Burning the Alpha

CHAPTER TWELVE

I have no sense of smell.

Or, more accurately, I don't tend to register things like 'scent', or 'odour'.

What I do tend to notice is atmosphere - particularly if it's flammable.

For example, I can walk into a room and know, to the last second, how long it would take me to burn it to the ground. Alternatively, I can tell you that River always had a particularly moisture-heavy atmosphere around him - not great for starting fires.

Sitting in that office with Shaun, I can't tell you the atmosphere was flammable - that would be a lie - but, I can tell you that there was a certain electricity in the air that I hadn't experienced before.

"If I were to try and kiss you," he whispered, face now a breath away from mine, "would you burn my face off?"

"Why would you try to kiss me?" I asked.

I'd seen kisses before. They were usually accompanied by tears, and asking for impossible favours, like; 'please, don't leave me', 'please, come back'. That sort of thing.

He leaned back. "Do you really not feel it?"

"Feeling is a very--" I started.

"Don't say it." He stopped me. He ran his hands through his hair and stood up again. "You're doing my head in."

This time I stood up as well.

"I'm not doing it on purpose. This...I tried to warn you..." I'm not proud of what I said next. In my defence, I was not in my right mind at the time. "Fine. If you want to kiss me so bad, then just kiss me!"

He didn't need to hear it twice. In one swift motion, he swept me up and braced me against the wall. His lips captured mine, tongue tasting, invading, searching my mouth.

It's weird to have to admit this, but, it was a new experience for me. My inner flame pulsed, and threatened to take me over. I had to concentrate very hard to keep my temperature down, I didn't want to hurt him.

"I can't tell you how long I've wanted to do that." He whispered against my lips. "With the coming of the full moon, it's been getting harder and harder to resist. Everything in me wants to mark you as mine."

He moved his hands from my wrists, up my arms to my shoulders, then followed the contours of my body down to my waist. He trailed his kisses down to my neck.

"I want you so much." He teased at my neck with his teeth. "Will you let me touch you?"

"I thought you were touching me." I answered.

A quick check of his hands confirmed that, yes, his hands were still holding me at the waist.

He laughed against my neck. "Let me rephrase. Will you let me touch you...more...intimately?"

"What did you have in mind?" I asked.

He moved his hand and placed it between my legs. My body jolted, my temperature spiked. He moved his face back to look at mine and smiled.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say that was an almost human response."

"Not that I'm not enjoying this..." I hesitated to say, "but, what is the purpose of this?"

He drew away from me a little. I didn't like it.

"Are you trying to tell me..." His brows drew together. "...that you've never done this before?"

"Are we talking about s*x?" I asked. "I've done plenty of sex...just...not like this..."

"Hmm..." I'd go so far as to say he looked troubled. "I don't imagine the river-god was much interested in your pleasure."

"My...pleasure...?" What a strange notion...

He exhaled slowly. "Well then..." The smile returned to his face. "I have so much to show you."

His lips returned to mine, his hand further teased me, explored me, pleased me.

Just when I was about to ask what other pleasures I had been missing, he pulled away again, ears listening to something I couldn't hear.

"What is it?" I asked.

He studied my face, all traces of playfulness gone. He took hold of my hand, and started pulling me away from the wall. "Come and see for yourself."

It hit me as we entered the kitchen; a delicious inevitability. A collection of mortals were gathered around a device that had been laid on the bench.

"Whatever that is," I said, "I highly suggest you step away from it."

"Are you kidding me?" Shaun pushed his friends away from the bench. "What possessed you to move it - let alone bring it inside?"

"The children brought it in." One of them explained. "They didn't know what it was."

"Can you feel it?" I whispered, moving ever closer to the device.

"No, Luna." Someone stopped me by placing a firm hand on my shoulder. "Don't come any closer, it's dangerous."

I looked this mortal in the eyes, so he knew I was talking to him. "You should really get out of my way."

I like to put fire into two categories: the explosive, and the slow burn. Now, I'll take my fire how it comes, but I don't mind telling you, I'm usually most partial to the slow burn. It is the most sustainable, it lasts, it's like a calm little glow in the deepest cockles of whatever I have for a heart. However, there is something terribly exciting about an explosion.

That was my 'slow burn' way of telling you what happened next, if you will. The device - demonstrably, a bomb, as it turns out - blew up.