Chapter 45
KAI
Kai knew when he felt Isla dying the night of the alpha challenge, something within him broke.
Not just a fracturing of their bond, but something in him.
It was a shattered piece that mended every day he looked at her—every day he heard her, touched her, or felt her against him—but he didn’t think he’d ever be as he once was.
So, when he’d felt the bond straining, felt her struggling, fading away, then change, he’d be damned if he didn’t try to get to her.
There weren’t many other thoughts in his head as instinct drove him out of Deimos.
He’d left a note for Sol, left the pup with Sebastian, and dredged up every scrap of power he had, pushing past the eddying bane in his blood, and shifted.
He’d been nothing but a blur of red-laced shadow through the night, through the city, and along the river’s edge.
It was when he reached Mimas’s borders that he felt himself faltering. Not long after, he was stopped by Mimas’s guard, a mere hour from dawn.
They’d tried saying they needed to speak with Verena before they let him in, but Kai wouldn’t hear it. It was possible he truly looked like he’d kill someone, or maybe he’d let that deeper, darker power of his flare, as they agreed to let him pass and brought him transportation. And clothes.
Now, here he stood before Ameera in the doorway of her guest suite in the Pack Hall because he knew Isla hadn’t been in hers. He’d felt it.
Kai’s lifelong friend blinked wide eyes at him before giving a disapproving shake of her head. “You crazy bastard. What are you doing here? Don’t you have a meeting with the Beta of Iapetus?”
He did, but Kai didn’t need a lecture. Not now. “Where’s Isla?”
Again, he must’ve been a sight as Ameera dropped her fight. She side-stepped, her lips in a thin line. “In bed. She’s still sleeping.”
A small beat of relief.
Kai entered the sitting room, scanning for any threats. His nose twitched at the faint scent of rot and ocean water. “What happened last night?”
He wasn’t keen on how Ameera’s features paled or when she breathed, “Oh, Goddess, you felt it.”
Kai clenched his jaw. “What happened?”
She narrowed her eyes at his biting tone. “A lot. I’ll let her tell you when she wakes up. It’s better if she explains it.” As if she could see the words he was about to speak, she added, “Let her rest. She’s probably fine, just tired.”
Kai swallowed, his throat dry from the run and worry. He caught Ameera rubbing her left arm, and his features softened. “Are you okay?”
For a second, she hesitated, and he was impressed with the ease with which she relaxed her posture—that would have convinced anyone else but him.
“I’m fine.” She snickered, returning to where she had been seated, reading a book, when he’d knocked. “Goddess, you mated men are no better than fussing mother hens. You could’ve just called to check on her.”
She was probably right, but Kai couldn’t ignore the crater in his chest. He closed the distance to the bedroom. “I can’t lose her,” was all he said before he quietly slipped inside.
Kai had been dozing in the armchair beside the mattress for an hour before he felt an oddly charged breeze sweep across his face. The curtains rustled behind him, though the window was closed.
Isla began to stir.
“No,” a cracked whisper fell from her lips as she twisted in the wide bed. “No.”
More wind eddied, the temperature in the room dropping as Kai shot to his feet, his wolf edging to the surface as the air hollowed. His eyes jumped between each corner, where darkness seemed to gather. Isla thrashed, murmuring. Kai lunged for the bed, for her, and—
Goddess, she was freezing.
He gripped her shoulders. “Isla!”
Her heartbeat was erratic, her body trembling, her breath staccato. It had to be another nightmare.
The bond flickered.
Kai’s eyes flared as he dragged her to him, sitting her up in his lap and leaning her against his chest. Her shivering had been violent enough that he needed to steady himself.
“Isla.” He didn’t yell but whispered her name, allowing the warmth of his breath to cascade over her face. “I need you to wake up.”
She didn’t.
Her heartbeat faltered, and her hand moved up to claw at her chest. Trying to rip something out, to rip something free.
Kai placed his hand over hers, not letting himself panic when he felt something burn beneath his arm wrapped around her shoulders. Her lumerosi glowed, seared, while the rest of her was frigid. She must've been fighting something, something he couldn’t see. “Isla, wake up.”
She didn’t.
Shit. Kai tugged at the bond, tugged at her, trying to pull her back.
“Isla.”
For a blink, he swore shadows moved along her body, and something felt very, very wrong.
