Chapter 547: Pack Invasion

"You can’t read it?" He asked, and when she shook her head, his mouth settled into a flat line. "That’s Vaelor’s cavemen handwriting. I wasn’t even supposed to take anything from his diary, but this page had already come loose, fallen out. It says, the love of my life made me kill her."

Viola’s brows pulled together, staring hard at the writing as though sheer focus might make it suddenly legible, before she looked back up at her husband.

"What does that even mean? Did she do something he believed made her deserve to die? Or did she ask him to do it? Why would she ever ask for that?" She whispered, none of it making any real sense to her, why would any woman ask for her own death, knowing full well what it would unleash, especially the feud it would spark between mermaids and werewolves for generations after?

And if Vaelor truly loved her, why would he have listened to her, agreed to kill her? None of it added up for Viola, and she frowned down at the paper in her hands.

Sebastian took it back from her, seeing how intently she was staring at it, folding it carefully before continuing with everything else he’d learned. He told her everything he’d read in the diary, every image of it that had formed so vividly in his mind.

"One thing’s certain, he genuinely loved her once. The resentment only started after he killed her, which, honestly, doesn’t make much sense to me either." Sebastian said, dragging his fingers through his silver hair, leaving it disheveled as he settled back against the couch, turning to his thoughtful wife.

"Maybe we should ask your sister if Azmira left anything of her own behind. Maybe she kept a diary too." Sebastian suggested, since there seemed to be no other way to know what the mermaid herself had actually been thinking at the time.

"I’ll ask her, the moment she’s back. She still hasn’t returned from the sea yet." She paused. "If you’re the only one who can actually read Vaelor’s handwriting, that makes it fairly clear... you might really have been him, in another life." She whispered, watching him grimace at the thought.

"As much as I hate the idea of being a man who killed his own wife for powers, it does seem that way," he mused, reaching out to gently smooth her hair back, staring into her luminous blue eyes as he added, "I would never do that to you, amor. I might share some kind of connection to him, but I refuse to claim what he did as my own action." He trailed his hand down to her neck, stroking it gently with his thumb, and she leaned into his touch instinctively.

"I know. We’ll figure it out together. But first, go take a shower, and I’ll put something quick together for you." Viola said, already standing before he could stop her, making her way toward the kitchen, wanting to take care of him too and make breakfast.

While she stood in the kitchen, she couldn’t stop turning over everything he’d told her, how Vaelor hadn’t only killed Azmira, but had gone on to hate his own brother afterward too along with the mermaid herself. Something about all of it still didn’t sit right and it was like there were still missing pieces.

A few minutes later, Sebastian came downstairs, freshly showered. He came up behind her at the stove, where she stood turning bacon with a fork, and wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing a kiss to the top of her head before resting his chin there. His scent wrapped around her entirely, so good her wolf stirred awake inside her like a starving beast, and she melted back against him.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked, and Viola shook her head.

"Nothing. Just making your breakfast." She said lightly.

He glanced down at the sizzling bacon. "I honestly don’t know what smells best right now, the coffee, the bacon, or my wife whose scent is getting stronger by the second. You’re getting aroused and it’s enticing." He licked slowly along her neck, his warm tongue trailing over her skin sending shivers down her spin.

"Wow, I’m flattered. I must smell pretty good, if I’m ranking right up there with coffee and bacon." She said, a small moan threading through her teasing tone, since it had been months since she and her husband had been together like this, and she’d missed it, even with everything else weighing on her mind, she still wanted him touching her.

She felt him grin against the top of her head. "I could eat you right up." His tone carried both teasing and something far more serious, sensual, and heat swept through her that had nothing to do with embarrassment. She leaned back into him, her knees suddenly weak. She could feel him hard and swollen against her, and she rubbed her bottom slowly against it.

"I think we need to go back to bed." There was no teasing left in his voice at all, this time.

"Now?" She asked. "What about your breakfast?"

"It can wait." He reached around her and switched off the stove.

Ten minutes later, she was completely naked, breathless, trembling right on the edge of climax. Her thighs draped over his shoulders, her husband driving her slowly, deliberately, toward absolute madness with his tongue alone.

She tried to pull him up and over her, but he pinned her wrists to the bed instead and kept going. She surrendered completely, her hips lifting, her whole body shuddering through her release. Only once she’d gone limp did he finally move up over her, covering her body with his, sliding into her with one smooth, deep thrust that took him all the way in, and Viola’s eyes rolled back.

She inhaled sharply, having already forgotten just how completely he filled her.

He set a slow, steady rhythm, his hands gripping her shoulders, his eyes fixed on her face, mindful of her belly the whole time.

He loved her so thoroughly that Viola drifted off to sleep afterward in his arms, waking up later to an empty bed, a smile already forming on her face, only to have it fall away the instant she registered what had actually woken her.

The pack-wide alarm system was blaring, red lights flashing everywhere, the unmistakable signal of a pack invasion. For one disoriented second, Viola thought she had to be dreaming, but the red light was unmistakably real, and her heart gave one heavy, lurching thud.

"Pack invasion..."