Page 14 of Alpha's Magic

He whispered in my ear. “If he means Rozamond, the queen of Morovia, she died just about a week ago. Could that be mere coincidence?”

“I don’t know. Her death could have been what broke the spell.”

The omega turned to stare into the fire. I went to stand beside him, and he let me put my hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

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Leo

It was Asher who stood beside me and touched me. I knew because he was the one who smelled like brownies. His hair was golden, and when he stood in the entry to the passage and looked at me, his gaze had roved up and down and his nostrils flared wide. His eyes were icy blue, but still somehow, they managed to smolder at me. His clothes were rich looking and just a bit too tight across his broad shoulders and his lean hips. It was a good look on him. I’d never been so attracted to anyone before.

I kind of wanted to obey him, and not just because I was a little scared of him, though that played a big part in it. But I didn’t know these Alphas and whether or not they’d known Rozamond, and I couldn’t be bothered to care. Even though he’d said—they’d both said—they wouldn’t hurt me, I didn’t necessarily believe them, and I had no intention of telling them everything. What they didn’t know about me wouldn’t hurt them, after all. Too much had happened to me in my life for me to blindly trust anyone ever again. I sniffed the air, and there it was, like I knew it would be, that smell of a chocolate treat that I hadn’t had in years and only barely remembered. A dizzying rush of pleasure shot through me as I breathed it in.

I wanted incredible things when I leaned toward him. I wanted him to take me into his arms so I could cling to him, nuzzling my face in his throat and licking him there to see if he would taste like chocolate too. I wanted him to lie down on top of me while he did lovely things to my body. I wanted him so badly I could feel an excitement buzzing through me. Grimora hadn’t mentioned anything like this, but then I probably wouldn’t have believed him if he had.

After a moment, Asher helped me to my feet and took my arm. “Let’s go sit down,” he said, but it was really kind of an order. I don’t think he was even aware of it. I didn’t mind it though. “You can take off that fur and get comfortable.”

“I can’t. I’m not wearing any clothes.”

His face got a darker shade of red, and it was already pretty red to start with. He waved a hand over my head and in a soft voice, he said, “Facere vesta.” The dirty fur disappeared, and a long velvet robe rose from the floor and engulfed my body, covering me from my toes to my neck. The first thing I did was to clutch my amulet and make sure it was still there and untouched, and it was, thank the gods.

The robe was warm and soft and had leather covered buttons all down the front. I gasped in surprise. It was way too big, of course, as the man was so tall and muscular, he was probably a poor judge of omega sizes. Why were Alphas so much bigger than everyone else anyway?

“All right,” I said, once I’d looked down at myself. The smelly fur was gone—vanished completely. And my skin felt fresh and clean, like it had been newly washed and perfumed. My hair too. The robe that had taken the place of the fur came down to the floor and trailed after me. The sleeves were way down over my hands, but it was soft and warm, and his scent was somehow all over it and thus over me now too. I inhaled deeply.

“We need to talk to you, Leo,” the one called Lex said, looking serious. I think he’d been startled by the dark magic display I’d done earlier, and so had I, really. I had never had ill will for anyone before or after that horrible Rozamond. My magic wasn’t even all that dark, I thought. Not in the way my father had described it to me. It was simply different than theirs, and it all depended on intent and will. If you felt ill will for someone and held bad feelings for someone like I did for Rozamond, then the outcome could be really wicked indeed. But if there was no ill will—if indeed, the intent was only for good—then nothing bad happened at all. If she was really dead, like I’d heard them say, none of my bad wishes for her had done a thing to hurt her, because I hadn’t really been thinking of her. But maybe they thought I’d done something to her.

I agreed to go with them to talk. They both looked a little serious and upset.

I wondered if the blond Asher was getting used to my scent, because I knew I still needed to take an actual bath as soon as I could, but I did need to sit down with them first. And I needed to think about what the Alphas had told me. The witch queen Rozamond was dead. She was gone, and I was finally free.

They thought that her death might explain why I was out from under her rotten spell, although I knew it was really the amulet. I felt no need to share that information with them. What if they tried to take my amulet away? Surely, it must be valuable. No, I’d keep that information to myself.

Was it bad to be happy when someone died? Even if it were someone who had hurt you so much? If it was, then I didn’t care. I was still thrilled that Rozamond was gone.

We sat down on the little benches I’d helped Grimora make long ago when I first came to the Cave. I tried to sit next to Asher, but Lex pulled his arm and indicated that he wanted him in the seat next to him, so that they were both sitting across from me. I glanced at them curiously.

“Well? What did you want to say to me? I’m not sorry she’s dead, if that’s what this is.”

“Leo, help me make sense of all this. Did you attack the village that Grimora went to after you found his body?

“No. I told you. I ran there at first, because I thought they might have hurt him and I was angry, but when I arrived it was already destroyed.”

“So you had nothing to do with it?”

“No.”

“All right. Now, why did you say Queen Rozamond—the late queen of Morovia—was the one who laid a curse on you and turned you into a monster?”

“Because it was.”

“The queen was known to be a very religious woman. She surrounded herself with her priests.”

“Then maybe she was a liar too. I don’t know. She was pure evil,” I spit out at them, “no matter who she surrounded herself with. She put a powder in my father’s drink to turn him into a beast, but I knocked his hand away and took it instead. Then she killed him and my mother too.”

They glanced at each other incredulously, but Asher took up the questioning.

“Who was your father, Leo? Help me understand why she would do such a terrible thing.”

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