The Alpha's Read online

  This was it; hell has claimed me sooner than I thought. “Please let this be a bad dream.”

  “It’s okay. It won’t touch us. I’ll make sure of it.”

  “This is your doing?” Ana’s mind wandered back to their earlier supernatural conversation that she’d so casually dismissed and remembered his claims of angelic superpowers.

  “Now do you believe me?” He almost sounded proud to have scared her half to death and she might have slapped him if not for the threat of falling into the gates of hell below.

  “W-where are we?” she stuttered, thinking she could see the impressive sight equally as well from solid ground, without dangling precariously above it. He was just showing off.

  “Sicily. Mount Etna to be precise.” He sighed wistfully.

  “This is real? I haven’t fallen asleep against the radiator and dreamed the whole thing up?” She kind of hoped she had. It would make infinitely more sense than believing they had teleported to stare into the fiery pit of a volcano.

  “It’s the reality of who I am. Perhaps not for very much longer though,” Zanaan answered, adding more mystery to the occasion, as if it were needed.

  Beads of sweat began to form on Ana’s forehead. “Could we discuss this somewhere a bit less burny?” She daren’t think about what would happen if her clammy palms let go of the only thing between her and incineration.

  “Of course. I’m sorry. Sometimes I forget you’re human.” He whisked her away in that whirlwind once more, her last coherent thought trying to decide whether or not to take offense at that comment.

  They traveled the short distance, in zippy Elemental terms, to the bottom of the mountain, bypassing the trail of lava and ash. She let go of him to stand on her own two feet.

  “I’m beginning to see how open-minded I can be,” she said. “So, why don’t we start from the top, you know, the part where you tell me you’re an angel?” Dammit! Why couldn’t she have picked up a regular working class guy for her dirty weekend and then gone home? It would have been much simpler, with a lot less motion sickness involved.

  “Fire Elemental,” he said softly. “I can control fire.”

  “You have power over this?” She gestured to the magnificent surroundings.

  “I have some influence over it, yes.”

  Ana struggled to get her head around it all. How could one man have control over such a destructive force? “But how does that protect the earth? Surely erupting volcanoes willy-nilly wipes out everything in their path?” A sudden thought struck her. “All that ash cloud business in Iceland that brought the world to a standstill, was your doing?”

  “My people, yes,” he admitted.

  “They don’t seem a particularly noble people if you ask me.” Ana sniffed. Trust her to take up with a band of hoodlum angels.

  “And that’s exactly why I’m leaving them behind.”

  Chapter Five

  Finally free from his father’s tyranny and having said goodbye to his heritage, it was now time to look to the future. “Let’s go back.” He took Ana’s hand.

  Ana resisted his hold. “Whoa, Sparky! You can’t dump that on me and not explain.”

  Here we go. The painful truth behind the fairytale. “I’ll tell you everything, but we need to get back before we’re stranded here.” He didn’t know how much time he had left.

  Without giving her a chance to protest, he pulled her into his arms and delivered them back to Scotland, stopping long enough to enjoy the view from the highest vantage point he could find. Perched on the walls of Edinburgh’s historic castle, the city stretched before them in a fantastic carpet of twinkling lights.

  Ana dangled her feet over the edge of the battlements. “It’s a fabulous delaying tactic, but I still want details, Zanaan.”

  He inhaled a great big lungful of crisp night air in preparation of expelling his deep, dark secrets. “The Salamanders are a very mischievous race.”

  “I never would have guessed.” Ana’s sarcasm took him back to his antics in the bar.

  “Yeah, shocker, I know.” He grinned. “Djin, our ruler, employs a unique way of preserving order in the universe. He likes to demonstrate nature’s power and remind humanity they are merely residing in our world. Forest fires, volcanic eruptions, he feeds on the fear he unleashes.”

  “And you don’t agree with him?” She appeared to seek confirmation he wasn’t the same ruthless son of a bitch.

