~ JOHN-PAUL ~
When he was ushered into the room, he scanned it immediately for Lark, but she wasn’t there. His pounding heart squeezed painfully. He could smell her scent in the room like a rich perfume. She must have left only minutes earlier.
“Where is she? Where’s my mate?” he demanded without even greeting the elders first.
Seven sets of disapproving eyes stared back at him—Kenji even growled in his head. It was Elder Lorde, the oldest and most respected of them, the head of the Council if there was one, who spoke.
“She’s being kept away from you until you give your testimony, so the two of you can’t conspire,” he said, his voice a low, dark rumble.
JP prowled to the front of the room, ignoring the chair for him, and standing right at the center of that curve around which they al
