Chapter - Lola

Iwake in the morning wound tight despite coming a half dozen times with my vibrator. A faint sheen of sweat covers my whole body, my breasts painful and achy. Blinking my eyes open, I note the sun shining through the circular window in my bedroom. It's definitely not still early in the morning.

Groaning, I roll over as my comm watch starts ringing. When I lift my wrist, Lou's name flashes over the navy band.

"Answer Lou Hector," I direct it.

Lou's tinny voice rings through the hologram. "Lola? What are you up to?"

I pick at the knot holding my silk headscarf shut. "To be honest, I just woke up," I admit.

Lou laughs. "Late night? I've heard Shifter Hollow has some bangin' parties." Before I get a chance to answer, she barrels on, "Listen, my niece Morgan and I are headed your way today for Morgan to do some work at Biergarten with her black magic. Do you want to come with us?"

"Oh, black magic, sounds cool." I undo my head scarf, my curls tumbling out of it like a waterfall. "What time are you coming, and where should I meet you?"

Lou's voice goes muffled like she's talking to someone away from the watch. After a moment, she clears her throat. "Half an hour, and meet us there?"

"Done!" I say brightly. "Thanks for the invite, Lou!"

"Absolutely," she says, although I sense something forced in her tone. She's silent for a moment before continuing, "I immediately liked you, and I usually have a good sense about people. But I've been avoiding Shifter Hollow, and I haven't done a good job working on a friendship between us. I'd like to have one, though."

I blink rapidly at her admission. "Same," I murmur without thinking. "I should be better at that; I've been so focused on getting settled here."

"Well, better late than never," she says with a laugh.

Except—late must be her motto. Because forty-five minutes later, I've been sitting at a table by myself at Biergarten, and Lou and Morgan are nowhere to be seen. My guitar is in the seat next to me, and considering I'm the only one sitting outside right now, I think about playing.

I've been mulling last night over and over in my mind—the rightness of Richard, the strength of our connection. Nothing has ever hit me this hard and fast in my life.

And I don't think I could deny him even if I tried.

Unlikely? Yes.

Untimely? Certainly.

Am I gonna say no to him? Absolutely not.

"Lola, hey!" Lou's voice breaks through my train of thought.

When I glance up, she's exiting the main building through the black metal and glass doors out onto the patio. Iggy is perched on her shoulder, one chubby arm wrapped around her head, his purple fingers curled around her ear. A beautiful redheaded woman follows them.

My nostrils flare as I hold back a laugh. "Looks like you brought another friend."

Lou rolls her eyes and opens her mouth, but before she gets a chance to say anything, Iggy hops off her shoulder and onto my table, bringing a box out from under his free arm.

"Hey, Princess Lola! Lou didn't invite me, but I invited myself because Dad says we should always help people who need it. And Lou's sad about things, so I've been making her cookies." He shoots me a proud smile. "I basically adopted her."

Lou snorts and crosses her arms. "Ignatius Zion, I am just fine, although you're a damn good baker."

"Oh," he laughs, "Dad and Miriam do all the cooking." He lifts a tiny white box so I can see. "I do all the packaging though."

Lou flops down in a chair opposite mine and pulls out the one next to her, patting the seat. The gorgeous redhead smiles and sits down gracefully. She's tall and elegant like most shifter women are, but this must be the black witch, Lou's niece.

She leans across the rectangular wooden table and extends a hand to me. "Nice to meet you in person, Lola. Abe and I saw you play recently; I'm honestly fangirling so hard right now."

I take her hand and shake it. Her grip is firm and sure, the handshake of a confident woman. I like her immediately.

Iggy hops across the table, long tail lashing from side to side. He shoves the box toward me and pulls the top open, looking up expectantly. "You want one, Princess Lola?"

I smile and peek inside the box, making a big deal out of examining every available option. Finally, I cock my head sideways and put my face very close to his. "Which one did you work hardest on, Iggy?"

He lowers his voice to a whisper and points to what I think is a chocolate chip cookie, tucked in the back corner.

I grab it and set it on the table in front of me. "Perfect, I'll have this one."

He nods sagely and spins around, hip-hopping back toward Lou. He puts the box down in front of her. "Eat up, Lou. Cookies are good for you."

She sighs and folds her hands in her lap. "If you say so, kiddo."

A shout echoes from somewhere on the main drag. I twitch an ear to listen, hearing the same kiddos I played Skyball with yesterday. I pat Iggy's chubby haunch. "Hey, there are kids playing in the street if you want to join them. I kicked their butt at Skyball yesterday with Hana."

Iggy's eyes light up, and he lifts off the table, tiny gargoyle wings flapping wildly. He takes off before Lou or Morgan can say a word.

