Page 56 of A Warrior's Fate

“Do you think they know about her?” Ezekiel cut into their silent staring.

Kai turned back to him, body tensing as he thought. He released a breath, shaking his head. “I don’t know.”

Foreign tendrils of fear kissed Isla’s bones again as Kai absently moved another inch closer, in such a way that shielded her once more.

The beta’s eyes narrowed between them, and his tone dripped with suspicion. “And you’re certain you aren’t bound in any way?”

“Not permanently,” Kai said.

“The ties will fray in time,” Isla chimed, almost in reassurance to herself. Kai glanced at her, donning a look of what seemed like stunned pride. She offered a small uptick of her lips before saying, “What? I listen.”

Again, the exchange was watched with a keen eye, and again, Ezekiel fell into that tense quiet. He cocked his head away from them, briefly scouting the forest. Isla did the same. Kai too. Until—

“We should take her with us.”

“Excuse me?” Isla felt a twinge in her neck from how fast she’d snapped her head back.

“What?” Kai echoed her confusion.

“If what I just saw is any indication, you’re vulnerable like this, Alpha.” Ezekiel kept his voice low. “Only days ago, you could sense her torment during the Hunt, and it made you turn back and risk everything. Now, it seems in your ‘nothingness’, you’ve grown even closer.”

Isla had barely heard the tailing end of his statement—the unfortunate observation that she may have been able to argue a truth, though they remained very much in the dark about each other—and instead, focused on what came before it.

She looked to Kai, her eyebrows drawn. “You could…feel me during the Hunt?”

How could that have even been possible? They’d barely interacted but three times before then and certainly hadn’t been as close as they had recently.

Kai let out an exasperated sigh as if he’d never wanted her to be aware of it. “Vaguely.” The quick glower he sent his beta’s way only supported the notion. “I knew when you started fighting the first one, so I waited and tracked you. I stayed out of your way and only interfered when needed.”

“She is a weakness.”

Ezekiel spoke before she could entertain Kai’s words. He earned mirrored scowls from them both.

“Your weakness,” he clarified, “as long as you are bound in a way that she offers no strength at your side. Fraying or not, in the scheme of an enemy trying to cripple you, you’re nearly as good as mated right now. If we bring her to Deimos, we can keep an eye on her until your bond is truly nothing but a memory.”

“Are you insane?” Isla gritted out.

“I’m looking out for my alpha and his mate,” Ezekiel said pointedly, not doing well to mask his resentment in his typical air of arrogance. “Although, you’ve eddied some of the responsibilities per your ‘agreement’, there are some that must be upheld.”

“Where would you ‘keep an eye’ on me in Deimos? You don’t even want anyone to know I exist.”

“There are some safe houses throughout the region. You’ll be kept there until it’s determined things are sorted.”

“So, I’d be a prisoner.”

“Those houses are far from a prison. You’d be given everything you need—food, water, and someone would come through every few—”

“Enough.”

Kai, likely sensing how irate she was becoming, took a step forward, placing himself between them—the two people meant, in a way, to be his right and left hand. The two meant to advise and mediate him—not be mediated themselves.

“I think we’ve progressed beyond the times of kidnapping maidens.”

Isla folded her arms and tilted her head. That was…debatable…but she’d let Kai go on.

“So, what do you suggest, Alpha?” Ezekiel asked.

“We move forward with what our plan always was.” She couldn’t help but notice the easy emphasis he’d put on those two words—we…ours. Kai pointed to himself and then to Isla. “Deimos, Io.”

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