On the other side, Viola stared at the door with her brows pulled together, unable to help thinking that he was being thoroughly paranoid about a woman who was perfectly capable of standing upright in a bathroom without supervision. But to put his mind at ease and also because it was not the worst idea, she reached for the shoes and called back, "Thank you."

Sebastian was still not satisfied. He began to pace the space outside the bathroom door, stopping every so often when the sound on the other side went completely quiet to press close and listen for any sign that something was wrong, then resuming the pacing when he heard the sound of water again. She wasn’t using the shower, which was good. It meant she was keeping the water away from her back.

He caught himself with his ear nearly pressed against the door and his hand reaching for the doorknob, and stopped short, cursing quietly under his breath. What was wrong with him? She had assured him she was perfectly capable of bathing herself, so what was he doing trying to peek and confirm that she was really fine?

He was behaving like a paranoid new mate, hovering over his female at every given moment because of that little fear that always sits on mates, just like new mothers fearing that something would go wrong with their baby. Sebastian had heard about this behavior in mates, but by everything holy, this was the first time he was truly experiencing that mate paranoia, even though he was a man destined to have mates come and go throughout his life.

He moved his hand away from the doorknob and ran it into the silver strands of his hair, bewildered by this new experience and the strange, unfamiliar urges. He stepped away from the door before he found himself peeking inside, because that was not something he intended to make a habit of.

He straightened up and decided that standing here was doing neither of them any good and he should use the time to find her something comfortable to sleep in when she came out.

He walked into his closet, where he had arranged earlier that morning for Matt to bring in female clothing in her sizes, underwear, sleepwear, comfortable clothes for recovery, and other female essentials she would need while staying here. He wasn’t yet certain how long she would be here, but Sebastian was determined to keep her until the 30th, until the worst of those days in his life had passed.

The last time, he had left her in the main pack building because they weren’t married then, and he hadn’t cared for her the way he did now. But this time around, he would keep her where he knew there was high security and strong walls while he would be away. He hated this time of his life, but it was a battle he had to fight until the curse was over and done with. However, for the first time in his thirty years of life, he wasn’t looking forward to this one, because there would be changes...

Sebastian pushed the thought from his mind and focused instead on his task of finding his female something to wear. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

He had arranged her things himself on one side of the closet after they had moved her into his room in the main quarters, since there were no omega workers currently in the house. He opened the drawers he had folded her panties and selected a boyshort and a loose fitting nightshirt that would sit away from the skin and not graze or press against the injury, and carried them out to the bed.

He was setting them down when the bathroom door finally opened and she came out wrapped in the robe with her hair bundled in a towel on top of her head.

Sebastian felt his heart soften at the sight of her. Her face was still pale but cleaner now, and she was gripping the belt of the robe with both hands like she didn’t quite know what to do with them, her eyes moving between him and the nightwear laid out on the bed.

She looked almost comically small in his gray robe, swamped by it from shoulder to floor, and he wouldn’t have minded her staying in it if the fabric wasn’t thick enough to press uncomfortably against the wound and suffocate it through the night.

He moved first. He crossed to her, took her hand gently and said, "Let me dry your hair." He led her toward the bed before she could argue.

"I can dry my own hair." Viola muttered, not used to being on the receiving end of this kind of attention and not knowing how to sit quietly inside it without pointing out that she was capable of doing things for herself.

"I know you can." He said simply. "I just want to do it. And lifting your arms above your head will pull at the wound. Come and sit here." He guided her to the low stool at the foot of the bed and settled her onto it.

Despite his own leg still aching with every movement, he walked back into the closet and returned with a wireless blow dryer and a hairbrush, and she was watching him when he came back out. He smiled at her when he caught her eyes on him.

"I really can do it myself. You don’t have to dry my hair for me." She said again, because sitting in silence while someone fussed over her was something she genuinely did not know how to do without narrating it. She even reached out and tried to take the dryer from his hand but he pulled it back out of her reach and clicked his tongue at her.

"Didn’t I tell you that day, amor?" Sebastian remarked as he positioned himself at her side. "You will be given the treatment deserving of my wife and mate, so let me do my duties to you. Don’t stop me from taking care of you the way you deserve," he said, turning the blow dryer on to drown out any argument she might have made with the noise.

He was well aware that she might not be used to things like this, just as he wasn’t, but she had saved his life and done something no other person had ever done for him. And if it took spoiling her rotten until she became completely used to it, used to being cared for, even dependent, then so be it. In fact, Sebastian thought with a secret smile, he wanted her to fall for him too, without the pull of a mate bond, which she didn’t have yet. She didn’t know it, but he had already mentally marked her as his alone, even without the permanent mark on her.