Chapter - Lola
I’m having the most pleasant dream until my wolf wakes me, ripping at our bond until I shoot upright. Shouting rings out from somewhere outside the bedroom. My first thought is Richard. Instinct searches our bond, and he’s there, but?—
“Marco’s here,” he warns me.
“Oh fuck,” I snap, desperately searching for some clothing before realizing it’s a lost cause. I have no idea where my clothes ended up. This’ll go better if we face the music right now, even though this isn’t how I wanted to tell my father the happy news.
“Lola?!” My papá”s voice echoes through the treehouse, footsteps nearing the bedroom as the treehouse stills around us, like she’s holding her breath.
I lift my head and emerge from the bedroom, naked as the day I was born.
Papá whips around, eyes narrowed as he scans my figure. When his eyes land on the puncture marks on my shoulder, he balls his fists, chest heaving. “So it’s true, what the young gargoyle in town told me when I arrived. You went into heat with Richard? How could you, Lola? This is what I protected you from my entire life! I sent you here for your safety, to keep you protected!”
Papá’s voice is thunderous as he spits venom, pointing at Richard, who stands with Papá’s guard around him in a half circle.
My mate shakes his head softly. “I’m not hurt, sweetheart. This isn’t ideal, but?—”
Papá rounds on Richard. “How could you take advantage of her like this? You were my Second, my friend. I sent her here to keep her from Eliel doing this exact thing!” His voice rises in intensity as Richard opens his mouth to respond. But Papá whirls back to me. “We’re going home, now.” He jerks his head toward the guards, who grab Richard around the neck and shoulders and drag him off his feet.
He doesn’t struggle, his dark eyes swirling with Big Daddy’s green. “Stop, Marco,” he commands. His voice is full of Big Daddy’s authority. My father and his guard bristle and stare.
“She’s my Luna, Marco,” Richard says. “It surprised us both, but it was inst?—”
“It’s true, Papá” I begin, imbuing my wolf’s strength in my tone. “I wasn’t taken advantage of. Richard is my m?—”
“So help me goddess, if you say mate,” Papá snaps, shocking me with his anger. “Richard can’t be your mate. He’s ten times your age. He knew your mother, for Alaya’s sake! It’s disgusting!” He balls both fists as he continues spewing venom. “I know a place to take you to break that bond. It’ll hurt, Lola,” he says, his eyes flashing with something else, sorrow, maybe, “but you’ll be free. As for you,” he barks at Richard, his royal command rolling through the room like a tidal wave, “you’ll be staying right the fuck here. Far, far away from my child. And you will never, ever see her again.”
At those words, Richard explodes into his wolf, sending my father’s guard flying. Males hit the walls and shift as the treehouse flaps all the windows and doors in anguish.
“Stop, everyone!” I shout. “Hang on for a second!”
I knew my papá would be angry, but I hoped he’d be able to see reason.
“Cease, Richard,” he commands. Every wolf in the room halts and slides to a stop, whimpering. Except for Big Daddy, who stands huge in the center of the room, green eyes narrowed as his long tail lashes from side to side.
“I’m going nowhere without my mate,” I say calmly, focused on defusing a situation that’s getting worse by the second.
“He can’t be your mate,” Papá snaps. “He’s been my best friend for hundreds of years! He carried you around when you were a pup! Don’t you see how wrong this is, Lola? I don’t know why he bit you, but we will undo that. He took advantage, why can’t you see it?”
“Why would he?” I shout, crossing the room to stand beside my Alpha. “Why the hells would he even do that? Our bond surprised us as much as it’s surprising you now, but we have the Luna bond, Papá.” I point to Richard’s enormous wolf. “His wolf can come into my mind, and mine can go into his.”
“Silencio,” Papá thunders. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” When he jerks his head toward Nu?ez, I move to shift. But then one of the guards tosses something at Richard, a powder of some sort. It explodes when it hits Big Daddy’s face, and my mate goes down in a heap.
I round on my father. “How dare you deny this, unlikely as you think it to be.”
“Cállate!” Papá shouts. His command, the command of my king, hits me square in the chest like a punch. He’s never told me to be quiet like that. Not a single time.
“No!” I scream, fury barreling through me. “I’ve been dutiful my whole life, served when and where you needed me to. I’ve played the part of the perfect princess ninety-nine percent of the time but I am done! He’s mine, Papá. You don’t have to like it, but you do have to accept it!”
My wolf slinks back into my mind, whining as we stare at Big Daddy’s prone figure in the middle of the floor.
Papá’s face turns red with rage. “We’re going home, now,” he says with a warning growl. He waves a dismissive hand at Big Daddy. “Don’t even think about refusing to come, mija. I’ll run a sword through him and leave him here to die for what he did. He has you fooled, Lola. This male isn’t yours.”
“You wouldn’t do that,” I snap, balling my fists as I call my wolf for a fight. Fuck this. “If you touch a hair on his head, I’ll?—”
“I will use my alpha command on you if I have to,” he says quietly, malice flashing in his eyes.
Shock hits me. Even as a child, he never used it on me, and he’s already done it once tonight. I glance around the room at familiar faces, but I don’t see friends here. No. I see wolves under the king’s command, and I can’t fight them all. My best bet is to go with Papá and come up with a plan B. But for now, I can’t risk anything happening to my Alpha.
“Don’t hurt him,” I say softly. “I’ll go with you. But this conversation isn’t done.”
The need for harmony slaps me. Everything about this situation is wrong. I want to fight, I long for it, to rip into my papá for denying Richard and me. But I can’t win that fight against guards who’ve trained since before I was born. So I’ll be smart and bide my time.
And even though it kills me, and my wolf howls mournfully the entire time, I follow the king, surrounded by guards, back to the portal and through it.