Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 229

Chapter 229

Cynthia woke up with a slap.

For a few seconds, she did not even understand what had happened. Sleep tore away from her violently, leaving her trapped between

darkness and pain. Her cheek burned hot, her mouth felt strange, and her vision blurred as she tried to make sense of the room. The first thing she saw was the ceiling. Then the pale wash of morning light pressing softly through the curtains. Then Sebastien standing over her, breathing hard, his face twisted with an anger that looked too familiar to frighten her slowly. It frightened her a

once.

She blinked, confused by the pain on her face. Her hand rose to her cheek, and the heat there told her the slap had been real. Not a

nightmare. Not a memory from the night before. Another slap. Another morning beginning with Sebastien’s rage instead of peace.

Her heart started pounding before her mind fully caught up. That was the worst part. Her body knew what came after that look. I

knew before she did.

She looked around, noticed the soft morning sunlight partially lighting the room, and turned her eyes back to Sebastien. For one

small, foolish second, she wanted to ask if something had happened. As if the answer would be simple. As if he had woken her like

that because the hotel was on fire or because their enemies had come. But the fire was in his eyes, and the enemy in that moment

was her.

“Why?” she asked him, on the verge of tears.

Her voice came out weaker than she wanted. She hated that. She hated how quickly fear could steal the sharp edges from her. She hated that one night before, she had lain in that same bed feeling as if power had finally opened a door for her, and now Sebastien had dragged her back into the old familiar place where she had to brace herself against his anger and pretend it did not break pieces

off her.

“You do not know who you are fucking with, Cynthia,” Sebastien said.

He began to pace about the room, but it did not calm him. If anything, the movement made him look more dangerous. Like a wolf trapped inside a room too small for the fury inside him. His hands kept opening and closing. His jaw worked as if there were words he wanted to bite through instead of speak. Cynthia sat up properly, still holding her cheek, watching him move. She did not understand how he knew. She did not understand what the Alpha had told him, or whether someone else had sent word, or whether

Sebastien had been waiting for this moment since before he left the night before.

“Why can’t you be loyal? Why can’t you be faithful?” he asked her, his eyes red and filled with tears.

The tears shocked her more than the anger. Sebastien angry was familiar. Sebastien cruel was familiar. Sebastien raising his hand was something she hated but understood. But Sebastien with tears in his eyes made the room tilt in a different way because it reminded her there had once been something soft beneath all that bitterness. Something she had damaged. Something he had

buried so deep she had almost forgotten it existed.

“You have hurt me so many times, Cynthia. Ethan dodged a bullet when you left him,” he said, still pacing the room.

His words hit harder than she expected. Not because she cared deeply about Ethan now, not in the way she once pretended to care,

17

|||

O

1/3

Chapter 229

but because Sebastien said it like he finally saw her from outside himself. Like he was no longer only the man who wanted her,” hated her, needed her, punished her, and still kept her. He was looking at her as a pattern. As destruction. As someone even a man in Ethan’s condition had been lucky to lose.

“You cheated on me twice, then tried to fuck my brother for power. I still forgave you and remained with you. I do not understand why, but I have been a fool for you, Cynthia,” he said, running his fingers through his hair.

Cynthia swallowed, but nothing went down. Her throat felt dry and tight. She wanted to defend herself, to twist the memory, to say he was exaggerating, to remind him of all the things she had done for him too. But the past was an ugly thing when it was dragged into the light without decoration. She had cheated. She had tried to move to his brother because she thought his brother would rise higher. She had chased power and called it survival. She had expected Sebastien to forgive because he loved her, and he had. Again and again, in his own damaged way.

“You turned me into a monster. I have never hit a woman in my life. It started with you. If I do not hit you, you won’t behaye. Now even hitting you won’t make you behave. Why will you do this to yourself? Do you know who and what you are fucking with?” he

asked her.

Cynthia stared at him, confused and scared at the same time. His words were twisted. She heard it even through fear. He blamed her

for the monster he had become, as if his hand was hers, as if every bruise and slap was something she had pulled out of him and

not something he chose to give. But there was no safe place to say that to him. Not now. Not when he was this angry. So she only

watched him, her cheek throbbing, her eyes wet, waiting for the part that would explain what had truly set him off.

“I have never met the Alpha before. We talk on the phone, but I know he is dangerous and ambitious. You do not even know why I

chose to work for him,” he said, still pacing.

Cynthia’s confusion deepened. Sebastien had never told her that. He had spoken about the Alpha like an opportunity. A powerful

man. A hidden force. A way to gain a pack and finally rise after the humiliation with his brother. She had assumed ambition drove

him, because ambition drove everyone she understood. But now he was speaking like there was something else behind it. Something

heavier. Something he had kept from her.

“I know you want to be Luna badly, and you want to be the most powerful and influential woman in our world, but at what cost,

Cynthia? At the cost of your soul?” he asked.

She flinched slightly. Not because the question was noble, but because it sounded too close to the truth. She did want it. She

wanted the title. The power. The security. The fear in other people’s eyes. The respect she had never truly earned but always

believed she deserved. She wanted a position so high no one could make her feel small again. Not Ethan. Not Joseph. Not Sebastien.

Not his brother. Not any woman who had looked at her like she was cheap, She wanted to become untouchable.

“You dumped Ethan because he couldn’t walk. You told me he told you to leave and find happiness elsewhere, I believed you and let

you in. I was uneasy about claiming you. Klein was uneasy about Medley, yet I pushed through. I pushed through because I love you.

Even after I found out you lied about Ethan,” he said with tears in his eyes.

17

|||

O

Г

2/3

12:32 Wed, Jun 17 M DO

Underwater: The Silent Luna