A Warrior’s Fate (Wolves of Morai #1)

Chapter 31

CHAPTER 31

T he beast was dead, but even its lifeless stare was enough to immobilize Isla where she stood. Enough to fill her mind with darkness, demons, and memories of a life just before death. Her stomach hollowed out, and her chest felt heavy like the bak had been upon her again, ready to eat her alive.

The creature was sprawled in a pool of its own dark blood, the ebony liquid still leaking from the deep wound at its neck. The tearing had been so vicious, so deep, that its large head was nearly clean off its body.

And as if it hadn’t been bad enough, above the beast’s body, written in the dark blood…

The rush of volatile emotion that had gone through Kai flashed down the bond like a raging, red beacon. It slammed into Isla like a wave, melded with the fear ebbing through her body.

“What the hell?” Kai projected, stepping closer to the cavern’s wall.

Another message. Another message.

Isla trained her eyes over the blood, the strokes still glistening and wet. Whoever had written this, whoever had killed the bak, had done this recently.

The killer could still be close, but neither she nor Kai dashed out, transfixed on the markings. Though smaller this time, the insignia of Io and the mark of the warriors were still among the mess, but something else was familiar. She froze over one etching, tilting her head.

It had a vague resemblance to the insignia of Charon.

“This was them.” Kai’s tone was dark, and for a moment, Isla thought he’d run after them, but then he stepped closer. “Wait . This .” Kai nodded to another symbol above their heads, two curves and the circle in which they met. “It’s my family’s crest. It’s simplified, but that’s our wolves. The moon.”

Isla stepped back, now able to see the motif she’d found throughout the pack. She hadn’t noticed it in what was left earlier, but then again, she hadn’t been searching for it.

She’d need to write this down and get it to Jonah, too, but she didn’t feel right to shift back quite yet. “I got one of these earlier today.”

Kai snapped his head towards her. “You what?”

There would be no end to her spiking his blood pressure. “When I went to call home, in the city. There was a trail of the jewels from my necklace—the one you gave me that broke after I shifted at the banquet—and it led to a message like this one. Like the one you’d gotten in Callisto.”

The red in Kai’s eyes flared brighter, but he said nothing. Instead, he turned to approach the bak, his paws becoming drenched in the sticky black tar. He snarled as he circled it as if it would awaken and endanger her, his home, his people.

But it was dead. Very, very dead.

Isla forced herself to focus, to get words through their link. “How—how did it get here?”

A stupid question. Kai was likely as clueless as she was.

The bak were supposed to be contained behind the Wall, barricaded by thick stone and protective enchantments. By wards and blood runes. By magic.

But—

“Could it have slipped through the Gate? If the wards are failing…” she offered. “Maybe during a guard change?”

“And then walked the lengths of that pack to our borders, through two of our regional checkpoints before ending up here in the mountains? For them to even think that highly—to wait for guards to leave, to even break open the Gate…it’s not possible. ”

“Maybe there’s a break in the Wall. It’s centuries-old, and with everything acting up, it no longer has that constant reinforcement or deterrent.”

As they shared the thoughts, Isla realized this was all exactly as Kai had feared. He’d wanted to put resources into looking at the Wall, but he’d gotten pushback.

Because no one knew the truth.

Not one member of his council, besides Ezekiel, knew what had occurred during the Hunt. The bak’s odd behavior was a continent-wide secret, all because of Imperial Alpha Cassius and his need to keep this all buried and forgotten, hoping it would be lost to time.

Like all the hierarchy’s secrets.

Like the Ares Pass.

The thought rocked through her like a shot of lightning.

The pass—a direct connection between Deimos and Phobos, if it was real. Or rather, Deimos and the Wilds.

Isla tried to remember the rest of Lukas’s words from a time that felt like a millennium ago now. From a time before he’d tried to murder her.

“ Where’s the Wall in relation to here?” she asked Kai, who’d since gone on to explore the cave's perimeter.

Her voice edged with eagerness likely would’ve concerned him if he wasn’t so focused. His movements were keen and sharp. She expected nothing less, his demeanor bordering militant. “East,” was all he answered.

