Chapter 47
KAI
Kai hated this. He knew Ameera had been right, knew he couldn’t bear every burden on his own, and knew he had to allow his friends to make their own choices, but as he took in his family, scattered around a house ravaged by rot and destroyed by a monster, all he felt was dread.
They’d left Mimas by noon with an excuse about an urgent issue back in Deimos, but Kai knew Verena had been agitated by their early departure.
That was two members of the pack leadership he’d pissed off today.
According to Sol, who’d just left to return to Deimos, Beta Sampson hadn’t appreciated Kai not being there to speak with him when he’d come to retrieve Eli’s body.
Kai’s extended condolences through his delta would only go so far.
But that was a fire he would worry about another day.
Finishing off the last of the chicken Jonah had made and wiping the sleep out of his eyes from the nap Isla had forced him to take when they’d beaten everyone else here, he watched his mate, now reunited with the pup slumbering happily in her lap.
At the same time, Jonah attempted to piece together a logical route into the Wilds from the markers they’d gathered.
Unable to shift and having not trained with the guard in years, Jonah wouldn’t be going with them.
Neither would Davina. They, along with the pup, would linger here.
Their small pack consisted of Kai, Isla, Ameera, Sebastian, Rhydian, and Magnus.
Not entirely clued into what was happening, the guard could finally live out his warrior dreams and see what the Hunt was made of.
Magnus had one job: kill bak and have their back. And tell no one about the pup.
Isla had leveled that threat with glowing violet eyes and a dagger while the pup wagged his tail in her arms.
Magnus and Rhydian were the only two who hadn’t gone through the Warrior Rite, and Kai couldn’t deny that it had only bolstered his own unease.
Especially when he saw the way Davina clung to Rhydian and how she’d been shaking.
He knew what it felt like to lose a mate, and he hadn’t even lost her.
But any soft request or mention to Rhydian that it was okay for him to stay behind had been met with vehement opposition.
By him, by everyone.
No one else will get hurt, Kai could at least affirm it in his own head.
Kai leaned back against the broken frame of the threadbare chair, destroyed by the bak who’d chased Isla through this house when they’d first discovered it. The bane had entirely left his system now, and given where they were heading, he wasn’t going to risk hindering himself at all.
He could feel it now, the Wilds’ twisted call. His ancestor’s past… and maybe his pack’s future if they didn’t figure this out.
He shook away the idea, his power, almost angry at being suppressed, writhing with his fear, pulsing with the thought that had nagged him since they’d spoken with Verena.
The storms. The manifestations of chaos.
He could sense one brewing with the roiling within him now, as if his body had always known what had been happening, and he’d just never drawn the connection. How far did these senses of his go?
“This path will likely be your best bet,” Jonah said through an exasperated breath, his finger gliding along the map. “But it’s risky. You need to be sure that this first marker you found is meant to be the opening into the Wilds.”
The first marker. The one that Isla’s mother had left for her and Lukas as a hint. A clue.
Isla nodded, stroking the back of the pup’s ears. “I’m eighty percent sure.”
“I’ve been up against worse odds,” Sebastian said from where he’d been with Ameera and Magnus, discussing strategies to handle the bak with some overexaggerated hand motions.
Jonah placed his finger somewhere on the map.
“Once you’re above ground, potentially here, then you get to the Pack Hall, which is, to my estimation, here, closer to the western coastline.
It’ll likely be a one or two-day trip, depending on if you…
” Jonah hesitated, and Kai knew he was about to say shift.
“Isla will be on my back,” he said, and her eyes flashed to him. They’d already discussed it between themselves—and she’d made the quip about being “great at riding him.”
Around them, everyone seemed surprised. It was unheard of for an alpha to allow anyone to use them like that. But this was Isla.
“I don’t know if we’ve decided this yet,” Sebastian began, adjusting the fabric of the guard uniform they’d given him, “but that witch is there, right? Who gets to kill her?”
Ameera, in her warrior’s garb, folded her arms. “Well, she killed Kai’s family.”
Kai’s hands clenched and released from fists.
Sebastian’s jaw ticked. “But she took my…” He snapped his mouth closed and ran his tongue over his bottom lip. His eyes flickered to his sibling across the room. “Sister. And me, too.”
A truth, though it was more of a reason for Kai to be the one to rip the bitch’s heart out.
Unspoken words passed between the three of them who knew the entire truth, and they came to an unspoken agreement. The person who got revenge would be the one who landed the killing blow. No one cared as long as she was dead.
“And what about everyone else we come across?” Rhydian asked. “She has the other witch.” Raana. “And then the rogues, and probably Callan, too. What do we do about them?”
Silence fell.
One beat. Two.
“Win the battle,” Kai said, and everyone’s eyes were on him, looking to him for orders, for guidance.
You are no—
He cut off the destructive thought and swallowed, his eyes meeting Isla’s, who gave a soft smile.
They were going to be okay.
Kai leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “If it’s down to you or them, you’re the one walking out. We try to save who we can—if they can be saved.” He broke down the plan again. “We go in, we make it to the Pack Hall, we find our answers—”
However they were supposed to do that.
“We kill the bitch—”
Or that.
“And then we all come home, alive and safe.” His stare slipped to Davina’s, who’d been nodding, crying. Then everyone else. Everyone who’d been trying to get him to let them in for far too long. “No one else is dying on me.”
A smile slid across Ameera’s mouth at his nearly choked words. “Yes, Alpha.”
An echo of the agreement followed, a lightness settling between them before they entered an eternal darkness.
Sebastian jumped to his feet, shaking out his shoulders. “Let’s get this over with.” Kai knew he was energized by the opportunity to slay the witch. “To hell we go.”
To hell, indeed.