Page 18 of A Warrior's Fate

Though she wasn’t expecting the first words she’d heard in likely days to be, “Who are you?”

“You don’t remember me?” Isla projected with a little levity.

But as he continued to stare at her hard yet blank, she realized the communication wasn’t landing. His inability to finish his shift may have been the reason.

Against what some would declare good judgment, Isla, desperate for some camaraderie, called back her wolf. In a dimming of light and pain she was accustomed to, bones straightened, muscles tightened, claws, hair, and teeth retracted until she’d returned to her human form. Her limbs felt weak and wobbly, almost unfamiliar: typical when one remained in a shift for whatever extended length of time that she had.

“Oh, wow.” The Trainee twisted his head away from her and looked up into the canopies. “It’s you.”

So, he did remember her.

Taken back by his surprise, fearing something had happened, she glanced down at her bare body. Though slightly worse for wear, covered in filth and some faint, healing scratches from battling through thorny thickets, there wasn’t anything horribly alarming.

She gazed back at him, brushing her wild, dirtied blonde hair from her face. “Something wrong?”

“No.” The Trainee cleared his throat, eyes daring one more glance before shooting up again. “This, uh, this just isn’t how I imagined seeing you naked.”

Immediately after the sentence had left his mouth, regret mixed with the redness peeking through the mud on his face.

Isla pursed her lips to hold back too big a grin.

With most of those in Io able to complete their shifts, nudity was inevitable and quite common. Clothing didn’t linger after transformations—her own shredded undergarments from beneath her robe probably still sat in the field in front of the Gate, waiting for her to return—so it wasn’t a big deal. But for other packs, other wolves, where partial shifts or no shifting at all was most prevalent, that wouldn’t be the case. She understood how it could be…startling.

Isla smirked at the man who’d seemed like such a gentleman when they’d met. “You’ve imagined seeing me naked?”

His response was a garbled mess, an action that quickly reminded her of his fumbling with Adrien during his wonderment at the Heir. Back then, it had dwindled her attraction to him, but now, she found it endearing.

But as much as she would’ve loved to continue toying with him, they were in the middle of a wood full of monsters whose only driving force was to slaughter.

She took a few steps back into the bushes where she’d emerged, hiding everything but her head and shoulders behind them. “Better?”

The Trainee spared another look over, and his shoulders relaxed. “You don’t have to—but if you want to, it’s really…I didn’t mean—” He sure had a knack for getting tongue-tied.

“It’s nice to see you, too,” she called with a laugh, pausing, for a moment, to tease out any foreign clamor to ensure they were safe before she ushered in a conversation. “Have you crossed any others?”

The Trainee coughed. “No, you’re the first I’ve seen.”

“Lucky you.” She couldn’t resist the teasing again. “And I’m assuming you haven’t encountered a beast.”

“Not one.”

“Neither have I.” Another pause. She lifted her head for a quick sniff. No changes; they were still alone. “What were you looking at before I showed up? That thing you pulled out of the ground.”

“Oh, the marker?” he said, his features brightening. He paced backwards to pick it up again.

“A what?”

The Trainee held the ball up close to his face and examined it from all angles. “A sign that we have an incredibly long way back to the Gate.” Upon Isla’s crestfallen look followed by a perplexed stare, he elaborated, “We’re on the Ares Pass.”

It wasn’t nearly explanation enough. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“Because you’re not supposed to.” He tossed the ball up and down in his hand, proud of himself and eager to share. “It’s the only road in the continent directly connecting two packs—or it was. I can’t believe we found it.”

Elusive roads she wasn’t supposed to know about…that was one way to catch her attention. This really wasn’t the best time to play inquisitor, but she was drawn in now and all-too enamored with having company.

“I still have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said.

“Phobos.” The Trainee gestured left to right along the decimated ground on which they stood before waving further out into the clearing. “And Deimos. Every pack has its borders heavily guarded, but this pass had no barrier. It could be used freely. A straight shot into Mavec. So, we’re beyond Deimos’s borders with Callisto and are, at least, far enough to walk right into its royal city if it weren’t for the Wall.”

---