Page 71 of The Alpha

“Are… are you royalty?”

He giggled. “That also depends on who you ask.” Melvale’s eyes locked on hers and began to turn blue. “Know this, my delicate one. You are safe with me. Should anyone dare touch you, their lives are forfeit. My sole purpose is to make you happy, see you are protected, cared for.”

Her tears started again. “But why? I don’t understand.”

He brushed her bangs to the side. “What I’ve said has shocked you,” he whispered. Melvale put his face to her hair and sniffed it before resting his head against hers. “There’s no need to be afraid.”

“I’m… n-not afraid.”

“You are my beautiful heart.” He held her closer. “Do not be. I am here.”

Before she could stop herself, the words slipped out. “Bondrah Miah?”

“Yes, Kahtala Miah.” He held her closer and to her utter surprise, began to sing.

His voice was beautiful, the music pleasant, like a lullaby. Pari couldn’t help but close her eyes as he gently rocked back and forth. He sang a few moments longer, stopped, and whispered to her in another language, his own, she guessed.

At this point, she didn’t care. Between his singing and his whispering in his own tongue, she’d gone limp as a rag doll.

She was far from home in more ways than one and should be scared out of her mind but wasn’t. Instead she was being rocked to sleep by a big, sexy, hot alien man that from all outward appearances had a thing for her. But for the life of her, Pari couldn’t figure out why. And that was the scariest thing of all.

“My little one, my heart,” he whispered into her hair. “Raina is waiting.” He loosened his hold on her and gazed into her eyes. “Refresh yourself, you’ll feel much better.”

“I dunno,” she said, voice weak. “I feel pretty darn good now.”

He smiled down at her, blue eyes searching hers, and ran a finger along the edge of her ear much the same way she’d done to his earlier. “You are beautiful beyond compare; do you know that?”

She swallowed hard and met his gaze. “Bondrah…”

“Yes?”

“It’s you.”

He smiled. “Yes.”

“Why do your eyes change color?”

He smiled again. “I will tell you later.” He ran a finger down her nose. “Now go. Before I am unable to release you.”

Her eyebrows shot up. She wasn’t sure what that meant, but decided she’d better do what he said.

Pari slid off his lap. She was still a little unsteady, and he held her arm until she straightened.

Pari took a deep breath, and without a word, headed for the big room with the pool.

She found Raina sitting next to a pile of towels, her dress pulled up to her thighs as she swung her legs back and forth in the water. “I’m here,” Pari announced. “Sorry, we were talking.”

“Yes, I know.” Raina pulled her legs from the water and got to her feet. “Are you okay? Did he tell you?”

She went to the stack of towels. “Uh, yeah. We’re no longer in New York.” She pulled off her top and tossed it on the floor. “And we’ve time traveled like a thousand and some years into the future.” She striped off her sleeping shorts. “Is there shampoo?” Before Raina could answer, Pari jumped in the pool. The water was cold, but she didn’t care.

Raina began to take off her clothes. “I could do with a swim.” She folded her dress and some sort of petticoat she wore underneath it, and got in. “The water spilling out of the fountain is warm.”

Pari swam toward the huge three-tiered fountain in the middle of the pool and put a hand beneath the water spilling from the top tiers into the bottom one. “Oh, that’s nice.”

Raina swam around the fountain. “Everything you need is over here.”

Pari followed. The water was over their heads, but as she swam around to the other side of the fountain, it grew shallower. “I have to get me one of these.”

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