Chapter 15 #2
“You’ve never arranged anything for me,” Sebastian said, adjusting the cuffs of his navy suit jacket.
Isla looked him over, thankful he cleaned up remarkably well. He could annoy her to no end, but he played the part of dashing—and sneaky—court member perfectly. She just needed to give him a speech to keep it in his pants for one night.
“You show up unannounced and make yourself perfectly at home without my assistance.”
Malakai looked between his two children that he hadn’t seen in weeks, a smile tugging at his lips. “Don’t pester your sister,” he told his son before directing his gaze back to Isla. “You’ve been busy, I’m sure.”
Isla waved him off. “Only a little.”
Her father’s eyes drifted behind her, to where she knew and felt Kai standing, allowing them their moment. Malakai bowed. “Alpha.”
“Imperial Beta.” Kai stepped forward, taking his spot at Isla’s side. He reached forward to grab the beta’s hand… the same hand he’d been gripping her hair with only minutes earlier. She shook off the thought so violently that Kai must’ve felt something through the fractured bond, glancing her way.
“I’m happy you could make it,” he said to her father, dropping his hand. “I hope you had an easy trip.”
“The rain made for some muddy trekking, and we ended up getting stuck,” Malakai conceded. “But we made it.”
A moment’s hesitation and a locking of his muscles. Isla hated that she noticed her father’s small ticks, his tells. Lie, the word flashed across his face, to her, like a beacon.
Kai blew out a breath. “Rainy season coming down from the north as well? It’s been pretty bad here.”
“Unfortunately.”
Kai had caught him off guard, somehow. What wasn’t he saying?
“Well, thank the Goddess,” Sebastian mused. “With all the droughts we’ve had the past few summers, it’s nice it’s finally turning around. Maybe it will have cooled off by the time I go back.”
Her father swallowed, and his smile was too tight. “Indeed.”
There.
A pit formed in Isla’s stomach. If he hadn’t truly been in the north, where had he been?
“I’m sorry to interrupt.”
Isla’s attention was drawn to Ameera, who stepped forward. Sol watched from behind her, a touch of pride in his eyes as she took charge, and the mischievous intrigue in Sebastian’s stare, the hum he’d let out, made Isla want to knock him upside the head—if Ameera wasn’t already planning to. But…
Had Ameera just fought a smile? At him?
Hands behind her back, the warrior general bowed to both of them but directed it at Kai, “May we have a word, Alpha?”
Isla scanned the seriousness that crossed her face as Kai, seeming to fight his own look of pride, nodded.
“Of course. If you’ll excuse me.” He brushed his lips against Isla’s cheek, and there was a faint tugging sensation inside her.
An urgent attempt to communicate through their bond, but nothing came through.
So, he could only whisper, “I’ll be right back,” before an easy, “I hope it’s not raining. ”
Isla battled to keep her shoulders from falling. So, he’d picked up on her father’s lie, too.
When the wolves of Deimos had gone, leaving only the Imperial Beta and his children, Malakai asked, “Do they leave you out of a lot?” His features were a mix of perplexed and concerned.
“I don’t think he’s leaving me out,” Isla said. “They just don’t want to rip me away from you. Kai will brief me later.”
Malakai hummed. “And he’s treating you well? You’re happy here?”
Isla laughed. He was truly in overprotective father mode. The war of emotions continued to rage inside her. “Yes, Dad. I’m very happy.”
“It surprises me every day,” Sebastian drawled, sauntering further into the room and mindlessly scanning the art pieces as she had been. “He genuinely loves her. I have no idea how.”
Isla folded her arms. “You’re in true form today.”
Sebastian stepped closer and threw an arm around her shoulders. “Someone has to humble you before they put that big, fancy crown on your head, Pudge.”
“Humbling and annoying are two different things.”
Before Sebastian could retort, a deep chuckle fell from their father’s mouth, and Isla found his eyes solemn, his shoulders sunken, likely weighed down by a burden she couldn’t see. “I’ve missed you two.”
It broke Isla’s heart.
With her and her brother standing opposite him, it felt like they were speaking over a wall.
One being built brick by brick from Cassius’s lies and mortared by her own destiny.
And though she knew the words to say to send it crumbling, she wasn’t sure if they’d all be able to crawl out of the rubble.
