Chapter 35
KAI
Kai was grateful for the bane flowing through his system because the battling personalities in the council chamber might have sent him spiraling, weaseling into minds, and ripping away words for some peace and silence to think.
The news of Eli’s death had ripped through the continent with a ferocity that would’ve impressed Kai if it hadn’t caused him such a migraine.
Since they’d discovered his body, the story had made it to the leader of every kingdom and had even littered the newspapers in some packs.
A warrior was dead in Deimos. Murdered. And not just any warrior—a general here to protect them from the rogues when “they couldn’t protect themselves.” Eli was a hero to some, a martyr.
In reality, he was an unlucky bastard, and Kai appreciated whatever the general had been hoping to do in going against Cassius to find Callan, despite any ill will he’d had towards either of them in the past. He’d ensured his body, cooling beneath the hall, had been cleaned and prepared with respect for his beta father’s impending retrieval.
But Eli wasn’t the only elite fighter who’d been dealt a poor fate on Deimos’s grounds.
Another was still missing. And that news, the greatest source of this headache, had been held back until now.
He should’ve suspected, with Cassius’s conniving ass being involved, that there was a cover-up happening, or at least that the Alpha was biding his time to hit with a hard blow of the second warrior’s fate.
It was all so perfectly calculated, so fucking infuriatingly, perfectly calculated, that Kai almost had to admire how much of a prick the Alpha was.
He had half a mind to storm the Imperial Hall and rip through his mind to learn the truth of it all, but if Cassius did know everything, then he’d be prepared.
Kai would just end up with a blade in his chest while his family watched.
He glanced from where he sat on the council room’s dais to Isla, seated behind a crescent-shaped desk as she watched Sol, their Head of Laws, and Afalin, their Head of Pack Relations, discussing their scouts.
Though she looked stunning, every bit the queen in the room with her subtle adornment and navy dress that draped over her body perfectly, her stare was vacant, lost.
She was fighting so hard to keep herself together, but each day since they’d pulled Eli from the water had taken its toll.
He could see it, feel it. She barely spoke, ate, or slept.
And she was always… cold. Physically cold, particularly when her wolf rose to the surface.
That was something to address another day with Olyvia.
Isla put on a brave face in front of others, in front of him, but he knew her.
He’d seen and loved that fire in her eyes too much not to notice it guttering, and it terrified him.
She’d told him in fragments about the girl she’d been before.
How deep into darkness she’d fallen. He’d be damned if he let her become another in his long line of ghosts.
Shifting his attention to his right, he looked at Ameera.
Though she hadn’t formally been announced as the beta yet and technically still hadn’t accepted, Kai had asked her to take that seat today.
In his council room, he made the rules. Anyone who opposed may find themselves under the same scrutiny and dealt the same fate as the four council members Kai had stripped of their positions after the challenge, those who seemed too loyal to his father’s ways and were replaced with others of his choosing.
“Our scouts did not return,” Reuben, the High Commander of the Guard, said. “With all that’s occurring now, sending in more would be inadvisable. We’ve caught two more of Locke’s spies in rogue lands. Neither talked, despite our best efforts, before they were discarded.”
“What do you do with the bodies?” Nia, his new Head of Coin, asked.
“Burning them makes it easier to pin on rogues,” Reuben answered.
“Why don’t you just bring them in? Give them a proper interrogation here.”
“Because that worked so well with the rogues,” Afalin mused.
They hadn’t gleaned much at all from the rogues, but now that Kai knew of the witch, he wondered how much she and her abilities with memories and enchantments came into play with how little information they possessed.
“Rogues are a different breed,” Reuben said. “They have no one to answer to. They just want chaos and destruction. It’s a hive mentality.”
Sol brought them back to the topic at hand.
“Bringing Locke’s spies into our territory and holding them is against the Code.
We may already have breached that with Charon, but their pack members voluntarily entered our borders.
It’s different to infiltrate rogue territory and pull them out.
If we’re caught, the consequences on a continental stage are dire. ”
“Continental stage?” Reuben scoffed. “What good is it anymore to play by the rules? War is imminent within the continent. I imagine we should be bracing for more direct blows from the Imperials and their allies soon. Charon is our doorstep.” Kai noticed Isla swallow out of the corner of his eye.
“Especially if they’ve captured our scouts.
” Reuben suddenly turned to Kai. “I imagine that’s why Alpha Verena has asked for an immediate audience with you, Alpha. Tomorrow, at the latest.”
“So demanding,” Afalin drawled with a condescending undercurrent to his tone. “Who does she think she is?”
“An alpha,” Kai bit out. “Just as much as I am.”
Though he had paused at the demand of the order from one of his father’s longest friends. He wondered how much his father had told Verena about him, his errant son who had little respect for Kyran’s rules and wishes.
“Well, today is nearly over, and Beta Sampson will be arriving from Iapetus tomorrow afternoon. We can’t put them in the same room,” Afalin argued before lowering his voice, seeming to know the name he brought up next was sensitive.
“Remember what Ezekiel said about their recent confrontation at the Feast? Verena left Callisto. She didn’t even stay to watch the hunters be sent off. ”
“Why would she?” Sol countered. “She hasn’t had a trainee approved in years. I’m surprised she attended at all.”
