Page 195 of A Warrior's Fate

Another knock at the door.

Kai huffed and ran a hand over his forehead. “Come in.”

In the few seconds it took for the entrance to open, Isla smoothed out her makeshift dress, her hair, and plastered a serene smile on her face.

But the only person on the other side was Ezekiel.

Isla frowned.

The beta stepped into the room, shifting his keen eye between them, likely noting Isla’s change of clothes and catching the mix of their scents.

“Am I interrupting?”

Isla wanted to say “yes” just for the hell of it, but there was something a bit more satisfying.

“No, you can come in,” she permitted him, a little smug and finding her grin again.

The one Ezekiel returned bordered a grimace.

She could hear Kai’s laugh through the bond. “Behave.”

The word had her eyebrows raising in intrigue.

“Marin and Sol?” Kai asked as Ezekiel closed the office door behind him.

“On their way,” the beta said, approaching them at the desk. His gaze drifting to Isla, he began, “Will you be—”

He stumbled a step and froze.

Though it wasn’t for her, but for the glare that had seemingly caught the corner of his eye.

As Ezekiel turned his head to observe the gleaming jewel of the diadem and the marker on Kai’s desk, his eyes widened for just a heartbeat’s time and his body gave the slightest tremble.

Isla pursed her lips.

Even Kai straightened where he stood. “Ezekiel?”

The beta righted himself, but though his posture held assured, that cornered doe look slipped back into his eyes. But it wasn’t only that. She could’ve sworn awareness lingered too.

Isla braced herself for questions, especially given Ezekiel’s need to know and have a hand in everything. But he acknowledged Kai and then turned to her, placing his hands behind his back in a dutiful, near-respectful manner. She wondered if it was to hide the slight shake of his fingers.

“Will you be joining us, Luna?”

It was hard for her to keep the surprise off her face.

Luna.

She didn’t warrant that title. Not yet. And Ezekiel was the first person who would know that—making him the very last to use it.

Was this a test to see if she’d get ahead of herself? To give him something to rake her over the coals for in the royal etiquette she had yet to learn?

Isla glanced at Kai, whose own eyes had narrowed slightly. The stormy gray shifted between his beta and the items on his desk that she suddenly felt incredibly protective over.

“I won’t be, unfortunately,” Isla said, bringing her focus back to Ezekiel, and something about him, about the air, seemed to shift.

She pushed away any fear that she’d sound ridiculous as she asked Kai without looking, “Do you think he knows?”

In her periphery, she caught Kai’s hands ball and release from fists. He didn’t answer.

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