Page 194 of A Warrior's Fate

“You think a witch could—would—sail to the Wilds? The bak would eat them alive within hours, minutes of touching land,” she said, before considering, “Though, they do have magic.”

“It wouldn’t work,” Kai said, to which Isla cocked her head. “There’s a reason we had to build a Wall to contain them rather than wipe them out in the way they came. The bak were birthed by magic from the decimation. Whatever that witch did couldn’t be reversed, repaired, or even touched by any of the others that came to aid us and repay the debt. The only way to kill them is how we’ve been doing for centuries—brute force and strategy. No matter how strong our people are, they wouldn’t stand a chance.” A grimace cast across his face. “The only comfort I can find, as sick as it makes me, is that whoever killed my family doesn’t want the bak getting out either.”

Isla gnawed on her lip as she mulled over his words. She’d known some details of the decimation and was aware of the consequences and what had been done and raised as a result. But she never knew the why, how witch magic worked. At the thought, her eyes drifted to the crystal perched on Kai’s desk, glittering in a stream of sunlight. She wondered what Jonah would have to say about it.

“You think that everything, all of this that we’ve been dealing with, is connected,” Kai repeated his earlier statement, catching her attention again. At Isla’s nod, he continued, “And they know how it’s connected. They’ve been trying to tell us how.”

She gave another dip of her head. “I think they’ve been trying to warn you about something since the night of the first message.”

“But why warn me after nearly killing me?”

“I don’t know.” She gestured to the wooden ball on the table. “But I do know that the marker Lukas and I found belongs underground in those tunnels and that someone, something, brought it to the surface. We can’t know for sure when, but if it was them because they knew you were in the Hunt, the tunnels are probably what they wanted you to know.”

Kai paused, considering that. “But I ended up nowhere near where you and Lukas were when I was hunting. I was already heading back to the Gate when I felt you. If they had wanted me to just happen upon it, then the chances were remarkably low.”

Isla sighed. That was true.

Quiet descended between them again as she pondered her thoughts.

Sebastian’s voice being the one that rang clearly in her head was the last thing she’d expected.

Suddenly, she was back in her apartment after he’d broken in to talk to her—and eat her food. But besides aggravation, he’d delivered something else.

“My brother had told me they—” She stumbled. They—her father, Io… “They thought the two of us were in the wrong place at the wrong time—or targeted. What if it was both? Lukas and I were the only two hunters that faced multiple bak. What if they’d targeted me, left the marker there for us to find, not with the intention of me dying—though that was easily possible—but to lure you back?”

Kai reached up to scratch the shadow along his jaw. “Then that means they knew you were my mate, and that I’d come back for you.” He let out a low hum before saying, “Those two hunters that I sent for you after you’d been attacked said they found you in a house.”

Isla didn’t want to think back to that day, especially after what she’d just faced. But the flashes of her memory reeled, and she recalled the cold floor, the searing pain, the distant questions as she fell in and out of consciousness about whether she was even still alive.

“The bak starting to work as a pack, I understand,” Kai said. “Becoming more intelligent—I get that too. But they’re predators, they know death, and they would never stow you away—at all, really—but especially if you were still alive.”

Isla blinked, following where Kai led.

The pain she’d felt, like razors slicing through her side when she’d run after Lukas and hesitated for her mate—that was dealt entirely by a bak. But what happened next, in the darkness, in the cold…

“They saved me.” The realization came out in a breath. And though he had left its safety… “They saved Lukas too and hid us in the house with the marker.”

Kai’s features were stone as he nodded in agreement, a couple of times, before he released a bitter chuckle and shook it off. “I don’t want to trust them. I don’t want to listen to them. What they’re doing now doesn’t make me forgive the past if reconciliation is what they want. But that’s a personal sacrifice I’ll have to make for the sake of the pack…so from here on out, we’ll consider them our ally.”

He studied her face to gauge her reaction. One could only be so overjoyed to align with an alpha-killer.

She flashed him the faintest smile. “And everything they’ve given us will point us to our enemies.”

Kai’s sound of agreement was cut through by the resonating chime of the grandfather clock close to his bookshelves, not nearly as barren as the walls. Isla watched the large brass pendulums sway before directing her gaze to the timekeeper’s face. Both hands pointed upwards.

Noon.

Two knocks in rapid succession came from the door.

Talk about timely. It was likely Ezekiel, Sol, and Marin.

Isla went rigid.

What was she supposed to say? Ezekiel knew about them, but the other two had no idea. She found herself rehearsing pathetically in her head, Hello, I’m Isla. I’m Alpha Kai’s mate, which therefore means your future luna…don’t ask me what pack I’m originally from. Don’t ask who my father is.

She felt a warmth at her back that spread as Kai wrapped his arms around her middle much like he had earlier. Her nerves eased as he pulled her close and leaned down to whisper, “We don’t have to tell them right now. We can pick another time.”

Isla twisted her head to him, scanning his face to get an idea of what he would want. But something about her expression, her pause had him leaning in to peck her lips, then her forehead, before he unfurled himself from her. It was enough to say they’d do it later, maybe when the challenge wasn’t so fresh.

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