Chapter 494: Preparing For Parenthood

"Where are we going?" Viola asked her husband through the mind link, as he’d changed direction after they’d visited the cliff and howled together at its top, his wolf had embarrassingly chased after butterflies while Sebastian tried in vain to stop him, since it was a humiliating thing for an Alpha to be seen doing, but seeing that her wolf was happily chasing them too, he’d given in, and the two of them had spent a while playing among the butterflies drifting around the sunflowers at the top.

Now that they’d left the place, she’d expected them to head home, but Sebastian was leading them in another direction entirely, one that was taking them further and further beyond Silver’s territory. They passed through another stretch of woods, and beyond that, came upon a massive, imposing gate, set into the tallest fence she’d ever seen.

This part of the woods felt entirely desolate, no birds sang here, and none of the plants looked fresh or alive. It almost looked as though autumn had settled permanently over the place, with dry, crunching yellow leaves blanketing the ground, more of them drifting down from the trees to settle over her fur as they passed beneath.

The gate had grown thick with vines, as though no one had opened it in a very long time, and as Viola looked around, her eyes fell on a rusted, vine-covered sign that read, "Mooncreek Pack."

She turned to her husband, who had already moved ahead and pressed his paw against a panel that scanned it, letting out a loud chime before the vines began to break away and the gate swung slowly inward, revealing the old, dead pack that had once belonged to her father’s family.

"Sebastian..." She called to him, hanging back as he made his way onto the pack grounds, where the earth had split apart in several places, choked with overgrown vines, as though an earthquake had once torn through the place and left it fragile ever since.

Sebastian stopped and turned back to his wife, whose wolf looked, in that moment, like a nervous puppy.

"Come on. Don’t you want to see your father’s homeland? Now that we’re certain the flood won’t happen again, we can leave the gate open and rebuild this place the way it once was, it’ll be like preserving a piece of him."

He’d seen the guilt in her eyes, guilt over not having been able to save her parents alongside him, and Sebastian didn’t want her carrying that weight forever. If there was anything that might ease it, even a little, it was preserving her father’s and mother’s memory here, along with the home Vincent had once known.

He saw her eyes glisten as they met his, and Sebastian said gently, "Come here."

She walked up to him, and he rubbed his head along the fur of her neck in comfort as he asked, "Do you want to see where your father lived, all those years ago, and where your mother must have worked and fallen in love with him? Before they went to the island, they had spent a lot of time here."

Viola nodded, wanting to see it, even knowing it wouldn’t be the real thing, only the remnants of what it had once been, the buildings all lying in crumbled ruin, thick with dust and yellow vines, without a single living plant left standing anywhere around.

"I just realized something, honey," Sebastian’s words came into her head as she followed him into the heart of the old pack, picking her way over half-collapsed buildings and the cracked, uneven ground.

"What?" she asked him, looking up at the long fence that looked like the one used on a dam before looking back at him when he slowed down so she could catch up.

"I realized that ever since we got married, we’ve lived in a way no couple should. We don’t have one permanent place to call our home, or our married home, and now that... we’re having children, I think we should pick one place and stop moving from here to there," he told her, sharing the thought that immediately made Viola reflect on it.

She hadn’t really thought about that before, but now that he mentioned it, she realized that since their marriage, they had moved from her penthouse to his, and then to his main quarters, which should have been their permanent home as the rulers of the pack.

"So what do you suggest we do?" she asked him, looking into his silver eyes.

"I want you to decide where you want us to stay and raise our child. Should we make your penthouse our permanent home, where I move all my things in, or should we make the main quarters our home?" Sebastian asked.

To him, he was alright with either choice as long as she was there, but thinking about it, he didn’t think constantly moving around was healthy for a child who wouldn’t know where to call home.

He saw a thoughtful look in his wife’s eyes for a moment as they leaped together over a cracked section of ground before she said,

"If we move to your quarters, it will be a hassle to always wake up in the morning and drive an hour to the High Tower, which is in the center of the pack, to work. Though I would love to have our baby in the main quarters since it’s away from the noise of the city, I think we should pick my penthouse as our home. When I’m close to giving birth, we can live in the main quarters and then return after some time."

Viola watched his eyes for any sign of disapproval, but instead, she saw a quick agreement as he replied, "I thought about that too. We’ve made more memories in your penthouse than anywhere else, and I kind of picture our life mostly there. Once we return, I’ll have all my things packed and moved there."

He lowered his head and rubbed his muzzle gently against the side of her neck, brushing his nose through her thick fur. Viola’s wolf responded with a pleased purr, leaning into the affectionate touch.

"And we can use the main quarters as an escape vacation home once in a while," Viola added, feeling so excited about their future that her tail began to wag as they walked deeper into the territory.

But as though the thought of their unborn child and their future reminded her of something, she said, "Seb, there is something I’ve wanted to tell you, but it keeps slipping my mind."