Page 140 of A Warrior's Fate

“That look is as concerning as it is arousing.”

“You don’t want to know what that was?”

Kai didn’t answer, just loosed a heavy breath.

Isla released the hold on her lip and beamed, now taunting him, “It seems I’m rubbing off on you.”

“Not nearly enough.”

Banter. Banter was good. Anything to pull him from that place.

Isla stepped back from him, hands reaching for the hem of her shirt.

Kai’s eyes grew wider as she pulled it over her head, leaving her in her tight camisole. “What are you doing?”

Isla dropped the piece to the ground, where she buried it in the leaves. Her fingers went to the waistband of her pants. She had to quell the part of her that thrummed as Kai watched her movements so closely, trailing down the length of her bare legs after she removed the covering. All that remained was her undergarments. “I’d like to have my clothes in one piece when I get back.”

She turned away from him as she removed what remained on top, taunting him. “I can’t be gone for long, and I’m much quicker shifted.” She pulled her hair from its tie, letting the tresses flow free and wild down her back. The strands were gilded gold in the light that broke through the canopies, and she pulled the hair forward to just cover the peaks of her breasts. More teasing.

When she turned, donning only her underwear, she crossed her arms too. “You can either strip and come with me, Alpha, or stay here.”

Kai’s eyes didn’t seem to know where to land—and for a moment, she wanted to ask what was going through his head now. What he’d do to her. What he could do now that they could touch…

The growl he let out took her from whatever thoughts and seemed to go straight to her core. He reached for the buttons of his shirt, fine and formal for a gathering of those of status, and unfastened one button, then another and another. Isla couldn’t stop her own greedy eyes from taking in what the Goddess had so wickedly given to her as he removed the piece completely.

Now, she felt like a fool.

It took everything to remain rooted in her spot. To not look utterly dumbstruck as she followed the flow of his lumerosi, followed those tattoos over his arm, cutting over his shoulder, his pectoral. As she watched the rippling muscles of his torso go taut and loose with every breath. Found the way they dipped into the waistband of his pants—

Which he was now removing.

Isla forced her eyes back up to his as he left himself wholly naked before her.

She held herself back. Trying to temper the intrusive images of all the wicked things she’d do. Maybe, she’d beat him to her knees.

Not breaking eye contact as he slowly moved in on her, Isla removed her final garment, trying to do so as quick and level-headed as possible. She’d tossed her underwear to the side with the rest of her clothing just as Kai placed a firm hand beneath her chin to look up at him.

“You are an impossible woman,” he told her.

Isla gulped, quashing that part of her so aware nothing stood between them finding release with each other but sheer will and stubbornness.

She placed a hand on his chest, fingers curling just slightly to dig her nails into the ink of that tattoo. Her gasp remained caught in her throat as she pressed her body to his, letting her breasts just graze his skin as she rose on her toes, closer to his face.

One last move, one last jab, for the upper hand, and to guarantee he would follow.

“Yours,” she hushed over his mouth, strained and gritty with deteriorating resolve.

But sense came forth when her wolf did, and as Kai leaned down to capture her mouth, Isla was quicker. She’d left him stumbling as she shifted and hauled ass into the trees.

Kai knew the forest well. He told Isla how he’d trained with the guard, had been on it before he’d become alpha. For a little while, he guided them towards the initial direction of the sound. Through easy paths with less brush to fight through and narrow breaks of streams to leap over.

There was something incredibly freeing about them simply being able to run. To feel, to just be, free of everything. There were no murderers. No rogues. No secret messages. Even with the distinct hue to Kai’s eyes, he didn’t even have to be the alpha here.

It was just them.

But the bliss of it didn’t last very long. Not when something in the air seemed to change. When Isla noticed how bare the trees were, how quiet everything was. Like all life had scattered, leaving this part of the forest abandoned. Kai noticed it too, the stillness and heaviness of what they walked upon. Even the wind wouldn’t dare blow here.

And then came the scent.

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