A Warrior’s Fate (Wolves of Morai #1)

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

W edging shaking hands into her tawny hair, Isla paced the terrace.

Alpha…he’s an alpha .

She couldn’t decide if she was more confused or pissed off—at the alpha or herself.

It had been a few minutes since Winslow had escorted him back inside, and Isla just couldn’t get herself to follow—not yet. She needed to wrap her mind around what had just happened, what she’d done.

Looking past the lust she’d worn like a patch on her sleeve and the abandon of her poise that she prided herself on, Isla had broken so much of the Code that it would make the Elders of past and present roll in their graves. Even if she was from the Imperial Pack and her father was in high standing, she was still rungs below an alpha in the Hierarchy. So far down, it surprised her that Alpha Kai had spared her as much conversation as he had. That he’d tolerated her snapping and attempts at daunting him as much as he did.

In another situation, maybe with a different, quicker-to-enrage, crueler alpha who viewed himself as a god and had no tolerance for disrespect—a dreadfully common variety—she wouldn’t still be standing.

But he never said anything , Isla told herself, shaking her head. If he’d said something, she would’ve acted accordingly .

“Whatever,” she muttered, though this was far from a moment she’d forget.

Gathering herself, she made her way back to the ballroom. With every step towards its opening, Isla felt the strength of Kai’s presence grow. She could really sense it now, his power. Alphas had an undeniable aura to them, and she realized she’d only got the faintest taste of it in that bitter moment just before he walked away. He must’ve been masking it before. But now, amidst his high-ranking peers…

Isla’s eyes went to the raised part of the room where the alphas sat with their betas and selected officials. None of them had brought their lunas; the queens instead remained in their territories, ruling their kingdoms. Kai was where she’d expected, where she’d been told, next to Adrien. They were talking about something, and she couldn’t help but wonder what it was.

As if he could feel her staring, the Alpha of Deimos peered beyond her friend. The second their eyes met, that fire returned to the pit of her belly. Isla took a light hold of her dress, bunching it up in her hand as she came to a standstill. She doused the flames as quickly as she could, looking away, though her cheeks still burned in fury.

This feeling wasn’t normal, and her traitorous mind thought the worst.

But no, it couldn’t be. It didn’t fit the descriptions.

Along with the alphas and their councils, the feast brought together warriors of Hunt’s passed. Isla took her assigned seat at the long table across from two of them she knew. Both Alina and Orson were native to different packs, but after reigning victorious in the Hunt and serving their time as warriors, they had taken the current peacetimes to settle in the Imperial Pack, as they had earned the right to. Both had the specialties, wisdom, and experience trainees were nipping to get their hands on, which Isla could use, but she couldn’t get herself to focus on their advice for tomorrow’s events.

No—because Kai’s stare was on her back. She felt it, bearing, burning into her. And Goddess be damned if she’d turn to meet it.

She clenched her fork tighter in her hand.

This cannot be what’s happening .

Isla snapped her head up from her plate. Someone had to have an answer for her.

“You two are mated, right?” she asked the warriors once they’d trailed off from their topic, respectfully. “Not to each other, obviously.”

They both looked at one another, taken aback by the random questioning. Alina seemed far more amused than Orson did.

“Yes, we are.” Unsure of Isla’s goal of the query, she lobbied back. “And you aren’t, correct?”

“ No .” The word fell out of Isla’s mouth like the alternative was the worst prospect in the world. But she wasn’t going to tell them her personal views on mates and get locked in a debate about whether finding one was worth it.

She had to make sure that a few minutes ago, she hadn’t.

She pushed around the vegetables on her plate. “Did you choose, or was it a fated deal, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Alina narrowed her eyes suspiciously but still donned her entertained smile. “Fated.”

“Fate,” Orson echoed.

Isla’s eyebrows shot up.

It wasn’t common to come across one’s destined mate. In fact, the increasing rarity had become a concern for some. The continent was so expansive, the kingdoms so large and spread out, unless your mate by some happenstance also lived within your pack, unless you had the means for consistent travel or attended the events meant to bring unmated wolves together, there was a low chance you’d find each other. Most ended up settling with another wolf of their choosing. Still strong bonds—loyal, loving bonds—but not a connection woven by a deity’s hand.

If Isla were being honest, she thought that was the better option of the two—the choice— even with the risks and consequences that she’d witnessed firsthand.

She took a bite of food, and it felt like ash in her mouth. “How did you know?”

“You want me to give you the play-by-play?” Orson seemed more tickled now, innuendo in his tone.

“You don’t have to get that detailed.” Isla smiled to mask her queasiness. “I just want to know how you knew. You saw your mates and what? The seas parted, starlight rained from the heavens…”

“I don’t know what fairytale you’re living in, but Fate’s not that innocuous.” Orson laughed. “If it’s actually her doing, she’ll let you know.”

“It’s like the feeling of sealing the bond with your chosen mate, but amplified by a thousand. It’s madness.” Alina’s eyes looked distant as if reminiscing. “And that’s just the initial attraction. Everything else that follows is…intense.” The warrior leaned in, half-covering her mouth as she whispered, “And really good.”

Orson scoffed. “Until it isn’t.”

Isla could see on his face, reading between the lines, one of the unfortunate aftereffects of a fated attraction.

