The Alpha's Read online

  The slight disturbance in the air, heralding the arrival of one of those forces, didn’t come as a surprise. He’d been expecting Noah from the minute David and he had broken countless rules by abducting Noelle and Josie. Not that Noah would perceive David as a threat to his human. Henri, however, was another matter. Noah took a dim view on turning humans. The thought of condemning Noelle to a life in the shadows had bile rising in his throat, but the enforcer wouldn’t know that, Henri’s history suggested otherwise. He sighed under his breath and shifted away from Noelle, careful not to disturb her. If she only knew half the things he’d done in his long life, she would not be sleeping so peacefully.

  Henri, we need to talk. The thought came through loud and clear. Refusing to oblige that deadly command was never an option compatible with continued life. If the enforcer spoke, you obeyed.

  ***

  Noelle woke up alone in the huge bed. Dim lighting cast an eerie glow around the room and it would have been easy to imagine herself back in time. However, the glow came from low electric lighting set back in the walls, not candlelight. Huge steel shutters on the windows were another give away to the reason the room was cast in semidarkness. It had to be light out by now and sun and vampires didn’t mix too well, she knew that much. Neither did Hope.

  Oh God, Hope! She had to get back to her. She’d been gone all night, and damn it, she had to at least ring and make sure she was okay. Where the hell was her phone? It was all well and good to have wild sex with a vampire—her heart skidded to a stop and her hand shot up to her neck, but all she encountered was smooth, unmarked skin.

  Has she told you about the girl yet?

  Oh goody, the voices were back.

  Henri’s anguished howl traveling in through the open door galvanized her into action. She shrugged into his abandoned shirt as she hurried from the room, her lips curling in regret at the reminder of his injuries.

  “Non, c’est impossible!” The pain in Henri’s voice sent a shiver of dread through her. What in God’s name was going on here? She all but ran down the stairs, skidding to an abrupt halt at the bottom, the sight in front of her too incredulous to believe.

  Henri, dressed in nothing but low riding jeans, was talking to thin air, well, shimmering air. As she watched, the air shifted and formed into a man. Over six-feet of hard muscle, his shaven head and intimidating stature making her shiver. Half of his face was covered by what appeared to be some kind of tribal tattoo. It trailed down his neck where it disappeared into his shirt and Noelle sat down on the bottom step with a thump. That voice—the same voice that had haunted her for weeks—belonged to this, this, whatever he was, but judging by the way Henri bowed his head in submission, he was someone important. And he was talking about Hope.

  Good morning, Noelle. I see you found him.

  The familiar voice in her head had a slightly mocking tone, leaving Noelle painfully aware of what she must look like, perched on the bottom step, clutching a bloodstained shirt closed around herself while this thing looked her over from head to toe. How dare he? And how dare he waltz in here and speak about my daughter as though he has a right to? “Get out of my head, you freak, and stay the hell away from my daughter!”

  The thing just chuckled, before addressing Henri. “You may want to teach your woman some manners, Henri. You know what you have to do. She isn’t strong enough to protect the child.”

  The look aimed at Noelle chilled her bones almost as much as the quietly uttered words hanging in the stillness of the house. This was surreal. At least he hadn’t used that disturbing talking-in-her-head thing, but that was hardly reassuring. What did he mean? She wasn’t strong enough to protect Hope? Protect her from what?

  She scrambled to her feet as the air started shimmering around the other man again, and he began to fade. He said something to Henri in a foreign language she didn’t understand just before he disappeared.

  “Henri? Who was that?” Fear made her voice a mere whisper. The pain in Henri’s eyes when he turned slowly to face her had her clutching the shirt in a white-knuckled grip. Oh shit, he so was not taking this well.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  The tone of those carefully enunciated words could have cut glass and the barely controlled anger behind them stirred her own temper as he slowly advanced toward her. He looked every inch the predator, his pale complexion even more drained of color, fangs fully extended, hands shaped into claws, his eyes narrowed to slits. Noelle swallowed nervously. Seeing him on the edge, danger pouring off his half-naked frame, muscles rippling as he moved with seemingly effortless grace, really shouldn’t turn her on, but, heaven help her, it did! There was something seriously wrong with her. Well, clearly there was. She was here, wasn’t she? She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to stake or kiss the vampire towering over her now, grabbing her arms in a bruising grip.

  “Putain, Noelle! Why did you not tell me?” he roared, shaking her body with every word. His anger and frustration flowed off him in waves.

  Damn the man, how dare he turn this round on her? She shoved against his chest with all the strength she could muster, glaring up at him, and he let her go. “And when was I supposed to tell you, exactly?” Her own anger made her voice shrill and Henri visibly winced. “When I found out, wondering how I could be pregnant when I only had the vaguest memories of that night, because you saw fit to take them away?” Noelle noticed the slight flush on his cheekbones with great satisfaction.

  “I was trying to protect you—” She cut off his mumbled protest with a dismissive wave of her hand and a snarl of her own, which made him take another step back.

