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“Jaylen,” he mumbled in a voice so low, I barely heard him.
“Speak up, Calliver!” I barked before he could say anything else.
The guard cleared his throat and replaced his radio on his belt, lowering his eyes against my penetrating stare. “Jaylen says she’s in the north wing.”
My eyes raised toward the closed doors of the north wing, gaze narrowing in confusion. “What?”
My guard shifted his weight uncomfortably, and I understood why. There was no reason for Mirielle to have gone into the north wing. She hadn’t slept there since moving in with me. My mind spun with the implications, but none of them made sense.
“That’s what he said. He escorted her back earlier from the gardens, and she asked to be left alone. He says she hasn’t left all night.”
I didn’t believe it, but I didn’t bother wasting time arguing with Calliver. Pushing past him, I stalked toward the far end of the hallway, throwing open the doors to the north wing, where Mirielle had once stayed before moving in with me permanently.
Jaylen had been expecting me, and he began to ramble as I approached the closed doors of the suite.
“I swear, Alpha, she hasn’t gone anywhere all night.”
“Have you checked on her?” I growled, waving him aside.
“No, Alpha. I-I don’t interfere with her unless she needs something, and she hasn’t requested anything since I brought her back from the gardens this evening.”
I started into the room but stopped, considering his words.
Did something happen earlier in the evening?
With my hands on the gold handles of the door, my head swiveled toward him. “Who was she with in the gardens? What was she doing?”
Mirielle’s personal guard shook his head vehemently.
“Nobody! Nothing! She seemed to be checking on the archway, but I wasn’t standing very close.”
He hesitated, as if he was going to say something else, but thought better of it. But I was already moving.
I whipped my head back and opened the doors, half-expecting them to be locked. But they gave way in my hands, my pulse roaring furiously in my ears. This wasn’t right. There was no reason at all for Mirielle to have returned to the north wing after all this time. All of her belongings had been moved into my suite weeks earlier. There was nothing there for her. It wasn’t a spot she would come to be alone, the suite once having belonged to my mother. There were several other places she would have gone, including the greenhouse, that were far more comforting to her.
I didn’t comprehend any of this.
“Mirielle?” I called out, my voice echoing through the empty rooms. Like my quarters, my mother’s old suites were laid out with a sitting room and bedroom, the door between them open. The lights were off, and my nose rose to the air to sniff for any sign of my bride-to-be. “Miri, are you here?”
Worry and confusion fused inside my gut, the Royal Guards on my heels as I flipped on the lights in my wake. But there wasn’t any indication of my fiancée in the place.
I whirled around accusingly, and Jaylen withdrew, sensing what was coming even before the words poured out of my mouth.
“How could you let this happen?” I snarled, advancing on him, fury overtaking me. “You had one fucking job! This is unacceptable!”
Jaylen shook visibly in front of me, but the head of the Royal Guards spoke up at his behest.
“Alpha, this isn’t the first time she’s bypassed the guards,” Calliver reminded me.
My head jerked menacingly toward him, and to his credit, he ducked back, realizing his mistake too late.
“She wouldn’t do that, not again. Something has happened to her,” I insisted furiously. “She was planning the wedding. She was fine. Search the castle.”
“I don’t see how she could have left—” Jaylen started to say, but I cut him off, my eyes blazing.
“SEARCH EVERYWHERE!” I boomed. “And wake all the guards. I want everyone looking for her. Wake the entire castle if need be. I want her found. NOW!”
I didn’t give them a chance to respond as I hurried out of the suite and headed toward my sister’s quarters. I didn’t believe for a second that Mirielle had gone to Cyndella, but there was always a chance that my sister had been lurking in the shadows to see which way my bride-to-be had gone.