No one knew for sure how Fate decided who belonged together. Some speculated it was a matter of matched strength. Others, who would bear the best offspring. Others, opposites, who would fill in what the other lacked.

The common theme, though, was the lack of autonomy. Most of the time, fated mates were complete strangers who had the decision to either take on life together from the moment they met or reject Fate’s wishes and face horrible, hellish pain in her retaliation. That retribution, sometimes, was even fatal.

Most chose option A—avoiding the feeling of being torn apart from the inside—and not all were in the happiest of relationships.

Isla bit into a piece of steak, chewing slowly. “So, it’s a feeling?”

Alina nodded. “And after that, it’s all in the touch.” She wiggled around her fingers. “Then you’re basically locked in. A goner.”

“Touch?”

Alina tilted her head. “Your mother never gave you ‘the talk’ before you turned eighteen or told you any of this? The feeling, the touch, everything after?”

Lead settled in Isla’s stomach.

Maybe now wouldn’t be the best time for her to mention that her mother was dead and had been gone for nearly ten years now. Given that she was so young the last time she’d seen her, merely eleven, going through the rundown on what would happen if Isla found her destined mate wasn’t really part of the bedtime story repertoire .

“Yes, she did,” Isla lied. “Thank you both. I was just curious.”

After that, she changed the subject. Back to strategies for the Hunt, how to lure the Wilds’ beasts closer to the Gate to make the kill and run back to civilization easier. But once again, as she was counseled, her mind wandered.

She risked a glance up in Kai’s direction and saw him talking with some others now, alphas of Ganymede and Rhea. No look at her at all this time.

Maybe he isn’t feeling the same thing , she thought, bringing her eyes back down.

Maybe this was just extreme lust. He was an alpha, after all, an unmated alpha, one could conclude by the absence of a mark on his neck. Exuding sensual grace and drawing in the available she-wolf population was like an unwritten part of the Code.

I’m just overthinking it.

Despite being unpredictable, Fate couldn’t be so cruel as to put something like this—something so all-consuming, something so distracting, something she’d been dreading —in her path on the night before the biggest moment of her life.

No.

That wasn’t her fate. She was sure of it.

She just needed to get through the rest of the night and avoid Alpha Kai and his temptations, and then tomorrow, she would compete in the Hunt and become a warrior.

That was the extent of her story. No fate. No mates.

It had to be.

As the night wound down and the dinner ended, following an awe-inspiring speech by Imperial Alpha Cassius, the mingling recommenced before everyone was to go their separate ways. Isla found herself up near the platform speaking with a new person of intrigue, a trainee native to Callisto, when she heard, “Isla!”

She spun to find Winslow standing with a tall, rugged-looking man a little way away with his hand up. Considering what had happened earlier, she pointed to herself and mouthed “ me” . The liaison, looking unamused, waved her over again .

She excused herself from the trainee and strode up to them, noting how the man’s eyes tracked each of her movements.

A sudden tremor rocked her system, and she took in a sharp breath. It was as if the room had become smaller, her sense of direction narrowed. A dark cloud hovered overhead.

All she could sense was the alpha—only one alpha.

Biting her lip, she turned and spotted him—Kai, standing across the room amidst a group of officials. A look of murder was in his eyes, directed at the man she was walking towards. His stare made her shiver, both in fear of its ferocity and…something else.

It felt like an invisible tether had been cast in her direction, tightening around her and trying to pull her towards him.

Avoid the alpha.

Isla looked away, determined to stick to her plan.

When she reached the men, Winslow made a broad gesture in presentation. “Isla, this is Eli, Beta Sampson’s son. He’s one of the warrior generals.”

Isla smiled and nodded to him in greeting. “It’s a pleasure.”

She was surprised as Eli bent to her and reached for her hand. Lifting it to his lips, he placed a gentle kiss on her knuckles. The greeting wasn’t that unusual, but it felt odd from him. He was soon to be her superior; had he not realized?

“I’ve heard much about you, Isla of Io.” He brushed his thumb over her skin.

Isla laughed with the perfect air of lightness and pulled a piece of loose hair behind her ear. “Good things, I hope.”

Eli grinned, and Isla caught his not-so-sly once over of her body. He hadn’t dropped her hand yet. “The best.”

Winslow had already left their exchange, apparently having something better to do.

As Isla and the general stood alone, she could feel that tether tugging at her harder and harder, squeezing tighter and tighter, the room becoming smaller and smaller. Her senses honed on one thing and one thing only.

The alpha’s rage was growing, his essence leaking over and infecting pieces of her she didn’t know she had. Like his soul was calling out to her, either intentionally or not.

Mine .

No.

“Come.”

Isla snapped her attention back to the general, who’d since taken a spot by her side. He wrapped an arm loosely around her back, hooking onto the dip of her waist. “I’ll introduce you to some more of the ranks.”

At Eli’s touch, Isla steeled herself against the pull, the call, the ache of whatever Kai was doing. She half-expected it all to suffocate her.

This. Isn’t. Happening.

It was as if she could hear the goddesses laughing at her from above.

But then her sense of Kai faded…and faded…and faded until it was eventually nothing.

With her breath heavy and feeling like a piece was missing, she spun to search the crowd for the alpha, but he was nowhere in sight.