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She’d known he was following her, could’ve figured it even without the vague sense of him at all times, despite lacking their bond. But he’d gotten a jump on her, just enough. And she didn’t care that he was alpha blooded with power and prowess, that he’d made history a few months ago in one of their people’s greatest trials. She should’ve been more aware of his approach.
Isla didn’t turn to him or speak until the woman and Eli had gone inside—but not before Eli gave the area around one last look over.
Isla sighed through her nose, her skin scraping and nails scratching at the building’s brick. “I don’t trust him.”
The words had been hard to get out because ofwhyshe didn’t trust him, what he represented. Her past, her home, and her family. She recalled what she’d learned from Ameera this morning about Eli’s movements for the past few days. It was why she’d felt so driven to witness his doings for herself tonight. The last member of the warriors they’d caught sneaking around the territory as Eli had been for the past few days was Callan…and he’d been doing so to spy for Imperial Alpha Cassius.
“If it helps,” Kai began, his voice low as he continued rubbing her back, kneading at her muscles, sore from her training with Rhydian that morning. “Lysa isn’t from Charon.”
Lysa?
Isla turned, meeting eyes the color of storm clouds and chaos. Eyes she adored. “You know her?”
“I know a lot of people,” Kai said, his lips twitching upwards. “The Isle used to be one of our ‘spots’before Talha. She’s worked the floor for years, reading palms, telling futures, guiding wolves towards their mates. Couldn’t vouch for how good she is, though. She told me my future was in the bed of a small brunette with hazel eyes. Can’t say I ever made it there.”
“Of course.”
That description soundeda lotlike Lysa herself—but Isla couldn’t fault the woman at all. If she’d been faced with Kai, even back then, while he was only the second-born prince, not yet the alpha, she may have tried the same tactic.
Isla looked over him now, the “gift” the goddesses had given her. After years and years of agonizing over finding her mate, after giving up andfinding herselfinstead…she’d made it to him, made it here. To a pack, to a destiny that had always been hers.
That thought, the reminder of what was coming in only a few days, made Isla’s stomach toss.
She turned back to face the apartment building. “So, should we just…wait here?”
“You don’t think he’ll be very long?” Amusement gilded Kai’s tone.
“If he’s anything like you.”
Kai let out a heavy breath, feigning being wounded. And then Isla was twisted, her back pressed against the brick wall. She did her best to hold in her smile, to maintain her snarky, challenging facade as Kai’s body enveloped hers. But, Goddess, the shadows and moonlight adored him as much as she did. The contrast caressed his face perfectly, in the way she wished she could mimic with her fingertips, with her lips.
Kai’s own fingers dipped below her chin, tipping her head back for a better view of her face. Her mouth. “So, your claws came back, huh?”
“Lucky for you.” She found herself inching closer, arching into him with a desperateness she should’ve been too proud to convey and dragging her nails over the skin of his forearm as she’d done many times down his back.
A brush of his mouth against hers and his tongue teasingly sweeping over her bottom lip had her toes curling. But then Kai stepped back, leaving her cold and her body wound tightly.
“Bastard.”
Her curse earned a chuckle in return.
Tonight had been one of those rare times without obligations when they could’ve spent the entire night at the House, in their bedroom, tangled up with each other until dawn broke. Or even just catching up on ever-elusive sleep while wrapped up in each other. But instead, she’d wanted to go out.
To follow Eli, yes, but something else weighed like a boulder on her chest. Something, orsomeone, she was hoping to find or even simply glimpse while traveling along the winding river tonight.
A swallow trapped in her throat as Isla glanced back at the streets, her heart constricting at their barrenness. She waited for a shadow that didn’t appear. One that had been following her, both of them, and protecting them from another threat they couldn’t see.
Again, a hand beneath her chin sought her gaze. Isla let Kai turn her face to look at him.
His eyes searched her fallen features, and before he could ask her what was wrong, she lifted onto her toes and kissedhimthis time. Sweetly. Gratefully. He knew; he had to have known her ulterior motives, and he was here all the same.
Even if her mother had a heavy hand in the greatest tragedy of his life.
When she dropped away, as if he could taste the unspoken words on her tongue, Kai laced his fingers through hers and stepped forward out of the shadows. “Come on. I’m going to hope for his dignity that they’ll be a while, and this place up here makes some decent food. We can eat while we wait.”
CHAPTER2
KAI
