Page 189 of A Warrior's Fate

Kai looked her up and down, snagging on the amethyst cloth of the dress clinging to her, which she hadn’t left in. But his confusion washed quickly when his gaze returned to her face.

She wished she could bottle the feeling she got every time he looked at her, the flutter in her stomach. She’d love to get drunk on it right now. Forget all of this.

The smallest breath of relief from his mouth was like a signal. Isla rushed forward, and he met her in the middle, ready when she flung herself in his arms with a force that nearly sent him backwards. She felt him tighten his hold around her waist, almost lifting her from the ground while she secured hers around his neck. His lips brushed against her skin as he buried his head into the crook of her shoulder, and she shivered. Their hearts thundered against one another. Back in time. Back in sync.

It took everything in Isla not to break down as she breathed in his scent, yielded to the comfort of him. Felt safe, truly safe, somehow, finally.

“What the hell did you get yourself into?”

The words were still muffled, distant. But she’d take it. Anything.

“It’s a long story.”

When she lifted her head to look at him, he wasted no time in giving her one chaste kiss before he lowered her down to her feet.

She wouldn’t let him go, though, and he didn’t seem keen to release her either. Isla settled, wedging into his side with one arm around his back while his remained secured around her shoulders.

Kai looked over Rhydian and Ameera, who also looked rough from being out all night. “Are you guys okay?”

They both nodded and swallowed thickly in unison.

“Are you?” Rhydian asked, unable to fight back his frown. Beside him, Ameera’s features screwed up in her own sad scowl.

Isla felt something stir in Kai along the bond, and his body tensed. “Yeah, I’m good.”

A lie—partly, at the very least.

As they cast their doubtful looks, he added, “Thank you.”

Isla pondered if it was for bringing her back alive.

Ameera gestured her way. “You should thank her.”

Kai furrowed his brows and met her eyes.

“I’ll explain,” she told him, squeezing his side.

A faint grin played along his mouth before he lifted his gaze to Rhydian and Ameera again. “Jonah and Davi are in the library if you remember where that is.”

“How could I forget where I suffered through all of my summer assignments in year six?” Rhydian quipped, giving levity to the heavy situation.

Isla caught the way Ezekiel had stiffened at the mention of the twins in the library. Kai had too, it seemed, from the corner of his eye.

He turned to his beta, his features unmoving. “We finished the meeting, but the council’s still in chambers. You’ll be briefed, and Sol will handle the debrief, then the two of you and Marin can meet me back in my office at noon. You can release the news to the pack in the meantime. We shouldn’t hold on to it too long. Better it come from us than trickle in by other means.”

Ezekiel bowed his head in agreement, something odd still flickering behind his stare. “And where will you be?”

Kai loosened his hold on Isla’s shoulders and reached to take her hand. “I’d like to spend some time with my luna.”

Kai had wanted to go “somewhere they could actually breathe”, and so they had traveled up and up and up, around and around and around until they reached the study of Alpha Orin and stood in the glory of the stained-glass window. The chilled morning air, so high up, bit at Isla’s face as she stepped onto the platform behind the lofted black metal railings. She hadn’t caught the designs of them in the dark, how beautifully they bent and twirled, curving in a way that almost mimicked the phases of the moon.

As she stared down at the city as she had nights before, catching the way the sun glittered off the river, she heard Kai slowly guide the glass closed. The heat of his body radiated as he settled at her side and silence fell between them. Comfortable. Needed.

For a second, it all stopped. Even with the world before them, with the mountains and the water and the small dot-like people, it truly felt as if they were alone.

Isla turned her head to look at Kai in time with him as he did her. That feeling rumbled again, and she acted on her urge to lean forward to touch her mouth to his. As he deepened the kiss, as she felt the wave and warmth of the love he had for her—in a way no one else did, no one else ever would—something inside her cracked.

She let out a soft gasp, and Kai pulled back.

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