  “No. Given a choice, I’d prefer a more practical, hands-on approach to saving the earth, minus the devastation. It’s a belief that saw me cast out from my kingdom to wander between the worlds, belonging to neither.” A nonexistence endured for too long that he had been powerless to change. Until now. Thanks to Ana, becoming human meant he could finally call somewhere home.

  “That’s awful. What about your family?” She touched his leg in reassurance, tugging at heartstrings he didn’t know he possessed.

  “Ah, yes. The kicker. Djin is my father.” He resisted saying it in dramatic fashion.

  Ana’s sharp intake of breath sounded next to him. “Oh, Zanaan. I’m so sorry. I know what it’s like to have a parent push you into the family business.” She looked sheepish for a moment. “Well, I suppose being emotionally blackmailed into running a toyshop isn’t quite the same as destroying civilization, but at least you’ve made the break.”

  “And you haven’t?” He couldn’t believe this firecracker, in whom he’d met his match, would prove timid in any situation after tonight.

  “Not yet, but it’s coming,” she said ominously. “Just because we lost Dad doesn’t mean Mum can cling onto me forever, does it? I think it would do us both good to spend some time apart and learn to live independently.”

  “Good for you.” He knew that lonely road too well and the courage it took to walk it.

  “If all this supernatural stuff is true, then I should go and warn my friends.” Ana swung her legs back over the wall.

  “I’m sure they’ve figured it out for themselves by now, and though I have nothing but contempt for the mutants they’re with, I don’t believe they would harm your friends.” Zanaan’s observations over the past years told him a lot. Apart from the “mine’s bigger than yours” mentality that went on among the freaks, there wasn’t a great deal to worry about. “They might have designs on their minds for a good time, but they don’t kill for sport.”

  Ana didn’t look reassured by his character analysis. “I feel bad for walking out on the girls and thinking the worst. If they’re all under the same spell as I was, they could be in any amount of trouble with those men, or whatever they are. I’d like to check in with them.” Ana’s nurturing spirit gave him one more reason to love her. Love. A completely alien notion to someone who had neither given nor received it in the past. But the need for her company, the concern for her well-being and the unprecedented joy he experienced with her every kiss told him that’s what he felt for Ana. Rather than fear it, he embraced this strange emotion and looked forward to the challenges it might bring.

  ***

  Arms circled around each other’s waist, Zanaan spirited them into the ether. They landed with an unceremonious thump in nearby Princes Street Gardens.

  “Ouch!” Ana rubbed her rapidly bruising backside. “That wasn’t quite the smooth ride I’d gotten used to.”

  Zanaan helped her to her feet. “Sorry. It’s happening quicker than I thought.”

  “What is? What are you keeping from me now?” She prodded him in the chest, fed-up with the drip feed of information so obviously important to him, especially when she had the worry of potential knicker-dropping friends on her mind too.

  “There’s a legend, told for centuries about our people, which said an Elemental could gain his soul and become mortal by sleeping with a human.” Zanaan finally spilled the last of his secrets.

  “Like the whole ‘vampire with a soul’ thing in reverse?”

  He gave her a blank look.

  “You never saw that show?�
�� She couldn’t believe that had passed him by, given the same saving-the-world angst he could have empathized with. Not a flicker of recognition crossed his face. “Okay, so the heroic vampire was in love with the vampire slayer, and when they slept together—wham! He lost his soul and many end-of-the-world hijinks ensued. With you, it would be the other way round.” She mulled over the image of Zanaan morphing into a fragile imitation of his bad boy self before the information sank in. “Is that what’s happening to you now?”

  “I think so. It would explain the gradual loss of my powers.” Zanaan calmly dropped the bombshell, stopping her in her tracks.

  “Is that why you slept with me?” The cold, unyielding truth behind their union caused her heart to ice over. One more knock to her self-esteem, and it might just shatter into a million pieces.

  She should have known something screwy was going on when an attractive, charismatic man showed interest in her. What did she think made the boring virgin so irresistible? Listening to her whine about her mother? Or one night with a sexually inexperienced loser? No, mortality and a chance to piss off his father won her a place in his bed.

