“How could he?” Viola repeated for the countless time that day, pacing the length of Sebastian’s living room, too angry to sit still even for a second. She couldn’t believe he would lock her up like some prisoner, posting guards to keep watch over her.

It didn’t matter whether they’d hurt her or not, she had expected better of him, and the realization disappointed her, broke something quietly in her chest that made her feel like she suddenly held nothing in his world. How could he?

She’d known she hadn’t married a saint, that the cruelty everyone whispered about him hadn’t simply vanished just because he’d fallen in love with her and sworn to be with her forever. But never in a million years had she imagined he would lock her away and stop her from saving someone who mattered so much to her sister.

Just as much as he wanted to protect his twin, she wanted the same for hers. But he hadn’t understood the gravity of what killing that mermaid would cause, not just for Ivy, but for himself as well.

Yasmin’s mate, as her twin had described him, was feared by many throughout the sea. He was a renowned Sea Guardian of the Seven Seas. Whatever that truly meant, Viola didn’t know how powerful he was, but she knew he wasn’t someone to be trifled with, and his revenge would be brutal. Sebastian hadn’t even waited to hear her out about the consequences of his actions before ordering his men to lock her up here.

She marched to the door and knocked. “Tell your Alpha I need a word with him right now!” She called out to the warriors, who had been ignoring every order and command she gave, as though they couldn’t even hear her, clearly determined to make it plain that Sebastian’s word carried far more weight than hers.

That thought alone infuriated her further, because Sebastian himself always said she was his equal here, but it no longer looked like it.

Viola was aware her pregnancy hormones might be intensifying the emotions swirling inside her, but even accounting for that, it didn’t change the fact that she was genuinely furious and wish she could punch some little sense into him, regardless of her love for him.

“I’m sorry, Supreme Luna, but the Alpha can’t be disturbed right now. He’s busy, and he’ll see you when he sees fit,” one of the warriors replied, not even bothering to reach out through the mind-link and relay her request to their Alpha. Instead, he gave her the same flat, automatic response, hoping it would be enough to stop her from banging on the door and bruising her fists before they ended up being blamed for the marks on her hands, just as Miss Hailey had once been blamed after the Luna slapped her so hard that she’d bruised her own palm.

They had been ordered not to hurt the Supreme Luna, but she was the one hurting herself by pounding on the door, and they had no doubt they would be the ones held responsible if she injured herself further. Neither of them was looking forward to that.

“I’d suggest you take a nap. Your meal will be brought to you shortly,” he added.

“He’ll see me when he sees fit? He actually said that?” Viola asked, disbelief coloring her voice, because she knew her husband never ignored her calls, no matter how busy he was, he always made time to hear what she had to say. But it seemed his determination to sacrifice the mermaid had blinded him entirely to everything else.

She stepped back from the door, her decision already made. He wasn’t coming to hear her out, and she couldn’t afford to wait for him to see her “when he saw fit”, which, if she thought about it honestly, likely meant after the sacrifice was already done and nothing could be reversed. Viola refused to let that happen.

If he was sacrificing the mermaid for the sake of marking her, then Viola would give up the mark entirely, for her sister’s sake and his, and instead live with whatever fate loving him brought her. As for Alex, she decided she would find another way to cure him. She had already healed Sebastian from the strange bullet Nick had used in an attempt to assassinate him. If it came to that, she could try to heal Sebastian’s twin’s heart with her own powers as well.

But she wouldn’t stand by and let him put the entire pack’s and Ivy’s lives in danger without making him understand the consequences of what he was about to do, because the repercussions would be severe, and they would no doubt affect everyone involved. Rather than sit here and let him cause irreversible damage, she would rather do everything she could to stop it.

Viola might love him more than anything in the world and would gladly lay down her life for him, but this time, he was going too far. His actions would affect so many innocent people, yet he had no faith in her judgment and hadn’t even given her the chance to explain.

And the way he’d simply ignored her call, dismissed her entirely, drove tiny needles straight into her heart, feeding the anger already building there.

As she walked back toward the couch, Wave plopped out of the sink drain and landed on the floor with a splash.

“Did you find her Tidekin?” Viola asked the creature, whom she’d sent back to the sea to search for a way to reach her sister through her Tidekin.

Wave shook his head. “I couldn’t find it. I can’t go deeper into the sea without you, or I’ll get lost. I can only stay near the surface, where I keep watch on the sea witch’s Tidekin and any Tidekin.”

Viola rubbed the back of her aching neck. “Then we’ll have to do this ourselves. We’re going to release the mermaid. Is there a color of song I can sing to put werewolves to sleep?” She asked, and the creature perked up eagerly at the mention of freeing the mermaid.

“Sing in orange!” Wave announced, and Viola frowned slightly, tucking her hair back behind her ears.

“I don’t know how to sing in orange. I don’t even know how I managed the pink song, it just happened, on its own.” She said, walking toward the door.

“Then sing anyway. Maybe this one will come to you too,” Wave told her, and Viola nodded.

Viola cleared her throat and began to sing in front of the door, letting the song flow through the door toward the men standing guard outside.

But rather than achieve what she’d hoped, it only brought confused frowns to their faces, all four of them turning to glance back at the door they were guarding, wondering why their Luna was suddenly singing at them. Was she trying to charm them into compliance with her voice?

“Did it work?” Viola asked Wave once she stopped singing, and the creature said, “I’ll have to go check.”

Wave slipped through the small gap beneath the door, expecting to find the men fast asleep, but nearly collided with one of the warriors’ legs instead and quickly slipped back inside.

“Didn’t work. They’re not sleeping, don’t even look sleepy, Mermaidia. Maybe orange isn’t inside you. Try singing in pink instead, and command them to open the door.” Wave suggested again, and Viola nodded, beginning the same song she’d used the day before, before ordering,

“Open the door for me.”

She waited to hear it swing open, but instead came the voice of one of the warriors.

“We can’t open it, Supreme Luna. The Alpha has forbidden it.”

Viola nearly yanked at her own hair in frustration as she turned to Wave. “Why isn’t it working? It’s the same song I sang yesterday.”