Chapter 60 A FRIENDLY REMINDER
SEBASTIAN'S POV
One moment, the room is quiet with the tension hanging in the air like a storm about to break.
Then the next, the door bursts open with an intruder walking in with confidence.
“Alpha Ragnar!” Beta Ava’s signature voice rings out everywhere in the room sounding sharp and cutting.
I watch with wry amusement as her eyes flare with annoyance and something darker in my presence. It's disapproval. “Your father is summoning you, now.”
Ragnar stiffens instantly with a flicker of frustration crossing his features.
His father must really not want the both of us to spend any more time than necessary together.
I'm feeling jittery at the thought that his father just might chase me out of this pack if necessary.
What would I do?
I have nowhere else to go.
I look at Ragnar in contemplation as I wonder what he would do.
Would he stand up to his actual birth father, the one who carried him for months for me?
Would he tell him that I'm his mate?
And if he did, would his father stand by him or cast us away?
According to the laws, the bond between us should not even exist in the first place so would he get rid of me to maintain his pack's peace?
Or if he wanted to be done with it, would he make Ragnar reject me and cleanly sever the bond causing the weaker party, in this case me, to run mad or go crazy?
What would Ragnar do?
Why isn't he saying anything damn it!
The only thing I'm seeing or noticing from him is the reluctance that passes his eyes.
I glance at Ava as my stomach starts twisting.
She doesn’t like me, no surprise there.
She's made it abundantly clear even before anything happened between Alpha Ragnar and I, she never liked me and now, Alpha Ragnar's father also doesn’t like me.
For him to send her to summon Ragnar to him, I realize this isn’t going to be simple for me.
Ragnar’s gaze flickers to me in a protective yet wary stare as he moves his sight from Beta Ava to me.
He sighs before standing and walking towards the entrance. “Ava, you're with me.”
“Your father also has a private message for… the Omega that he has instructed me to pass on to him. Alone.”
“Well I don't care Ava, you go where I g–”
“It's okay Aloha Ragnar,” I interrupt him with Beta Ava looking at me in scorn.
I sigh and continue. “I would also like to hear the message for me.” Beta Ava scoffs at my tone before looking at Ragnar with a raised eyebrow.
Ragnar curses under his breath before storming out of the room and slamming the door hard to my shock.
I'm left alone with Beta Ava in the silent room.
The door’s echo hasn’t even finished dying down before Ava turns on me.
The silence stretches between us as I wonder why I'm going to say to her.
How awkward.
I'm still contemplating when she starts slowly and deliberately clapping.
“How touching,” she says coolly. “The omega thinks he gets a say.”
Her tone is dry without amusement as she scrutinizes me from head to toe.
I straighten despite the tremor crawling up my spine as I summon courage. “I wasn’t trying to challenge anyone, Beta Ava. I only wanted to explain–”
“Explain?” She laughs a humorless laughter as if I just told a boring joke. “You?” Her eyes rake over me once more as she moves in closer to me making me gulp.
“How dare a nobody like you climb into your Alpha’s bed and think explanations are something owed to you?!”
Heat flares in my chest at her direct jab.
I feel both anger and humiliation in me as I frantically try to explain.
“It wasn’t like that. Ragnar and I–”
“Oh you call him by his name now?”
“I mean… Alpha Ragnar and I, what happened between us wasn’t from any sort of manipulation or anything. I didn’t seek him out for power or protection in the first place.”
“And yet, here you are.”
She stops directly in front of me.
She's too close to me, her presence presses down on me with an invincible force and her Beta authority.
She was a Beta, but she was one of if not the strongest of them all.
“Don’t insult my intelligence Omega,” Ava snaps. “Every omega knows exactly what they’re doing when they spread their legs for an Alpha.”
The words hit me like a cold slap.
My jaw tightens. “I didn’t seduce him. I didn’t trick him. Our relationship–”
“–shouldn’t exist,” she cuts in viciously. “And you know it.”
My throat tightens.
I can feel the buildup of tears but I push through it and I continue.
“Feelings don’t always follow the laws, Beta Ava. Alpha Ragnar cares about me. Despite whatever you think or whatever his father thinks, this isn’t just a game to me.”
She stares at me for a long moment, then smiles slowly.
“Care?” she repeats. “Is that what you're calling it?” She asks as she starts giggling.
Her hand gestures vaguely at me.
“Just take a look at you. You're moderately tall and that's the only thing working for you. Besides that, you're thin with only sharp bones and shaking hands.”
She sits on a couch not too far away before facing me. “You can barely hold your ground standing in front of me, and you expect us to believe you can stand beside an Alpha?”
I swallow hard. “Strength isn’t only physical.”
Ava snorts. “Spoken truly like someone who has none.”
She circles around me now, in a predatory manner. “You can’t fight. You can’t lead. Your wolf is weak, barely a whisper compared to Ragnar’s. Even among the omegas, you’re… fragile.”
I turn around to keep her in sight as I feel my heart still roaring. “That doesn’t make me worthless.”
“No?” She stops behind me. I feel her presence like a blade behind me. “What exactly do you bring to him then?”
I hesitate.
And that hesitation damns me in her eyes.