Nicolas POV
“You better get dressed,” my father ordered when he entered my quarters. With his gray hair
combed back and already dressed in a black penguin suit and blue bow tie, he looked dashing.
“The opening of the carnival starts in less than an hour!” He continued, closing the door behind him.
I rolled my eyes at him and released a breath I didn’t know I was holding.
I have locked myself in my quarters after our search. Zara was nowhere in sight. I have been moping
and drinking here for most of the day. I couldn’t believe that Zara could just disappear like that.
“She didn’t just disappear,” Ray growled. “She ran away from you!”
“How?” I snapped. “She can’t just disappear in thin air! Someone must have taken her.”
“I refuse to believe that!” he hissed. “She must have discovered Isabella’s photo and embraced the
worst! She must have run away! She could have used her magic….”
“You can’t be so sure of that!” I bit back. “Besides, Isabella is dead….”
“Does she know that?” Ray snapped. “Have you ever told Zara about Isabella?”
Ray’s temper has been flaring ever since we couldn’t get a hint of Zara’s scent. He has been blaming
me nonstop for keeping the dumb photo of Isabella in my pocket.
In the last two weeks, I forgot it was there because I was focused on Zara.
“You are right,” I gave in. “We never spoke of Isabella because the subject never came up.”
“Did you hear me?” My father interrupted by tapping his foot impatiently on the wooden floor.
Despite knowing about Zara’s disappearance, he acted casually and continued with his daily routine.
That frustrated and angered me even more. My father seemed indifferent to my emotions.
“I heard you. I am not going!” I replied, grabbing my glass from the side table, and gulped down the
golden liquid.
If I were human, I would have been drunk by now, but thanks to our ability to burn the alcohol off
quicker, we normally did not get intoxicated. I poured myself a second drink and I swirled the liquid
around the glass.
My father lifted one of his eyebrows, and his gaze lazily swept over me.
“So you are telling me that you would rather sit in your room and mope? That you have given up
that quickly on your relationship?” He asked.
I stayed silent, reverting my attention to my drink in my hand.
My father nodded and pulled his lips into a thin line-a taunting gesture of his indicating that he was
displeased with me.
“Despite the fact that you just managed to persuade the whole council and me that Zara is your
rightful mate and that you love her?” he continued.
I slowly raised my gaze from my drink to find my father’s.
“What are you trying to say?” I muttered, feeling my tongue slur. “That I am a failure?”
“I have not said that,” he replied, shifting his head to the side. He was attempting to gauge my
intentions.
I rolled my eyes and huffed.
My father didn’t need to read me to know that something was off about me. He knew me even
better than Ronan did.
“Then what are you saying?” I asked, shifting uncomfortably in my chair under his stare.
I wasn’t in the mood to listen to him; neither was I in the mood to listen to anyone preaching at me.
I screwed up. I made Zara flee from me.
A sharp pain shot through my heart, making me moan out loud.
My insides were hurtfully aching throughout the day. I knew it was because of Zara.
I craved to have been able to hold her in my arms, to smell her warm flower scent, and feel her
warmth chipping away the ice from my heart.
Zara has changed me from this bitter, cold man to someone who is whole, loved, and caring again,
and now she has left me without even saying a word.
“I have never seen you look so guilty, and that’s because of a she-wolf,” my father said, taking a seat
opposite me. He interlaced his fingers and leaned forward, searching my gaze. “Son, what exactly is
the problem? What is bothering you?”
“Why do you care?” I snapped, irritated.
“I care because you are the future of this pack!” He snapped. “I can’t stand seeing you this way. You
have changed significantly from the person I knew yesterday. I can’t believe you’d sulk after all
you’ve gone through to reach your fated mate-the girl you love unconditionally!”
“She left me!” I lashed out, the pain around my heart still raw.
My father got to his feet and headed toward the door.
“It is just a small misunderstanding,” my father stated as he froze with his hand on the door. “It
should be easy for you two to resolve the issue.”
“How?!” I snapped. “She is no longer here! She fucking disappeared on me. I don’t even know where
the hell she is!”
My father turned his gaze toward me, his eyes beaming out of excitement, and a smile formed on his
lips.
“A little birdy told me she will be at the ball tonight,” he said. “Even though she is pissed at you, she
will still attend the ball to support the cause…”
Leaping to my feet, I quickly crushed my father’s back against the wall.
My father chuckled, finding my reaction amusing.
“Where is she?” I growled angrily. “Where is Zara!?”
“She is safe,” he stated, keeping his composure. “Now let me down.”
That will be the day. He was concealing secrets from me, and that infuriated me.
Anger and frustration, combined with bitterness and sadness, rippled as a complex emotional
mixture through my body, boiling and cooling my blood at the same time.
I threw my head back and released a fierce roar, rattling the pack house and scattering the windows
in pieces around me.
However, my father didn’t even flinch; he just stared at me with an amused look on his face.
“Feeling better?” He asked calmly.
I gave my father a look of confusion.
Was he no longer afraid of me?
When I didn’t reply, my father looked at me sternly.
“Put me down, Nicolas,” he ordered. “You are wasting precious time. You still need to go get your
ass washed and ready. You can’t attend the ball looking like that!”
I inhaled deeply and set my father down.
He pulled his jacket straight and lifted his chin.
“I expect you to be ready in fifteen minutes,” he said calmly. “If not, we’ll have to postpone the
festivities, which means that finding her would take longer…”
My father opened the door, and he turned his head back at me.
“You don’t want to disappoint your future Luna tonight, do you…?”
****