A Warrior’s Fate (Wolves of Morai #1)

Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

I sla’s blood ran cold, her arm going stiff at the side of Kai’s face. Her fingers trembled a mere inch from his cheek, so close that one wrong move, one spasmed muscle, one particularly strong gust of wind, and she’d touch him.

Still possessing some coherence—even though shecravedfeeling something warm and real to tell her this wasn’t all some other waking nightmare—she lowered it shakily to her side.

“H—how do you know?” Isla choked out the question. Confirmation that Kai’s family had been murdered aside, there was apparently a killer here in these woods. One who’d taken down not just an alpha but also his heir and had gotten away with it. Unseen, unscathed. “What is this?”

And, Goddess, why were they still standing out here?

Kai’s eyes returned to her face. He took in her stunned silence, her surely aghast expression, and for it, his own features shifted. Steel and iron reforged as if masking the rage and grief from the surface would do anything when she felt it so freely through what linked them. What had been twining with every second they spent in proximity.

“It’s a message,” he said, a strain in his voice—a hesitance.

Isla took in the tree’s surface again, clocking every curve and symbol etched into the bark, doing what she could to see beyond the claw marks made, she was sure, by her mate’s hand. But she couldn’t discern a thing. Not one bend or loop or—were these supposed to be letters?

“What does it say?” She lifted a hand to graze the timber but halted.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know ?”

“You’re certain, Alpha?” Ezekiel’s question was spoken so evenly that it nearly rang like a statement. The beta hadn’t moved from his spot. His face, like Kai’s, was stone, and Isla wondered if all who hailed from Deimos specialized in wearing this mask.

“Yes,” Kai said.

“Did you see them?”

“No. I just—I heard—I felt…I knew.”

Kai’s lips threatened to rise in a snarl as anger shone in his eyes. It was as if the moment was about to consume him again, the realization of who and what this was. Isla could feel it bubbling, burning through her in a way that almost made her want to keel over, but she weathered it, not wanting to show that it had any effect.

“Kai.”

At her voice, Kai met her gaze again, and his eyes scoured her face for what felt like an eternity before, thankfully, he relaxed. Isla could’ve sworn there was a flash of guilt across his features.

The words “Are you okay?” sat on the tip of her tongue, but they felt trivial at this point. Instead, she asked, “Should we still be out here?”

Kai dragged his hands over his face before moving to push his hair back, to no avail. “They’re gone.”

Relief and doubt collided in a way that made her dizzy. “How do you know that?”

“Because I do.”

Isla kept her features from twisting into a scowl.

Here he was being vague again, but before she could be annoyed by it, she saw his reasons. Kai had been right in his assumptions earlier. If she’d known who he was going after, there wasn’t a chance she’d have left his side, and she probably wasn’t equipped in her state to take on one capable of killing an alpha. But why was he being so ominous now? What was it about how he knew that still put her at risk?

As if he could see the inner workings of her mind, Kai’s eyes hardened in the same way they had before, as if saying yet again, I need you to trust me.

“Do you think they know about her?” Ezekiel cut into their silent staring.

Kai tensed at the notion before releasing a breath. “I don’t know.” He absently moved another inch closer in such a way that shielded Isla once more. She could feel the foreign tendrils of fear stretching towards her.

“And you’re certain you aren’t bound in any way?” The beta’s eyes narrowed between them, his tone dripping with suspicion.

“Not permanently,” Kai said.

“The ties will fray in time,” Isla chimed, almost in reassurance to herself. Kai glanced at her, donning a look of what seemed like stunned pride. She offered a slight uptick of her lips. “What? I listen.”

Again, the exchange was watched with a keen eye. Ezekiel cocked his head away from them, briefly scouting the forest. Isla did the same. Kai too. Until—

“We should take her with us.”

Isla snapped her head back. “Excuse me?”

“What?” Kai echoed her confusion.

“If what I just saw is any indication, you’re vulnerable like this, Alpha.” Ezekiel kept his voice low. “Only days ago, you could sense her torment during the Hunt, and it made you turn back and risk everything. Now, it seems in your ‘nothingness’, you’ve grown even closer.”

Isla had barely heard the tailing end of his statement and, instead, focused on what came before it.

She looked to Kai, her eyebrows drawn. “You could… feel me during the Hunt?”

How could that have even been possible? They’d barely interacted but three times before then and certainly hadn’t been as close as they had recently.

Kai let out an exasperated sigh as if he’d never wanted her to be aware of it. “Vaguely.” He sent a quick glower Ezekiel’s way. “I knew when you started fighting the first one, so I waited and tracked you. I stayed out of your way and only interfered when needed.”

“She is a weakness.”

Ezekiel spoke before she could entertain Kai’s words. He earned mirrored scowls from them both.

“ Your weakness,” he clarified, “as long as you are bound in a way that she offers no strength at your side. Fraying or not, in the scheme of an enemy trying to cripple you, you’re nearly as good as mated right now. She will be coming to Deimos in a month’s time for her lumerosi bestowment, and when that happens, all eyes will be on you two as this year’s first and second rank. In an ideal world, she’d forgo her attendance, though I’m afraid that would rouse further suspicion and look poorly from the standpoint of Io-Deimos relations. If we take her with us now, we can figure out a better way to get a handle on this. An easier way to mask whatever is clearly happening here.” He motioned between them.

