Several hours before Lola’s encounter with Nora, Russel woke up from a dead sleep. His body was stiff and there were a myriad of muscles all throughout that didn’t want to work correctly at first. He groaned as he moved when a bunch of parts of himself all protested in very painful ways. The fight with his father had taken its toll and although he felt whole and healed up again, there were still some lingering aftereffects.

The room was dark, the fire in the fireplace had long since gone out. He couldn’t see that well but despite that, it felt empty. He turned his head to search out Lola but found that side of the bed completely empty.

“Lola?” he asked, his voice sounding weirdly thin to him. “Lola!” he shouted again when she didn’t respond.

He jerked himself out of bed, ignoring all the various aches and pains still assaulting him, and ran to the bathroom to see if maybe she was in there. His eyes adjusted to the darkness quickly, his natural werewolf senses allowing him to see much better than an ordinary person.

All he kept seeing, however, was more of the empty room. Lola was nowhere to be found.

Maybe the main room, he thought to himself. The bedroom was just one part of his father’s apartments. There was a large living space as well. Maybe she had gone there to sit, not wanting to wake him up after waking up herself. It seemed plausible.

He hurried to the bedroom door and yanked it open. The main part of the apartment was also deserted. He ran around in a blind panic, looking everywhere for her but when he didn’t find her, the only logical assumption he could make was that she had left the room.

He ran back to the bedroom and hurriedly threw on some clothes he happened to find. Since they originally belonged to his father, they were somewhat roomier than he normally wore. He didn’t care though. Lola was the priority. He had to make sure she was okay. If something happened to her…

He didn’t want to think about that. The thought of her getting injured or killed hurt too much. To make himself feel a little better as he hurried to the apartment’s front door, he told himself that she was in Oclan now. His kingdom. She should be safe here now. While he had been too exhausted and battered to issue a formal proclamation that she be guarded at all times, he was sure word would have spread fast that the human girl was important to the new king. He had, after all, issued the Blood Challenge and defeated the prior king just to ensure she lived.

And everyone in the kingdom knew of Carter Polver’s power.

Despite all those things that should have reassured him, he still felt a nagging pinprick of doubt stabbing at the back of his mind. Something that he couldn’t ignore no matter how much he wanted to. The feeling was a strong one and while he had never been one to put much stock in something like intuition, he still couldn’t shake it.

Something bad was going to happen to Lola. Or something bad had already happened.

He opened the door to the apartment and nearly collided with the guard posted outside.

“The woman,” he snapped. “Where did the woman go?”

The guard jerked as if he’d just been slapped.

“Your Majesty,” he said. “Uh…woman?”

Russel’s eyes narrowed and flashed with anger.

“Ah. Right. The woman,” he said, remembering the concubine that had exited the king’s chambers an hour or two ago. He was confused, however, as to why the king would be reacting so strangely over a whore. “She mentioned needing some fresh air. I believe she left the castle. She headed toward the front door, Sire. If I had known that the concubine…”

“Concubine!” Russel roared, his panic and fear swirling into a sudden hot rage. “She is not a whore. Watch your tongue or I’ll remove it from your head!”