  “Spare me! Protect me from what exactly? Did you think me so stupid that I couldn’t handle the truth? You never even gave me a chance, damn you. You just took it on yourself to decide what was best for my life and, ultimately, Hope’s, and in doing so, condemned her to six years of pain and misery.” He flinched again and tried to say something, but Noelle was having none of it.

  “Do you have any idea what the last six years have been like for us? Do you? Do you? She’s been so ill, and no one could help her. No one.” Her voice broke as memories swamped her. Memories of test after test, the painful burns on her skin that took weeks to heal, the pain filled cries, and the gut wrenching fear that Hope wouldn’t make it. And all this time the answer was right there. Her father was a vampire. It was so fucking obvious when you thought about it, it was laughable. Instead of laughing however, Noelle burst into tears. Six years of worry and the events of the last twenty-four hours were just too much.

  “Noelle, belle.” Henri pulled her into a hug, murmuring in French into her ear, his hand drawing soothing circles on her back. “Je suis désolé. I would never have left you had I known this was going to happen. Please believe me, belle.”

  The sincerity in his voice cut through Noelle’s despair and deflated the last remnants of her anger. When he gently tugged her head up, she didn’t resist the butterfly kisses he rained on her cheeks to dry her tears. He touched his forehead to hers with a sigh, and they stood, just seeking comfort in each other’s touch.

  “This never should have happened, Noelle.”

  Noelle stiffened at the whispered words and pushed away from him. “Well, it did. Hope is yours.” Fury made her voice hoarse. How dare he doubt her?

  “Non, you misunderstand me.” Henri tugged her back into his frame and cupped her chin with one hand, forcing her to look up at him. The sheer agony she saw in his eyes erased her anger.

  “Vamps cannot have children, at least not unless specific criteria are met.”

  “Criteria?” Noelle echoed. “What do you mean?”

  Henri’s sigh whispered across her face and some of the agony in his eyes was replaced by wonder. “If a vampire has children before she is turned and then creates a vampire who meets one of the descendants of her original human children, then and only then, is there a chance of a pregnancy.” Henri released her slightly and shook his head in wonder. “Th
e chances of that are extremely slim because the punishments are severe. The enforcer would never permit it to occur. In fact it has never happen before in history…until now.”

  Noelle’s head started to hurt. This was all too confusing. “So you and me…we…what?”

  Henri smiled at her confusion. “My maker Antonia is one of the rare vamps who had children before she was turned. It seems that you are one of her descendants.”

  Chapter Five

  They drove back to Noelle’s house in tense silence. Henri’s specially adapted luxury car affording him the protection he needed to move in daylight. Nonetheless, the brief exposure necessary to exit the car at Noelle’s block of flats had him breaking out in welts and Noelle’s eyes had widened at the sight.

  She was too pale for his liking, her eyes haunted, after he’d filled her in on Noah’s edict. Their daughter was the first of her kind—a human-vampire hybrid. Noah had been looking for the “child of destiny” as he called her, an ancient prophecy now come to life, for centuries. Henri knew there was more to it than the enforcer had been willing to impart. What he had shared was devastating enough. For Hope to survive, she needed to drink the blood of both her parents on an ongoing basis. It would make her immortal and the first vampire ever to walk in the sun. She would reach womanhood and then stop aging, but the price for this was Noelle’s mortality.

  The woman he loved—he glanced at her again in the dim light of the tiny flat’s hallway, the truth of his feelings like a punch to the gut—would be condemned to live in the shadows forever. It was up to Henri to turn her. If he didn’t comply, the enforcer would send someone else to do the job, and the thought of another man’s hands on Noelle was enough to make him want to tear that person limb from limb.

  Any lesser human would have had a nervous breakdown, but not his brave Noelle. She’d swayed slightly, so that he’d had to steady her, before that inner core of steel he’d always known she’d possessed, had pulled her shoulders back, and simply nodded.

  “Are you ready?”

  Her soft voice pulled him out of his musings, his heart beating faster in anticipation. He was going to meet his daughter. His daughter! Once, a long, long time ago, when he had still been human, he’d taken the knowledge that he would have children for granted. In his arrogance, he’d assumed to have lots of time until all that potential had been wiped away in an instant. Lured in by the beauty of the female vampire, he’d realized too late what Antonia was. While it had given him all the time in the world, it had robbed him of the one thing he hadn’t even known he wanted so badly—his own child. Until now that is.

  He followed Noelle into a child’s bedroom. He smiled at the bright pink walls and the fairy princess curtains drawn against the light, casting the room into semidarkness. A doll’s house stood in one corner, a bookcase filled to the brim with children’s books in another, childish drawings displayed on the walls. He could picture Noelle sitting in the rocking chair, occupying the other corner, rocking their child back to sleep, and his throat constricted with pent-up emotion.

  “Don’t be alarmed by all the equipment, it’s just to monitor her, Henri.” Noelle’s eyes filled with tears as she whispered to him. She stepped past the heart monitor and sat down on the bed, taking their daughter’s hand.

  The little girl was fast asleep, curled up on her side. The oxygen tracks under her nose, connected to the cylinder hanging on the back of her bed, testament to how ill she was. The steady beat of the monitor was far too loud in the quiet room. Hope looked like a miniature version of her mother. Rich auburn waves framed a heart shaped, delicate face, the skin so luminous and fragile that every vein was clearly visible. His nose flared at the scent of blood. The drip set up in Hope’s other arm slowly feeding her much needed blood, a pitiful substitute that barely kept her alive.