Before she headed back out into the woods, Isla dared to encroach on the creature. She lowered her snout, running it over its dry, gray, sparse-haired covered skin, tearing over near-impenetrable muscle. Its pungent odor flooded her senses, and the fatal wound, she realized, had been made with a blade.

Isla stepped back. She’d been so relieved it was dead that she hadn’t thought to ask why. Why would the killer do this?

Another pass over the creature. No other scents lingered. Not even a drop of wolf blood. They’d done it without getting hurt themselves.

She ventured back to the cave’s mouth.

“Isla.”

The tug at the bond, her name in her mind, was sharp.

“I’m just checking the woods,” she said .

Kai took a few steps towards her. “What if there’s more? What if they’re out there?”

Isla knew he wasn’t worried about there actually being more bak; the chances of multiple slipping through the cracks were too improbable. Otherwise, they wouldn’t still be in the cave. He’d likely already have the entire pack on lockdown. But for the killer…there was a possibility. And though he could’ve been wary about them, he also seemed to trust Isla, her strengths.

Neither of them enjoyed sitting back and watching things play out. The two of them needed to start taking action to understand their enemy and what was going on.

“Then I’ll howl,” she said, wondering still if he would draw a line here. He’d let her fight against the rogues, but bak and the murderer of his family were entirely different monsters.

Kai’s silence went on for too long, his crimson eyes darting between her and the creature on the cave floor. “Don’t go too far.”

Isla nodded and, before she left, made sure to brush her head reassuringly against his, simply to feel him relax, just a bit.

When she was a couple of yards away from the cave, bathed in sunlight, the forest had begun to regain some of its life. That meant the bak had been dead long enough that the animals felt it safe to roam again. How unsettling the creatures were that they were able to clear a forest just by existing in it.

She lowered her head and sniffed, finding herself heading eastward down hills, moving downwind. So many questions ran through her mind as she stalked, not realizing how far she was drifting.

Isla froze where she stood as a new scent caught the wind, emerging from nothing and disappearing just as quickly. Because the person wanted to be found, but only by her. She spun just as Callan appeared from the thickets.

His smile was self-satisfied and grating. “You’re off your path.”

Isla snarled, lowering on her haunches. They wouldn’t be able to communicate like this. In a perfect world, she wouldn’t communicate with him at all, ever. But he’d found her again. He’d been looking for her. And she wanted answers.

She came out of her shift and folded her arms across her chest, crossing her legs to cover herself .

“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” he jeered.

Though he was right, she held the position. “Why are you following me?”

Callan countered her question with another. One she hadn’t been expecting.

“How long have you been fucking the alpha?”

Isla started. The query shouldn’t have made her feel as uneasy or exposed as it did.

“Did you think I hadn’t noticed you sneaking around since the day we got in? Or that I wouldn’t hear him in your room last night?”

Isla forced her face to remain neutral, even if every muscle in her body had tensed. The sheer invasiveness Callan’s words alluded to seemed to edge out any aggravation at herself for being so careless in her actions or for being so na?ve to think no one would notice.

“Are you stalking me?” she bit out. Even if Callan’s assumptions were incorrect, for some reason, it felt better than him believing the alternative.

“No,” Callan said, his laugh bitter. Not jealous but sore. Over what, she wasn’t sure. He was mated. He couldn’t have still felt some ridiculous claim over her somehow? “I was told to look out for you. To make sure you didn’t get into any trouble.”

Isla furrowed her brows. “By who?”

“The Imperial Alpha. Your father,” Callan rattled, mirroring her by crossing his own arms. “It seems their assumptions that you’d make a mockery of yourself—out of us—were warranted. I don’t know why the general would make such a bid for you. Put his reputation on the line by bringing you here. Regardless of breeding and bloodlines and getting into our pack, I’d want a better mate than someone so ready to whore herself out.”

