Chapter 2
KAI
It seemed the world was as off-balance as Kai had felt these past few days, weeks… months, really… with Deimos experiencing an endless chaotic cycle of torrential storms amidst periods of blaring sunshine.
With a barrage of rain imminent, he and Isla headed east off the boardwalk, away from the winding canals and river towards the stretches of lawless land that bracketed their borders.
Rogue territory.
Apparently, Kai had to give Eli more credit.
Nearly three hours had passed while he and Isla sat on the rooftop, and the general had not yet emerged from Lysa’s apartment.
Kai put his money on a half hour, and Isla gloated for the ninety-plus minutes that followed.
Sometime in the next few days, he owed her a back massage.
Though with the way those ended, he hadn’t necessarily lost the wager at all.
As their investigation fell more fruitless with every passing, uneventful minute, Isla’s smile faded, and Kai couldn’t have that.
So, he proposed a switch in objectives. They’d been out anyway and close to the borders, too.
Any hour now, if they hadn’t already, his scouts would be returning from the rogue lands, hopefully, with some intel about what was occurring within them or the dominions beyond.
After all that had occurred with Callan and the intelligence Kai had been gathering since becoming alpha, he suspected Cassius had planted eyes throughout the packs, and Kai, despite the laws against it, wanted his own.
Though he had no plans to launch an attack and incite a war, he needed to be more proactive in protecting his people.
He had to pinpoint exactly where the threat was and build their defenses against it.
It didn’t help that there was danger in every direction.
Cassius in Io. Rogues slipping into the southeastern territory.
A murderous, vendetta-driven witch who was somehow able to control the minds of the rogues and deadly monsters, goddesses knew where.
A witch who didn’t want them dead, according to what she’d told Isla, but still had nearly killed them both.
The fact that they didn’t fully understand her motivations, other than the fact she wanted to kill Cassius—who fucking didn’t?—probably made her more dangerous than anything.
“You son of a bitch!”
The ringing curse wrenched his attention forward.
Kai immediately recognized the voice. The expletive had been directed at him quite a few times in that tone.
They scaled a final gentle hill before the landscape opened to the sprawling borders protecting Deimos from the rogue territory. And there, before the network of stone and vines, two forces collided on a patch of drying grass.
Goddess, spare them.
Kai could barely hold in his laugh as Rhydian and Magnus, clad in their guard uniforms, hands locked on each other’s shoulders and biceps, knees bent with snarls on their faces and eyes and lumerosi glowing, tried to knock the other down.
“Don’t drop your shoulder!”
At Isla’s call, Rhydian buckled.
Kai watched her hand descend from where it half-curved around her mouth, a smirk painted on her perfect lips and a mischievous glint in her eye.
His bona fide brother seized and straightened, turning to glimpse them on the hill’s precipice, distracted just enough for the predator before him to pounce. Magnus rocketed forward with a triumphant battle cry, tackling Rhydian into the dirt outlay of their grass patch.
Isla laughed, and Kai heeded the sound, the image of her and her smile, then tucked it away somewhere safe for those moments when she wasn’t there to abate the darkness, not necessarily from his power but from the shadows that had haunted him for far longer than he cared to admit.
“Is this what we pay you for?” Kai asked as he and Isla approached. “Novice mistakes and shit-poor fighting stances?”
Magnus, who’d been howling at his victory and only now noticed them, went rigid. Kai gave him a small tip of his head. “That wasn’t directed at you. Nice work.”
“Thank you, Alpha,” he said, only breaking his harsh posture to sweep some of his light hair from his eyes—eyes that eventually slid to Isla.
Tension rippled between them, and Kai worked to hide his amusement.
So, he’d learned, back when Isla was training with Deimos’s guard along with her warrior unit, she and Magnus grated endlessly on each other’s nerves.
The guard, a key member of Rhydian’s team, had a particular disdain for Io, the Imperial Alpha, and the Warrior Rite that he’d always desired to enter but had always been denied access to.
So, meeting the Imperial Beta’s newly anointed warrior daughter went as well as one would expect.
Kai wished he’d been there the moment that Isla blurted that she was his mate during one of their many squabbles just to get him to shut up.
“Warrior,” Magnus said, conceding a bow. Kai knew Isla got a small satisfaction from it.
“Guard,” she replied curtly.
“Shit-poor, my ass.”