  “I had to fight to bring her home, but I’m a qualified nurse now, so her care falls to me. She is better off here than being gawked at in hospital. There is nothing else they can do for her anyway.”

  Noelle’s stumbling explanation broke the last of his self-control. He did this. He brought this onto them, and there and then, he swore to himself that he would do whatever it took to protect his girls. Mother and daughter, forever his.

  Noelle smiled at him through watery eyes when he bent down to kiss Hope’s forehead and the little girl’s eyes fluttered open. She had his eyes—too big for her delicate face—they focused on him with a frown, before she saw Noelle and broke into a tired smile.

  “Mummy, you’re back.”

  “Yes, baby, and there is someone I want you to meet. This is your daddy, Hope, and he’s come to make you all better.”

  What his little girl said next would stay with him forever. “I know, I saw him in my dreams. Don’t cry, Mummy, it will all be okay.”

  ***

  Noelle stared into space, clutching the coffee as though her life depended on it. The last two days of rain had turned into one of those rare, truly sunny days, and she lifted her face into the warm rays. So much had happened since last night at The Blood Bar. Henri had insisted on moving them all back to his place immediately. It was lightproof and, as he put it, far more secure than her trou de merde. Having her home referred to as a shithole had caused one of their many arguments, but he had been right, of course. She had agreed only for Hope’s sake. After he’d blanked the memories of the babysitter and all of her neighbors—that action had caused another argument—even after she had to concur that questions would be asked about her sudden disappearance and Hope’s miraculous recovery otherwise.

  But, damn it, she hated the fact that he held all the cards. Seeing his relationship with Hope blossom and the instantaneous affects his blood had on her had been wonderful to see. At first graphic images of Hope feeding from Henri’s neck had plagued her, but she needn’t have worried over how she was going to get Hope to drink from Henri.

  She smiled, recalling how Henri had frowned at the bags of donated blood. Noelle’s nursing skills had come in handy when he’d insisted that they set Hope up with an infusion of his blood immediately. In the end, they had waited until Hope was asleep. They didn’t have to wait long. She’d been so ill; she couldn’t stay awake for any length of time. Hope had been almost healed straight away and the transfusions had been replaced by a daily blood tonic. Far from objecting to the taste, Hope looked forward to her new daily treat, delivered in a glass tumbler with her favorite curly straw. She never saw Henri bite into his own wrist to deliver the life-sustaining fluid to his daughter.

  There was color in her cheeks and she was off the oxygen, but there was one last step still to be done to ensure her daughter would live a full and healthy life. She needed Noelle’s blood too. For it to be effective, Henri had to turn Noelle. He refused up until now, but they had been summoned back to The Blood Bar tonight, and if she turned up still human…

  “Noelle.” Henri’s deep voice calling her from the shadowy interior made her turn her back on the sun. She could just about see him. His eyes sought hers, and she saw the resignation in them, mixed with so much emotion it took her breath away. There had been times when she thought she’d caught a glimpse of some deep feeling in his eyes that he normally only showed to Hope before he looked away. With her, he was openly affectionate. Around Noelle, he kept his distance and every time she’d brought up the subject of his turning her, his shutters came down ever harder. He’d seen to every one of her needs, and the sex had been fantastic, but she hadn’t been able to reach him at all.

  “Is it time?” She hated the way her voice wobbled. She wanted this, didn’t she? She had pestered him constantly over the last two days, but now that the moment was here, her throat constricted, her heart beat a painful rhythm against her breastbone, and fear held her in an icy grip. Even the warmth of the sun on her back couldn’t thaw the cold tendril.

  “Oui, mon amour. Il est temps.”

  Leaving the warmth and light of the balcony behind, she stepped into the shadows and i
nto Henri’s arms. “Hope?” she asked, resting her head on Henri’s shoulder. Did his arms tremble?

  “She’s asleep.” His voice sounded hoarse, as though he was on the verge of tears, but that was ridiculous. He was stuck with her because of Hope, but that didn’t mean that he cared any more for her than a convenient lay, surely. Even as she thought that, the stiff way he held himself, while stroking her back with infinite gentleness, put lies to that thought.

  “Henri, why have you left this to the last minute?”

  If possible, he tensed even more, his voice a mere whisper of choked emotion that he couldn’t hide. Noelle’s heart stopped before it started racing.

  “Belle, I…I can’t condemn you to a life of…of…”

  “Of what, Henri?” Noelle put her hands on either side of his face, and the tears in his eyes sent that expectant little voice in her head into a shouting frenzy. He cares about me; he really does care! She had to strain to hear his soft words.

  “I do not wish to turn you into a monster…” His eyes sought hers at her sharp intake of breath, and he frowned at her expression.

  “You’re not a monster. If you were, that would make Hope one, too, and you wouldn’t be here, would you, if you didn’t care?” Her own voice trembled as she continued. “And I could never love a monster, Henri.”