He didn’t want to do this; he didn’t want to risk it. Guilt settled as he plunged into himself, spooling a thread of power and casting it across their bridge—right to the edge of her mind.
Break in. Get her out—a fleeting thought of his own.
But another came as he toed the cliff, and a small door creaked open. Break in—and destroy her, his power said.
“You’re running out of time.”
Kai recoiled and snapped back into himself at the new voice. Her voice. That woman.
Isla’s eyes flew open, amethyst-illuminated, and coughs spluttered from her lips as her gaze darted around the room. She gripped him so tightly she could’ve torn his flesh away, her chest heaving with each shuddering, sobbed breath.
Kai bore against the pain and held her tighter to him. “You’re okay. It was a nightmare. I’m here. You’re safe.”
Isla’s panting slowed, her eyes fluttering up to meet his. “Kai,” she rasped, her shaking touch reaching for his face. Her fingers were cold as they brushed over his lips, his cheek.
“We couldn’t even make it a few hours,” he forced through a soft chuckle.
She exhaled something between a sob and a sigh before hugging him tighter to her, eventually ending up with her knees beneath her and her legs wrapped around him until there was no space left.
Their chests lined up as their hearts beat together.
There was nothing lustful about it; she just… needed him.
And she could have him, all of him.
Kai buried his face into her neck as she had done his, taking in her scent and running his fingers through her hair, avoiding snagging them in the salt-laced waves. “You’re okay.”
He felt her shake her head in disagreement.
He held back his frown. “What?”
“I have magic.”
The words had been so quiet he thought he’d misheard her. “Come again?”
Isla pulled back from him slowly, her stare colliding with his, her eyes bloodshot, gleaming, and desperate. “I think Raana somehow gave me magic when she healed me.”
Kai’s features twisted. His mind flashed to the shadows he’d clocked just moments before along her skin. “How?”
Isla opened her mouth, then closed it. “I don't know how she did it, but when I try to shift, I don’t, but my wolf still comes out. It’s just… it’s made of shadow.”
Kai blinked, trying to make sense of the bizarre picture. “You’re shadow?”
“No. I remain me, but my wolf manifests as shadows. I can see her, talk to her, control her—but I also feel like I can’t.
Magic is the only way I can explain it. I always thought it was possible that she’d inadvertently done something to me, but I never…
I never thought this…” Panic washed over her face.
He tried wiping it away with the stroke of his thumb across her cheek. “When did you figure this out?”
She peered at him cautiously. “We were attacked last night.”
There it was.
Rage slithered alongside his confusion. “Who and by what?”
“Ameera and I were on the beach. I don’t know what it was, but it emerged from the water and tried to drag me in. Ameera managed to get it to let go, and with few other options left to fight it, I took a risk and called on my wolf. It paid off.”
That explained Ameera’s arm.
Isla’s face flickered with horror and pride.
“I’ve never felt anything like it. It was me attacking, but different.
I felt powerful in a whole new way.” Her shoulders slumped.
“But I’m exhausted, and all of me feels broken and wrong.
” Her throat bobbed. “If this is going to happen every time I shift, we’re in trouble. ”
Kai let out an even sigh, keeping his agreement at bay. “You’re alive, and you’re safe. That’s what’s important.”
She nodded but then went rigid. Her eyes scanned over his face with stunned clarity. “Wait, what are you doing here? Don’t you have a meeting today? Where’s the pup?”
Kai snorted. “And Ameera called me a fussy mother hen. The pup’s fine. He’s with your brother.”
“With Sebastian?”
“You do only have one brother,” Kai said before explaining his previous night of familial introductions, then explaining how he’d felt her, how he’d run there.
A somber smile slid across Isla’s mouth as she ran her hands over his chest. “You didn’t—”
“You know I had to.” His hands settled on her hips as her legs encircled his waist. “It may make me a shitty alpha, but my greatest duty is to you. If you call, I’ll answer. Every time.”
His heart stumbled when she brought her mouth to his.
Her lips were chapped, but the kiss was smooth. It deepened slightly, from one breath to the next, but Isla pulled back just as Kai felt something dark twisting in him, recognizing her.
She spooled her fingers in his hair, twisting the curls at his nape. “There’s, uh, something else.”
A shot of pleasure coursed down his spine at the tug of her hands, but the words and the way she’d said them dampened his mood. “And what would that be?”
She flashed him a wary, beaming grin. “We need to go into the Wilds. Today.”