They all turned to Rhydian as he rose from the ground, swiping his hands over his uniform and brushing away Magnus’s reach to aid him.
He speared his eyes over Kai and Isla. No bow or formality; it wasn’t necessary.
“The distraction got me, yes. But why the hell aren’t you two at home? It’s the middle of the night.”
“We were out and thought we’d come visit,” Isla said.
“Out?” Rhydian’s gaze flicked to Kai, questioning. He’d known of his intentions not to leave the House tonight, and yet, here Kai was. In answer to the silent question, Kai gave a subtle shrug, and Rhydian shook his head. “Stubborn, workaholic bastards, the both of you.”
They had no answer, no defense. Kai only asked, “Have they returned yet?”
Rhydian’s features shadowed. “No.”
Shit.
Kai ground his teeth, casting his eyes over the border.
A heaviness settled over his heart as he recalled every scenario if they’d been caught or killed.
How it would be handled. And as if beckoned by his emotions, his power breathed.
A deep inhale and exhale as if it wanted Kai to acknowledge that it still lived. That it could be used.
Isla squeezed his hand, but he didn’t look at her.
“There’s still time,” Rhydian said, pulling Kai’s gaze back to him.
“We told them the night of the quarter moon. The night hasn’t ended yet, but a few hours ago, a…
family came through claiming that they’re pack members of Charon.
A man, a woman, their child. The kid couldn’t be more than three or four years old.
They were pretty shaken up, and the father had blood on him.
Thyra took them to the inn down by the bend of the eastern canal.
I sent Belle to check the other breakpoint further north. ”
Both Kai and Isla remained unmoving.
“A family?” Isla let out on a breath, turning her head in the direction Rhydian had pointed. “That makes it ten people fleeing from Charon in the past week.”
Kai steadied himself with a breath, his mind becoming a mess of scenarios, plans, and logistics.
The situation they found themselves in was precarious.
Pack loyalty wasn’t only a part of the continent’s law but the code a wolf lived by.
One could not defect without their alpha’s approval, and yet, increasing numbers of Charon’s members had been appearing at their borders, seeking refuge from the state of affairs in their pack.
From the anecdotes Kai had gathered, the ever-prideful, bull-headed Alpha Locke’s rule had slipped into a tyranny.
He hated to ask, “And everything checks out?”
“From what I can gather,” Rhydian said. “They’re definitely not rogues, but I didn’t have them go too far. In case.”
“How far is the inn from here?” Isla asked, wriggling her shoulders as a subtle hint for Kai to release her from his hold.
“About a ten-minute walk,” Rhydian said.
Isla sighed, looking down and then over again. When she met Kai’s eyes, her own were filled with hints of that steel will and determination he’d fallen in love with months ago. “They must be terrified. I’ll check on them and bring them some food. See if they’re still awake and want to talk.”
It wasn’t a bad idea, but—
“I don’t want you going alone.” Kai brushed a hand over her lower back.
She pursed her lips. “I’ll be fine.”
She probably would. She was a warrior, after all, and far from fragile and delicate. He knew he couldn’t keep her caged, knew he couldn’t protect her from everything, but…
He remembered the cold of her skin as she was dying in his arms.
“We’re too close to rogue territory. I’m not risking anything.”
“Kai,” she breathed his name before stepping closer to place a hand on his chest. She lifted onto her toes to place a kiss on his mouth. “I’ll be fine.” Soft, sweet words. A caress over his lips in this small space just for them. “Overprotective bastard.”
He couldn’t deny appreciating this obvious tactic of manipulation, especially with how her body pressed into his. Both Magnus and Rhydian had respectfully dropped their gazes.
Kai hummed and said nothing, only brandishing a slight uptick of his lips as she turned to walk away. He let her get a few steps ahead before he called out, “Magnus, I’ll take your post. Go with Isla to the inn.”
“What?”
Isla whipped around, teeth bared, while a slightly alarmed Magnus bowed at the waist. “Yes, Alpha.”
“Kai,” Isla hissed, hurling all that fire and determination at him through her stare.
He slid his hands into his pockets. “Give me shit for it later.”
The glower didn’t leave her face.
He flashed her a smile and let the slightest bit of mocking and playfulness slip in as he crooned, “I love you.”
The growl she gave shouldn’t have been as arousing as it was. “Asshole.” She turned her back but wouldn’t walk away completely without grumbling just loud enough for him to hear, “I love you, too.”