Page 196 of A Warrior's Fate

A few moments passed before his features relaxed, and his reach over the globe of the world on his desk drew both Isla and Ezekiel’s undivided attention. He picked up the jewel—only the jewel—and let it linger in the sunlight before it collapsed into his closing palm.

With a sidelong glance, Isla noticed Ezekiel shift on his feet, retreating just an inch.

“Where did you get that?” he nearly blurted the question as if he’d been biting his tongue. He forced his shoulders to relax. “Is it from the vaults?”

Kai grinned curtly, daring to toss the gem up in the air before catching it. A low intensity simmered behind his eyes as he turned to Ezekiel. She sensed it then, that alpha’s aura, Kai’s power. A reminder.

“No,” he said with a coolness Isla felt down her spine.

A turn to her was enough to end the conversation.

Partial instinct had Isla closing in on herself under Kai’s gaze, but she kept her shoulders back as he closed the distance between them and took her hand. He placed the gem into her open palm before leaning down to kiss her cheek. As soon as his lips touched her skin, his voice flooded her mind, overwhelming, dark, and agitated. “Go to Jonah in the library, and do not stop or speak to anyone until you reach him. No staff, no council members, and if a guard asks, you’re Marin’s guest.”

Isla blinked at the orders and realized that he’d kissed her specifically on her right to hide her face from Ezekiel. “What are you thinking?”

“That I need to work backwards further than I thought.”

Isla swallowed. Did he mean consider what had happened before the first message?

There wasn’t time to ask.

“What about the marker and the paper?”

“I’ll bring them later.”

Before Kai had completely stood upright again, he kissed her properly. He held her hand with the jewel beneath her wrapped fingers for a second longer. “I’ll circle back with you at dinner. Get some rest.”

Rest now seemed like a joke.

Isla played along and nodded.

Throughout their exchange, Ezekiel had been silently observing, and he may have moved a few inches closer to the desk where the marker and symbol still sat, taunting him.

Isla felt her nostrils flare, but she battled to keep her features even.

If he knew something…Had known all along…

“Beta,” she bid him farewell, her voice laced with the sweetest venom.

Ezekiel bowed his head to her in return and nearly matched her tone. “Warrior.”

The gem bit into her palm as she squeezed it tighter and smiled. “For now.”

CHAPTER 41

Isla couldn’t stop cursing under her breath. Disgracing her ancestors, and likely sending her favorite enemy, Fate, cackling again.

For one, she couldn’t remember for the life of her where she’d been told the library was, and she’d been ambling the corridors of the Pack Hall for minutes and minutes too long with no direction. Staff members passed by, guards too, maybe one delta or another, but everyone seemed to live in their own worlds. A necessary defense while the real one seemed to crumble around them, beneath their very feet.

And two—she hated leaving Kai with Ezekiel.

As she drifted further away from where they stood in his office behind the heavy oak door, as she felt their bond dull where she knew trying to communicate with him would be hopeless, her skin crawled. She knew her mate could perfectly well take care of himself—he was the most powerful and feared wolf within this pack territory. Viewed powerful and feared in most pack territories, she supposed, after his showing in the Hunt. But she couldn’t help her instinct—not only as his mate bound to him by her soul but as a person not easily swayed from protecting anyone she loved. Protecting anyone who may have needed it.

She couldn’t allow herself to jump too far in her conclusions. Though Ezekiel was certainly privy to something—and he was also most certainly an asshole—did that make him a threat worth fearing, or just another item on the too-long list?

She couldn’t risk being blinded. Couldn’t risk a piece on their board shifting without their notice.

Everything’s connected.

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