It was nice to hear that she and Kai were a beautiful couple, but it felt like more than half of their guests had been given a script on how to address them, and they followed it verbatim.
Since the moment they’d entered the gala, arm in arm—in the way she’d once, heavy-heartedly, watched Kai do alone within this very ballroom—conversation followed the same template.
A deep bow and a lingering look over her dress—because what she wore was somehow pertinent.
A compliment as individuals, then as a pair.
Questions about how they met, how they’d felt when they met—a story they kept chaste. And eventually, some talk of an heir.
It hadn’t occurred to her how little people held back, how unafraid they were to pry about when they planned for children.
But she would bear their future alpha, she supposed, so maybe that made them think they had some say, some stake in the matter.
She wouldn’t be surprised if there were bets about when a royal baby would be born, and wouldn’t be surprised if Sebastian was running the books.
Isla wished she’d been better prepared for certain conversations, but from the moment her feet hit the ballroom floor, she had her sights on her father.
She kept tabs on everyone he spoke to and how they reacted to his presence.
Once, months ago, Kai had used her in such a manner.
Given the natural animosity between their two packs, anyone who seemed a bit too friendly with her—or even too vehemently opposed—would find themselves under Kai’s suspicions.
But using her father like this… felt gross.
It felt wrong. She didn’t want to know if there was corruption or collusion, but she knew she would.
It would inevitably be unveiled now with her position, but she had to prepare for how deep it went, how twisted it was, and how she’d react.
She could only imagine how Ameera had felt as everything with Ezekiel came to light.
About an hour before the dance company they’d hired for the night was to begin, Isla and Kai split, all part of Marin’s calculated itinerary.
Even who they each would speak to was pre-chosen.
Isla remembered both dreading this moment and feeling the part of her that thrived on challenge fiending to rise to it—intrigued to see some truer colors now that she didn’t have the Deimos-born alpha at her side.
Partway through her rounds, Zahra appeared, beautiful and regal in her marigold gown, the color standing out against her brown skin.
“They’ll try to catch you off-guard,” Kai’s mother, the former Luna of Deimos, muttered to Isla as she smiled away the official who’d bustled up to Isla once she’d been alone.
“They want you to make promises that you can’t keep, but you can bet they will hold you to them.
Everyone in this room will remember each word you say and every move you’ve made. ”
Isla swallowed, trying not to let her features fall as Zahra schooled her. It was counseling she needed, truly. Who better to teach her the ins and outs of being queen than the one who’d served for nearly twenty years?
She’d once thought to ask for guidance, but wasn’t sure whether Zahra would even be up to it.
Isla had taken her position because her mate and eldest son had been killed, and truthfully, she didn’t know how to look Zahra in the eye in the few conversations they’d had, knowing that her own mother had been the one to deliver the deadly blows that stole her family away.
Zahra had been with Alpha Kyran in their bed when Apolla had poisoned him.
“Marin made sure I was aware of that,” Isla told her, lowering her voice.
Some of their guests were eyeing them, eyeing each other, as they hovered nearby, unsure who would make the next move.
Would Isla approach them, or would they dare interrupt her and Zahra?
“I received a list of potential requests and how to respond.”
Zahra smiled, effortless and stunning. “I expected nothing less. And I notice you’re making them a bit more personable, which is perfect.
Better not to sound like you’re a wooden board, or the gossips will talk about the stick up your ass.
” Isla snorted as Zahra sipped from her glass of sparkling wine.
“You’re doing great so far. Poised, well-spoken, handling high pressure—Isla? ”
Isla wrenched her head back to Zahra, her blood pounding, but she couldn’t stop herself from taking one more glance at her father within the mess of the chatting crowd and weaving servers. Who he was speaking to.
General Eli.
“Who the hell invited him?” she muttered under her breath, narrowing her eyes. Words and smiles were being exchanged, nothing secretive it appeared, but Eli’s hands were clenched behind his back. Her father’s posture was strong, authoritative. What were they saying?
Isla was just about to excuse herself from Zahra when she felt a hand on her back.
She turned to find Kai, who also noticed the exchange, but drew his focus back to Zahra. “Sorry to interrupt, Mother, but I need to steal my wife for a moment.”
Isla’s stomach fluttered. His wife. She’d never get sick of hearing that. Though she wasn’t technically “his wife” until they had their mating ceremony, he’d taken to calling her it.
