Chapter 428 You don’t have to apologize

“You don’t actually expect her to still be asking for you, after you locked her up like a prisoner, Seb. I haven’t heard anything from the guards watching over her, but no doubt she’s furious with you.” Matt said matter-of-factly, since no mate would ever be pleased about being locked away like that.

Though Matt himself was as single as anyone could be, with no time to spare for mating, no idea where in the world the Moon Goddess had hidden his own mate, or even where he’d begin looking should the right time ever come, which, honestly, he suspected might never happen, he still knew without a doubt that the Luna would be angrier at Sebastian than she’d ever been before.

“I didn’t lock her in a dungeon, but in my house, where she gets everything she wants,” Sebastian said with a scowl.

“It doesn’t change the fact that you locked her up. She’s still going to be mad, man. And I’m telling you, angry women are not easily appeased. Once all of this is over, I hope you consider that vacation I asked you about.”

At this point, Matt couldn’t wait for all of it to be over, the sacrifice, Nick finally held accountable for everything he’d done so he could finally take a long, well-earned vacation from work and from the pack altogether. He pictured Mexico, exploring somewhere far from all of this, but even if he were granted that vacation right now, he wouldn’t be able to take it, not while he wanted Nick brought to justice just as badly as Sebastian did, for everything Nick had done to hurt their Zoe in the past.

And Matt— “Where are you going?” Matt’s thought cut off as he noticed Sebastian suddenly changing direction, veering away from the lab.

“To see my wife. I need to appease her, like you suggested,” he said flatly, already walking toward his penthouse. He belatedly realized he hadn’t felt anything from her since yesterday, since he’d ordered her to remain locked inside his house.

Matt followed him into the elevator, unwilling to miss the drama of the couple’s reunion or see how Sebastian planned to make up for what he’d done.

However, when they arrived at the door of his penthouse, all four guards were found fast asleep on the floor, sprawled across one another. Sebastian’s heart nearly stopped when he found the penthouse unlocked, the door hanging open.

For one fleeting second, he thought the worst.

His wife had been kidnapped.

He dashed inside.

Sebastian didn’t need to search the place for long to know that he couldn’t feel her presence anywhere in the house.

He began ordering a full search, but then he stopped when he noticed the couch was soaking wet, along with the rug beneath it. He didn’t need to wonder any further. The realization of what must have happened slowly dawned on him.

“That blasted creature! Hurry, check on the mermaid!” he ordered Matt, who was still examining the sleeping men on the floor.

“Do you think she escaped to free the mermaid? You don’t think she can do that alone, do you?” Matt asked in disbelief as he got to his feet and tried to reach the guards through the mind-link, only to find it completely silent.

“I can’t reach them, Seb. It’s couldn’t be the Luna’s doing, could it?”

“She’s gotten to her, and I trust that it’s her doing. She’s going to free the goddamned creature!”

They hurried off to check on the mermaid themselves, but when they arrived, Sebastian was stunned to find all the men he’d posted there fast asleep as well, the door hanging open.

His steps came to an abrupt halt when he saw that the mermaid was gone too.

A cold sweat ran down his spine, and whatever hope he’d had of finding his wife still there before she did the unreversible for him vanished like sand in the wind.

“Viola,” he gritted through his teeth.

•••

A few minutes earlier.

Viola walked down the silent hall leading to where she had last seen the mermaid after putting the men at Sebastian’s penthouse to sleep, careful not to alert the warriors. She had learned her lesson, to properly command with her song, she needed to strip every emotion and feeling from her heart, which hadn’t been so difficult after learning the mermaid was to be killed tomorrow.

Viola was still shaken by her strange dream, but she’d set it aside for now, telling herself it was nothing more than a dream that had come to her at a moment when she was already furious with her husband. None of it made sense, so she chose not to dwell on it.

She had changed into one of Sebastian’s shirts and a pair of his shorts, which wouldn’t have stayed up around her waist at all if not for the drawstring, since she had no clothes of her own in his penthouse, and doing what she was about to do required comfort above all else.

She peeked her head out from behind the pillar she was hiding behind and looked at Wave, who was staring directly at the dozens of men stationed around the mermaid.

“How many of them are there?” she asked Wave, but unfortunately, Wave didn’t understand numbers and simply held up a fistful of countless watery fingers instead, making her roll her eyes.

“Forget it. I’ll just sing.”

“You never taught me numbers, Mermaidia.”

“I’ll teach you once this is over. For now, stay quiet and let me concentrate.”

With that, Viola began to sing as she stepped out of hiding, walking confidently toward the guards. Her song reached them even before she did. One by one, she watched them collapse into sleep against one another on the floor, and a feeling of satisfaction bloomed in her chest.

She hurried to the leader and searched his pockets for keys, and once she found them, Viola smiled to herself and rushed to unlock the door, pushing it open with a little difficulties from it heaviness as it was different from the advanced doors of silver.

Once inside the room, she stopped short at the sight of the mermaid, who looked weakened now, her once-radiant tail dulled to a lifeless shade of blue. Yasmin was looking at her with a faint smile on her tired, pale face.

“You sing so well, cousin…” Yasmin whispered weakly, seeing Viola only as a hazy blur, her weakened eyes unable to focus without water around them. “Not even I can sing that well. I was never gifted with the song of colors, only the scream of mermaids…”

Viola walked toward her and began working at the binds, saying apologetically, “I’m sorry, on behalf of my mate, and I hope you’ll relay that to your own mate, so he won’t stir up trouble here because of this.”

The binds proved stubborn, so Viola allowed Wave to gnaw through part of them before tearing the rest apart with all her strength. The moment they gave way, the mermaid collapsed to the floor, weak, gasping for breath, and trembling like a fish out of water. Viola made space for Wave to drench her in water, and a little color slowly returned to her body as the water soaked into her skin.

“You don’t have to apologize on behalf of your mate,” Yasmin replied to her earlier words, “because he will pay for what he did, Serena… I won’t let him go free,” she gritted out, some of her strength finally returning to her body and giving her the energy she needed to speak.

Viola looked down at the mermaid she barely knew. If it weren’t for her connection to Ivy, she wouldn’t be risking Sebastian’s fury over any of this. Hearing the mermaid’s words, she said,

“I’m freeing you on one condition: your mate won’t play any tricks. He won’t come after my man or try to destroy our pack, and he won’t do anything to harm my sister. If you promise me that right now, I’ll take you home myself, Yasmin.”

The mermaid stared at Viola in stunned disbelief at her words, before smiling bitterly. “You shouldn’t stay in their world, cousin. They’ll turn on you eventually, the same way they turned on your mother.”

“I don’t have a mother,” Viola said, rising to her feet and walking toward the wheeled pod, pushing it closer to the mermaid and opening it to put her inside as she knew she couldn’t carry the mermaid all the way out of here. She turned back around to help her inside when Yasmin suddenly grabbed her hand, stopping her.