  The thought that that was the only reason for his pursuit weighed heavily upon her. In the course of one night, Zanaan had captured a piece of her and changed her forever. Not only had she discovered more about herself through him, but she couldn’t imagine being that person without him. Finding out she was possibly a means to an end would kill any blossom of hope for a future.

  “No. We didn’t have sex so I could play at human roulette with the possibility that you might be the one to change me,” he said firmly, chasing away her doubts. “We slept together, I hope, because we wanted to and not as a result of horny mermen or supernatural lore. I know from the first moment you fixed those chocolate eyes on me, I lost my heart to you, Ana. That’s unheard of for an Elemental. Just being with you makes me more human.”

  What could she really say to that when she was so choked with emotion? Surely, someone who intended to use her and walk away wouldn’t waste his time on romantic sentiment worthy of a swoon. Convinced that his feelings for her were indeed genuine, she let her body do the talking. She locked her hands behind his head and pulled him down to meet her questing mouth.

  Zanaan losing his powers made no difference; that spark between them burned as brightly as before. Mouths crashing together, body ground against body, attune to each other’s needs, they tumbled down onto the grass. Ana landed on top, a position they both seemed comfortable with.

  He pushed her skirt high on her thighs and stroked bare skin, sending her wild. Two can play that game. She boldly caressed the bulge hidden beneath his jeans and slowly popped open his fly. Pulling his cock free, Ana marveled at how quickly he responded to her touch. The hard length of him in her hand made her wet in anticipation and she rubbed his head against her arousal-soaked underwear.

  His hands were everywhere, ripping at her blouse, delving into her black lace bra, exposing her breasts to his lusty approval. The cold air sensitized her already hard nipples, and when he closed his hot mouth around the tight buds, she was in bad girl heaven. She wanted him, here in the shadows of the public gardens, she wanted him inside her, and he knew it.

  Pulling her panties to one side, he drove into her. The satisfying fill of his thick cock in her slick pussy made her want to purr, and slipping up and down his shaft, she didn’t care about anything other than the pleasure.

  What has he done to me? Hands flat against the inflexible muscle of his torso; she steadied herself to accept every pump of those sexy hips into her, his panting breath matching the rhythm of his plundering cock.

  As she tugged at his T-shirt in search of a flat nipple to suck on, he bucked wildly beneath her. Control had been passed onto her, and she reveled in it. She clenched her pussy around his cock, demanding the guttural groan and increase in the tempo of his thrusts in return.

  Pulling at her hair, fucking her with everything he had, he came with a pussy-drenching cry. He left her no time for smugness. With his cock still inside her, he slid a finger in to tease her clit and finish what he’d started. Her climax came so quickly, so intensely, it drained her.

  She laughed, collapsing onto his chest. “I can’t move.”

  “Mmm. Maybe we’ll just stay like this forever,” he said, sounding half asleep and equally reluctant to withdraw.

  “I think the Council might have something to say about that.” Ana imagined an elderly park keeper would not find it amusing, stumbling across their seminaked bodies in the morning.

  She levered herself off, leaving his cock exposed, and attempted to straighten her clothes. With her missing buttons and grass-stained knees, she didn’t know how she would get back to the hotel without drawing attention to herself.

  Chapter Six

  “So, what now?” Ana asked when they resumed their trip. “Becoming human’s one thing, but practically speaking, where do you go from here?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll apply for a job in the Blood Bar.” Zanaan hadn’t thought past the physical repercussions. Though, even now, they were manifesting quite painfully. His thighs ached from walking, and after their bout of hanky-panky in the park, exhaustion made him want to sleep where he stood. This being human lark hurt, he thought, longing for his hill-busting powers already.

  “Stop being such a wimp!” Ana scolded when he paused for another breather. “We need to get you down to the gym to get you used to exercising those muscles.” Her mischievous smile glittered in the moonlight and called to the one part of his body that never seemed to tire.

