Page 8 of A Warrior's Fate

Alina nodded. “And after that, it’s all in the touch.” She wiggled around her fingers. “Then you’re basically locked in. A goner.”

“Touch?”

Alina tilted her head. “Your mother never gave you ‘the talk’ before you turned eighteen, or told you any of this? The feeling, the touch, everything after?”

An acrid taste filled Isla’s mouth.

Maybe now wouldn’t be the best time for her to mention that her mother had been gone for nearly ten years. Given that she was so young the last time she’d seen her, merely eleven, going through the rundown on what would happen if Isla found her destined mate wasn’t really part of the bedtime story repertoire.

“Yes, she did,” Isla lied. “Thank you both. I was just curious.”

After that, she changed the subject. Back to strategies for the Hunt, how to lure the Wilds’ beasts closer to the Gate to make the kill and run back to civilization easier. But once again, as she was counseled, her mind wandered.

She risked a glance up in Kai’s direction and saw him talking with some others now, alphas of Ganymede and Rhea. No look at her at all this time.

Maybe he isn’t feeling the same thing, she thought, bringing her eyes back down.

Maybe this was just extreme lust. He was an alpha, after all, an unmated alpha, one could conclude by the absence of a mark on his neck. Exuding sensual grace and drawing in the available she-wolf population was like an unwritten part of the Code.

I’m just overthinking it.

Despite being unpredictable, Fate couldn’t be so cruel as to put something like this—something so all-consuming, something so distracting, something she’d been dreading—in her path on the night before the biggest moment of her life. The moment she’d dreamed of since she was a child. Forget that if all of it was true, if he was her destined mate, then that meant the person Fate found to be her perfect other half, that the goddess felt completed her soul, was an alpha.

No.

That wasn’t her fate. She was sure of it.

She just needed to get through the rest of the night, avoid Alpha Kai and his temptations, and then tomorrow, she would compete in the Hunt and become a warrior.

That was the extent of her story. No fate. No mates.

It had to be.

As the night wound down and the dinner ended, following an awe-inspiring speech by Imperial Alpha Cassius, the mingling recommenced before everyone was to go their separate ways. Isla found herself up near the platform speaking with a new person of intrigue, a trainee native to Callisto, when she heard, “Isla!”

She spun around to find Winslow standing with a tall, rugged-looking man a little way away with his hand up. Considering what had happened earlier, she pointed to herself and mouthed “me”. The liaison, looking unamused, waved her over again.

She excused herself from the trainee and strode up to them, noting how the man’s eyes tracked each of her movements.

A sudden tremor rocked her system and she took in a sharp breath. It was as if the room had become smaller, her sense of direction narrowed. A dark cloud hovered overhead.

And all she could sense was the alpha. Only one alpha.

Biting her lip, she turned and spotted him—Kai, standing across the room amidst a group of officials. A look of murder was in his eyes, directed at the man she was walking towards. His stare made her shiver, both in fear of its ferocity and…something else.

It felt like an invisible tether had been cast in her direction, tightening around her and trying to pull her towards him.

Avoid the alpha.

Isla looked away, determined to stick to her plan.

When she reached the men, Winslow made a broad gesture in presentation. “Isla, this is Eli, Beta Sampson’s son. He’s one of the warrior generals.”

Isla smiled and nodded to him in greeting. “It’s a pleasure.”

She was surprised as Eli bent to her and reached for her hand. Lifting it to his lips, he placed a gentle kiss on her knuckles. The greeting wasn’t that unusual but felt odd from him. He was soon to be her superior; had he not realized?

“I’ve heard much about you, Isla of Io,” he said, brushing his thumb over her skin.

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