A Warrior’s Fate (Wolves of Morai #1)

Chapter 32

CHAPTER 32

N othing else mattered. Not right now.

Their judgments were so clouded by lust and such an innate, intense desire for each other that the world was a blur.

Isla had never been kissed so deeply. With so much feeling. So much emotion. So much ... she didn’t want to think of the word.

Not the kind of embrace that made one hungry but weak. She felt herself melt into him with every brush, every stroke of his tongue as their mouths moved smoothly against each other.

“Isla,” Kai breathed her name before angling his head to take more of her lips, tangling his fingers in her hair.

Isla kissed him back with what felt like everything she had, eventually crawling into his lap, needing to be closer. She didn’t stop herself to think this was a mistake. All she could focus on was him, his words replaying in her mind.

They were both unclothed.

It would only take one move, one shift of their bodies, and he’d be inside her. Then she could ride him until they were both seeing stars, both screaming each other’s names because finally... finally. This game of theirs had lasted far too long.

But as Isla settled atop his thigh, his hands trailing up the smooth skin of her leg, they remained. Even if she wanted to feel him everywhere, to not know what it meant to have space between them, they didn’t go further .

One move. Just one move, and she’d feel the stretch of him, the strength of him.

Isla gasped when Kai shifted his leg, rubbing so deliciously between her thighs. She breathed out his name as he dropped his head to her neck, kissing and nipping his way to that spot at the crook of her collarbone.

Kai shuddered at the sound, and Isla was unable to stop herself from grinding down onto his thigh again. “ Fuck .”

“That’s it.” Kai lifted his head to whisper in her ear. While one of his hands had gone to her hip, the other reached up to palm her breast. “Use me.”

Isla moaned, doing it again, gasping at the friction as he met her.

Again.

Again.

She built a rhythm, rocking her hips against him.

“So fucking beautiful,” Kai murmured before his mouth traveled a wet, lazy line down to her breast, his tongue circling around her nipple before he clamped down lightly with his teeth. Isla arched, and he carried the ministrations to the other. “Every damn part of you.”

“Kai,” she panted, her body desperate and aching for the pressure of him, for the feel of him moving against her, with her.

Moments of absolute euphoric bliss. And then…eternity.

Eternity .

One move, and it would all be over.

As the sounds escaping her lips became more frequent, more frantic, Isla could feel Kai’s own need setting fire to her blood, to the bond. Still incomplete. But he didn’t take for himself. He let her continue, goaded her with soft bites and kisses. She was going to come undone simply from this, riding his thigh.

But that wouldn’t be fair, would it?

Isla reached between them, finding Kai’s cock heavy against his stomach. When she wrapped her fingers around the smooth skin, Kai’s grip on her tightened. “ Fuck . Isla—”

She smirked, slowing down the movement of her hips, feeling herself fall back from the precipice of her climax. But she didn’t care.

They were going to fall apart together.

She ran a soft pass up the long, thick shaft, dragging her nails just the slightest bit. “Where would you fuck me first—assuming you aren’t going to take me to the hallway again?” Leaning into his neck, Isla murmured into the skin, “As much as I love the thought of you too impatient to take off my clothes and just having me from behind, maybe it wouldn’t be best to remember sealing our bond with something quick and dirty.”

“Goddess, Isla. I’m sorry,” Kai mused, voice gravelly as Isla ran a thumb over the head, using the beading moisture there to coat him. “What would you prefer?”

“I’d want you to make love to me first, slow and deep. I’d want to feel every inch of you.” She built a rhythm stroking him, squeezing when she reached the head. “I’d want you to let go. To prove me wrong, to make me beg, to make me moan so loud everyone on this continent knows who I truly belong to. I want to feel you for days.”

Kai bucked in her hand. “Fucking hell, Isla.”

Another wicked smile spread across her lips as he swelled in her palm. She began moving her hips again, nearly whimpering as her ascent to orgasm hastened. “And then you can have me however you want. I’m at your mercy.”

Kai groaned, guiding her movements against him again. “That damn mouth will be the death of me.” She’d never been looked at the way that he was looking upon her right now. With such a hunger, determination, and want.

He crashed his lips to hers again, kissing her impossibly deeper than before. She could feel the bond winding together, winding around them, pulling them closer, pulling her deeper.

But still incomplete.

“Kai,” she whimpered against his mouth, her body buzzing, burning. “ K— ”

Kai swallowed her scream with a kiss as they both came undone, their bodies shuddering against each other as wave after wave of pleasure overtook them. Isla slumped against Kai’s chest, her head falling into the crook of his neck as her chest heaved against his, her hand continuing to lazily stroke him until the warmth of his release coated her fingers, her stomach.

When she released her hold, Kai pulled her close. She wrapped both arms around his neck, burying her face against it as he just…he ld her. For a few heartbeats, all they’d done was simply breathe in each other’s scents.

