Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 218

Chapter 218

The thought was cold, but Cynthia did not flinch from it. She had spent too long being the woman beside a man who almost rose.

Almost became Alpha. Almost secured a pack. Almost gave her status. Almost forgave her. Almost loved her the way he once did, She was tired of almost. As things stood, the Alpha, however old he might be, was the upgrade she needed. Sebastien had told her

the man was in his late forties. Cynthia honestly did not mind at this point. Age meant nothing if it came with security and power.

A powerful older Alpha was better than a bitter younger man who still treated her like the mistake she made years ago.

Anyone with the resources to take over the two most powerful packs without showing himself was a force to reckon with. That kind

of man was not small. That kind of man could protect her from Sebastien, elevate her beyond old shame, and place her where she

had always wanted to be. At the top. Seen. Feared. Obeyed.

She hoped he would request to meet her soon. If he did, she would perform well. She would show him she was useful. She would

show him she could handle Whitewood, handle enemies, handle pressure. She would do whatever needed to be done to get out of

Sebastien’s clutches.

Sebastien returned in the night.

Cynthia heard the door first. The click of it. The shift of the handle. Then he entered, and something about his countenance made her stomach drop. She could not place it immediately. He was not simply tired. Not just annoyed. There was a dark tightness around

him, something coiled in his shoulders, something already waiting to strike.

She had been lying on the bed when he entered, so she sat up immediately, ready to listen to the Alpha’s instructions. She expected news. Orders. Some explanation of what came next. Maybe even a warning about Whitewood or Ceenas. Instead, Sebastien crossed

the room and slapped her.

The slap cracked across her face so hard that her head turned with it. Pain burst through her cheek, hot and sharp. She tasted blood

in her mouth almost instantly. Fear flooded her body before she could think, because that was always how the beating began. One

slap was never just one slap when Sebastien looked like that.

“You fucking whore. How dare you try to double-cross me?” Sebastien said and slapped her again.

The second slap sent tears into her eyes. She tried to fight back because pride rose in her too, because some part of her still refused

to simply fold. But Sebastien was stronger, angrier, and already too far gone. He held her by the throat, lifting just enough that she

had to get on her feet quickly so he would not dislocate her neck. Her hands went to his wrist, not really pushing him off, just

trying to keep enough space to breathe.

Her tears streamed down her face, and she pleaded with him not to hurt her. She hated the sound of her own voice when she

begged. She hated how small it became. How familiar.

“You should have thought of it when you called Alpha and asked to meet with him. Did you think I wouldn’t find out? Why do you

keep embarrassing me like this?” he asked her.

Cynthia did not know what to say. Her mind scrambled for a lie, an excuse, something to soften him, something to shift the blame,

something to make him believe she had done it for them and not herself. This was where she wished she had Ashley’s lying skills.

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Chapter 218

Ashley could weep and twist and act wounded until people doubted their own anger. Cynthia could manipulate when she had space,

when she had time, when she had a man’s desire working in her favour. But under Sebastien’s hand, with blood in her mouth and

his rage in her face, her thoughts scattered.

“You good for nothing bitch,” he said and hit her against the wall.

Her back struck hard enough to knock some air out of her. He moved close and sniffed around her, taking in the scent of her fear.

That made her close her eyes tightly. There was something humiliating about it. Not only that he scared her, but that he enjoyed

knowing it. He could smell how badly she feared him, and instead of softening, he looked disgusted by her.

“You tried this same fucked up shit with my brother, and now this. If I am not good enough, why hang around? Do you think I am

like that McCloud wimp that you left?” he said.

She shook her head fast.

There were too many dangerous things in that question. His brother. Joseph. The Alpha. Her ambition. Every man she had tried to

use as a ladder stood between them like ghosts, and Sebastien hated every single one.

“It is only over when I say it is over. Am I clear? You still owe me, Cynthia. For everything I lost because of you, you owe me,” he

told her.

She nodded quickly.

Sebastien let her go, and Cynthia nearly folded with the relief of being able to breathe properly. Her throat hurt. Her face burned.

Her pride was bleeding harder than her mouth. She started begging him from fear, but also from calculation. She would lose if he

kicked her out and said he was done with her now. She had not secured the next level yet. She had no protection from the Alpha. No

guarantee. No position. Not yet.

She needed to move higher before she could dump him.

That was the truth, ugly as it was.

“Won’t you punish me?” she asked him with an alluring voice.

Sebastien growled at her because she knew how to tease him, and she hated that she knew it worked. The room shifted then, but

not into tenderness. It became another kind of control, another kind of punishment, one wrapped in the old, damaged chemistry

between them. Cynthia knew the pattern. She had survived it before. He could hurt her and still want her. He could despise her and

still be drawn to her. He could call her names and still not let her go.

He turned her around and pushed her against the wall.

What followed was rough, angry, and full of the bitterness that had lived between them since the day he stopped seeing her as the

woman he adored. There was no softness in it. No love. No carefulness. He had stopped treating her delicately after he found out

she had tried to sleep with his brother. He had promised never to treat her like a woman he cared about after that, and he had kept

that promise with a cruelty that never truly lost its edge.

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Chapter 218

He started treating her like a whore and had never stopped.

He would have dumped her if she were not useful, and if he were not addicted to her. That was the twisted truth tying them

together. Usefulness. Addiction. Resentment. Old love rotting under years of betrayal. Cynthia knew it. Sebastien knew it too. Neither of them had the courage or wisdom to cut it clean.

Afterwards, he left her alone and went to clean up in the bathroom.

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Underwater: The Silent Luna