Page 131 of A Warrior's Fate

The words weren’t spoken out of relief.

They were out of fear.

A horrible feeling settled in Isla’s gut. “What’s wrong?”

Davina looked at her with sorrow in her eyes as they became glassy.

Fearing the worst, Isla reached for the bond. It was there. Weaker, strange, but there.

“What happened?” Jonah asked before Isla could repeat herself.

Davina looked between them, opening and closing her mouth, shaking her head like she didn’t understand. “Kai—he—he’s being challenged for alpha.”

“What?”

Jonah’s voice was nothing but an empty echo in Isla’s mind. Her body had gone rigid as she looped through the words again.

A challenge. A challenge.

“When did you hear this?” Jonah again.

For that, Isla was grateful. Speaking suddenly felt impossible.

“It just broke over the radio. I guess it was lofted to the Imperial Council—to the Imperial Alpha—last night while everyone was busy at the party and with the rogues. Now we’re just waiting to hear if they approve it.”

If they approve it. If.

“Why do they even get a say?” Davina’s voice was shaky, out of fear, out of uncertainty about the protocol. “It’s our pack.”

Isla’s chest tightened.

If…

“To maintain order.” Jonah’s face was a picture of stern calmness as if he knew he had to be the steady force between the three of them. “Who’s calling for it?”

“They wouldn’t say—or they didn’t know yet. It’s all just happening now, but…they think it could have something to do with Alpha Kyran’s death. That someone’s claiming they killed him,” Davina said, letting loose a strained sob. “A challenge…that’s a fight to the death, right? Kai either wins and stays alpha or he—”

“I need a phone.”

Jonah and Davina went still. They averted their gazes to Isla, something in them recoiling—bowing.

“I have one in the back,” Jonah said.

“Can it do long distance?” Isla asked, and he shook his head. “Where can I find one?”

Jonah described a call center in the lower part of the city and wasted no time in moving to write out directions for her. He didn’t question anything until he handed the paper over. “Where are you calling?”

Isla was already halfway out the door, abandoning her bag, the book, and the marker on the counter.

“Home.”

CHAPTER 28

Sunlight glittered off the length of the river as the city square yawned awake, but the workers of the boutiques and eateries, who would typically spend the time preparing for the morning minutiae, were nowhere to be found. Instead, Isla came upon near-empty cobblestone streets, dulled crystals in the absence of moonlight, and air so tense and solemn, she thought it would suffocate her.

She’d sprinted to the call center, so fast she’d missed a few of the turns drawn out by Jonah and had wound circles around Mavec’s lower space. Her body was on autopilot; her mind lost in her mission, in its fight against panic. Kai was being challenged for alpha, and before she could let herself feel the weight of what that meant, she had to see if there was anything she could find out about what it was. Who it was. And if there was anything she could do.

There were three people inside the small corner store when she entered and judging by their weary appearances and poorly tucked-away makeshift beds, they’d been there all night. The woman behind the front desk gave a start as Isla stepped inside, her hand reaching reflexively to something beneath the counter.

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