Isla could barely mask her disgust but couldn’t let him see that the words stung. Not the unnecessary and hateful jab at the fact she wasn’t the pinnacle of purity—which had told her part of this confrontation was that Callan felt he still held something on her—but the supposed fact her father thought of her so low…

Alpha Cassius having those sentiments, she’d believe, with all the resentment she still held towards him since that day he’d lied to her about Lukas. But her dad…a mockery of herself, of the pack, her family? It couldn’t have been true.

“How long has it been?” Callan asked before she could retort his worthless comment. “Did you somehow keep in contact after the Hunt, or the moment we arrived, you were ready to open your legs for him?”

She’d nearly stepped forward to slap him, a scowl on her face, but her features faltered when she felt it. Felt him. Kai, through the bond. No scent. No alpha’s aura. He was here, close, amongst the brush, hidden. Watching. Ready to strike if Callan tried anything funny.

Isla wondered if he’d also picked up on the eagerness in Callan’s questions, a little bit of desperation behind them.

The answers she gave were important. Not just for him and that ridiculous inkling of possessiveness, but for something greater. Someone.

Isla found her fingers curling into fists.

She was being used as bait yet again, not by Kai this time, but for Kai.

Her aggravation leaked into her voice as she spat, “My personal choices, especially who I sleep with, are no one’s business but my own.”

“Not when they reflect on the pack.”

“I’m not the pack.”

“Here, that’s all we are,” Callan said as he moved close enough that Isla had to crane her head. “You don’t feel it every time we walk through this base? How these people look at us.”

Isla thought beyond the base. Thought of the banquet, of the call center, of the whispers and glares that trailed her like a bad smell. From the people she was destined to lead.

Her chest tightened. “They hate us.”

“Because they want to be us.”

“Only because they don’t realize we’re no different than them.” She bared her teeth, feeling something cruel rise in her, and stepped in closer. Her next words were drawn out, cutting like knives. “And that the biggest difference to being a part of our pack is obligatory blind loyalty and the raging, unearned superiority complex of most of its members. You being a prime example. ”

Callan’s stare was blazing and dangerous, but he remained quiet. He would continue to, even if it killed him. He wanted her to keep talking. She wasn’t sure what he was expecting her to know or what he was hoping to find out, but if he wanted something to report back to whoever, she’d give it to him.

“I bet Alpha Cassius didn’t even tell you why you’re supposed to watch me. Why he doesn’t trust me. It has nothing to do with me fucking the Alpha of Deimos—but if you did want to add that joke to your report, please, go ahead…do you know what really went on behind the Wall during the Hunt?” She caught the way Callan clenched and unclenched his fists, the confusion flashing in his eyes. “Do you want to know why I had to kill so many bak? Why—”

Isla stopped when the sound of rustling leaves came from behind her, and both she and Callan whipped around as Kai emerged from the brush. His wolf loomed large in front of them; his shadow-black fur gilded by the sun and crimson glower honed on them as he stalked closer. A few seconds later, he was himself again, and Isla noticed the faintest smears of dark blood over his body—his neck, hands, chest, and jaw.

Callan had taken a step away from her, his head lowered. Regardless of what pack they led, all alphas commanded the same respect.

There was an intimidating and regal air to Kai as he moved towards them, and somehow, the coolness he conveyed was more threatening than any snarl or outright warning. “What are you two doing so far from the main campus?”

So, he was feigning indifference towards her. Good, she supposed.

As she had, Callan remained quiet.

“I suppose it’s wiser to stay silent than to lie to me.” Kai chuckled humorlessly, and Isla retreated as her mate focused on her former lover. He was directly in front of him when Kai asked, “Callan, right?” But before Callan could even nod in agreement, he added, “Or is it Edriel?”

Callan froze, and Isla swore he was about to soil himself. She had no idea who that was or what that name meant. And yet, Callan turned her way with pure fear in his eyes as if she could help.

“Don’t look at her, and if I ever hear you speak to her or about her like that again, I’ll rip out your fucking tongue.” So much for indifference. A ferocity had slipped into Kai’s voice. One that had Callan righting himself quickly and one he barely dialed back as he continued, “You’ve been a busy man this week. Giving a false name is a commendable attempt but pointless when you’re being tailed. I heard that you finally made your way down the river last night. I’m quite fond of Abalys. What did you think of it?”

