Page 44 of A Warrior's Fate

The budding ruckus made him blistered, and his wide, cautious eyes flittered over the crowd. He reminded her of a doe, the ones that dwelled in the few lush forests on Io’s landscape. Skittish and easily spooked, a persistent flight in the dichotomy, used constantly by Warrior Alina in training as an example of what the trainees couldn’t be.

Isla snapped her mouth closed, teeth crashing together as it dawned.

“Why—why would you say something like that? Do you understand what you’re accusing him of?” The warrior woman spoke sharply, a tinge of panic in her voice.

Isla understood, and she was sure that’s where everyone else’s minds had gone.

Treason.

Murdering a fellow hunter, a fellow wolf, in the Wilds—while they were utterly vulnerable and during one of their people’s most sacred rites—could be viewed as treason. Being one with the monsters who wanted them dead. An enemy to their kind.

Punishable by death if you were lucky.

But Lukas wasn’t an enemy. If anything, an attempt to kill the hunter after he’d felt threatened proved exactly how much he was still one of them. With them.

Lukas wasn’t a fawn. He didn’t cower. He didn’t run. Even if he couldn’t remember it, even if he couldn’t fully embody that spirit inside of him through a complete shift, he was a wolf. His instincts, his nature, down to the deepest well of his bones, was to fight. There was no malice in his intentions. He was protecting himself. Which meant he was in there. Somewhere. Not a stranger—though definitely strange—just lost.

If only she’d had a clearer head. It may have occurred to her sooner.

And maybe then she could’ve stopped him from making a horrible mistake.

Isla barely had a moment to yell “wait” before Lukas reached for his boot, those instincts kicking in and helping him put the pieces together.

The hunter—the “monster” in his eyes—had brought him here. Here, where the monster was cared for. Here, where the spectators observed him like he had five heads. Looked on with apprehension, with disdain.

The blade he drew glinted in a mix of lights as he wielded it against whoever was closest. He tried to bury it in the chest of a member of Callisto’s Guard, but off-balance and hopelessly outmatched, he was brought down in one swift movement. Lukas hit the ground with a thud, a wheeze escaping his lips at the impact. The guard slammed his foot down onto Lukas’s hand hard enough that Isla heard the gruesome snap of his fingers. His cry was one she was all too familiar with as he lost his grip on his weapon. There was a metallic, taunting ring when it was kicked away and collided with the Gate.

The guard pressed his foot to Lukas’s throat and bared his canines, brandishing his claws. “Wrong move,” he growled, eyes becoming iridescent.

Lukas screamed and thrashed beneath him. The sound roared down Isla’s spine.

No.

The crowd divided further than they already had been. Those who’d been pulling at the Gate who would’ve been the first line of defense against the bak, pressed closer. The weary, simple spectators, who’d been robbed of a look at triumphant history, pulled away. Some practically sprinted up the grass, likely wanting to forget the horror they saw and find a way to get the scent of magic out of their noses. The hunter had been pulled away, too.

Isla stood in the middle, lingering in empty space. The air became charged with power—their true power. Raw and untamed. Feral. Deadly.

No.

The horde surrounded Lukas in a way that nearly shielded him from her view. In a way that reminded her of the bak who’d taken him away. When she’d let them take him away.

She couldn’t let it happen again. Couldn’t. Wouldn’t.

She sucked in a breath and balled her fists before taking another step forward.

Something pulled her back. Strong and intangible. Distinct. Wordless, but the message was clear.

She turned and like a moonlit path had been drawn, teased Kai from the bodies. He wasn’t a part of the brutes she was prepared to confront. Instead, he stood by a farther section of the Wall, keeping his distance. Unlike everyone else, he didn’t seem concerned with Lukas at all. Instead, his eyes were on her, only her, like she was all that mattered.

Just like the Hunt.

It was all just like the Hunt.

She winced as guilt gripped her heart, remembering the moment clearer now than she ever had in her nightmares. Not only had they been so distracted by each other that they let Lukas get so far out of reach, but they’d been a distraction themselves. Lukas had warned her to stay away from the alpha— why, she still wasn’t clear—but then there they had appeared side by side, catching him off-guard.

Just a split second, and he was gone. Dragged like a ragdoll across the dank forest and left a bloody mess in a decrepit house.

The marker felt like an inferno in her pocket.

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