Page 7 of Cursed Gift

Images flashed through my mind of Clan Iona. More blood, death, and misery. But it wasn’t a premonition. Just a fierce imagination. A shiver crawled up my spine, hoping she wouldn’t have to encounter anything like that. “Kai will need to know straight away, so something can be done if he wants her back here.”

“Didn’t Clan Chang have warriors?” Alexei asked, his voice holding on to shock like a vice. “How could they all be taken out?”

My limbs went ice cold. I’d seen it in my mind. Whoever it was that did this to them didn’t give them a chance. Warriors or not. It was brutal. They were punished severely. But for what reason? Why?

That I knew nothing about yet.

Maybe Grandma Isabelle was right. This gift could be a curse.

To know something and not be able to stop it from happening was a terrible betrayal of rational thought and sense and human decency.

I wasn’t gifted, I was cursed.

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Chapter Three

If you chose Kai Iona as your mate, please read this chapter.

If you denied him, please skip to Chapter Four or Location393.

A soft knock sounded on the door. Alexei and I sat close together in the sunroom of his house. The room was surrounded in all glass, tempered so it blocked the sun’s harmful rays while still allowing us to feel the heat. He’d suggested we sit in there until the Council meeting could be called, but now, Kai wanted to join us.

He stepped through. Alexei immediately got up from his spot next to me. He shook Kai’s hand and then left us alone.

Kai approached tentatively, but I reached out and he came, willing and quick. He pulled me to him and I wound my arms around his dark skin, ropey with muscles. He only wore a shirt to dinner. The other times, he went bare chested as he told me it was his custom back home. I sincerely didn’t mind.

“They told you?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Your mom…”

He shuddered. He pulled me close for a few seconds and then brought me away at arm’s length. He swallowed and the tendons in his neck protruded like the flex of muscles. “I admit, I’m in shock that something has happened to one of the leading clans.” He dragged a stiff hand down his face. “Izzy, I have to go to her. I want to see her to the island and our home myself. I’ll return quickly, I promise.”

“You’re leaving?” I blurted.

He winced, and I realized my mistake right away. Of course he would want to see his mom home safely, but I felt as if I was falling part from the inside out. I needed him. He was my mate.

“I’ll be back,” he said, his voice sure, holding a promise that made my heart relax minutely.

“I know,” I said, guilt washing over me. “I don’t blame you for wanting to go. I’d do the same. I just…”

“…want me?” he asked with a hint of a smile.

I nodded. “There are things you don’t know yet. They’re important.”

He leaned over to kiss me on the corner of the mouth. My heart skipped. I didn’t let him retreat, I pulled him to me. My lips sealed onto his as I dragged him backward, my back hitting the seat cushions on the garden bench as Kai followed, hovering over me. Firm—in more ways than one.

I wrapped my legs around him when I sensed his hesitation. I wasn’t letting him up. Not now.

He made a low groan in the back of his throat. Then, he settled on top of me.

We lined up in all the right ways. His erection lay on my core and I breathed through the nerve endings firing off like fireworks.

“Izzy,” he said, his voice taut with a hint of warning. “This is definitely not the right place for this.”

“But you’re leaving,” I said. It wasn’t that I didn’t want him to go. I thought it was honorable, and noble. I was just being selfish.

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