Isla blinked.

Kai was having Callan watched? And he was going around using a false identity?

Callan’s method of self-preservation seemed to be submission and silence. Isla would’ve enjoyed it if she hadn’t been so lost. If she hadn’t realized she’d been foolish to believe Kai was telling her everything. Yet again, he was five steps ahead of her, keeping her in the dark about the true intentions behind his words and actions. In the dark about what he knew.

“What does your Alpha have you here searching for?” Kai asked, head cocked as he analyzed the warrior. Almost having too much fun as the inferior wolf worked to avoid eye contact. “I hope it’s important because right now, the way I see things, you were in Abalys the one and only night rogues were able to breach our borders and slaughter my people, which puts me within my right to deal with you how I see fit. Kill you if I saw you as a threat and if I could fool myself into believing you were intelligent enough to be responsible. But I have enough to deal with, and you aren’t worth the headache of paperwork you dying on my land would bring.”

Kai paused enough for Callan to take the cue.

“Thank you, Alpha,” he managed to say through gritted teeth.

Kai turned away from him towards Isla. He took a heavy breath as he searched her expression—her flared nostrils, clenched teeth, and the hurt and agitation in her narrowed eyes. He knew what he’d done, and, for a moment, his face seemed apologetic.

For a moment.

“You have until dawn tomorrow to leave,” Kai ordered Callan, turning his head his way but not fully. “Don’t let me catch your scent within these borders a minute after, or I may have to reconsider. Am I clear?” Callan nodded, and though Kai couldn’t see it, he still growled, “ Go. ”

And Callan obeyed, leaving his clothes—and pride—a tattered mess in the dirt as he shifted and darted as fast as he could through the trees.

Both Isla and Kai watched the spot where he’d disappeared until the sound of his paws hitting the ground was replaced by nothing but the warble of birds.

Isla turned back to her mate, meeting his stare with her own.

“I took care of the bak,” Kai said, clocking her crossed expression. “I dragged it to a hidden part of the stream, and after you all head off and my meeting, I’ll burn it. No one else should venture out this far today, and I’ll consult with Ezekiel about what we do after that.”

“Thanks for telling me.”She was certain he’d only mentioned it because she’d seen it for herself. He couldn’t hide it.

“We should head back,” Kai said, voice straining to stay even.

And then, he shifted.

Isla was wide-eyed as he started to move away. But she was quickin her shift and on top of him in seconds.

She had him on his back, her wolf above his, as she snarled in his face. “No.”

Mirroring her look, Kai bared his teeth, sharp and lethal, but then, he pulled his wolf back.

Isla did, too.

And now, she was on her hands and knees hovering over him. But the rage she felt usurped any arousal the position could bring.

“Explain. Now,” she seethed.

Kai’s gaze traveled over her face, over the soft curves of her body, before he met her eyes again. He sighed. “Isla…”

Her claws re-emerged, embedding in the dirt close to his head. “Don’t. Isla . Me.”

She was done with this. Being the general’s prize. Being bait. Being a pawn.

Being used was bad enough, but it was made worse by letting her believe that she wasn’t.

“You tell me whatever the fuck that was about right now, or Goddess help you, I will reject you right here.”

Kai looked to either side of them, and Isla knew he was searching for anyone else around listening. But Callan, as abhorrent as he was, had common sense and would never risk himself getting caught.

“In the end, all you do is lie to me. Hide things,” she said, unable to keep her voice from cracking. “It’s what you’ve been doing since the day I met you. You didn’t tell me who you really were. You never told me you were in the Hunt. You never told me why you really didn’t want to be with me, about the killer in the woods. Hell, I still don’t know why you think Io’s involved. It’s only when I question, when the only thing you can do is feed me just a little bit of the truth, that you give me an inch. But you never tell me the bigger picture.”

