Silver Pack main quarter.

Viola sat on the living room couch browsing through the new phone she had been given that morning at breakfast by Sebastian, since she had lost her old one back in Nightshade. With her legs tucked underneath her and a pillow pressed against her chest, she watched a cooking video with quiet concentration.

She had woken up feeling healthier than she had in a long time. Sebastian had healed her back the night before and the medication had done its work, and for the first time in what felt like forever she could move around without grimacing at every step.

It had been so long since her body had felt this functional that she genuinely felt like she could do something with herself rather than just exist carefully inside it.

Unlike the last time she had come to his main quarter, there were no omega workers around this time to constantly have their eyes on her.

Sebastian had cooked breakfast himself, and not a small one either. He had made an entire feast that she couldn’t come close to finishing, though he had kept refilling her plate regardless, saying she needed the nourishment and the protein, and she had stuffed herself to keep the look of displeasure off his face.

After breakfast he had stayed and talked with her for a while about the search he had sent to Nightshade for her sister and about the death announcement going out across Silver.

Hearing that he genuinely intended to keep the promise he had made her about finding out what happened to Ivy settled something in her chest. Even though the Ivy in her dream didn’t want her to look for her didn’t mean Viola would give up on her. Knowing that someone was actively helping her made it easier to breathe.

Now though she had nothing to do in this large and quiet quarter while Sebastian was in his study with Doctor Gilbert, and so she had found herself drawn to cooking videos.

She wasn’t fully certain yet but the idea of cooking their dinner had been growing in her mind since she finished eating. Just like he had made breakfast for her.

It wouldn’t hurt to finally learn. She had never bothered before, having grown up with the arrogant assumption that she would never be without omegas to do her bidding.

That version of herself felt like someone she had read about rather than someone she had been. Now, more than anything, she wanted to do something for Sebastian. Something real and specific that he hadn’t asked for.

She had thought about going shopping and getting him the light colored shirts she had mentally noted to buy when she would go out with her sister, but that plan had changed along with everything else when she couldn’t find Ivy. And even if it hadn’t, Sebastian had told her clearly that they couldn’t step outside the security of the quarter for at least three days until the culprit was found and dealt with.

So it had to be something inside the house.

Viola bit the edge of her nail as she watched the video intently, and when she saw the list of ingredients she got up from the couch, slid her feet into Sebastian’s house shoes and padded into the kitchen and pantry to check what they had.

When it comes to cooking, she was too ignorant at it to save her life so she had to check the ingredients lists carefully.

She gathered her hair up into a ponytail and plugged in her earbuds, listening to the cooking instructions while scanning the shelves and pulling out what she needed for a proper high end dinner.

She wasn’t going to make something simple. If she was going to do this she was going to do it well, something that could at least hold its own against his cooking, which she had fallen in love with even before she fell for the man himself. Strange as it sounded even to her, Viola wanted to be someone in his life that wouldn’t be so easily set aside or replaced.

She was reaching up to the top shelf for an ingredient when she felt a presence behind her and spun around so fast she lost her footing on the built-in step and would have gone straight down if a strong arm hadn’t caught her around the waist and lifted her clean off the floor like she weighed nothing at all.

Her heart lurched and then Sebastian’s warm scent hit her before she even saw his face, and when she did his silver eyes were right there, twinkling at her as he steadied her against his body.

His hand was pressed firmly over her ass, fingers splayed with a possessiveness that sent a rush of heat straight to her core before she had even processed what was happening. The solid press of his chest against her breasts made her nipples tighten instantly.

"Wh-when did you get here?" Viola stammered, trying to shift back but he kept her right where she was, her feet not touching the floor so she had no choice but to keep both hands braced against his shoulders. She could feel the heat coming off him, the hard ridges of muscle shifting under her palms.

She saw the smile pull at his lips. "What are you doing in the pantry? I have been looking for you."

He had come looking for her after finishing with Gilbert, and when she wasn’t in the living room where he had last seen her he had followed her scent into the kitchen to find her straining up toward the top shelf of the pantry.

He couldn’t help being curious about what she was doing in here, especially when her scent had been running warmer and sweeter to him all day, pulling at things in him that he was going to have to deal with sooner rather than later given that his heat season was approaching and pulling harder on his control each hour he didn’t take the suppressant.

Viola pursed her lips, looking down at him from the height his hold had lifted her to. "Planning to cook." She said, not hiding it, and she watched his brow arch at that. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"Cooking?" He repeated. "For what reason?"

Viola rolled her eyes. "For whatever reason people generally cook for?" She said, and he let out a short laugh, the low sound vibrating through his chest and into hers.

"You know that’s not what I mean. You should be resting or at least sitting somewhere in the house, not reaching for things on high shelves."

Viola wriggled until he set her down on her feet, though his hand stayed at her waist and kept her from going anywhere. "You made breakfast for me so I am making dinner for you. And I feel perfectly fine, more than fine enough to cook. Why were you looking for me anyway?" She added, steering the conversation before he could talk her out of the plan entirely.

Sebastian wouldn’t have, as it turned out. The idea of her cooking for him sent a warmth through him that his body, already running hotter than usual with the approaching heat, received with far more enthusiasm than he intended to show. And looking down at her upturned face, her lips parted just slightly, soft and close, the urge to close the small distance between them and kiss her senseless hit him hard enough that he had to physically hold it back before he could answer her.

"I was looking for you to take you to the pool. It is time you learned to swim, like we talked about." He said, raising his free hand to her ear and teasing the lobe slowly between his thumb and index finger, rubbing the sensitive skin in strokes that made her shiver before his words actually landed.

Swimming. Viola swallowed. She wasn’t ready for anything involving open water, not after everything, and beyond her own fear, Miss Lara had given her a last minute warning before she left Nightshade to stay away from any body of water for the time being, without fully explaining why. The warning had stuck.

But right now, with his fingers moving against her ear and his other hand warm at her waist, swimming was the absolute last thing on her mind.

Viola cleared her throat. "I can’t today, as you can see I have cooking to do before sunset. We can reschedule the swimming lesson." She said, patting his chest with the intention of creating some distance between them.

Sebastian didn’t move. He pulled her closer instead, bringing their bodies flush against each other, and dipped his head lower. "Stay still, silly. Always running away from me." He said quietly, his eyes swimming like a pool of melted silver.

They darkened as they locked onto her moist, inviting mouth that seemed to be calling onto his. The air between them thickened and charged itself in the way it always did when they got this close, like the space between them had its own heat source.