"Thank the Lorrrrd," Lou whines once he's gone. "He's adorable, but he seems to have made me his personal mission to fix."

Morgan leans over and bumps her shoulder against Lou's. "He's intuitive. And gargoyles are protectors; he can't help himself." She grabs the box of cookies and picks one out for herself. "Frankly, I'm thrilled to have all of these gargoyle family members. We'll never run out of food as long as we live."

Lou huffs. "Snack up, shack up, I guess."

It's my turn to snort. "Say what now?"

Morgan laughs, mouth full of cookie. She places her palm over it and chews, rocking side to side as if hurrying herself on. When she's done, she grins at me. "My sister Thea is married to Shepherd, if you've met him. He's on Ever's protector team. Anyhow, when we first came here and he started pursuing her, he told us that was the gargoyle males' motto."

Lou laughs, pink lips splitting into a grin. "I don't believe there's anything official about that motto."

"Absolutely not." Morgan shoves another cookie in her mouth. "He's a comedian," she manages around a mouthful of the sweet.

A pegasus waiter comes up, handsomely dressed in a collared shirt and tightly fitted vest. His long blond hair is tied in a bun on his head in the way most centaurs and pegasi do. I smile up at him and order a mead. Morgan and Lou do the same.

Lou glances at her niece. "Did Ohken make this, ya think?"

Morgan laughs and looks at me. "My brothers-in-law are multitalented. Ohken does, well, shit, he pretty much does everything. But he's a great brewer." She looks back at Lou. "But, no, I don't think he has anything to do with the mead here. I'm not asking a single thing about it, though, because the last time I asked Ohken about a mead I liked, the magical ingredient was earthworms."

We burst into bright, joyous laughter at that.

For two hours, we sit and drink and chat about everything and nothing. Lou and Morgan are both so genuine and kind, I can't bear the thought of our early lunch ending. I don't have many close friends at home in Santa Alaya. It was too hard to maintain those friendships over the years because I could never come and go like others.

It was always Leo for me, and then Leo and the Lovestruck Lobos. Even then, the actual band members seem to change pretty frequently. Leo's been the only constant.

But…it doesn't have to be that way for me. Here in Ever, I think I could make real girlfriends. If I stayed. Santa Alaya will always be home and I love my haven to the ends of the earth and back. But I'm also ready for new adventures. I consider what might happen if I told Papá I simply wasn't coming back.

Morgan clears her throat. "You look lost in thought, Lola. Everything alright?"

I fake a smile. "Yes! I was thinking about how different Ever is from Santa Alaya."

Lou leans across the table and props her chin in her palm. "Do tell."

I look around us to see if there's anyone to notice my admission, but we're alone on the patio. Even Iggy seems to have permanently deserted us.

"I don't love the pace of life of politics, although I love the haven itself." My wolf whines softly in my mind. "Papá has worked hard his entire life to become king, but it's not a path I would choose, if it was up to me. Shifter politics becomes increasingly cutthroat the higher up our ranks you go, and he's at the very top."

Morgan scrunches her delicate, freckled nose. "Eww."

I point at her and laugh. "Precisely. It's just that, when your parents work so hard to build a life for you, it can be incredibly difficult to admit that it isn't the life you want for yourself." Sweat breaks out across my forehead as I pull at the neckline of my tee, my eyes drifting off into the woods beyond the patio.

"Shit, man," Lou murmurs. "You just realized you don't wanna go home, didn't you?"

I grit my jaw and think about what I told the girls. Finally, I turn to them. "I do…eventually. But I'm also having a lot of fun being here."

My thoughts go immediately to Richard and a vision of us living together in Ever. I agree with the need to take things slowly with him, even though that isn't the shifter way. Our situation is complicated, and I can't risk Papá finding out before the challenge.

Morgan laughs and slaps Lou on the leg. "We lost Lola again. Are we terrible conversationalists, or do you think she's not sharing the juicy gossip?"

All the hair on the back of my neck rises as the strangest sensation comes over me. Whipping around in my seat, I stare into the dense forest on the other side of the patio railing. The trees are so close together here that you can barely see between them. Giant clumps of shady ferns are so large, a person could easily stand behind them and not be seen.

My thighs begin to tremble, my heart racing. The sensation of being watched hits me so hard, I rise to a stand, scanning the trees. I resist the urge to leap over the railing and follow my wolf's instincts into the woods.

I stare for a full minute before concluding I can't see anyone.

But I know someone was there.

Watching.

Lou and Morgan had the genius idea to go swimming at the big lake outside Shifter Hollow. We've only been here for a short while, but three mermaids have already shown up to play with us.

"Get nekkid!" Lou shouts, pulling her clothes off and running into the lake.

