Chapter 28 #2
That fucking name.
“By morning,” Isla clipped before she could stop herself. Malakai looked down at her, eyes blinking in bewilderment.
She could take it back. She could change her mind and apologize.
But when she closed her eyes, she saw Eli’s face and everyone else they’d lost in too short a time.
She wanted to scream about her mother, that Cassius, his alpha, his best fucking friend, had sent her off to hell and abandoned her, but she could only bring herself to repeat, “You should be gone by morning.”
Sebastian didn’t seem to know what to do with himself, his stare darting between his sister and his father.
Malakai’s nod was rigid. “If you wish… Your Majesty.”
Two words shouldn’t have wrecked her so thoroughly.
Kai’s hand had dropped to her back, drawing hidden, soothing circles as she trembled, telling her to hold it together just a little longer, and then she could break all she needed to.
Malakai turned away from her towards Adrien and Sebastian, and she bit her tongue to prevent a sound from slipping from her lips.
“You boys will come with me,” the Beta said. Whether it was a question or a statement, Isla wasn’t sure.
She glanced at her brother through blurring eyes. Sebastian’s lips pursed as he let his gaze drift over them both again.
“If people are getting killed,” he finally said, “I think I should stay. For Isla.” His eyes slid to Kai for approval, and the alpha nodded—another strike in her father’s book.
Next, the attention turned to Adrien, still in his pale state of shock. His mouth opened and closed. How much choice did the Prince of Io have? Isla knew the words that were coming before he spoke them.
“I should go home.”
By the time Isla and Kai arrived back at the Pack Hall, there were only a few hours left until sunrise, but they were covered in too much mud, rain, and death to collapse into bed.
The pack had gone into another lockdown, guards posted on every corner, searching for a killer—something becoming all too commonplace.
It could’ve been a rogue who slipped in, a spy, or someone tied to the Hierarchy, an unfortunate confrontation on Eli’s part…
Either way, he was dead.
“You go first,” Kai said, starting the shower’s flow of water.
In a daze, Isla watched the patter of droplets cascading over the white ceramic floor like the rain hours ago.
When the steam began clouding before her face, Kai tested the temperature with his hand. “It should be good,” he said gently and turned to walk out, but Isla grabbed his arm.
“You, too.” She cleared her throat, hating how wrecked her voice sounded. “Unless you want to be alone.”
She would’ve understood. So much had happened tonight, and most of the time, he needed that chance to process before he came to her.
But Kai stepped forward, his lips soft against her forehead. “I would never turn down a shower with you.” Though the words could’ve been wanton, there was nothing impish in them or any of their next movements.
Everything—from how they removed each other’s clothes to how they stepped into the water and began washing each other off—was gentle, intimate, caring, and grounding.
Isla took in a deep breath of lavender as Kai worked his fingers through her hair, washing the night off her body with every considerate caress of her skin. Her heart went into battle because here she was with the man she loved more than anything, and the world was crumbling around them.
A sob clawed up her throat, spilling from her lips as she dropped her head. Kai wasted no time spinning her around, pulling her into his bare chest. His wounds from the bak had healed now, but she felt the raised scars beneath her cheek. Scars he’d bear forever.
How much more death could she take? How much more would she have to take if they were going to war?
It felt as if someone had scooped a hand into her chest and ripped out her heart.
“I left him.” The words cracked out of her as she wrapped her arms around Kai’s torso, feeling the water cascading down the muscles of his back. “He told me he was in danger, and I left him.”
“It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known.” Kai stroked her hair. “If anything, he knew. If the Hierarchy wanted him dead…”
He trailed off, knowing the sensitivity of blaming the Hierarchy, of blaming Cassius. The divide between her and her father was now clear. Rather than waiting until morning to leave, Malakai had been gone within a few hours, and Adrien with him. To get far, far away from her and this place.
She should’ve told him about her fucking mother.
Another sob wrenched loose, and Kai held her tighter. “There’s only so much you could’ve done, Isla. You’re not meant to save everyone.”
“I haven’t saved anyone,” she rasped.
“I will be at your side while we figure this out and try to salvage as much as we can in the process. If there are rogues and spies, we’ll keep them out.
If there’s war and rebellion, then we’ll firm up where we stand and draw the line.
If Deimos is at risk, we’ll defend it. And if I’m…
something,” he swallowed. “Tomorrow, I’m going to Olyvia to get some wolfsbane. ”
Isla nearly jumped out of his hold. “What?”
Olyvia was the alpha estate’s appointed healer. She’d been the one keeping an eye on Isla’s recovery, one of the few who knew the truth of her shifting.
Kai let out a breath. “Somehow, this made me lose control of my wolf. My ability to mind link is how I’m able to get into people’s heads.
If I can keep that tempered with bane, maybe I can keep this under control.
” His jaw tightened. “I was moments away from using it on your father to get the truth. If I hadn’t been so drained, I might’ve, and I could’ve killed him. ”
Despite the heat of the shower, of his body, Isla shivered.
“But if you take wolfsbane,” she began, “you won’t have your wolf. You won’t be able to shift.”
“I feel like I’m more of a danger with my wolf than a liability without it right now.”
Isla found her fingers dancing over his shoulder blades, feeling the etching of his tattoos. “If you think it’s best.”
Kai nodded. “I do. At least until I can figure out how to control it. I can’t have another day like today.”
“Today was a disaster all around.” Isla stepped back and grabbed the shampoo.
She poured some into her palm while Kai bent slightly, and she returned the favor, lathering it into his hair.
“Even with my nightmare this morning and you jumping out of bed, we were doomed from the start. And then I heard that woman again during the storm.”
Kai wrenched up from her moving hands, her nonchalance, blinking just before he got soap in his eye. “You what?”
Isla waved him off, gesturing for him to get under the stream. After he rinsed out the shampoo, she explained, “In my dream, there was music, and in the craziness of the storm, there was more music and her voice. And I… felt her touching me. Felt her in my head.”
“Touching you?” Kai asked, flabbergasted, while shaking out his hair. “In your head?”
Isla flinched away from the flying droplets. “That is what I said, yes.”
He groaned and rubbed his hands over his face. “Are we narcissistic assholes to think that we’re something… more?” Kai dropped his hands, and Isla’s gaze snapped back to his face. “Or at this point, is it more than clear that we’re fucking weird?”
“I think the universe has made its point.”
“Wonderful. Glad that’s settled, then.”
Isla had never been so grateful to have his jaded sense of humor back.
Kai stepped forward, getting close enough that the peaks of her nipples grazed his chest as he placed a hand beneath her chin to tip her head up. He kissed her once. “Happy Coronation Day, Luna.”
Isla’s lip curled. “What an auspicious start to my rule.”
“One for the history books,” Kai mused, giving her one last peck on her lips. “Come on. We have a long few days ahead, and I’m ready for you to hog the bed.”