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The two warriors fell into silence, the air filling with the sounds of the milling crew behind them and the slosh of the water against the side of the vessel. Isla realized that Ameera hadn’t asked about how their conversation with Ezekiel had gone last night. As the potential beta, what they’d learned was something she likely should’ve been privy to, but Isla understood her now more than she ever had. When Ameera was ready, maybe they could work together to find a way out of their family ordeals.
As they began sailing further inland, a sandstone wall raised above the shoreline, growing taller along the coast. Beyond it, Isla glimpsed the red thatched rooftops of buildings but nothing more. There were occasional breaks at the wall’s base, each crevice sprouting a dock spotted with fishermen yanking in their hauls from the day. Some of them threw their hands up blindly in waves, other noted who they were—the royal entourage—and bowed their heads.
Isla waved back, a gentle smile on her face. Ameera hadn’t bothered.
Isla slowly lowered her hand. “You’ve been to Mimas?”
Ameera turned, leaning her back against the rail and surveying the boat’s deck. “A few times. A couple with Kai, a couple without. They’re lenient with us going in and out of the pack. If I had to describe it, it’s everything that I imagine Ioisn’t.” Isla furrowed her brows, and Ameera elaborated, “Much more free spirited. Laid back.”
“Io isn’t just rigid, narcissistic assholes with sticks up their asses,” Isla countered. “You’ve met me, my brother, and Adrien.”
“My point exactly,” Ameera snickered, and Isla bumped her with a hip. The general cracked a smile, one that actually reached the rich brown of her eyes. “Imean, I see how desperate the three of you are to break free from there, which makes me think you aren’t the norm.”
Isla’s lips turned downwards. “For the way we grew up, for the people we grew up around, I don’t think we are the norm, no.” She cast her eyes out, seeking out the ocean again, her fingers winding circles over the rail’s wood. “But the rest of the city, of the pack, away from all everyone typically knows us as is just…people, living their lives like anyone else in any other kingdom.”
She hung her head. They would just get caught in the crossfire.
Ameera said nothing.
Silence blanketed them again, but it wasn’t much help against the chill of the wind that swept by. Ameera wrapped her arms around herself, offering, “Another difference is it’s much colder down here.”
Isla breathed a laugh. “Well, Kai’s not here to warm the bed. Will you spoon me if I catch a chill tonight?”
Ameera’s genuine laugh, light and melodic, made Isla’s smile stretch wider. “If you ask nicely.”
* * *
As the buildings neared and that sandstone wall stretched higher, Maeve appeared from where she’d been below deck. She fiddled with the pendant around her neck—a simplified rendering of the deities in its metal-worked shapes representing the Goddess, Fate, and Eternity—as she asked Isla if she wanted some help freshening up.
A glance down at her attire had told Isla that may have been best.
She’d opted out of wearing a dress, instead, keeping to her cloud-gray tunic tucked into high-waisted pants. It was easier to move in, if need be. She probably should’ve appeared morequeenly.
When she finally breached the sunlit surface again, she noticed the vessel had slowed to a stop just before the towering northern gates of Mimas’s Pack Hall.
A darkened wrought iron contrasted heavily with the sandstone pillars they were set in the rock. Top-set flags billowed in a breeze kissed with salt with their colors of pale seafoam and overcast skies. Wildflowers bordered the gravel pathway after the dock that led to a sprawling courtyard. And in the distance, Isla could see the spires and turrets, red-tiled roofs, and identical pale stones of the palace-like structure.
She wasn’t sure why, but she hadn’t expected Mimas to be so…pretty.
Ameera appeared at her side again, bracing herself for the vessel’s rocking as it hit the dock’s edge.
“There’s a lot of guards,” the general noted under her breath as the bridge was lowered for them to disembark. “In the times I’ve been here, there has never been this much presence at this gate. There’s no need to guard so heavily from the water, especially the river that’s only shared between us, them, and Tethys.” Ameera tracked her eyes across the surrounding land, and Isla followed them to the trees swaying in the gentle wind. “I can sense some in the forest, too. A lot of them—and shifted.”
Isla held back her frown at the fact she couldn’t detect much. Even if she could never fully shift again, she’d at least like her senses back. Digging inside herself, she sought her wolf. It brushed against her stronger than it had in a while, and what nudged alongside it made her frown deepen.
Not now.
She snapped back to focus and prayed Ameera hadn’t sensed anything. “So, all of it is because of us, which is odd for a pack who views us as an ally.”
Ameera only met her eyes.
Isla’s heart clenched. “Is it because of me?”
Ameera didn’t disagree as quickly as she would’ve liked. “Other than you, Kai is new to being alpha, I’m new to being…this…and his father, my father, and Verena were close. I’m sure she knows more about us than we care for. It’s a precaution, probably. She just needs to know our packs continue to be on good terms.”
Isla loosened a breath, and wished her, hopefully, future beta’s words had been more comforting.
A large company suddenly appeared from just out of sight beyond the wall’s stone.
