“Come over here for a second,” Viola called to the warrior, turning back toward the glass, and he hesitated before stepping up beside her as she asked, “Do you see that man standing out there?”

He looked, his eyes landing on the figure below, and the warrior frowned. “Isn’t that the Supreme Alpha? He shouldn’t have made it back this fast, Supreme Luna.”

“That’s not him. That’s his brother. Go down and welcome him in, lead him to one of the larger penthouses here.” She ordered, unwilling to leave her post until she’d seen Sebastian back with her own eyes, and Alex clearly didn’t look ready to come inside on his own.

The warrior went visibly pale at her words. “H-his brother? How is that possible, Luna? Wasn’t he…dead?”

“The Alpha will explain everything once he’s back. For now, just bring him in and make sure no one bothers him in the pack.” She told the man, who looked like he wanted to press further but thought better of it, stepping back and bowing instead.

It wasn’t his place to ask questions, even as one of Sebastian’s most trusted warriors, the one assigned as her personal guard. But before he left, he paused and said,

“Supreme Luna, my sincerest condolences. Miss Zoe… she gave me a second chance at life. I was pulled off the execution grounds years ago because she begged for my life, and I will never forget her kindness for that. I’ll go bring him in now.” The man said, bowing as deeply as he could manage.

Viola offered him a bittersweet smile, thinking how exactly like her friend that sounded, and asked, “What’s your name?”

“Jace, Luna. Jace Jordan.” He told her, and Viola nodded.

“Thank you, Jace. I won’t forget that, and I’ll be sure to think of you if I ever need something handled by someone I can trust. You may go now.”

She watched as the man left, closing the door carefully behind him, and her eyes fell on the many decorations scattered across the walls and stands in her living room, things Zoe had given her over time.

Viola closed her eyes and took a deep breath, reminding herself that she needed to be strong right now and not give in to the urge to cry every time her eyes fell on one of the she-wolf’s gifts and the memories attached to them. There would be more of them to come, she thought, before looking back outside to see Jace already speaking with Alex, who soon followed him toward the building.

Not long after they’d disappeared from view, Sebastian finally arrived, his warriors filing in behind him, dragging chained prisoners along with them.

But Viola’s eyes stayed fixed only on her husband, whose face held no expression at all, his eyes dull, like a candle had been snuffed out somewhere deep inside him. Viola realized, with a slow, sinking dread, that she couldn’t feel anything from him at all, no grief, no anger, nothing, as though he’d gone completely numb, and her own heart clenched painfully at the thought.

He had raised Zoe with his own two hands, since she was an infant. His pain now would be no different from a parent losing a child. But the fact that she couldn’t feel even a trace of it in him bothered her more than if she had, and Viola turned away from the glass, heading down to meet him.

Viola stepped out of the elevator minutes later and found the lobby crowded with people, whispers rippling through the group as they all stared at what looked like a fight breaking out.

Confused, she pushed her way through the crowd and froze at the sight in front of her.

It was Alex, throwing punch after punch at Sebastian, slamming him hard against the wall. She hadn’t expected the two of them to meet like this, out here in the open, and she spotted Jace nearby, making his way toward her through the crowd.

“Why didn’t you take him inside?” Viola asked.

“He said he’d wait right here for the Supreme Alpha, and the moment he arrived, he attacked him without warning. The Alpha ordered us to stand back and not interfere.” Jace reported, as the fight raged on, Sebastian not lifting a single hand to defend himself against his brother’s relentless blows. No one dared step in, everyone still frozen in shock at the sight of the twin they’d all believed dead until this very moment.

How was that possible? Was it some kind of miracle that a sister had died and a brother had come back to life? No one could believe their eyes as they stared, and the crowd kept getting bigger in the lobby area, while some watched from the terrace above. Nonetheless, even if the brothers noticed, the fight didn’t stop.

Alex grabbed Sebastian roughly by the collar, driving another punch into his face before kicking him straight into the glass wall, which shattered on impact.

“I could forgive you failing me a hundred times over, Sebastian, but you let my little girl die! You fucking killer!” Alex snarled, reaching out to hit him again, his fury only deepening at the sight of Sebastian refusing to fight back, taking every hit without so much as flinching, his eyes betraying almost nothing, as though he couldn’t even feel the blows landing.

“How could you let her walk straight into danger?! How could you let her die? You never even let me see my own sister!” Alex swung again, but this time his hand was caught mid-motion, and he turned to find a small woman glaring up at him, gripping his wrist.

For one disorienting second, he mistook her for his mermaid friend, whom he had left behind after she said she had something to do. But after hearing about his sister’s death, he couldn’t wait any longer and had rushed here.

“Let go, Ivy. He is not someone you should pity—” he said, angry veins standing out on his forehead. But then he saw the look on the woman’s face and heard her words.

“I am not Ivy. I am Viola Kade, your brother’s wife.”

Alex immediately realized that his friend had a twin, and somehow, that twin happened to be his bastard brother’s wife. He almost chuckled coldly at the irony, but the realization only made his fury spike higher.

The concern that had briefly appeared in his eyes vanished. She wasn’t his friend. She was Sebastian’s wife, the woman carrying his brother’s child, and whatever concerns he had felt for her moments ago disappeared with the realization.

“Let go of me!” Alex warned, a murderous look in his eyes, but Viola glared right back, refusing to loosen her grip.

“You’ve hit him enough. This isn’t how you honor the dead, Alex. None of this was his fault, he—”

“Do you have any idea how much I despise you, woman, just as much as I despise him? If I were you, I’d step back and stop defending this worthless excuse of a brother I’m cursed with. He’s a killer. He always has been, since he was a boy.” Came Alex’s cold, heartless words, born from every ounce of pain buried inside him, the loss of his wife, his unborn child, and now his sister too, all of it laid at Sebastian’s feet in his mind.

To Alex, this woman, along with his brother, were nothing but people he wanted nothing to do with. And before he left this place, he would make Sebastian understand the full wrath of his pain.

Viola understood his anger, understood he needed somewhere to pour all that rage, but this wasn’t the way to do it. Words, not fists, were what this called for, and she refused to let go of his hand, until Alex finally lost what little control he had left and shoved her back hard. Viola lost her footing and hit the ground.

Sebastian, who until that moment had seemed like little more than a walking corpse, came violently alive with rage the instant he saw his wife shoved to the floor. Something in him snapped entirely, and as Alex raised his hand to strike again, Sebastian caught it, twisting it sharply behind his back before kicking him and hauling him around to land a punch of his own.

“You do not fucking touch my woman, do you hear me? Beat me as much as you fucking want, but you never, ever lay a hand on her!” Sebastian gritted out, and for the first time in his entire life, he fought his twin brother back without holding anything in reserve.