A Warrior’s Fate (Wolves of Morai #1)

Chapter 51

CHAPTER 51

I sla and Kai were on the roof of the House, a landing of flattened stone amidst the sloping that Kai had apparently escaped to many times as a child. The perch offered a perfect view of the night sky, much like the overlook before the hall’s window, but rather than feeling alone on top of the world, they were alone and hidden within it. What Isla had to behold in the cloudless sky was starlight and endless, uninterrupted darkness where mountains lay. The moon had disappeared somewhere behind them, bathing the city.

Though they’d gone through the motions of preparing for bed after their tumultuous exit from the arena, sleeping wasn’t close to a possibility. And rather than go where they could bump into anyone when all they wanted was to be with each other, Kai proposed another one of his old hiding places.

As soon as he had laid down on the blanket they’d taken, Isla collapsed onto him. He let out an exaggerated grunt at the weight.

She murmured, “prick,” and the only response to his answering grin was to bring her mouth to his, something she thought she’d never be able to do again.

The kiss heated quickly as she felt his arms tighten around her waist and his tongue trace along her bottom lip, coaxing her to open for him. She did so happily, and his hands wandered beneath her nightgown and robe of thin red silk, mapping her skin and the parts of her body he knew very well. An assurance that she was here, every part of her. She was alive. He was alive. They were both okay.

But those moments when they thought they’d lost each other couldn’t be forgotten. Both of them nearly dying couldn’t be forgotten. They could chase them away, though, with this. These grounding touches and reminders.

Alive. Alive. Alive.

Before long, Isla was on her back, humming in response to Kai’s praises for what she’d done to protect the city and their people while his lips teased her neck, her breasts. She moaned softly as his fingers worked between her thighs, drawing out pleasure and drawing away sense as she unraveled, his name a whisper to the stars. But it wasn’t enough, not even close, and though earlier they’d felt too tired for sex, she needed him now.

They didn’t waste time removing all their clothes, and their kisses were furious as he positioned himself, and she wrapped her legs around him. All thought eddied to the gradual pressure and feel of him until there was no space between their bodies. Isla’s fingers tightened around the muscles of his arms as they both sighed, grateful and relieved, and Kai stilled, taking her in beneath him.

Even without the bond, without its pulling, twisting, and thrumming, that connection she felt to him was still there. The love she had for him was still there, stronger than it ever had been.

Kai had become everything—he was everything—to her.

Her best friend, her lover. He was with her unknowingly in her past, now forever her present, her future. Someone who would hold her when she fell apart. Who would fight and fight for her until he had nothing left. Being fated to him, having the bond, that was extra. She would’ve fallen for him a million times over without it.

As Kai smoothly drew out before driving back into her, smothering her gasp with a dizzying kiss…as he echoed each deep thrust with a murmured sweet nothing onto her skin…as she met him with her hips stroke for stroke, greedy and desperate for more of him, harder, faster, their bodies still completely in sync, she knew he felt the same.

But the darkness couldn’t be staved for long.

As they settled, coming down from their highs with her head on his chest as he held her tight, reality crept back in, the euphoria fading.

Isla’s mind wouldn’t turn off and couldn’t be distracted by the languid patterns Kai drew over her skin. Random bouts of fear at what dwelled in the surrounding shadows had her heart skipping. Pondering where her mother was and hoping she was okay, thinking of all she’d gone through, had it breaking.

It still didn’t feel real.

The challenge was over. Kai had won, but with the witch out there, with the quickness that Alpha Cassius had left, it only felt like the beginning of something so much worse.

Swallowing down panic and the threat of tears, Isla gazed at Kai’s face, noting the way his brows were furrowed as he studied the sky as if scouring it for an answer. He couldn’t escape anything, either. There was a lot for him to be thinking about, but Isla tried to figure out what was bothering him most.

After they’d exited the arena and had come upon the crowd, Kai’s initial desire to go home had dwindled, Isla’s too, as they realized just how many people they had to look after, to protect. All the danger they might be in. Even if the guard had been notified of the witch, the tunnels, and the potential for rogues within the territory, and had been dispersed accordingly, they wanted to oversee it all. To make sure no path was left unfollowed or stone unturned, which received heavy pushback from everyone who knew and cared about them.

Rhydian had called them stubborn, workaholic bastards and told them an alpha and luna were no good dead from exhaustion—not the best choice of words, again. He remained out with the guard units, guiding their search along with Ameera, eager herself for a distraction, it seemed, as Kai had ordered Ezekiel be taken into custody.

Sol would oversee his questioning, find out everything the old beta knew of the witch, and starting tomorrow, Kai would begin anew. Decide on his new second-in-command, turn over his council, and first thing in the morning, Isla would endure her first lessons with Marin in preparation to be the luna at his side.

When early afternoon came, they would make their first official address together, and judging by the way reporters and their flashing cameras followed them through the city to their car—honed on her, shouting questions her way—they were all eager to pry Isla apart.

