Page 9 of A Warrior's Fate

Isla laughed with the perfect air of lightness and pulled a piece of loose hair behind her ear. “Good things, I hope.”

Eli grinned, and Isla caught his not-so-sly once over of her body. He hadn’t dropped her hand yet. “The best.”

Winslow left their exchange early without a word, apparently having something better to be doing.

As Isla and the general stood alone, she could feel that tether tugging at her harder and harder, squeezing tighter and tighter, the room becoming smaller and smaller. Her senses honed on one thing and one thing only.

The alpha’s rage was growing, his essence leaking over and infecting pieces of her she didn’t know she had. Like his soul was calling out to her, either intentionally or not.

Mine.

No.

“Come.”

Isla snapped her attention back to the general who’d since taken a spot by her side. He wrapped an arm loosely around her back, hooking onto the dip of her waist. “I’ll introduce you to some more of the ranks.”

At Eli’s touch, Isla steeled herself against the pull, the call, the ache of whatever Kai was doing.

“Sure,” she answered a bit breathless and wriggled from the general’s grasp.

Isla could still feel Kai watching her as they proceeded through the guests. See it, too, when she risked another glance—and maybe a glare—his way. Even from his distance, he muddled her mind, her senses. It was intoxicating and downright aggravating. She wanted to yell across the room for him to stop it, if only so she could focus on what she was doing. She was with a warrior general. How she acted here with him and whoever he introduced her to would affect her warrior career.

When a phantom pull from him had her stumbling again, she nearly had scaled the room, but she and Eli came to stop before two men Isla vaguely recognized.

“Father,” Eli said to one of them. “This is Isla. Isla, this is my father. Beta Sampson of Iapetus.”

Isla bowed to the beta, but not as deeply as she did the man beside him, Alpha Locke of Charon. The alpha of one of the eastern coast packs was large and crudely built, donning a rather simple suit but boasting large pieces of jewelry, flaunting his great wealth. It was a thick gold ring on his index finger of the many he wore that caught her eye most, reminding her much of Io.

Isla had learned her lesson and wouldn’t make the same mistakes as she had with Kai, so she kept her gaze down and demure as the alpha brought up her father, apparently knowing the Imperial Beta well.

As they spoke, she fought for every scrap of proper etiquette, which at this point meant simply paying attention. Because there was Kai and that call to her. The tightening tether, the building ache, the pure need to be near him.

This. Isn’t. Happening.

It was as if she could hear the goddesses laughing at her from above.

Relief washed over her as they bid Alpha Locke and Beta Sampson farewell, but it was short-lived. When Eli’s hand brushed her back and his breath caressed her ear as he leaned down to say something, the rush reached a crescendo…Isla half expected it all to suffocate her.

But then her sense of Kai faded…and faded…and faded until it was eventually nothing.

With her breath heavy and feeling like a piece was missing, she spun to search the crowd for the alpha, but he was nowhere in sight.

CHAPTER 4

Avoid the alpha.

This should've been a good thing.

It was much easier to follow a plan when the biggest wrench in it had disappeared. But Isla’s curious heart would not rest. As much as she didn’t want the answer, she needed confirmation.

She had to know if Fate—that fickle, fickle bitch—had really brought her mate to her at the absolute worst possible time.

She had to find Kai, speak to him, and decipher whatever the hell was going on, and then she could move on from there.

“Can you give me a moment?” She stepped back from Eli and jerked her thumb behind her. “Ladies’ room.”

The general put his hands behind his back, the muscle in his jaw tensing. “Of course.”

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