Page 36 of A Warrior's Fate

“Not acceptable?”

“You can’t tell me that you’re trying to protect me, that I’m unsafe somehow, and then not tell me why. That’s not how things work.”

“It’s pack business.”

“And mine if I’m in trouble.”

“I’m handling it.”

“Is that your favorite phrase?”

Kai gave her a flat look at the retort and then hesitated. He opened his mouth to speak, like the explanation was on the tip of his tongue, but then closed it. “It’s not your place, Isla.”

“My place?” Isla’s laugh came out in an astonished breath. “What even is my place? I mean, really. One touch is literally the only thing that keeps this from being my place. That keeps us from just making it my place.”

It had been a simple complaint, a simple message, one well-established. The only thing stopping her from reigning at Kai’s side was the fact they hadn’t touched…or slept together, but one had to come before the other.

Such a simple gripe she’d proposed, yet, after watching Kai break his stance and shift on his feet at the mention, one she realized had been the key that she needed.

Isla knew nothing about the intricacies of mates or their bonds. She knew of the technical aspects—the being together for the rest of time, broken apart only by death, and the ability to share thoughts without being shifted. But all the emotions and deeper meanings, the intensity of the feelings, she was learning and discovering as she went along.

Kai never seemed to balk. He was always in complete control during those times he’d sent her mind spinning with his words and with his presence, all the while with a cocky grin on his face. Except for the night of the feast while he watched as she was touched and bestowed a kiss by another man. Gone was his grin and composure when she’d found him completely unraveled out in the garden. A break that stemmed from the deeply ingrained notion that her body was his and his alone.

Their bond was his weakness too, though manifested differently. A more physical way. And if she wanted to disarm him as he did her, if she wanted to bend him to her will, lock him down to get her point across, she had to take control and pull on that innate desire for her. For her touch, her body, for only him to feel.

“How do you think it would go?” she posed the question, feigning some innocence. Though, the air seemed to take a new charge.

“What?”

Isla swallowed and trained her eyes across the surroundings. “I personally don’t think we’d make it off this roof or even waste time taking off all our clothes.”

She flicked her eyes back to Kai whose gaze had turned suspicious, though danger lurked beneath. “What are you doing?”

Isla shrugged. “Just thinking out loud.” She knew there was only so far she could toe the line before something manifested they may not have been able to come back from. “I think one touch and you’d have me up in the air and pressed against that wall.”

Kai released a loud breath through his nose, not breaking their eye contact. He would know the game she was playing—he was likely a master at it—and yet, he seemed defenseless. She could feel it building already. That same possessive pull. That tether.

Isla kept her voice soft like the caress of silk—or her fingertips—languid to allow him to absorb every word, allowing him the time to paint the picture. “I think just one touch, and I’d be begging you to take me…I wonder if I’ll have a hard time keeping quiet. How hard you’ll have to kiss me to muffle the sound. Or if everyone down at the fire will just have to hear me screaming your name while you fuck me and make me yours.” She broke her next words down to syllables, craning her neck to say in a hush as close to his ear as she could. “Again…and again…and again.”

She had to stop, not just for his sake but for hers too, judging by the fluttering of her stomach and heat building between her legs.

Kai’s gaze had gone completely dark as he ran his tongue lightly over his bottom lip. He brought it between his teeth, and his eyes flickered down to Isla’s mouth, followed the line of her neck down to that little spot at the crook of her collarbone where he was meant to mark her. His chest rose and fell, deeper, faster, his breath mingling with hers.

Isla caught his hand moving forward in her periphery, almost grabbing at her hip before it stopped. She hadn’t flinched at the action, she’d waited for it, almost leaned into it.

“What do you want, Isla?”

She shivered at her name said roughly, achingly.

If she was honest, right now—him. She wanted him. All of him. Everywhere. She wanted everything she’d just described. The toe-curling, back-arching, mind-numbing, forget-her-own-name sex that she needed. But she couldn’t have it—never with him—so she stowed away the lust and stood tall, pushed her shoulders back, and took control.

“I’m your mate, talk to me like one. Because even without sealing this bond, you know, you feel that it means something. That I have my own place of exception.” She took a step back from him to keep her mind unclouded. “You don’t have to speak to me as an alpha. I understand pack protocol and that there are rules, I don’t need all the official details. But I, at least, deserve to know enough so I can think about protecting myself. If you, as my mate, want me to be safe, truly safe from whatever it is, I need something. Give me something, Kai.”

It was the first time she’d ever addressed him by his name, no formalities. At it, Kai’s eyebrows shot up, but he didn’t comment on it. He just looked off, past her, into the forest, and then paced a few steps away. As he took the moment to gather himself, Isla did too.

Her plan had been risky, but it worked.

“Ezekiel is very by the letter,” Kai explained, finally. “And if there was even the slightest chance of this—of us—happening because I don’t resent you, he’d batten down the hatches to prepare for the potential storm. Your name would be thrown up and down the hierarchy of Deimos like no tomorrow.”

---