Kai’s hand had lifted, skimming the skin of her thigh. Not to start anything but to soothe. “I’m trying to—”

“Protect me?” she finished for him, jerking herself from his touch. “I don’t need you to just protect me. I need you to be honest with me, Kai. Actually tell me the truth—the entire truth—for fucking once .”

A whirlwind of emotions flashed over his face before his jaw tensed. “You want me to be honest? You want to know what I think? You want to know what I know, Isla?”

“ Yes ,” she nearly screamed.

Then, before she could blink, Kai had flipped them over.

Now, he hovered above her, pinning her arms above her head, cradled between her legs. But again, there was no impish intent in his eyes, nothing but cold seriousness as he said, “I know that six months ago, my life went to hell. I know that I was bestowed a pack full of lost, scared, and confused people that I had to navigate through a darkness I could barely get through myself. I know that our packs fucking hate each other, that my brother and father were murdered, and the Imperial Alpha was far too eager to allow me in the Hunt where I could easily die with no heir and as the last of my bloodline. I know…I know part of me didn’t care if I did.”

Isla’s heart stuttered at the bare confession, at the pain that flickered in his eyes. All she wanted was to pull him down into an embrace. To rid him of that chasm of hurt.

Kai’s grip on her wrists tightened slightly. “But then I met you.”

Isla felt her insides melt with the way he looked at her now, in a way no one ever had. With pure…adoration. She’d forgotten how to br eathe, the sawing, shuddering sounds escaping her lips fading to empty noise as she beheld her mate’s face.

Kai gave a subtle shake of his head, his fingers offering one more light squeeze before he left her cold and exposed as he moved to sit at her side, leaving a small distance between them as he raked his hand through his hair. As Isla rose to her knees, he’d only spared her a glance.

“The night of that feast,” he began softly, studying the forest around them, “when I realized you were there—mymate—I was furious. I didn’t know what or who I was going to end up with. It felt like the Goddess had already fucked me over in so many ways, and things could only get worse…but then, there you were. I had no clue who you were, what pack you were from, or why you were there, but you were with Adrien, Lukas, and Callan. I knew you couldn’t feel anything, which makes sense—being an alpha, things happen a bit faster—and then you went off with Adrien.”

His jaw tightened. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt as feral as I did then. I was ready to tear him apart for touching you, but I got a hold of myself and went out to the terrace before I did anything stupid. Then, I don’t know why, but I felt the bond between us—stronger than I had but still barely there. I tried pulling at it anyway, calling to you to see if you’d answer, but nothing really happened. I was about to head back inside when the doors opened, and there you were again.” Kai looked at her fully, stealing Isla’s breath with that tender look again. “Beautiful.” Almost the same as that night. “Absolutely beautiful. Crueler than anything I’d been dealt. Because you were a light—a beautiful, bright, fiery light—that I learned I couldn’t hold on to. Not if I wanted you to stay that way.”

Isla had to force herself to breathe, to remain upright, to resist the urge to just damn everything and let him have her.

Kai picked up a twig from the ground, snapping it absently between his fingers as he gazed out at the terrain again. His voice was raw, earnest, and maybe a touch worried. “I would be lying if I said I didn’t want you. If I said that the way I care about you scares the fuck out of me but also makes me feel more alive and at peace than I ever have in my life. I’d be lying if I said I’m not furious over the fact that the two of us never stood a chance. That I think far too often about how if we met at another time, if we were from different places, all of this would be simple, and I could stop hating myself for picturing the future we’ll never have.”

Kai’s jaw clenched, and she caught the way his hands moved, like he, too, was fighting a pull to have her close. “But as much as letting you go breaks my heart…the thought of you losing yourself because you’re shackled to me and I dragged you into my shit would destroy me even more.” Finally, he looked at her, and Isla felt like her heart would burst. “The greatest truth you need to know is that I want you to be happy, Isla. I want you safe. Everything I do, everything I have done since the moment I saw you, has been with that in mind. You can hate me for it, but—”

Kai never got to finish his sentence. Neither of them spoke.

Because Isla had closed the distance between them, taken his face in her hands, and hauled her mouth to his.