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Chapter1
Zen
Rolling to my left, I reached for Mirielle in the double king bed we shared, my arms extended to embrace her, in the thick of my haze of sleep. To my surprise, she wasn’t in bed with me.
I sat up, rubbing my eyes to take in the darkened suite, my vision adjusting to the familiar shapes of my bedroom on the royal floor of Silverhold Tower. The door to the ensuite bathroom was ajar, light off, indicating that Mirielle was not inside, and the door to the sitting room was secured.
I could make out nothing coming from the adjoining room, but insomnia was more my thing than hers, even in the midst of all the wedding plans that had kept her so occupied over the past weeks.
Shoving aside the light duvet, I slid toward the edge of the massive bed and set my bare feet into a pair of comfortable slippers I used exclusively for wandering the top floor of the castle.
“Miri?” I called out, my voice slightly raspy from sleep.
Outside the arched windows, moonlight still illuminated the star-spangled sky, the night in full effect. I had to meet with the Council of Ministers in the morning, which was why I had not waited on Mirielle to retire to bed with me, but she had never been far behind me at night, not even as the wedding drew closer.
Two days now. In two days, she’d be my queen.
A shiver of pleasure rocked through me. My slippered feet padded lightly over the gleaming hardwood of the suite until I reached the door of the sitting room. To my astonishment, the adjacent room was empty and dark. Mirielle was not in there, poring over books on linens or flowers, checking off last-minute guests on a list or fast asleep on the settee.
Where was she?
With my pace quickening, I headed toward the hall door, throwing it open and startling the guards. Calliver stood straighter to see me.
“Alpha…?” he asked, puzzled and caught off-guard by my approach.
Instinctively, he reached for his radio like he had missed an emergency call, the sight giving me a modicum of relief. If he wasn’t alarmed, I had no reason to be.
“Where is Mirielle?” I demanded.
The Royal Guard stared back at me blankly. “Alpha?”
“Mirielle. Where did she go?”
Calliver glanced at the other guard, who shrugged in confusion.
“I haven’t seen her all night, Alpha,” Calliver said slowly. “Was she here?”
It was my turn to stare at him. “What do you mean, you didn’t see her? She never came up?”
“Not while I was here.” He again nodded at his companion. “Did you see her?”
His partner shook his head but remained silent. I gritted my teeth, my mind racing as to where she might have gone.
“Radio her guards. I want to know where she is right now.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Calliver agreed primly, grabbing for his radio.
I pivoted back into my suite to change out of my nightclothes, mind wandering to the last place I’d seen her.
Things had gotten so busy with the upcoming plans and my typical duties within the kingdom, our schedules had conflicted at times. But every night, we had fallen into one another’s arms like clockwork and woken together in the morning.
So where was Mirielle now?
In my mind’s eye, I envisioned her slumped over the table in the great dining hall, exhausted from too many hours of last-minute arrangements. If that had happened, I would personally wring the necks of her guards for letting her remain there.
Throwing on a pair of track pants and a plain white t-shirt, I found my way back out into the corridor, where Calliver’s complexion had waned to opaque.
“What?” I growled, not liking his expression. “What did you find out?”
