The restaurant they stopped at was small, with no more than five people eating inside and a handwritten menu board hanging above the counter.

The place was built with wood, with forest-themed wallpapers around the wooden walls, giving it a rustic and slightly outdated feel. Many eyes turned to look at them as they entered. In the background, jazz music was playing, sounding like it was coming from a very old radio, one that spoke of how old-fashioned this pack was.

Viola looked around warily, moving to walk closer to Sebastian as the men around the place were giving her looks that were uncomfortable and unsettling. If it were up to her, they wouldn’t have stopped in the middle of nowhere, but as if sensing her discomfort, Sebastian’s arm came protectively around her waist and pulled her closer to his side in a reassuring manner.

That action was enough to make the men in the space look away and continue what they were doing before their arrival, losing interest now that she was clearly claimed.

"Relax, this is the Forest Pack, they are so far back in technology and are still using things of the past as they do not associate with Silver and the Supreme Alpha. They don’t know what the Supreme Alpha even looks like." Sebastian assured the tense Viola, as if sensing her worries and wariness even without her voicing them.

Viola was quietly worried that someone would recognize Sebastian, but she was relieved by his words and even more so when the young waitress who came to welcome them treated him like any other road-weary traveler who had wandered in hungry. They were led to a corner table where the jazz music became muted along with the men’s laughter. And this corner was so private it made her feel calm and slightly at ease.

"What are you having?" Sebastian asked, looking at the menu and then at her over the top of it.

"Breakfast platter and coffee, with extra milk and sweetener," she said without even glancing at hers.

He smiled at that and ordered for them both when the waitress came back.

Sebastian watched her fix her breakfast plate and then turn to her coffee, adding a generous amount of cream and then a little too much sweetener that had him pressing his lips together to hold back his words of caution.

As if sensing his eyes on her, she looked up at him with pursed lips and a hint of color rising to her cheeks. "That is how I take my coffee. I like it sweet and creamy or I cannot drink it at all."

"Isn’t that much sweetener a little excessive? It’s not exactly healthy." He said, watching her add just a little more and stir it slowly without an ounce of guilt. He genuinely could not imagine how anyone could drink whatever she was stirring in that cup. He hadn’t known she had this particular habit.

Viola smiled in a slightly embarrassed and self conscious way, stirring the cup without meeting his eyes.

"I know, but I can’t help it. I have been having it this way for a very long time." She grumbled, as if she had heard this particular complaint more than enough times already and had long since stopped being moved by it.

Sebastian pressed his lips together and said nothing further. He couldn’t help thinking that she had some of the most unexpected habits and behaviors he had come across. She hurt herself by peeling the skin around her nails until they bled, and now this.

How much sweetener in a single cup of coffee. He found himself genuinely curious about what else he would discover about her the longer they spent time together, and watched her take her first sip with something close to quiet fascination.

She was his wife, and he didn’t know these small things about her. Perhaps this journey would not only help him learn about her background, but also about the woman herself.

They ate mostly in silence but it was a comfortable one.

At one point Sebastian reached across the table, picked up her coffee cup out of pure curiosity, and took a sip. He nearly choked on the sweetness of it but was forced to swallow it down properly when he looked up and found her watching him with a frown, and spitting it out no longer felt like a dignified option.

How on earth did she drink this every morning? He wondered as he set the cup carefully back in front of her and reached immediately for his own black coffee to wash the sweetness away.

Viola noticed the way he reached for his own cup almost desperately afterward and smiled to herself. He wasn’t the first person to react that way to her coffee, but most people launched straight into a lecture about how unhealthy her sweet tooth was and how she really ought to change the habit.

She was quietly glad he had held that particular speech back. It was a habit she had never been able to shake away and found herself doing it over and over everytime.

Viola didn’t comment on him having taken a sip of her coffee, and simply picked it up and drank from it herself as if nothing had happened.

When they were done he paid before she could so much as reach for her bag, and she shot him a look across the table.

"I had money." She said. "I can pay for my own meal. You don’t have to do that."

"I know." He replied, already rising from his seat. "But my money is yours. I paid from our money. Think of it that way." He held out his hand to her and when she didn’t immediately take it, he reached across and took the hand resting on the table himself, interlocking their fingers and pulling her gently to her feet.

She bit the inside of her cheek and followed him back out to the car, completely unaware of one particular pair of eyes watching them from among the five men. The man brought out his phone, which looked far too advanced for the Forest Pack, where they didn’t even use screen devices, and took a picture of their retreating backs.

The man smiled as he sent it to a contact he had saved as, "The Supreme Alpha."

---

When nightfall caught up with them on the road, where they were barely halfway to their destination, Sebastian made the decision to stop at a hotel in another pack territory they were passing through.

"What are you doing?" Viola asked as he parked the car at the hotel’s car station.

"Stopping for the night." He said flatly.

"No, we can’t stop. We have to keep going." Viola said with a frown.

She hadn’t planned for any stops on this journey and had carefully calculated the distance and the number of days it would take to reach Nightshade based on the night hours driving Nick had told her he was more than capable of handling.

Stopping even for an hour was a delay she had no patience for, not for anything, but mostly because she could hardly contain the urgency that had been building inside her the closer they got, the desperate need to reach the orphanage and finally have her sister standing in front of her again.

It had been years without Ivy. Years since she had betrayed her and had lived in luxury while her twin lived in a miserable pack. She couldn’t wait to set things right with her.

"I can’t drive through the night, love." Sebastian turned to look at her as he parked the car.

He actually could drive all through the night, but then where was the fun in spending time with her if they would do it in a car without actually being close enough to each other? One could say he was feeling deprived of her closeness and wanted to have her close, especially when her daisy scent had been teasing his nose the whole time.

"Then let me drive while you rest. Hotels in other pack territories are not safe for an Alpha. I was taught that much in Luna school," Viola muttered, looking at the flashing lights of the hotel signboard that reflected across the front of the car. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"If you are worried about my safety, don’t be. I wasn’t crowned the Supreme Alpha for nothing, I can protect myself out here, not unless you have other reasons for not wanting to rest for the night." Sebastian said, looking at her with barely concealed amusement, his gaze studying her reaction closely.

"What do you mean?" Viola sat straighter in her seat. Safety wasn’t her only reason, but it was still a valid one. She genuinely didn’t think it was safe for him, not after all the words of assassination attempts she had heard about him. She didn’t want to be held responsible for causing him harm, and she genuinely didn’t want anything to happen to him.

Perhaps she was just being paranoid and nothing else, but even so, the unease remained in her chest.

Sebastian sighed and stepped out of the car, walking around to her side and opening her door. "Come on. You look tired and you need to rest for the night as well. We can continue in the morning." He reached in and unclipped her seatbelt and then took her hand and pulled her gently out when she hesitated to step down on her own.