Kaelen POV

I was hunched over the toilet, my body wracked with violent shivers as I emptied the contents of my stomach into the bowl.

The public restroom was small and cramped, built to be easily accessible during the game, but right now it felt more like a cage.

My hands trembled against the cold porcelain as another wave of nausea rolled through me.

Not only had my team lost the game of capture the flag, but I, the Alpha King, was now reduced to a pathetic mess on my knees, throwing up like a weakling.

Darius stood by the door with his arms crossed, watching me with a mixture of concern and frustration.

"Why do you keep coming here knowing it only makes your condition worse?"

He was talking about my curse.

It had been getting worse ever since I stepped foot into this place. The proximity to so many females, women, teenagers, even children, as long as they carried werewolf blood, was overwhelming my system.

My wolf couldn’t take it.

"There are females everywhere," Darius continued, his voice tight. "There’s no way you could possibly avoid all of them."

I forced myself to my feet, my knees shaking slightly beneath me. Then I walked over to the sink and gripped the edges tightly as I rinsed out my mouth.

The water was cold against my tongue, but it did little to soothe the burning in my throat.

"It’s fine," I said, my voice hoarse and rough. "I have the potion with me."

With that, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small pouch.

Inside were several syringes filled with the potion I had been injecting myself with all morning after every single interaction with a female.

Seeing them, Darius’s expression darkened considerably.

"You’re using too much," he scolded, stepping closer. "Didn’t Prince Kalu say an overdose could weaken your healing ability? Look at your arm. It hasn’t even had a chance to heal properly yet."

That was also true.

In order to take the edge off my wolf, the potion had to weaken the beast temporarily. It was the only way to force it to settle down.

But there was always a side effect.

And in this case, it was my healing ability.

Depending on how much I injected, my regeneration could become worse than that of an ordinary man without a wolf at all.

"You worry too much," I said instead.

After injecting two syringes into my arm, I slowly began fixing my clothes and trying to make myself look presentable.

"If anyone sees us like this in public, they might mistake us for lovers."

Immediately, Darius’s face twisted into a look of sheer disgust that nearly made me laugh.

"Even if I were attracted to men and you were the last one in existence," Darius said flatly, his gray eyes completely deadpan, "you would be the absolute last thing I would look at. In fact, I would rather make out with a wild, rabid wolf than you."

"Relax," I replied, wiping my face with a paper towel. "I don’t want you either. The feeling is completely mutual."

A few seconds of silence passed between us as we stared at each other, the absurdity of our conversation hanging in the air.

Then, completely out of nowhere, we both burst out laughing.

It wasn’t a polite chuckle or a restrained snicker. It was a full, genuine laugh that echoed off the cramped bathroom walls.

Darius’s shoulders shook as he leaned against the doorframe, and I had to grip the edge of the sink to stop myself from doubling over as the tension of the day finally cracked.

"God, we’re pathetic," Darius managed to choke out between laughs, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.

"Speak for yourself," I said, still chuckling as my breathing gradually leveled out. "I’m the Alpha King."

"Yeah, sure," Darius said, shaking his head. Then his amusement faded slightly, and he let out a low sigh. "I bet Ella is already smiling ear to ear since our team won."

Hearing her name made my grip on the edge of the sink tighten instantly.

I had only caught a brief glimpse of her when the game first started, but if she was happy, then I supposed that was a good thing.

It seemed that spending more time with Darius out on the field had brought some of the color back to her face. She had looked healthier than before, and somehow even prettier because of it.

The realization left a bitter taste in my mouth that had nothing to do with the potion.

Ah... look at that.

Look how easily my thoughts became completely occupied by her the second her name was spoken.

Truly, did she have some sort of spell on me?

Because it made absolutely no sense how much influence she seemed to have over my mind.

Just as I prepared to change the topic to literally anything else—

"Alpha. Beta."

Paul suddenly appeared in the restroom doorway with his face completely drained of color, and his body was trembling violently from head to toe.

Immediately, my entire frame stiffened, and every primitive instinct in my body flared to life.

Something was wrong.

"Where is Ella?" I asked almost instinctively, taking a sharp step forward.

He shouldn’t be here.

The explicit order I had given him was to keep an eye on Ella at all times, even if it had to be from a distance.

His eyes were never supposed to leave her. So why the hell was he standing in front of me right now?

Where was she?

Without answering, Paul dropped straight to his knees.

"I’m so sorry, Alpha," he began, his voice laced with terror as he repeatedly slammed his forehead against the floor.

But he still wasn’t giving me an actual answer.

"Where is Ella?" This time it was Darius who spoke.

His voice had dropped into a register as cold as ice as he, too, picked up on the terrifying shift in the room.

"Miss... Miss Ella..." Paul stuttered. His shoulders shook violently, as though he already knew the next words out of his mouth would sign his death warrant. "Miss Ella is missing."

Instantly, something dark and vicious unfurled inside me.

Within a fraction of a second, I crossed the room.

One moment Paul was kneeling on the floor.

The next, I had him lifted clean off the ground by the collar and slammed his back violently against the wall hard enough to rattle the entire restroom.

"What did you just say?" My voice was low, quiet, but utterly deadly.

"I’m so sorry, Alpha," Paul pleaded, his voice cracking from the pressure around his throat. "I lost sight of her during the chaos of the game, and I’ve been frantically trying to find her ever since. But I couldn’t track her because her scent is so faint. It wasn’t until the game ended and I started asking everyone on the field about her whereabouts that I realized..." His voice broke. "She had truly gone missing."

Those words only fueled my anger further, and a blinding white rage consumed my vision.

I slammed him even harder against the wall, the impact so brutal that a fresh trail of blood immediately began trickling down the side of his head.

"Do you hear the absolute garbage coming out of your mouth?" I snarled. "The moon is already out. The sun has set. Everyone is returning to rest, and you’re standing here telling me that Ella is lost, completely alone, somewhere out there in that forest?" My grip tightened around his collar. "You had one fucking job, Paul. One job."

"Alpha, please—"

My anger was spiraling dangerously out of control as my wolf growled viciously inside my head.

Every instinct I possessed was screaming at me to tear him apart.

I knew that if I wasted even a few more seconds looking at him, I would rip him to shreds right here in this restroom.

But taking his life wasn’t my priority.

Not right now.

With a disgusted growl, I shoved him aside, and his battered body crashed onto the dirty floor in a heap.

"I’ll gather a search party immediately," Darius said, stepping forward, but the grim expression on his face had already sealed Paul’s fate for later.

"You gather the search party," I ordered, already striding toward the exit. "I’m going ahead."

I didn’t wait for a response.

The moment I stepped outside, my wolf surged to the surface with violent urgency.

Find her.

The command echoed through every part of me.

Find her now.