Page 124 of A Warrior's Fate

But there was something in those eager green eyes that had Isla unraveling and opening up in a way she never had to anyone, besides the moon on those painful nights a long while ago.

“I’m the daughter of one of the highest-ranking members on this continent,” Isla began warily, reading Davina’s face and ready to stop at the smallest sign of disinterest. It didn’t gleam. “And I’ve watched people time and time again disregard me until they find out who my father is, what pack I hail from, ‘what a great bloodline I have’,” she added the last part mockingly, to which Davina chuckled, but she never lost the intent stare. “I’ve been told over and over that it’s all I’m good for—breeding, a pretty, little trophy on a man’s arm—and for a while, I believed it. I accepted it wholeheartedly. It was a purpose for me finally, after always being lost in my brother’s shadow. In my friends’ shadows—the Heir and future princess.”

Isla let out a cough, feeling her heart in her throat. Too much. She was saying too much. Yet still, her soul—Davina’s gaze—urged her to continue.

Breathe, breathe.

“So, I went along, entertaining whoever gave me the time of day, doing whatever they asked of me, thinking maybe, just maybe, they’d think I was worth something. Not just to bear children or climb a social ladder, but to really see me…but even that person I was showing them wasn’t the real me at all, just who I thought I had to be. When we turned sixteen and everyone began preparing for mating bonds—chosen or fated—the moment we turned of age at eighteen, I thought I’d found my saving grace. My mate—that ‘one true great love’, my other half—they’d get me. They had to.”

Isla checked Davina again, still hanging onto every word.

A nag of shame began rising in her gut.

“So, I did whatever I could to find him. Went to every gathering imaginable, and again and again, I found no one. All I got were suitors who saw that bloodline and were so fed up with searching that they’d ‘settle for me’. And I was so blinded by my own insecurity and loneliness, that I settled too. And Callan was fine, for a while. I was okay with being with him forever. To stop torturing myself over something that would never happen, but then something just hit me, and I started falling further and further into this dark place. My rock bottom came one night out in these ash lily fields on the outskirts of the city.”

Isla felt the corner of her eyelids starting to sting as a hollowness—an icy, numbing cold—she’d felt all those years ago, crept back over her bones.

“It was the night of our Yule Ball, and I was so…unhappy. I was drowning—I’d been drowning for months and months—and no one noticed. Maybe Callan did, but he wasn’t much help, preoccupied with his warrior training. Adrien and Cora were wrapped up in their mating. Sebastian had his new position. My dad was—being the Beta. I was so drunk when I snuck out there, still holding a bottle of wine too. No doubt, I wasn’t very inconspicuous, but no one bothered to follow me or came to find me. And I just remember lying in that field, sobbing and begging. Begging the Goddess to just show me, tell me, give me any type of sign that I wasn’t doomed to feel the way I was forever. That I wouldn’t be lost forever. That there was something more for me—maybe I’d find my person, my true person. And when I got nothing after a few seconds, I was ready to head off into our bordering rogue lands and see what fate awaited me there. I’d make it or I wouldn’t. I didn’t care. But then I passed out before I could do anything stupid.”

Davina’s eyes had glossed over. Her hand raised to brush away a tear on her cheek. It was what made Isla realize her own had fallen. She rubbed it away.

“I woke up not too long after because the stars were still out. And everything was so…still. Somewhere in that mess of lights, I just found clarity. Hope. It was like all I needed to do was stop. To forget everything and everyone else and just…be. I thought of everything I could do for myself, and maybe back then, there was a little part of me that thought about how I didn’t want to be mated and give myself to someone as the girl that I was. The next day, I enrolled in the warrior program—like I’d always wanted to but had always been told I shouldn’t, couldn’t. And no matter how afraid I was, no matter how much I doubted and thought about quitting, no matter who told me that I should, I knew I couldn’t look back. That I’d hate myself for stopping and looking back. I stayed with Callan for a bit after that, but when I started getting really into training, it took a toll on us. I wasn’t that pretty, quiet trophy anymore, and I didn’t ever want to be, so I ended things with him.”

Despite the happiness that moment had brought in the past, the next part of Isla’s story made her blood heat.

“I had never felt so free, but there was still the bond looming over my head. Those little moments when I wanted someone there to be with me or just to tell people about when they’d asked. But then I watched two of the strongest people I know destroyed by it, and the reason for it wasn’t love. Not on the right end. The bond was all possession and power and…selfishness. And I realized I didn’t want that as a part of my life either. I didn’t need it to be happy. I was fine by myself for as long as I wanted to be. I didn’t think the Goddess would ever bring me my mate anyway. I mean, fated mates are hard enough to find when you are trying. And then…”

Isla trailed off, long enough that Davina felt comfortable offering, “Kai.”

Isla laughed bitterly. “Fate has a wicked sense of humor. My father visited Deimos countless times; even Sebastian went with him on a few trips, some after I’d been of age. If I’d gone, maybe I would’ve recognized him, what he was to me—what he is. But no, she had to bring him to me at the perfect time to—”

Isla froze as she felt another sporadic tug at the bond. Strong, as others had been out of the blue, but this time. This time.

Isla shot to her feet, not caring that her hair was wet and sticking to her back. Not caring that she was still clad in her towel. She became like the wind as she charged to her room’s door and pulled the entrance open before Kai even had a chance to knock. Before Rhydian and Ameera, who flanked him, even had a chance to get in her direct eye-line.

The pause between them, staring at each other for the first time after they’d touched, was suffocating. The bond, rekindling in their proximity, overwhelming.

But reprieve came quick. Too quick. So fast that the dissipating madness of worrying where he was—the sheer relief of seeing him again—bred a new kind of insanity within her.

Insanity that had Isla taking two steps forward.

That had her rising on her toes. Had her running hands over stubble, dirt, and maybe blood-smeared skin. Had her fingers winding into soft curls.

Pure insanity that had Isla leaning up towards Kai…and kissing him.

CHAPTER 27

Kai’s face was cold, his cheeks ravaged by the wind and chill of Mavec’s summer night. But his mouth, his lips were warm and soft. And Isla became that feeling. Her body heating, her muscles going weak. Kai was her opposite, evident in the tenseness of every place they connected. But he took each caress of her mouth—gentle, shockingly timid, grateful—and Isla could’ve sworn his lips rose in a smile. Could’ve sworn he started kissing back.

That was enough to knock some sense into her.

Goddess, what was she doing? What had come over her? This wasn’t right. Touching was bad enough for their objectives, but this?

Isla took in a breath. Dropped her hands. Pulled back.

She’d only made it halfway to the flats of her feet.

Kai wasted no time in moving forward to pull her back into a deep, punishing kiss. He held her tight, wrapping one strong arm around her waist, causing her towel to loosen, going askew. His other hand cupped her face, fingers at the back of her neck, tilting her head, wedging into her still-damp hair as he slanted his mouth to take more of her.

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