Page 12 of Alpha's Embrace
“A toy they did not let me bring here.”
The furrow at his brow smoothed but his mouth turned down. “Misha, I’m going to recommend a few changes for you here. Would that be okay?”
“Changes? Like what?” My muscles tensed, but I knew there was something about this interview with me he wasn’t liking. My answers. My hospitality. Or maybe it was just me. I worried about very little in my life, but this concerned me.
“For a start, I want to see about giving you more of a life here. Not cooped up all the time.”
“Oh.”
Despite being bored a lot, his words filled me with apprehension. I didn’t know what to think. This king had come into my realm and he wanted to change it all up. What if I didn’t agree? What if the changes were too hard for me because of the Burn I felt all the time? But I knew I was strong. I could face anything, even pirates, I decided, if need be. Besides, I was a prince. I needed to stand tall. To show strength. I needed to be good for the good of all.
“I’ll try,” I replied, but I could already feel the weirdness of it. Would I have to be around people a lot? Wear gloves all the time? I wouldn’t be able to orgasm at will while I was out of my room. It wasn’t proper. I knew that. Would my intermittent erections make me stand out?
My face heated. I knew I would try for this king. This man. This Geo whom I already loved.
Chapter Four
Geo
He sat at my feet looking up at me and all I could think were single words: angel, gold. The light in here was too tarnished to do him justice.
Misha.
I wondered who had named him.
I wondered how he had slipped through the cracks so easily to be ignored and invisible when he wasn’t sick and wasn’t a problem for the nurses and guards.
But he was sick in that he was not quite normal. As a Sylph, he was feeling the Alpha Burn even now as we spoke. I could see he sat in such a way as to make his garment loose at the crotch and not show his erection.
I couldn’t help but wonder if he would, at some point, make inappropriate sexual gestures, or outright proposition me. Many Sylphs who were able to articulate could not help themselves, and constantly attempted to seduce anyone they came into contact with. Sylphs such as Cedric, who lived next door to Misha. It was why the colony employed only mate-bonded workers.
But Misha maintained a polite manner and an even-tempered gaze. That kind of control was rare even for the sanest of Alphas during a Burn, and of course he was feeling that Burn right now.
What a beautiful and intelligent boy! But no, he wasn’t a boy. He was a man. A very rare Sylph adult. Most never made it past early childhood.
Cedric was sixteen and suffering. His heart was giving out. He was the next oldest to Misha and unfortunately, the doctors said, would not outlast the year.
But Misha. What a wasted life! It wasn’t right and despite the law, in the first moments as I began my interview with him, I vowed I would do all I could to break him out of this isolation. I didn’t know what all that might entail, but it became a sudden project looming in my mind.
Just looking at him—I couldn’t imagine anyone here not being impacted by him.
How could he have been so ignored? And yet, his reports were incomplete. No one spoke of him. No one had said a word to me on my tour of the patients to inform me that one patient in this colony would actually be able to intelligently dialog with me, understand me, and actively participate in his own rehabilitation.
What did they know that I didn’t?
We talked for some time and he answered all my questions clearly and with a high spirit.
Toward the end of my interview with him, I said, “I want to see about giving you more of a life here. Not cooped up all the time.”
“Oh,” he said. “I’ll try.”
I had expected his reply to hold more energy and excitement. His eyes widened. He clasped his hands in front of his lap and squeezed until they were red at the knuckles.
I realized he’d been isolated for so long that this would have to be done gradually, in small steps.
“We’ll go slowly,” I assured him.
He swallowed, and at his lovely throat his Adam’s apple bobbed. I had an urge to touch him there. I felt my body drawn to lean in toward him. He smelled like something forgotten from my childhood, sweet and lazy and secure memories apart from Mase, but stirring at the same time.