I laugh and follow suit, a little surprised my new friend isn't fussed by nudity. I've met a handful of humans at court, and they were always dicey about shifters' blasé attitude toward being unclothed.

Morgan chuckles as her aunt dives headlong into the water, swimming out to where the brilliantly colored mermaids splash. "Lou is absolutely wild, sheesh. No fear." She glances at me. "I have questions, like what else lives in this lake? Anything I need to be aware of, like, I don't know, the Loch Ness Monster? But not Lou! No. Lou's just gonna dive right in."

I glance around the lake, looking for anything that would give me pause, but I see nothing. Smiling at Morgan, I point to the edges. "No tail trails in the mud mean there likely aren't water dragons, so you're good there. And aside from them, there wouldn't be another freshwater monster for you to worry about. You're good to go, Morgan."

Her mouth drops open. "I was kinda kidding, but water dragons—that's a thing?"

"Oh yeah," I say with a laugh. "We've got them in Santa Alaya in the bay, but even then, most of them are friendly once you greet them with a gift."

"Ya don't say," she deadpans, staring out over the water to where Lou and the mermaids splash one another.

"No water dragons here," a deep male voice breaks through.

Richard.

My nipples pebble at that incredible baritone, and it's hard not to break into a gigantic smile. I made him come last night. Heat bursts through me, forcing my cheeks to flush.

When I turn, he stalks gracefully out from between two trees, a small box tucked under his arm. He grins at Morgan. "Don't mind me; I came to speak with Lola for a moment."

Morgan smiles at him, then pats me on the arm. "See ya in the water in a few minutes, okay?"

I nod and watch as she walks in, shivering at the water's temperature. When Lou splashes her, she shrieks and dives in.

Richard stops in front of me. "Did you have a good morning?"

"Pretty good," I say with a knowing smile. "Except that I kept getting the sense someone was watching me. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you, Richard?"

He feigns indignation. "Me? Never. A pack alpha would never follow around the beautiful woman who's captivated him just to watch her having fun." He steps closer, bending down to bring his lips to my ear. "I'm quickly developing a soul-deep obsession, Lola."

I resist the urge to put my hands on him, to show him with touch that I feel it too, even though I've been here such a short time. A hot blush steals over me so I focus on the box under his arm. It's a good distraction, and I need that before I tackle Richard onto the rocky beach and have my way with him. I can't… We agreed to take it slowly.

"What's in the box?"

He takes a step back and gestures to the blanket Lou laid out when we first arrived. "Sit, and I'll show you. I didn't want to promise these to you earlier because I wasn't sure I could find them. But I was able to, and I know you'd want to have them."

I drop to the blanket and wait for him to join me. He sinks elegantly to his knees and sets the box in my lap. Big, rough hands come to the carved wooden top and gently remove it, revealing stacks of photographs. The one on top is of him, my Papá and, oh moons, Mamá too. I recognize the hair. And the smile.

My stomach tightens and does somersaults all at the same time.

His fingers move softly over the photograph's surface. "Maria, Marco, and I were friends long before they got together, and just as close once they mated. The photos from this box are from a ton of different times, but flip this one over."

I flip it to reveal manly-looking chicken scratch on the back.

Maria, Marco, and Richard at the spring pack run the year they mated.

"I labeled every one for you this morning," he says softly. "So you'd know what was going on in their lives then."

Emotion crashes over me as tears fill my eyes. Flipping through the photographs, I gasp at how different Papá looks. He's blissfully happy; that much is clear. I wonder if he'd want to see these photos.

"Lola, you okay?"

I glance up to find Lou emerging naked from the water. She joins us and flops down next to me, grabbing a towel and tucking it around her figure.

"Look," I whisper, barely able to find my voice. "Richard found these photos of my parents from before I was born." I give her a sorrowful look. "My mother died when I was young, so I don't remember her well, but now I have all of this to remind me." My eyes drift to Richard's, which are locked firmly on my face. "Thank you for this."

He smiles. "Any time, Lola. There's a sizable stack at the bottom from when you were a newborn pup. Lots of pics of Maria holding you and Marco carrying you around."

The first tear trails down my cheek then. I can't believe what a treasure it is to have this.

"This is amazing, Lola," Lou murmurs, flipping several of the pictures over. "Good gods, your dad is hot." She waves at her face. Her cheeks are pink.

"Ewww," I grouse, scrunching up my nose, even though I can see what she means. My father is classically handsome and charming. And now single. It doesn't surprise me that she could find him attractive.

Which brings me back to what's going on between Richard and me. This thing we decided not to share with anyone else just yet. I can see it in his eyes, in the way they wrinkle slightly in the corners and Big Daddy's intense green begins to shine through.

No matter what happened in the past, our future involves each other.

If I'm certain of anything at all about my life…it's that.