Chapter 390 Once he’s free

Sebastian was quiet for a moment after telling Viola everything that lead to Natalie’s death. Then he continued.

“I killed her before I even fully realized I was doing it. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Alex about her betrayal afterward, because I believed her betrayal would have hurt him more than mine, so I made it look as though I had marked her and she had died from the curse. But in the end it was the same outcome regardless. He was later told of her pregnancy by the pack healer Natalie had visited before her death on the day of her funeral.

“Alex ended up with a broken heart either way, and it has cost him his health.”

Viola couldn’t help but feel sorry for her husband’s twin. A werewolf’s broken heart was far more devastating than a human’s or any other creature’s.

Werewolves were supernatural beings created in pairs, destined to find each other at the right moment. When they lost the mate their heart had accepted, the heartbreak ran so deep that it began to destroy them from within. Their heart would slowly weaken, eventually failing altogether, and it was believed that death reunited them with their mate in the afterlife.

“He’s already in the second stage of heart failure,” Sebastian continued quietly. “He coughs up blood whenever his emotions, especially his anger, become too intense. It’s slowly killing him. Every heartbreak weakens his heart a little more…”

His voice trailed off for a moment before he finished in a low, guilt-ridden tone.

“And… I recently broke it again.”

Viola, who had been listening in silence and finding it genuinely difficult to accept that Natalie had faked her love for Alex all along, asked quietly, “What did you do recently to break his heart again?”

The hand that had been moving slowly up and down her spine stopped in the small of her back.

“The last time I left, Alex was supposed to take over from me and return in my place. But I didn’t trust him with you. So I drugged him and put him to sleep so I could come back to you myself. He hasn’t spoken to me since that day… not until the day we arrived here.”

Viola felt his arm tighten around her, and she turned to look at him. He was staring silently at the ceiling, his expression unreadable.

He had betrayed his own brother to come back to her.

At the exact moment she had needed him most, when Javier had been moments away from executing her, Sebastian had chosen her over his twin, just like Alex would have chosen Natalie over him.

“Did he understand… or did he feel betrayed?” she asked softly, still trying to find her footing after learning Alex was alive. The brother Zoe had never stopped talking about. The one she had always spoken of with such sadness and longing.

“He felt betrayed,” Sebastian answered quietly. “He told me he’s dying faster because his heart can’t keep up with my betrayal.”

The heart that could be healed once the mermaid’s heart was used and fix all the problems.

For both of them.

But Sebastian kept that thought to himself.

He wasn’t ready to tell his wife that part of the truth, not now that he knew she was part mermaid. He feared she would find it hard to support sacrificing one of her own kind.

“Why don’t you tell him the truth, then?” Viola asked softly. “Maybe it would help him understand why you made those choices. If Alex knew who Natalie really was and everything she’d been hiding, he might finally be able to make peace with what happened instead of blaming you for it.”

Sebastian smiled faintly.

“Did you know he had her face tattooed across his chest after she died? The walls of his room are covered with her photographs. He still worships her memory. Every night, he talks to her… and cries for her. Just because she’s dead doesn’t mean she’s gone to him.

“If I tell him the truth now… it might finish what her death started.”

His gaze drifted toward the ceiling for a moment before returning to her.

“I plan on letting him out soon, letting the world know he’s still alive. Alex is much stronger now than he was back when I decided to hide him.

“Who knows? Maybe once he’s free, he’ll find another mate who can help him heal from losing Natalie. And when that day comes…” He paused before finishing quietly, “I’ll tell him everything.”

He leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her hair before lifting her chin so their eyes met.

“Now that you know all of it…” he asked softly, searching her face, “do you love me any less, amor?”

Viola shook her head. “No. I don’t love you less…” She paused. “But I am afraid that a day will come when you will love me less.” She finally voiced the fear that had been sitting in her chest, even while she was still absorbing everything he had just told her, the pieces falling into place in ways she hadn’t expected.

That was why he had never mourned Natalie the way a widower would. Why there were no photographs of her around him. Why he never spoke of her with the longing of a man who had once loved and lost his wife.

And, despite everything, she couldn’t help but feel quietly overwhelmed by the realization that she was his first love.

But as much as she wanted to hold on to the warmth that realization brought her, the events of that night kept dragging her thoughts back to the hedge maze…

To what had been done to her there.

And to what it might do to them now that it had happened.

Sebastian didn’t answer immediately. Instead he moved her upward until her head was resting on the same pillow as his and their eyes were level.

“If I have to say this a million times for you to truly believe it, sunshine, I will say it every single morning. I will never love you less. Not even when the bond interferes. I am working on something, and once it is done, I will mark you permanently on the next full moon. When you carry my mark, nothing on this earth will be able to come between us.” He leaned forward and kissed her nose, her forehead, and both of her closed lids.

“I love you, Viola. I will love you until our forever.” He whispered.

Viola felt her throat tighten at his words, and yet the fear didn’t leave her chest entirely. She wished he could mark her right now, tonight, so she could be certain. But he had said he was working on making it possible, and she had to hold onto that. She put her arms around him and pulled him close.

“I love you too.” She pressed a kiss to his chest. “But if a day comes when you feel differently about me, Sebastian, please don’t try to hide it. Tell me. Always tell me how you feel.”

“You bet I will. And it’s going to be an ’I love you’ every morning.”

He wrapped his arms around her again and held her like that, quietly and steadily, until she finally felt safe enough in his embrace. Her breathing gradually evened out after a long moment of comfortable silent, and within minutes, she was asleep.

Sebastian was deeply, privately grateful for that.

He slowly untangled his limbs from hers and eased out of the bed without disturbing her. She stirred slightly and then settled back into sleep. He pulled the sheets up to her chin and stood there for a silent moment, looking down at her.

She had listened to everything. She had heard him confess to killing Natalie with his bare hands, yet she hadn’t called him cruel for it. She had simply understood, just as he had always quietly believed she would, in a way most she-wolves never could.

That was what made her so right for him.

Viola wasn’t naïve to the kind of cruel world he lived in. She had grown up in the middle of one just like it, and perhaps that was why they fit each other so perfectly.

But the memory of what she had gone through in that maze came rushing back, and the anger returned to his chest like something igniting. He pressed one last kiss to her forehead and then left the room.