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Three bak.Three.
Isla pointed to the small cot. “Sit.” Kai obeyed, and she helped lower him to the mattress. Pacing a few steps back, Isla observed the soiled bandages, her injured mate, the drops of blood on the vanity, and then her, dressed like a queen, the jewels of her gown and woven into her hair glittering in the lantern light.
“You’re stunning.”
Isla spun back, unsure if she was about to cry in relief or frustration. Unsure if she wanted to berate him for being a reckless asshole or kiss him until she couldn’t breathe.
“You scared the shit out of me,” she said, turning to gather some of the clean bandages and the antiseptic. She set the supplies on the bed beside her as she sat to face Kai.
For a few heartbeats, they just stared at each other, and no other part of the day mattered. Because he was here, he was alive. He was safe. He’d gone through hell; facing three bak alone and escaping with onlythisinjury was a feat.
Kai cupped her face in gentle hands, holding her glossy gaze as he said, “I’m sorry.”
His kiss was just as soft, and when his mouth met hers, Isla swore something cracked within her—but it wasn’t a well of emotion. No. It was a spark of energy. An ember. A stoking of a flame. Not of lust, but something different. Something greater. Her mouth fell open as the warmth spread, the energy crackled.
When they parted, barely, still brow to brow, his breath was hers, and hers was his.Alive and okay.Both of them. “Why were you hunting in the tunnels alone?” she whispered.
Kai’s fingers ran delicately over her cheek, her neck. “I never thought I’d end up there. I just needed to get out. Get away.”
Isla leaned back, placing her hand over his. Was that why she’d felt so off? “That power’s acting up?”
Kai’s throat bobbed, and now Isla could see the shadows cast over his eyes. “It’s worse today than any other. I was up a few hours before dawn, and it felt like I was about to burst right through my skin. I could barely think straight, see straight. I was afraid that I’d…”
He trailed off, but Isla knew where he was going. She squeezed his hand. “You can’t hurt me, Kai. You cannot, and you will never.”
His brows scrunched, fearful and doubtful. “I don’t understand why it’s so bad today. It’s like itled methere. To the bak, to that tunnel.”
A knock on the door made them separate.
Jace returned with everything Isla had requested, all but the small cauldron of boiling water conveniently stuffed into a small wicker basket. She thanked him and asked if he’d quietly inform the others of Kai’s return and to justleave itat that. They’d decide how and what to explain later.
With wares spread over the mattress, Isla got to work. Kai lit the candle while she carefully threaded her needle with the boiled thread. Her mind reeled back to the lessons in suturing wounds that had been part of her warrior training. Although most times healing occurred naturally, some wounds needed manual manipulation.
“Hold still.”
Kai handled the first piercing of his skin, at the top of his cut near his collarbone, remarkably well, though he did take a long drink of whatever bitter alcohol Jace had found. As Isla moved down his skin with expert precision, each stitch brought a vision of her mate taking on three of those horrendous creatures and surviving.
“That’s seven bak you’ve killed now,” Isla said, gnawing her lip between her teeth.
Kai chuckled, then drank. “You were beating me by one; I couldn’t have that.”
Isla snorted.Prick. “Don’t make me laugh, or I’ll mess this up.” She narrowed her eyes in focus as she pulled the thread tighter. Given the depth of the wounds and given it had taken them so long to heal, he’d probably end up scarring. Frankly, she didn’t think he cared. There was a phantom pinch at her shoulder, where the twisting vines of her injuries lay from the Hunt.
Halfway down his chest, Isla couldn’t resist asking. She needed to know everything.
And so, Kai explained how he’d left the House, immediately shifted, and then ran as far as he could to get away from everyone. To the mountains first, then some open fields in Ifera. He tried everything to remain grounded and sane, casting the power out and thinking about her, but it felt as if the world was pressing down on him, like he’d break from it. Burst from it. Then he came upon the tunnel, where deep inside, he found three bak all tucked together like they’d made it their home. Their den.
So strange.
Kai’s voice softened, and his eyes drifted to the gashes in his chest. “They were sonot like bakthat I thought I was hallucinating. I could scent the Wilds so clearly; I wouldn’t have doubted the magic getting to my head. And once they realized I was there, they didn’t attack at first.” His jaw tightened. “It almost seemed like they were yielding.”
“To you?”
Kai nodded. “And I truly thought about walking away, but those ideas of yielding or leaving didn’t last long for either of us.”
Isla listened with bated breath as he broke down every maneuver of the fight, every duck and lunge and weave, each landed blow because he knew she’d want to hear it and knew she would stow the information away for any future strategy. He told her how that power had pushed, how he thought it may have helped him, gave him an edge in an impossible battle as if he could predict every move as they cornered him.
His trek home after he’d cleaned off in a lake and gotten the bleeding to subside had been hell without his wolf.