Isla recoiled at the words, her eyes slipping to Kai’s. He said nothing, only studied her. Clearly happening? “Nothing is happening.” She looked back at Ezekiel. “You know the truth; it’s why you’re seeing something.”

Isla noted that Kai remained quiet and refused to look at him.

A look of doubt crossed Ezekiel’s face. “Do you really want to leave something like that up to chance? It will just take one to suspect before the gossip mill runs rampant. A potential luna, a fated queen, will not go over lightly.” He didn’t do well to mask his resentment in his typical air of arrogance, his words becoming cutting. “And as taking your place at the helm of our kingdom is so abhorrent to you, I didn’t think that you would—”

“Enough.” Kai took a step forward, placing himself between them. His eyes narrowed on the beta. “Remember who you’re talking to.” His tone was heady with warning.

Isla swallowed, feeling the tether between them go taut. She understood the unspoken threat. Bonded or not, she was still his mate, and that warranted respect.

Ezekiel’s own throat bobbed, and he lowered his gaze submissively. “What do you suggest we do, Alpha?”

“We move forward with what our plan always was,” Kai said with finality. She couldn’t help but notice the easy emphasis he’d put on those two words— we…ours. “I will go to Deimos, Isla will return to Io, and we…forget.” Kai’s full attention shifted to Isla. “The lumerosi ceremony is a month away; that’s a decent amount of time for us to cool off. And as the alpha, I won’t be taken through all the same rites as you and the other new warriors. It should be easier for us to avoid each other.”

Isla nodded. “Sounds simple enough.”

Kai returned the motion, that satisfied look passing again briefly before his lips turned downwards. “There’s a chance whoever this is has no idea who you are, and we have to capitalize on it. I don’t know if they’re coming back or how or why they’re here at all. So, this is where we need to separate. I’ll be around until morning in case anything—happens.”

“You won’t,” Ezekiel said, earning raised eyebrows from them both. “We must return to the pack immediately. It’s why I came to find you.”

Terror flickered in Kai’s eyes. “What happened?”

“Emergent word from the council—matters that can’t wait for us until the late afternoon. We must be back by dawn. They’ve already sent transport that should be here within the hour.”

“What happened ?” Kai repeated, a bit more forcefully.

Ezekiel didn’t answer; instead, he looked towards Isla, and she knew.

“Pack business,” she answered for him, wishing she could wipe the small upturn of his mouth that followed off his face.

“Zahra’s alright, I’ve been assured,” he told Kai. “The guards are with her twenty-four-seven.”

Isla could practically feel Kai’s relief, then realized, Zahra was the name of his mother.

At the thought of the former luna, Isla’s insides felt heavy, and as she raked her eyes over Kai, the sunken feeling only got worse. How could she have let it so easily slip her mind the sheer weight of everything Kai, his mother, and even Deimos as a pack had been dealt? A family destroyed, an entire community’s foundations shaken…she couldn’t even imagine.

She was overwrought with the urge to apologize, to do—something—but before she could, Kai told Ezekiel, “Walk her back. I’ll meet you at the Pack Hall.”

“No,” Isla said immediately as it dawned what that meant. “You’re not going to be alone.”

At her concern, Kai smiled in an almost endearing way. “They could’ve tried to kill me already, but they didn’t. It’s something else I don’t know the reason for, but they don’t want me dead.” He laughed. “Not yet, at least.”

“That’s not funny,” Isla said, an uncharacteristic woefulness in her voice. “I don’t like this. It’s not…safe.”

“Goddess, do you actually care about me?” he jested.

“Don’t be a dick.” Isla folded her arms, glowering. “I take it back.”

Kai chuckled, squaring himself off in front of her, blocking her and their mouths from Ezekiel’s view. His voice lowered into a smooth whisper, “Ah, but teasing you is too fun.”

Isla grumbled in response, though part of her wished she could wrap herself in the gentleness with which he spoke. Though they weren’t far, and the beta would surely hear everything they said, it still felt like they were the only two people out there.

Kai turned serious. “I’m really going to need you to cool it with the warrior princess act for a few hours, though.” Upon her even further flattening eyebrows, another smile threatened his mouth. “Areyougoing to be alone?”

“Adrien and my brother are meeting me in my room.”

Kai took in a deep breath at the mention, jaw tensing. “Trust no one but your family until you’re back home, safe and away from this place. Away from me. Promise me.”

Isla bit her lip as she fought off the protests roaring in her skull, fought off her instinct, her wolf’s, to protect him. “Fine.”

He leaned a little closer, unwittingly or intentionally pulling those threads. “ Promise me, Isla.”

She didn’t know why he needed to hear her say it. “I promise.”

She could see in his eyes that it wasn’t enough— nothing would be enough to convince him everything would be okay—but still, he backed away and turned to his beta. “Ezekiel.”

“As I would defend you, Alpha,” the older man said, and Isla was sure the words grated him.

As Kai turned to begin walking away, Isla realized what was happening—what was finally happening—and her stomach bottomed out.

“Goodnight,” she said in a rush, the word falling from her lips without thought. She couldn’t get herself to say the alternative, what she’d stood by so vehemently earlier— goodbye .

Kai halted and, as he had before, trailed his eyes over her long and slow, taking her in one last time. Her—drenched and covered in mud, twigs, and blood, probably cut and bruised. This would be the final image of her in his head—wretched, absolutely wretched. Not a queen needed or a queen deserved.

But Kai still smiled, genuine and soft, in a way that warmed her cold bones, a way that gave that tether one last tug. “Goodnight.”