Isla could taste the salt of sweat on her tongue. “That was…”

“Incredible,” Kai finished. She felt his lips against the skin of her shoulder. “You’re fucking incredible.”

Isla loosed a laugh. If she felt this dizzy after what they’d just done, she couldn’t imagine the ecstasy of him actually fucking her. Her body thrummed with new need. “Did we just find a loophole? Could we have been doing this the whole time?”

Kai rubbed his hands up and down her back. “Do you feel mated?”

Isla leaned up to look in his eyes. “I just feel like I need more of you.”

Kai’s eyes slid down to her mouth, and the darkness of them told her he’d been thinking the same. “I think if we kept doing this, we’d be walking a precarious line. Both for our connection, and our judgment’s too clouded. We may decide something we don’t intend.”

Isla dropped her gaze between them, tracing over his cock. Her insides fluttered.

One move, and she’d have him.

Perhaps he was right. It was too hard to deny him like this. Especially when being with him in this way felt good, felt natural. But the choice had to be about more than just sex, no matter how euphoric it would be. Because accepting the bond with Kai meant she’d likely never see home again.

But —her eyes slid over Kai— maybe home is…

A distant howl cut through the air.

Isla glanced up at the sun through the canopies, nearly to its highest point. It was almost noon. It had been for her. They’d be heading up the mountain soon, with or without her, and she’d be forced to pick up the slack with extra speed and extra weight as punishments.

“We can talk tonight.” Kai re-captured her attention. “I’ll meet you at the hotel.”

Another try at the talk , and now, Isla wasn’t so sure what she’d say .

She let out a small yelp as Kai managed to rise to his feet, her legs hooking around his waist. “What are you doing?”

“You need to go.” Kai began heading downwind through the forest. “But I think we should clean up in the river first.”

As if she hadn’t already felt raw and exposed, Isla also had to weather the dirty looks of the guard members, typically shot at all the warriors, reserved today specifically for her and Callan. But now she had food, so maybe she could bear it.

Isla watched from her spot at one of the tables in the furthest corner of the room as Kai meandered through the mess hall, catching up with old friends from his days serving with the guard and making new ones of the recent recruits. All part of his plan to stall their departure so she had a chance to eat.

Her body still thrummed with desire for him, and it continued as they began their trek through the mountains. But with talk of the challenge and rogues being the only topic anyone wanted to discuss on the stretch of the mountain, the bliss faded quickly.

Ten miles up and ten miles down.

They went up sporadically in units, rather than all as one large battalion. And although she may rather hike alone, now without being forced to take any extra weight, she was grateful that the unit she was ordered to join was 37B. For Rhydian. Maybe Thyra. Belle was okay. But the double-edged sword lay with Magnus.

Of course, he was the most vocal about what was happening, and Isla, who’d already been struggling to keep her composure, found herself on the receiving end of one too many of his indirect snide remarks. By mile six of being forced to endure his shitty attitude, she was ready to tear his face off.

And by mile seven, when he commented that she had no right to look as upset as she appeared because everything happening in Deimos had “nothing to do with her”, she almost did.

She felt the ripping at her knuckles where her claws would emerge as she stared at the back of Magnus’s head when a hand came down on her shoulder. She turned, scowl still painted on, to Rhydian—the unofficial leader of their squadron .

“Take a walk,” he told her, wiping some sweat off his dirt-covered brow and nodding towards a path off the trail between a few boulders.

Isla bit down on her tongue until the metallic tang of blood filled her mouth, the dark protrusions still threatening to appear.

“We’re all on edge,” he said a bit quieter, and from the bite in his voice, she realized all the challenge talk had bothered him as much as her. “Go cool down.”

Isla huffed through her nose.

On edge was an understatement, but despite how she truly felt—back to angry, helpless, and useless in protecting her mate—she gradually relaxed her arm. And then she hoisted the weight of her pack up her shoulders and stalked off.

She was pacing in agitated circles around a flattened clearing when Rhydian appeared from around a bend several minutes later. “I said a walk, not a second hike.”

His joke fell flat. Felt empty. Even he knew it, barely able to force his mouth into a decent smile.

Isla pointed to the space beyond him, growling, “I’m going to punch him in the throat.”

“He deserves it. I wouldn’t have stopped you if I hadn’t thought fighting Magnus was beneath you. And if it didn’t mean we’d have to carry his ass the rest of the way through the mountain.”

Isla ceased her pacing, needing to stabilize against a tree after so much rapid movement. She wedged her hands into her hair; something that Magnus had said was eating away at her. “Can I ask you something?”

“That’s a dangerous question,” Rhydian said.

Isla took that as a yes . “What did you think when Kai told you that I was of Io? Assuming that he did after you all figured out he’d met me.”

Rhydian raised his brows. “When we found out you were of Io, or when we learned you were the Imperial Beta’s daughter?” At Isla’s frown, he elaborated. “We weren’t mad if that’s what you’re wondering.”