A twinkle of mischief, of mother’s understanding, flashed in Zahra’s eyes as she looked between them, and a gloss seemed to take over her stormy irises.
She’d once told Isla that the only thing that had kept her from being swallowed alive by her grief after the bond and the fabric of her wolf had been ripped to shreds when Kyran had died, when she’d lost her son, was the fact that she would never leave Kai to bear the weight of the world alone. But now he had Isla.
“Of course.” Zahra waved her hand. “I’m not unfamiliar with your escapes.”
“This isn’t an escape,” Kai said, not the least bit convincing. “I’ve outgrown that.”
Isla furrowed her brows and glanced up at him. “You have?”
Morning after morning lately, she’d woken up without him in their bed. Apparently, he’d taken to morning “runs” to rid himself of suffocating, pent-up energy. Power.
With a smirk sliding across his lips, Kai shushed her.
Zahra hummed. “Do what you must. Just be back to thank the performers for attending before they begin.”
Isla and Kai watched as she spun and walked off, pausing a few feet away to pluck an hors d'oeuvre and a new glass of wine from a platter that swept by.
Isla furrowed her brows. “Did your mother just encourage us to sneak away to have sex?”
Kai’s expression was an equal mix of perplexed and perturbed. “She’s hinted to me on more than a few occasions that she wants grandchildren.”
Isla pursed her lips. She’d mentioned it to her, as well.
“Well, until it doesn’t feel like our families are two seconds from clawing each other to death, everyone needs to be patient.
We could never bring a child into this.” Isla met his eyes, seeing some solemn agreement in them.
She knew he wanted a family—and the thought of it melted her—and they’d agreed to wait a year, at least. Hopefully, things didn’t get worse.
“But that’s not why you need me, though, is it? ”
Kai frowned. “Meet me in the Warrior Galley in five minutes.”
“What is it?”
Kai looked up and away, scanning the crowd with a soft smile on his lips, like she’d told him something endearing. They still needed to put on a show. “If I tell you, you’ll leave now, and I need you to wait so it’s not obvious.”
Isla resisted the deadpan on her face. “You act like I have no self-control.”
Kai leaned down to kiss her cheek. “Five minutes. Schmooze one more guest.”
Then he walked away—and Isla schmoozed no one.
She waited a minute, sure, but then she was gone. Snuck out, easy and inconspicuously, with the help of a strategically maneuvered waiter, a friendly guard, and some heavy night-dark curtains blocking one of the many secret doorways within these walls.
Every Pack Hall had a Warrior Galley, meant to honor the wolves who’d gone through the perilous Hunt and survived, as well as those who hadn’t.
Here, the galley lay within the North Hall, the original hall that had stood on these grounds since Deimos was founded a millennium ago.
The history chiseled into these walls would take Isla a lifetime to learn.
The double doors that hid the galley displayed Deimos’s insignia—a representation of Kai’s bloodline—two wolves, twin wolves, lunging for the moon.
Thinking about it now, after what she’d learned about Deimos and Phobos, their connections, and how they’d been one pack of Ares, she wondered if there had been a reason for it.
She pressed a hand to the warrior’s crescent below the symbol and pushed the heavy doors open.
Moonlight barely edged through the windows, trickling beyond the latticework of stone slabs and columns, etched with countless names—a long legacy of strength, ferocity, and triumph.
Ebony silks were folded in underlit glass cases, those of warriors past, taken and embroidered with their names and when they’d succeeded.
Beside them were the sharp claws of bak, their razor-sharp teeth: trophies and proof of their victories.
And at the pinnacle of the cases, displayed grandly on the back stone wall, Isla caught a flash of red amidst all the obsidian. There, hanging beside a silk of black that belonged to the Alpha of Deimos, was that of the first warrior luna in the pack’s history. Hers.
Isla rested her hand on the glass box just below their silks. Six sets of claws and teeth, two slain by her and four by Kai, lay on velvet sapphire pillows in such an elegant display for a brutal act.
A shadow appeared in the corner of the glass, a figure slipping from the darkness of the room so carefully that she knew it wasn’t Kai.
Heart ratcheting, Isla’s hand went to her side for a blade she didn’t carry. Fingers splayed for claws she could not summon.
Then they became a fist, solid and ready to strike.
Isla whirled, but the intruder knew her well. Too well.
Adrien caught her hurtling fist in his hand and smiled.