In the days leading up to the ceremony at the Grim pack, Viola had three more ability practice sessions with Sebastian in the pool, working on her swimming until she feared the water noticeably less. The only fear she hadn’t fully overcome was being in the pool alone. She could swim, dive deep, and move comfortably through the water in any direction she wanted, but only with the quiet certainty that he was right beside her.

One time, when she dove down and surfaced to find Sebastian had stepped out of the pool, panic seized her so completely she nearly drowned herself in it, and she very likely would have if he hadn’t gotten back in immediately.

"I don’t know why I can’t stand the thought of being alone in the water. There’s this nagging fear that something is going to pull me under, and I can’t shake it no matter how hard I try." She had told him one night, lying in bed with her head on his chest, his fingers idly threading through strands of her hair.

"Now that you know how to swim, next time we work on the phobia itself. And if we can’t make progress on our own, I will find you a therapist who can help. How does that sound?" He had asked, tipping her chin up to look into eyes that were clearly troubled by her inability to shake the fear no matter what she tried.

"It sounds tempting. If I genuinely can’t get past it on my own, I think seeing someone might actually help."

As the ceremony drew closer, they decided to pause her practice altogether, since Sebastian’s workload had doubled and he needed to oversee several pack matters and wrap them up before their trip.

He spent more time in his office than usual, occasionally sleeping there entirely, but while he was buried in work, Viola occupied herself with research, preparing a gift to present to the couple being honored at the ceremony.

Through her digging, she discovered that the Grim pack’s Alpha heir, Kenny, was easygoing in a way that set him apart sharply from his father, and that he had a real passion for music, even harboring quiet dreams of pursuing it as a career, dreams that would likely never see the light of day, since he was the only son and heir and would eventually have to take over from his father regardless.

Daniel, the Grim pack Alpha, wanted more power. He wanted to overtake Silver and seize control, and if it were entirely up to him, he would compel every pack in the region into seeing him as the rightful authority.

But Viola realized that rather than walking into a confrontation that risked tipping into war with Grim pack, it would be far smarter to build a quiet bridge to Kenny, the one who would eventually inherit the seat.

So she focused her efforts there, hoping to act not just as Sebastian’s Luna but as the kind of Luna who built alliances and brought peace rather than conflict to her pack. Pack war was the last thing anyone needed now.

She had worried briefly about what to wear, but Sebastian had assured her he had it all handled, and surprisingly, that was one thing she found she truly didn’t need to worry about.

On the day they were set to leave Silver, she made absolutely sure Wave understood that it was not to follow her, and was certainly not welcome at the Grim pack.

"What if you are in harm’s way?" Wave asked, its watery eyes going downcast and sad.

"I will do my best not to be. But having you there would actually put me in more danger, not less. You should stay here, or go back to the sea." She told it firmly.

Over the past week she had come to realize the creature was as stubborn as anything she had ever encountered. It had nearly gotten her into serious trouble just days earlier, when she was passing through a hallway and overheard a group of she-wolves gossiping about her, and Wave, hiding in the shadows along the wall, had spat water directly at them in retaliation.

The she-wolves had screamed and scattered in horror, convinced water had appeared out of thin air with no explanation. It was best, given all of that, that nothing like Wave came anywhere near a gathering of werewolves with their own dangerous abilities, especially since telling it not to act up never seemed to stop it from acting up in some other unexpected way.

Wave looked openly sad about being left behind, especially knowing that other mermaids carried their Tidekin with them everywhere and spoke with them constantly throughout the day. But apparently its Mermaidia preferred spending her time with that monster werewolf instead.

Sebastian came out of the closet, dragging their packed suitcases behind him.

"Are you ready?" He asked.

His eyes landed on the visibly sulking Tidekin, whose expression, despite being made entirely of water, was somehow always painfully easy to read, especially its eyes, which were currently fixed on him in a glare for reasons he couldn’t begin to guess.

"Yes, I’m done, I just need to pack my things and—" She turned and found him already standing there with the suitcase and all ready.

He was dressed in a short-sleeved brown T-shirt and denim jeans, a casual outfit for traveling, and he looked impossibly good in it, with a new slicked-back haircut and faded sides that brought out the silver of his eyes and the sharp bridge of his nose, leaving her momentarily awestruck and unable to look away until he said,

"I packed our things, so you don’t have to."

Viola blinked, surprised that he had taken care of her packing along with his own when she had been about to do it herself. She wasn’t entirely certain he had remembered everything she would need, but she appreciated the gesture too much to double-check, and simply reached for her purse on the bed instead.

"I’m ready. I already told Wave he’s staying here. He won’t be coming with us."

"That explains the glaring." Sebastian’s sentence cut off abruptly as a spray of water hit him squarely in the face. Before he could do anything about it, the creature had already vanished into the small aquarium tank set up in the corner of the room, leaving him standing there with soaked hair and a dripping shirt.

Viola could feel the irritation rolling off her husband as he glared at the tank with an intensity that suggested it was only a matter of time before he simply broke it. Wave had been getting on Sebastian’s nerves more lately, and no matter how much she tried to tell the thing to stop, it was too stubborn to listen.

She stepped forward quickly, placing both hands on his broad shoulders and smoothing them down as she began pulling his wet shirt up to help him out of it.

"We need to get you into something dry before we leave. Stop glaring at the tank, Wave is long gone from there by now." She cupped his face in both hands and made him look at her, and was quietly amazed at how fast his expression shifted from simmering anger to something soft and warm.

"One of these days I am going to boil your little Tidekin in a pot." He muttered, unable to fully hide his irritation toward her companion, who seemed to live to test his patience. "This is the third shirt I’m changing today, because of him."

Despite the complaint and his anger at Wave, his hands had already found her hips and were pulling her in against him as he dipped his head and caught her mouth in a slow, unhurried kiss, catching her lower lip gently between his teeth before sweeping his tongue over it in a way that curled her toes inside her shoes and sent her fingers reaching for the back of his neck.