  “I can think of better ways to improve my stamina,” he said, and lunged, grabbing her by the waist. At least his libido hadn’t suffered any adverse effects. If anything, the sheer love he harbored for this woman heightened his desire. He smothered Ana’s surprised shriek with his mouth, and their passionate kiss caused a renewed stir in his loins.

  Suddenly, the still night air surrounding their embrace exploded into a curtain of flames. Zanaan shielded Ana’s body with his own, taking the full blast of skin-scorching heat.

  “Is it a bomb?” Ana’s trembling voice sounded, muffled against his chest.

  A natural assumption given the troubles her country had seen, but he knew this to be much worse than that. “It’s not a bomb.” As the temperature dropped, he peeled her off his person and combed her hair from her frightened face. “It’s my father.”

  Those big brown eyes grew wider and he stepped aside to let her witness potentially the worst ever meet-the-parents scenario.

  The enormous spiral of fire flickered and sparked from the pavement, the living flame gradually forming into the imposing figure of his father. The familiar red cloak swirled around his hard, muscular frame, the powerful physique at odds with the wrinkled, aged face staring back at Zanaan through eyes of hot coals.

  “Well, Father, what brings you here? I doubt it’s the weather. You’ve developed a craving for fine Scottish shortbread, perhaps?” Zanaan knew the sarcasm was in direct relation to the hurt he’d lived with since the estrangement. But he didn’t have a tight enough grip on his new emotions to deal with this reunion right now.

  “We have important matters to discuss, son.” The crackling fire like tone of Djin’s voice immediately caused a feeling of loss for his fellow countrymen deep inside Zanaan.

  Djin opened his robes to unveil the calling flames of home, and though Zanaan pined for his family—irrespective of the past—right now, his heart remained with Ana.

  “Whatever you have to say, do so here, in front of Ana,” he insisted. He wouldn’t be sucked away from her now without any apparent means to get back.

  Djin’s eyes glowed with embers of interest, roaming over Ana’s quiet form. “Ah, this is the one? The human who took you from us?”

  Zanaan wrapped a protective arm around Ana, who far from quaking in the presence of Angelic Royalty, stood strong by his side. “She didn’t ‘take’ me from anyone. You cast me
out, remember? You have no right to be pissed because I finally belong somewhere. How the hell did you know about the transformation anyway?” Was his life still to be governed by his father, regardless of the body and world he now resided in? The thought moved gray clouds into his newfound paradise, and though he didn’t think it possible, he resented it even more to have Djin back in his life.

  “We are still bonded. I sensed the change, Zanaan, the burning desire in your heart for this human a beacon in this frigid land. We have waited eons to see the prophecy fulfilled, and now that it has begun, I have much to tell you.” For once, his father addressed him in a respectful manner.

  Zanaan didn’t feel the urge to reply in kind. “Yeah, yeah. I slept with a human, and now I am one. You can rest easy in the knowledge the great Djin was right all along. So, you go back to your world of flame and fury, and leave me to this one.” Finally at peace with who he was, Zanaan didn’t need anything to ruin his new life before it began.

  “I cannot, will not, apologize for the past. Letting you go was a necessary part of your path, Zanaan. Your destiny was written centuries ago and rendered me powerless to intervene, even if it signals the end of our world.” The drama of Djin’s words was enhanced by the flaring flame in his eyes.

  What? Apparently even my parent will stoop to emotional blackmail to get his own way, albeit on a somewhat grander scale than Ana’s mother. “You’re trying to tell me that over two hundred years ago, some soothsayer predicted I would get jiggy with Ana and start Armageddon? I had no idea I was so virile.” Zanaan regretted the levity of his words when Ana bristled under his touch.

  Djin sighed, a hissing, crackling noise that failed to provide the same comfort as the open fire it imitated. “I am not here to fight against you, son, but with you. I have come to warn you of the dangers you will face in the immediate future.”