Isla ran her tongue over her teeth.

Rhydian may not have been up for a confessional—and he may not have been her first choice to vent to—but they would be out here for several more hours. He was the only option she had. Davina had been a great listener; maybe it was something the mated pair shared.

“I don’t know what to do anymore.” Isla blurted, causing Rhydian’s brows to shoot upwards again.

“About?”

“Kai…everything.” She felt like a weight had been lifted off her chest but replaced by another. “The whole way up here, I’ve been trying to think of how my life would be if we decided to reject each other. If we moved on and I just went back to Io to continue as I was and never saw him again. And…and I can’t do it.” She let out a bitter laugh. “I—I’ve never felt like this before. And it’s so much, so fast.”

A small smile threatened Rhydian’s lips, an eagerness taking to his eyes as if he’d been waiting for this. “I know it can be.”

Isla swallowed. “Everything is so easy with him…when it’s only us. It’s like nothing else matters, but everything does matter. Because of who he is and who I am. It’ll never be just us . It can’t be just us. And I know I’m not my pack, but convincing people that I’m not their enemy because of how they view where I come from and who my family is will probably be a battle I fight forever, that he’ll have to, and there’s already so much he has—”

“You think you two would be fighting alone?” Rhydian quipped. “What about us?”

Isla actually mustered a laugh.

Us —Kai’s family.

Maybe she’d have people here, after all.

Isla arrived back at the hotel a couple of hours after dusk, and she knew it wouldn’t be long until Kai came so they could have their talk. The warrior’s hallway was empty and eerily silent as she stalked through it to her room at the end of the corridor. After today’s trek through the mountain, the others had gone out for a meal together, so she wasn’t expecting anyone else around. Still, she moved quietly .

She was nearly to her door when a pull came, not from Kai, but from something .

Isla faltered and turned her head, finding herself in front of Callan’s door, cracked open a sliver. Her blood ran cold when she spotted the tiniest swipe of crimson on the doorjamb.

Shit.

She wouldn’t give herself time to doubt.

She pushed on the wood, its creaking reverberating down her bones, loud in her ears. Too loud in what seemed to be an empty room. Chilled night air swept by her face, a current from the open window caught by her entrance. The shadows left by the sparseness of the moon’s aura made the room seem forbidding. Still, Isla took a few steps inside, risking a call of Callan’s name. She received no answer. And unless he was hiding in the closet, no one was here.

For a moment, she figured he’d taken Kai’s threat seriously and left.

But his belongings were still there. The trunk he’d traveled with and bag with his gear. Papers were scattered across the bed’s blanketed surface. Some crumpled and torn. And Isla caught the faintest smell of smoke wafting from the bathroom as if things had been burned. Could it be the reason for the open window?

She scanned the door. Where had the blood come from?

She tugged her lip between her teeth, and against that part of her with better judgment, she kicked the entrance closed, lest no one come upon her as she approached the mattress. There was a ball in her throat as she sorted through the files. A lot of them were Callan’s documents, as she had for herself. His papers to get into Deimos, which he would need to leave and get back into Io. Even the ripped sheets didn’t seem to be anything unusual.

She sighed, scanning the room again and noticing more parchments placed on the bureau backed by a mirror.

Her eyes were wide as she picked up an identification card for Edriel of Charon.

Edriel .

The false name Callan had been using, according to Kai. Where had he gotten this? Why did he need it?

Isla dropped the card back on the table, and her gaze slid to the map beside it, worn from being folded and rolled so many times. The geography depicted was a stretch from Deimos, out west towards Phobos, and displaying parts of Callisto and Mimas. He had lines drawn through it, areas circled throughout Deimos’s four regions with question marks. All seemed to converge in one spot—a wide-cast circle encompassing the Wall.

“What does he have you looking for?” she mumbled under her breath, recalling Kai’s words to Callan before he’d ordered him away. Alpha Cassius had put Callan on some type of mission, other than the rogues, other than observing how she behaved here.

Isla narrowed her eyes at the map. Beyond the border of the Wall, within the marred parchment depicting the Wilds, were notes nearly lost in the dark contrast of the scourged land.

“House. Bak. Entrance?” Isla read the words aloud, voice wavering with uncertainty. What the hell did all this mean?

She stiffened as she felt a sudden coolness at her back, and a shiver rocketed down her spine. Her heart stopped at the raspy sound, a word spoken that echoed in her mind.

“Traitor.”

The wind-like breath she swore caressed her ear was like ice on her skin.

Isla snapped her eyes up into the mirror, a gasp ripping from her throat as she found the silhouette of a dark figure lingering in the corner of the room by the open window. She whipped around, clutching onto the bureau to brace herself. The action of fear was at odds with the snarl on her face, the glow of her eyes, and the claws at her fingertips.

And whatever—whoever—it was had disappeared, leaving nothing in their wake but a billowing curtain and a blood-stained adornment on the mattress.

The other half of the diadem.