The King ✓ (Zolan Book 3)

31

VADNAR

I roll the rope in my hands and hand it to Vaine. Then I turn to face Dee. I made a fool of myself for her, but to see her smile, I would trip all day.

I look around, but she's nowhere to be seen. Strange. She was just here a moment ago.

"Where is Dee?" I ask Vaine, who is just as confused as I am.

There's no way she could have ran off this quickly, without her footsteps being heard. With panic surging in me, I run around the fort, shouldering past groups of men in search of her. I stop by the kitchens, where the entertainers are gathered, but there is no rich, dark skin in here. Only a sea of red.

"Dee?" I scream like a madman.

Vaine searches, too. And when Ranrok catches wind that something is wrong, he also starts looking. For the first time since I met the man, I appreciate his existence.

Dee is nowhere to be found. She vanished like a dream. But the smell of her hair and the touch of her skin is still engraved into my memory. My cock still remembers the snugness of her cunt, and her smile–the one I had just been jumping rope for, is unforgettable. So she's not a dream. She's a woman that came from the stars to inspire me to become more than a farmer. And now she's gone. And now i'm truly alone.

The fort buzzes as people turn the place in-side out in search of her. All activities have been stopped. There's no more cooking, cleaning, writing, forging, training—hell, even pissing. Everyone is looking for her, but after a few hours, we turn out empty handed.
She's gone. Back to her planet before I could fix anything. This is what I had wanted. What I asked for when I broke her heart. But I had been a fucking fool, because even after three months of distance. Three months without her warmth, my love for her hasn't rusted. Even after centuries in a grave, when my body has long decomposed and my soul has left, my bones will still ache for her.

I lock myself in our room—because although we didn't sleep on the same bed, it was still ours. I pace and slam a fist into my temple repeatedly, cursing myself and the very cosmos. I'm losing my mind. I don't know what to do, because even with my army and my prospect to become king, it's not enough to bring Dee back.

I don't want my men to see me like this. They have expectations for me as a leader to keep collected and lead them to freedom. But if they see what a wreck I'm becoming as I mutter to myself, beat myself and pace so fast my boots wear off, then they will realize I'm a mortal man just like them. King or not, I have a weakness, and I've just lost her.
After half an hour trying to catch my breath and my sanity, I head outside. There are things that need to be done in the fort and men I need to speak to, but I can only think of Dee. I gather a group of seven and head out to search the surrounding areas for her. There are few trees and great visibility, but no trace of her.

I return to the fort empty handed, and with the pit in my stomach growing so wide that I'm going to vomit anytime soon.

—

Three days later, Vaine and I are equally distraught. He lost his friend, and I lost my everything. I can't eat. I can't focus in my security briefings because I don't know if she's safe. If she ate or if she's scared.

Hull has noticed my slow descent to madness. He will be the first one to speak up about it; I know it, because as selfish as he is, he's brave.

I haven't seen Ranrok in three days, and I assume he's looking for Dee. We have never been this close, this brotherly. But we love the same woman and now that she's gone, we're desperate to find her. I don't care if he finds her first. I will snatch her from his arms and beg her to forgive me if I have to.