Page 218 of A Warrior's Fate

“Your father made them vulnerable,” Isla said quietly. “And Ezekiel’s kept them that way, among others.”

“I should’ve realized.”

“Maybe, maybe not. But you know now, and what matters is how we fix it.” His stare burned into hers, the “we” seeming to touch something inside him. “You’re not doing things alone anymore. You can do your little alpha protective thing, but we’re a team now.”

He smiled, and his broad hand settled flat on her thigh. Leaning forward, he pressed a kiss to her jaw. “There’s a lot going on with Io. It’s going to be like that for a while.”

Lukas’s words echoed in Isla’s head, along with that gutting urge to get him out. A lot of bad blood. She should’ve known since the Hunt. “I know.”

“And you want to know,” Kai tested.

He’d keep her out of things?

“Of course, I want to know.”

Kai squeezed her thigh in a haste affirmation. “Okay.”

Isla let out a breath and gazed down, lifting her fingers to play with the collar of his shirt, his skin, and finding a pattern of the tattoo beneath it. “Even when I lived in Io, I knew there were dark and light sides to the pack. Maybe not as dark as they seem to be, but there’s that split everywhere.” Even here, she thought but didn’t mention. “I have great memories and not-so-great ones from my time there, and I can hold onto them, but—I just have to look at things differently now. There’s Io, there’s my family, and then there’s what matters most.” She raised her eyes to meet his, flattening her hand on his chest over his heart. “My future here. With Deimos. With you. The waters are messy, but I can get through them.”

Something in Kai’s eyes gleamed, and he was still as if the words had arrested him, stunned him, and then she felt him squeeze her again. As if to check if she was, in fact, there. In fact, real. He leaned up to kiss her again, tentative and restrained, given he’d pulled away a few seconds after she kissed him back.

As Kai lazily lolled his head back, smiling up at her in that way that made her want to melt into him, down on him, she bit her lip. “And speaking of futures.” She began fiddling with his collar again. “We have not been careful about what could enter ours.”

Kai raised his brows, and the easy smile grew as he chuckled. “No, we have not.” His hold on her tightened a bit as if all those not-so-careful moments had just tumbled through his head. Isla narrowed her eyes at him—though they’d gone through hers, too. Another laugh before his face settled into that sweet, gleaming look again. “When?”

When would they start their family…

Isla’s stomach fluttered, and with him there, staring at her like that, she didn’t feel any numbing fear.

“I know we’ll need an heir, sooner rather than later,” she said. “But a year to adjust to it all—a year of just us—sounds good.”

Kai nodded, and Isla could sense and hear the way his heart had sped up. He was excited. Nervous. “Then a year it is.”

He pressed another kiss to her mouth. Another. Then another. Harder. Deeper. Lower.

“Kai,” she protested, though beaming, as his lips had gone to her neck. He simply laughed against her throat before nipping at it. She held her moan. “Defeating the conversation.”

Kai pulled back, but not before pressing one more to her lips. “I have to go anyway.” Isla slid from his lap as he rose from the chair. “And you’re going to Jonah—who Goddess knows must be still in the library if he hadn’t turned in to the House.”

Isla nodded before glancing at the phone on Kai’s desk. Her hands became anxious fists at her sides. “Can I make a call?”

“To?”

“My brother or Adrien—or likely them together, honestly.” Kai’s mouth opened, but words didn’t escape right away. Understandable, given the climate of the prior conversation. In his hesitation, she added, “The news of the challenge has probably spread, and they know about us. They may be worried about me.”

Kai closed his mouth before conceding a nod. His throat bobbed. “You know—you know you can’t tell them anything, right? Not yet. Maybe not ever.”

Isla didn’t feel like she had a right to be offended. It was an honest question. One even she’d ask herself given how freely she was used to sharing things with them, and them, her. “Of course, I know.”

Another okay from him, just as fast. He kissed her gently with a muttered—and then echoed—I love you, before he left the office.

When he was gone, Isla fell into the cushioned seat, large enough to make even Kai seem small, and dominating her with its width and high back, the top etched with a crescent-like crown above her head.

She glanced at the clock.

It was nearly ten now. They could honestly be anywhere. A training ring, the hall, or either of their homes.

Isla braced her hand on the slick exterior of the phone, her heart leaping into her throat.

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