No matter how much excitement quietly fluttered through her stomach at his words of having sex in the car, Viola held the glare firmly in place, and he laughed and drove on. "I’ll take that as a yes then. I will make sure you love every second of it, but first, let’s get you into something more comfortable and causal."

He drove them to a large mall in the pack, pulling his aura inward as they arrived at the front parking lots. The sight of the building made something light up in Viola’s chest, she couldn’t actually remember the last time she had gone shopping. It had been years, and never once with the man she loved. Evan had barely made time for things like that, and it hadn’t mattered to her as much back then because she had always been perfectly happy going alone.

Sebastian took her hand the moment they stepped out of the car, locking their fingers together as they walked into the mall, which was quieter than she had expected a big building like this should be.

Working omegas in blue and white uniforms moved through the space all around them, and despite Sebastian keeping his aura carefully suppressed, every single one of them still recognized him as their supreme Alpha, shivering slightly at the sight and bowing their heads as he passed, before raising them after he moved past them to look at the woman he was holding protectively close.

"Is it all right for everyone to see us together like this in public?" Viola asked, glancing around and catching the eyes of several she-wolves watching her with open envy and barely concealed jealousy, women she had never even spoken to.

"Anyone who has a problem with me going shopping with my wife can go kiss their own asses." He said, tightening his fingers around hers. "I am done hiding you. I want you to shine."

He had thought keeping his affection for her private in public would protect her, but that had been wrong, because she had still been made a target regardless. Now he intended to make it so unmistakably clear how much she meant to him that his pack members would think twice before disrespecting her, knowing what it would cost them. He might not announce her as his mate but he would not hide his affection.

Viola pulled her gaze away from the watching she-wolves and looked ahead, feeling a quiet surge of confidence that he wasn’t trying to conceal her, alongside a quieter worry that his people might lose respect for him for keeping a wolfless Luna by his side.

The thought of never having a wolf crept back in and pulled at her mood, until Sebastian’s voice cut through it.

"What color should we go for?"

"Pardon?" She looked up at him, not following what he meant as she hadn’t been paying attention to anything around her.

"What color should we wear for our couple outfit? I am taking you somewhere afterward and I want us to match. Pick a color for us."

Viola looked around and realized he had brought her to the section of the mall dedicated entirely to couple outfits, everything from casual to formal wear, because in a world built around mates who liked to present themselves as a pair, every mall had one. Viola had never couple-matched with anyone before in her life. The realization sent a warmth through her she hadn’t expected.

"Are you sure you want me to choose?" She asked, and he gave her a firm nod.

"Why not?"

The options stretched out in every color imaginable, and she deliberately walked past the darker shades, she had seen quite enough of those in his wardrobe and on his body to last a lifetime.

Viola settled on bright pink shirts with small furry kitten faces printed on the front, paired them with matching baggy blue jeans and white sneakers for both of them. The shirts came with coordinating sun hats, and Sebastian’s grimace of quiet disaster as she placed the cap on his head was a picture in itself. She pulled him to stand in front of a mirror after they had both changed into it, and he stood there looking like a man reconsidering every decision that had led to this moment.

Pink. He didn’t like it on himself at all.

He would have given almost anything to get the offensively cheerful shirt off his body, it looked like something a teenage couple would pick on a dare, but his wife was giggling, and she had already seized his stiff hand and was clicking mirror selfies on her phone and directing him into poses with the kind of cheerful authority that left no room for argument.

"You look divine in pink, darling. It suits you so well I think you should wear it more often." She announced, and she wasn’t even lying. It did suit him, brought out something almost boyish in his face, which was a remarkable achievement given that no one looking at the width of his shoulders and the cut of his build could ever mistake him for a boy.

The color lit him up in a way that made her unable to stop clicking pictures, and within minutes she had already set one of the pictures as her wallpaper and shoved the screen toward his face with a wide grin to show him how good he looked in it.

Sebastian looked at it, then at her, and thought quietly that if she laughed like this every single day, he would wear pink for the rest of his life without complaint. And the fact that she had taken a picture of both of them and used it as her wallpaper, something that made her look so much in love in it, made his heart warm like melted sugar. No husband would see his wife this happy and not participate more in what brought her joy.

He began making poses of his own as she clicked more pictures, filling up her phone storage with cheerful, ridiculous evidence of this morning outing. Plus, she was good at snapping each picture like a pro, and it became clear she hadn’t lost her poise as the once princess of Moonwillow who was famous on WolfTalk social media.

Before they left, they shopped through more couple sets, casual and formal, everything in the kinds of colors Sebastian had never willingly touched before. Yellows, sky blues, more pinks, soft greens. All of it ordered for delivery to her penthouse.

They left the mall the way they had come in, hand in hand, laughing and chatting happily, but this time with every eye in the place following them down the walkway, and not even because anyone had recognized the Supreme Alpha beneath the pink kitten shirt and the sun hat. But simply because they couldn’t stop looking at the couple and admiring the outfit that no one had touched yet because of its brightness.

"I am getting that color with my mate next time." Voices floated after them from the she-wolves near the entrance, and Viola caught it and smiled.

"Where are we going next?" She asked as they settled back into the car, and Sebastian grinned in a way that told her everything and nothing at once.

"It’s a surprise. I think you will like this one much better."

Viola couldn’t have anticipated where he took her, not in a hundred guesses. As the car slowed into a parking lot her eyes went wide, and her heart began to beat faster with something that felt very much like pure excitement. He came around and opened her door, and stood there looking at her with that quiet, satisfied smile of his as he asked,

"Do you like my surprise?"