Page 245 of A Warrior's Fate

Marin was glowering between them.

Though Kai laughed, Isla would be lying if she said the secretary didn’t frighten her, just a bit.

As they moved through the crowd surrounded by a heavy circle of guard as an escort, Isla scanned the horde for the people she knew, even though she was aware they weren’t there. Adrien and Sebastian were back at the House with everyone else who’d come over in the morning, except for Jonah who’d basically been living in the library. Decoding the necklace and that woman had become one of his priorities. They’d come down to the city in a few hours, once Kai had finished most of the official business that would need to take place.

“The bastard’s in there!” Isla cringed as someone shouted. She knew who they meant.

One of those orders of official business—talking with Imperial Alpha Cassius.

The boat they were meant to travel on bore Kai’s family crest on its side, made specifically to transport the royal entourage up and down the river. Alpha Kyran had used it mostly, whenever he’d, according to Kai, deigned himself to visit Abalys, made official trips to Mimas or Tethys where it traveled by to feed into the sea, or be in attendance for some performances or sporting events held in the underground space.

They filed onto the deck one by one, and as they settled by the bow, Isla couldn’t help but notice the way Kai’s eyes lingered on everything that they were about to depart—the people, the cloudy sky, and the smallest sliver of the Pack Hall on its high perch as if it were the last time he’d ever see it.

Isla’s chest hollowed, and the boat lurched as they began sailing forward. Now away from many of the prying eyes, she brushed the back of her hand against the back of his. Kai got the hint and didn’t flinch or look her way, only loosely entwined his fingers with hers.

The area surrounding the arena was a magnificent show of stonework with the mouth of the entrance into the coliseum boasting structures carved into the rock depicting images of wolves and nature, pack history and leaders along with a grand piece showcasing the three sisters who ruled over them all. Isla nearly snapped her neck trying to observe them for as long as possible until they were out of sight as they passed through the archway into the stadium. Fire-lit torches lined their tunnel path.

Ominous, she thought, lifting her fingers to unfasten her cloak and drop it into Marin’s arms. Now down here, she had to maintain an all-new appearance. Not the future Luna of Deimos but the Warrior of Io.

She clenched her fists at her sides to stop her fingers from shaking. Her father was here. Her father was here—and she still hadn’t decided whether she wanted to tell him about her and Kai before or after the challenge was over, if she could find him at all.

It was hard to be too concerned about that, though, with the essence of familiar power emanating from a place she couldn’t see, and the rise of the same aura from the man now a few steps ahead of her, tied to her. A calling, a warning before two forces of nature collided. Everyone must’ve felt it, given the slightest stutter in their steps before pressing forward with greater purpose. Isla could practically taste the hostility on her tongue and fought to keep her features even. To not think of the animosity between the pack she once called home, and where she belonged now.

A few more turns and a small flight of steps later, Isla felt her feet scuffling on a mixture of rough and smooth stone, heard the echoing of their footsteps, and squinted at a sudden brightness as the passageways opened to a grander space. She tried not to look directly up into the enormous skylight carved into the coliseum’s ceiling. It seemed to amplify the sun’s heat and glow, then carry it down to them as they moved across the platform. As she gazed around the arena, the same manner of images as the entrance carved over each section holding rows and rows of seats, she wondered if it did the same for the moon.

A low growl at her back drew Isla’s attention, but the guard wasn’t directing it at her.

No, it was for what lay before them.

Stood there in between a horde of guard, a feral smile on his face as the sun cast perfectly upon him, was Imperial Alpha Cassius.

CHAPTER 51

Isla kept her hands at her sides and fought every instinct she had to reach for her blade or draw her claws.

She counted forty members of the Imperial Guard. Forty. Meant to cover Imperial Alpha Cassius as well as three other members of his Council who flanked him. She was too distracted to recall their names. Too irritated by the looks they all had on their faces, so much like the one Callan wore. Not one that everyone in Io possessed.

Isla wondered if Cassius had chosen his protection with purpose. Brought all the guard with that skewed sense of superiority who’d do whatever he said, no matter how horrible, without thought or question.

This was the closest she’d felt to being on a battlefield.

As they drew nearer to the opposing group, it was as if the ground beneath her feet trembled. Not just from Kai and Cassius—who were still restraining the true extent of their power—but everyone else. It was overwhelming how no one in the stadium made the effort to mask their auras. Not the guard at her back, not the guard before her.

Not her, either.

But maybe she should’ve, given the way stares flickered in her direction, seeking the rising essence’s source while she lingered a few feet back from the front line amidst the Deimos soldiers. Confusion had risen on both sides. The power was not of an alpha, but stronger than one should’ve been for a common wolf.

But she wasn’t a common wolf. Not anymore, even without having gone through the Rite to make her Kai’s equal. Even if the rich amethyst of a queen hadn’t colored her wolf’s eyes. She felt it. The surging in her blood, prickling on her skin like during the rogue attacks at the banquet. A power of her own writhing in her gut, working alongside the beast she held within her.

Luna…

Luna…

Luna…

“Alpha Kai.” Alpha Cassius’s voice echoed within the space as he took a single step forward, his guard following suit, to meet the wolves of Deimos in the dead center of the arena.

After a narrowed look from Marin and a caress along the bond as if Kai were trying to soothe her, Isla reined in her power. She looked down at her feet, noticing she was standing on a large inscription of the full moon. Spanning out left and right were its preceding and subsequent phases.

---