Page 57 of A Warrior's Fate

In the pause he’d left, she finished, “Forget.”

Kai nodded, that satisfied look passing over again. “And we need to start now. There’s a chance whoever this is has no idea who you are, and we have to capitalize on it. I don’t know if they’re coming back, or how or why they’re here at all. I’ll be around until morning in case anything—happens.”

“You won’t,” Ezekiel said, earning raised eyebrows from both of them. “We must return to the pack immediately. It’s why I came to find you.”

Terror flickered in Kai’s eyes. “What happened?”

“Emergent word from the council—matters that can’t wait for us until the late afternoon,” Ezekiel explained. “We must be back by dawn. They’ve already sent transport that should be here within the hour.”

“What happened?” Kai repeated, a bit more forcefully.

Ezekiel didn’t answer, instead, he looked towards Isla, and she knew.

“Pack business,” she answered for him, wishing she could wipe the small upturn of his mouth that followed off his face.

“Zahra’s alright, I’ve been assured,” he told Kai. “The guards are with her twenty-four-seven.”

Isla could practically feel the relief that washed over her mate, then realized, Zahra was the name of his mother. Another fact she could add to the list of the few she’d gathered of him.

At the thought of the former luna, Isla’s insides felt heavy, and as she raked her eyes over Kai, the sunken feeling only got worse. How could she have let it so easily slip her mind the sheer weight of everything Kai, his mother, and even Deimos as a pack had been dealt? A family destroyed, an entire community’s foundations shaken…she couldn’t even imagine.

She was overwrought with the urge to apologize, to do—something—but before she could, Kai told Ezekiel, “Walk her back. I’ll meet you at the Pack Hall.”

“No,” Isla said immediately as it dawned what that meant. “You’re not going to be alone.”

At her concern, Kai smiled in an almost endearing way, at odds with what he was presenting. “They could’ve tried to kill me already, but they didn’t. It’s something else I don’t know the reason for, but they don’t want me dead.” He laughed. “Not yet, at least.”

“That’s not funny,” Isla said, an uncharacteristic woefulness in her voice. “I don’t like this. It’s not…safe.”

“Do you actually care about me?” he jested.

“Don’t be a dick.”

“Ah, but you make it so fun,” Kai said, squaring himself off in front of her, blocking her and their mouths from Ezekiel’s view.

Isla grumbled in response, though she wished she could wrap herself in the gentleness with which he spoke.

Though they weren’t far, and the beta would surely hear everything they said, it still felt like they were the only two people out here.

Kai had turned serious. “I’m really going to need you to cool it with the warrior princess act for a few hours, though.” Upon her even further flattening eyebrows, another smile threatened his mouth. “Are you going to be alone?”

Isla shook her head. “Adrien and my brother are meeting me in my room.”

Kai took in a deep breath at the mention, jaw tensing before he said, “You trust no one but your family until you’re back home, safe and away from this place. Away from me. Promise me.”

Isla bit her lip as she fought off the protests roaring in her skull, fought off her instinct, her wolf’s, to protect him. “Fine.”

He leaned a little closer, unwittingly or intentionally pulling those threads. “Promise me, Isla.”

She didn’t know why he needed to hear her say it, but she obliged. “I promise.”

She could see in his eyes that it wasn’t enough—nothing would be enough to convince him everything would be okay—but still, he backed away and turned to his beta. “Ezekiel.”

“As I would defend you, Alpha,” the older man said, and Isla was sure the words grated his tongue.

As Kai turned to begin walking away, Isla realized what was happening—what was finally happening—and her stomach bottomed out.

“Goodnight,” she said in a rush, the word falling from her lips without thought. She couldn’t get herself to say the alternative, what she’d stood by so vehemently earlier—goodbye.

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