But something they’d shouted, unrelated,now nagged her, too.

“What happened to Brax?” she asked.

Kai tensed, glanced at her once, and then back at the sky. “I don’t know.”

Isla furrowed her brows.

According to reports, the rogue had just lost his mind. He completely broke down on the stone and clawed himself to death. A downfall so horrible to watch that people had to look away. Some thought the pressure of the fight had become too much for him to take, or he truly didn’t want to become alpha. Isla wondered if it had something to do with the witch’s wearing enchantment, but that pondering didn’t last long the more she observed Kai.

Isla sat up, and the act of her pulling away from him made him frown. “What happened?”

A look, a mix of fear, pain, and confusion, crossed his features. He wouldn’t turn to face her. “You were dying, and I didn’t know what else to do.”

Isla swallowed, feeling her heart beat faster in her chest. “What happened?”

Kai appeared to gather his thoughts by counting each of the stars. “You know how they teach us to mind-link after we learn to shift?” Isla nodded, though she knew teaching methods differed between instructors, between packs. She’d been taught to go about it like seeking a doorway that only existed and was left open as wolves. They could shut each other out if they wanted. “It was like that, but…I could go further. I went further.” Kai adjusted in his spot, but he didn’t sit up. He placed his hands on his stomach, remaining focused on the sky, and with every following word he spoke, he sounded more troubled. “It moved so fast. I wasn’t in the arena anymore. Just in this mess of his…thoughts, his feelings, and these moments like pictures, like…memories, I don’t know…but he couldn’t get me out. I could see everything—places he’d been, people he knew, had interacted with, and now, when I think about it, maybe I saw that witch. Maybe I should’ve stayed. But you were dying, and I needed to find you. I needed the fight to be over. So, I…”

Isla did her best to mask that she was shaking. If anything, she’d blame it on the cold that had settled in the air, not on the fact that this scared her,only because she didn’t understand. Because she questioned reality again. “You what?”

Kai grimaced, closing his eyes as if reliving the moment before he snapped them open. “I let the power guide me, and I tore it all apart. I tore him apart—from the inside.” The words were so quiet, like he hadn’t wanted to speak them.

Even without the bond there, she could see how he felt. It practically radiated from him. Disturbed and shattered. He grew distant. Isla wished she had something encouraging to say, but she was still trying to wrap her mind around it. When the silence between them became too long, too much, she reached out and brushed his face.

Kai barely reacted to the gesture. His eyes, which had become glassy, remained upwards. “I have never heard anyone scream like that, felt anything so horrible, and I know he was a rogue, and he was trying to kill me, and in the end, I won, but I feel sick. I can’t stop thinking about it.” He clenched his teeth. “It’s not normal. It’s not right. I can’t explain why I can do it…and you know what the worst part is?” A pause. He opened and closed his mouth, shook his head, unsure what he wanted to say or how to say it. “I don’t know if I can stop myself from doing it again.”

Isla had never seen him so broken, so bare, so vulnerable. So terrified. And of himself.

She leaned down and kissed his temple before hugging him so tightly that her muscles strained.

“It’s getting worse,” Kai said through a hard breath. He slid an arm around her, accepting her warmth. “Something’s wrong with me.”

“No. Nothing’s wrong with you. It’s just different.” She lifted herself to look at his face again. “Do you think you should talk to someone?”

Finally, he met her eyes, and something about seeing her face made him relax. “Like who?”

“A healer or one of the priestesses? An Elder?”

“No.” His gaze went to the stars again. Isla was about to pry for what he was thinking when he said, “While Raana was healing you, or even when she was helping me find you, I swear her magic called to me. To whatever this is.”

Isla blinked, recalling the witch’s words from her haze. To see if what he’s meant to be is really true. “You think it’s magic?”

“I don’t know what to think, but I’m not a witch. It’s just this— thing . But I don’t want anyone to know. Not until I figure it out.”

“ We’ll figure it out,” Isla pressed, and when he met her eyes again, she smiled. “You could never hurt me. You will never scare me. I’m with you until the end and wherever we drift after, and if you have a problem with that, then talk to Fate because she’s why you can apparently never get rid of me.”

Kai hummed a small chuckle, his fingers tracing small circles over her skin. He brought his lips to her forehead in a gentle, grateful kiss before leaning his head back on the blanket again. “I suppose there are far worse fates than being destined to someone who doesn’t know how to stay on her side of the bed.”

Isla narrowed her eyes, holding back her retort as she climbed fully on top of him, smothering his large frame the best she could with her body, trapping him. A silent affirmation she wasn’t going anywhere. “Or being fated to someone who’d be better off living in an eternal winter of Tethys with how cold he keeps the damn place.”

A wider grin crossed his mouth as he studied her face and brushed back her hair, mussed from their lovemaking. “What was it you promised? With me to and through eternity?”

Isla nodded, remembering when she’d first told him she loved him what felt like a lifetime ago. She laid a kiss on his jaw. “To and through eternity.”