Page 145 of A Warrior's Fate

Being used was bad enough, but it was made worse by letting her believe that she wasn’t.

“You tell me whatever the fuck that was about right now, or Goddess help you, I will reject you right here.”

Kai looked to either side of them, and Isla knew he was searching for anyone else around, listening. But Callan, as abhorrent as he was, had common sense and would never risk himself getting caught.

“All you do is lie to me. Hide things,” she said, unable to keep her voice from cracking. “You’ve been doing it since the day I met you. You didn’t tell me who you really were. You never told me you were in the Hunt. You never told me why you really didn’t want to be with me. About the killer in the woods.”

Kai’s hand had lifted, skimming the skin of her thigh. Not to start anything but to soothe. “I’m trying to—”

“Protect me?” she finished for him, jerking herself from his touch. “I don’t need you to just protect me. I need you to be honest with me, Kai. Actually tell me the truth—the entire truth—for fucking once.”

A whirlwind of emotions flashed over his face before his jaw tensed. “You want me to be honest? You want to know what I think? You want to know what I know, Isla?”

“Yes,” she nearly screamed.

Then, before she could blink, Kai had flipped them over.

Now, he hovered above her, pinning her arms above her head, cradled between her legs. But again, there was no impish intent in his eyes, nothing but cold seriousness as he said—

“I know that every day, it becomes more and more apparent that my enemy is the family of the woman I love and that I’m running out of time with her.”

CHAPTER 30

Isla had forgotten how to breathe, the sawing, shuddering sounds escaping her lips fading to empty noise as she beheld her mate’s face.

Her mate—a man who had not yet realized what he’d said. The weight that it held.

The woman I love.

The words clanged through Isla’s mind, her body, the bond.

Love.

Love.

For a moment, she wondered if he hadn’t been speaking of her. Maybe another woman had held his affections?

But then Kai’s features shifted.

His jaw went slack. His cold stare warmed. His eyes widened in the slightest fear. A fear she rarely saw on him.

He gave a subtle shake of his head, his fingers offering the lightest squeeze to her wrists as if to check if she was truly there. If he hadn’t just imagined it.

But she was real.

And with the touch, Isla found he was real, as well.

Too real.

Love.

“Isla…”

This time, she’d let that tone of his pass.

Isla struggled to swallow, and her dry eyes burned when she finally got herself to blink. The voice that left her mouth was foreign and weak. “You…love me?”

Kai’s stare had her pinned now, passing over the planes of her face with such intent, that she swore he could see through to her soul. See through to where those threads of her reached out to those of him. Twined with him. Were desperate for their work to end. For them to give it up and give in to each other.

---