas of every pack under one roof.”

Viola studied the she-wolf, wondering what her face looked like behind all that dark hair hanging around it like a curtain. She had seen Sofia around the building a few times now, and every single time it had made her quietly angry, the way the she-wolf was treated when she deserved to be treated with dignity and respect as Javier’s wife. But then Javier himself barely offered her any respect to begin with, so perhaps it started and ended there.

“Do you realize that you and I will be cousins-in-law, if that even makes sense? I am marrying your husband’s cousin.” Viola said, and then after a brief pause, she added, “Do you like chocolate?” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a bar of chocolate she had been carrying around, intending to eat it herself as she had been craving it.

She held it out toward Sofia, but the she-wolf’s eyes only dropped to it without making any move to reach for it. Viola let out a small sigh and set it gently on the floor in front of her instead.

“As much as I would like to stay and keep chatting with you, even if it is entirely one-sided, I have to go and try on my finished wedding dress, Sofia. Tomorrow is a very big day.” She said, and then she added with quiet sincerity, “I hope to see you there.”

Saying that, she got to her feet, and Sofia’s head tilted slowly back and looked up at her through the thick curtain of her hair.

Viola smiled down at her warmly and said, “Let’s do this, how about you and I meet here again in two days? I will be so glad to have your company. I hope that by then we can talk a little more and get to know each other properly as new family members.”

Sofia’s brow furrowed faintly as she watched Viola turn and walk away. She even crawled forward on her hands and knees to peek around the corner of the landing and watch the future Luna disappear up the stairwell, before she slowly turned back around and stared down at the bar of chocolate sitting on the floor in front of her.

Carefully, she crawled toward it and picked it up with trembling fingers. She tore the wrapper open slowly and then simply stared at the chocolate for a long moment, tears gathering silently in her eyes. She devoured it in two bites, and then she picked up the empty wrapper and brought it to her lips, licking every last trace from the inside of it before tucking it carefully into her shirt and patting it gently against her chest, as though keeping it safe was the most important thing in the world.

“Meet me in two days…” She whispered softly to herself, her voice barely above a breath in the silence of the stairwell.