Kai hadn’t noticed any confrontation, but then again, he’d been a bit preoccupied that night.
Afalin’s agitation became more than apparent in the knocking of his fist on the council’s bench. “So, what do we tell Alpha Verena? We can’t afford to lose allies, particularly ones that could easily block our access to the Southern Waters.”
Kai already had his solution. After allowing them enough time to debate, he spoke. “I will remain here to handle Beta Sampson. Luna Isla will go to Mimas with Ameera and speak with Alpha Verena.”
The room went silent, looks of disbelief flashing across many faces before they righted themselves. Though most directed their eyes to Isla, who he felt tense through their bond hazed by the bane, Kai kept his pointed stare fixed on each of them. A cold and brutal calm washed over him. “Comments?”
No one offered any, but the unspoken words choked the room. Kai turned slightly to his mate, watching her fists clench and unclench over the skirt of her dress.
“Come on.” He pulled at the pieces of the bond, hoping the words came through, if not audibly, then through a coaxing phantom touch. “You’ve never been one to back down from a fight, beautiful.”
As if she heard it, or maybe it had just been her own courage, Isla straightened. “All of you have permission to speak freely.” She met each council member’s eyes, too, an ember flickering in hers that warmed him.
They remained quiet, though some exchanged wary stares.
It was Afalin who broke the silence. “I…”
He trailed off when Kai leaned back in his seat, hands folding over his stomach.
He was a predator, a protector, stalking around Isla’s feet.
He could’ve sworn he felt his mate pull at him, telling him to stop being an overbearing bastard.
It almost made him smile. He took that feeling, that tether, and tried his best to embrace it before it faded.
“I mean no disrespect to you, Luna,” Afalin continued.
“But your coronation was very recent. You’re new to the position.
New to Deimos. And Ameera”—he gestured warily to the general at Kai’s other side—“is not the beta, as it currently stands. I don’t know if answering an alpha’s invitation without Alpha Kai is the best course of action.
And your—” He snapped his mouth shut, and Kai had a feeling he knew where he was heading next.
The elephant in the room: Isla’s lineage.
Verena’s dislike for the Imperial Alpha and his pack was not a well-kept secret.
Kai glanced at Isla, who did not look at him in question or for comfort. That warrior’s stare was fixed on her opponent.
Suddenly, Isla sat even taller, tilting her head slightly, her hair shifting over a shoulder, the gold rippling in the pillars of sunlight spilling through the windows.
“I may be new to this, Delta.” Her voice was smooth, low, and lethal—and Goddess, did it turn Kai on.
“But I have observed court my entire life. If where I come from has taught me anything, if becoming a warrior has taught me anything, it’s brutal discipline, etiquette, and how to navigate overwhelming personalities—and Marin has also trained me into the ground.
Believe me, when I set foot on her territory, I will know Mimas and Verena, her consort, heir, staff, people, and their strengths and weaknesses upside down and backwards.
” She let those words linger for a few heartbeats as she settled back, a demure yet confident smile on her face. “Any other questions?”
None.
Wisely, no one spoke, and Kai needed a cold bucket of water. Her words seemed to have worked for some, as cautious looks and tense shoulders eased. But not everyone. Not Afalin.
“Council adjourned, then.” Kai leaned forward, resting his elbows on the bench. “As a reminder, though it should go without question, whatever was said in this room remains in confidence. Any breach will result in a penalty of the highest accord. Clear?”
A resounding, yes, Alpha, echoed through the chamber.
“Dismissed.”
Each member of the council rose and bowed to him, then to Isla. That warrior’s mask remained on her face as each exited the room, though gradually, it began to crack, piece by piece, and each fallen fragment tore a part of him with it.
First, the slump of her shoulders, then a downturn of her lips, a small, tired breath slipping the rosy softness. Then that fire sputtered to cinders, still hot but fading.
Shit.
When Sol, the final remaining delta, had left, Ameera rose to her feet, earning both of their attention. “I’ll let you know of my decision after this trip.”
Kai nodded, fighting his urge to ask what answer she was leaning towards. “Very well.”
Ameera began descending the dais to leave Kai and Isla alone, as if sensing they needed to talk, but paused. She spun on a heel, and the shades of emotion in her eyes were nearly impossible to decipher.
“If you visit my father again, don’t mention me becoming beta to him,” were her only words before leaving the room, closing the grand double doors of the chamber behind her.
Isla’s eyes had been fixed on where she’d disappeared. A few silent breaths passed before she said, “She wants to see him, but she’s afraid she’ll say something that she’ll regret and ruin everything between them.”
Kai studied her. “How do you know?”
“Because I do.”
He pursed his lips. Not sure if it would be best to bring up her own father now or try to distract her from it. “You handled that beautifully, by the way. I thought Afalin was about to soil himself.”
The small distraction seemed to work, the corner of her lips ticking up slightly. “He wasn’t entirely wrong, though. I am very new.”
“And you weren’t wrong either. You’ve done everything you could to prepare yourself.”
Isla leaned back, gazing up at the council room’s ceiling. A scowl slipped across her features as she observed what was painted there. Just as they had in the throne room, the three goddesses loomed over the council chamber.
“Always watching,” Isla mused, darkly.
Kai cast his eyes over the three women who seemed to hold their lives in their hands. “Yes, they are.”