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Kai chuckled, idly playing with a strand of her hair. “I just want you to be safe.”
Isla tsked. “When have I ever not been?” Kai raised a brow, and her beam widened. Wrapping her arms around his neck in time with her legs around his waist, she pulled him closer. “I’ll be safe, I promise. Ameera will be with me, too.”
He brushed his nose against hers. “Okay.” His kiss was soft and simple, but his following movements weren’t so pure. He moved to her jaw, her neck, between her breasts. Then to one, then the other.
Isla breathed a moan, arching into his mouth. “What are you doing?” she asked, even if it was obvious.
He blazed a trail down her stomach, peppered kisses on her hips, gripped her thighs, and kissed her skin before settling her legs over his shoulders. He smirked up at her. “A little parting gift.”
Even his wash of breath over her center had her bucking.
And then Kai leaned forward, sweeping his tongue over her once with that featherlight softness that drove her absolutely mad.
Isla let out a blissful sigh, fingers burying in his hair, undulating hips steadied by a firm hand on her coiling lower belly. She kept her eyes locked on his.
He kept things slow and soft, devouring her delicately yet holding her tight until her nerves were raw, until her skin tingled, until just one more perfect stroke would topple her over this precipice he’d gradually taken her to.
But he’d prevented that somehow, allowing the pressure to build, build, and build, her breaths becoming shallower as her muscles strained and her back arched. Her nails dug into his scalp, her thighs squeezing, but his mouth, biting, licking, and kissing, was as relentless as his name off her lips.
Let go, beautiful. She swore she heard the words,felt them, through the bond that linked them.
And let go she did.
* * *
Isla had two stops she wanted to make before she went to Mimas. The first had been to see Jonah, and the second to find Sebastian. Though she was trying not to let it cloud her thoughts, the last time she’d seen their father still weighed heavily on her heart, and if anyone understood him like she did, it was her brother.
A breeze rustled the rickety sign that read its calling card overThe Bookshoppe’sdoor. Isla remembered approaching it not too long ago on her first night here in Deimos, searching for answers like she still was now. It was then,here,that she’d seen Kai again for the first time after over a month apart.
There were a few entrances into the shop—the back door, the front, and then the set of storm doors down into Jonah’s basement apartment. Though all would be locked this early, Isla knew where Jonah hid the spare keys in the nook of a tree behind the building. They’d basically becomeherset the past month, though she always left them here.
Before her coronation, her routine had become early morning training with Rhydian, long days spent with Marin, and late nights poring over books with Jonah. Davina ensured they had “girl time” every so often, and Kai got whatever remained. The last she’d been with Jonah, her mate had swooped in, jokingly picked her up, and threw her over a shoulder, proclaiming he “was taking his wife back.” They hadn't even made it back to the hall before he pinned her to a tree in the woods and reminded her, as he had this morning, why “spending time with him was more fun.”
Isla was elbow-deep in the hidey nook, her satchel banging against the bark as her fingers just grazed the cold metal of the keys when she heard the back door of the shop fly open. Then came the shrieking voices, a shouting match that descended to harsh whispers once exposed to the open air.
Isla knew both men.
Abandoning the keys, instinctually knowing it would be best not to be seen, she carefully took a few more steps into the wood and pressed her back to the largest of the nearby trunks.
Jonah and Sol continued their squabble, but the grit of their voices was hard to decipher at this distance without her wolf’s hearing and with the obnoxious bird warbling its morning melody over her head. She glowered up at it, and it seemed to leer back before it flew away as soon as Jonah’s back door slammed closed.
She heard the crunch of gravel beneath shoes as Sol passed close by, and she risked a peek around the bark to catch a flash of his face, noticing his features pulled in a scowl. Judging by his trajectory, he was heading towards the hall.
She frowned.
What the hell had that been about? Her mind began to spin conclusions—recalling Kai’s story about all of them, including Jonah, being trained for the guard by Sol until the shop owner had quit—but then she stopped herself.
Not my business.
If it was a problem, Kai was the closest to both of them, and he could get in the middle of it. Not everything had to be some grand conspiracy.
Not wanting to make her eavesdropping known, Isla waited about ten minutes before circling back to the door. Even though she knew Jonah was awake now, she still went to the nook for the key, assuming he’d “been asleep”.
She’d been through one of the three outside-facing locks when the other two clicked, and Jonah pulled open the front door.
Isla jerked back, forcing her face into an expression of pleasant surprise. “Well, you’re up early.”
Jonah’s brow ticked up, his shirt hanging from his hand. Apparently she’d disturbed him changing. “I wasn’t expecting you this morning. Aren’t you leaving today?” Thankfully, suspicion hadn’t been in his tone.
