Chapter 522 The new season

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Losing someone can make the world feel like it has stopped, but it never truly does. Their life may have ended, but yours continues, and somehow, you have to learn to carry the love, the memories, and the pain with you as you keep moving forward.

—

Two months later.

Viola stood by the glass wall of her penthouse, quietly watching the first snow of the year drift down from the sky, daylight catching in her blue eyes as they moved with the movement of a snowflake.

The tiny white flakes fell slowly through the air, landing softly and settling into a thin layer of white, blanketing everything below High Tower. She’d seen snow plenty of times before, but there was something different about the very first snowfall of the season, something that made the whole world outside look softer, quieter, almost like it had been handed a fresh beginning it didn’t quite deserve yet.

She rested her palm against the cold glass, watching the snowflakes fall one after another, her other hand resting on her stomach, which had begun showing clearly through her dresses lately, her pregnancy now obvious to anyone who looked at her.

For a moment, she simply let herself admire how beautiful the snow was, until she noticed cars beginning to fill the parking grounds below the High Tower, and the reality settled back over her, reminding her exactly what today meant for the werewolves, and for the Kade family.

It was Zoe’s memorial service, delayed for two full months after her death and unable to be pushed back any further once word had spread to relatives across Silver and beyond, including Sebastian’s mother’s side of the family, who lived in another pack far away from Silver.

Today had finally been set to honor her properly, even though plenty of people still couldn’t quite sit right with the fact that there was no grave to visit, nowhere to actually stand and grieve her. Viola had had to give the excuse that her body was destroyed in a fire, for the werewolves would object to her being in the sea.

Viola watched the guests arriving from far-off places, all dressed in muted colors, filing slowly into the building, and the mere thought of having to greet them all already exhausted her since these days she tired so easily, wanting nothing more than to sleep through most of it.

She was almost five months along now, only days away from it, and werewolf pregnancies typically ran seven to eight months in total. Unlike before, when skipping meals had been easy enough, it had become nearly impossible now, the hunger impossible to ignore, though she hated how bloated it left her feeling afterward.

Still, this morning, Viola had decided to hold off on breakfast until after the service was over, and she smiled, the way she’d been forcing herself to smile more often lately.

“You’re going to make me eat myself sick, little one. But you have to hold on a little longer this morning. I don’t want to end up falling asleep. We’ve got guests to meet, and your father…” Her smile faltered, her hand curling slightly against her stomach, and she took a slow breath, pushing the feeling back down before it could take hold.

“I guess some people never fully recover from a loss like that, baby, but we’ll be fine.”

She turned away from the glass and made her way to the kitchen for water, as she had come down to drink water before getting distracted by the snowfall visible through her living room glass. But when she entered the kitchen, there was a steaming delicious aroma of food lingering there, and her eyes fell on the kitchen island, where arrays of plates were arranged and covered, waiting for her to notice them.

She paused, frowning to herself as she stared at the spread laid out across the kitchen island. She hadn’t requested breakfast, but out of curiosity, she began to open the lids, and as she did that, her eyes fell on a note attached to the soup bowl.

She picked up the note left beside it, written in her husband’s handwriting, and it immediately became clear that he had cooked for her that morning before he must have left, even though he hadn’t slept with her last night.

(Don’t miss breakfast for any reason or listen to Laila’s words about you being chubby. You are not fat. You need this food more than anything right now.)

She read it twice, wishing, not for the first time, that he could just say things like this to her out loud instead of leaving them written down, like he had grown into the habit of doing lately because they barely spent time together with his busy schedules after Zoe’s death. Or should she say he looked absent-minded most of the time?

Sebastian hadn’t been fully himself, not really, not since losing his sister, and he spent, if not all of his days and nights in his office working, then outside the pack hunting. When was the last time she had heard him say more than the words needed?

Last night, she’d caught him watching her check her own reflection in the mirror after Laila pointed out how chubby and rounded she had become and that pregnancy was unfair to women because it changed them too much and that Viola had become bigger.

Viola had been unhappy about the remark that had nonchalantly fallen out of the shewolf’s mouth about her weight, as she had no filter and was used to saying words bluntly, but the words had hit her a little because she had grown so insecure about her body. She never thought Sebastian had heard the words the shewolf said because he hadn’t been around.

She’d been checking herself in the mirror, clearly unhappy with how bloated she looked lately, but he hadn’t said a word about it. He’d only grabbed his coat, muttered something about important work, and left. She hadn’t even been sure he’d come back at all, not until she found this waiting for her.

So he had come back to cook and left the note, she thought, staring at the food hungrily.

Viola was still standing in front of the food when her penthouse door opened, and she turned to find Ivy, Tess, and Laila stepping inside, all of them dressed in matching muted gray.

Tess and her husband had gone back to their pack after all the chaos of what had led to Zoe’s death, but they had come back yesterday for today’s memorial service.

“Good morning, Luna Vee,” Tess greeted with a smile, looking at her friend, who was standing before the plenty of breakfast set in front of her.

“Good morning, Vee,” Laila said next, biting back a small smile when Viola glared at her, and she realized the Luna had taken her words about her chubbiness to heart yesterday, when all Laila had done was state the obvious, but not in an insulting way. “I hope the babies are kicking well this morning? You look good.”

“The medicine after death isn’t going to work, Laila. I can’t wait to see you when you fall into my situation and get pregnant.” Viola grumbled, licking honey syrup from her fingers and closing the food containers for later.