Page 29 of Alpha's Embrace
“I see. I should not have presumed.” He set the coffee pot down and took a step toward the door. “I’ll be back in one moment.”
I sat and stared about the space again, trying to learn what I could about Geo from it. The décor was sparse, but I liked that. His coat hung on a hanger on a hook by the door. Black. Short. I saw a brown leather briefcase sitting on the table by the coffee pot. He probably carried his laptop in it.
Not much else in the room was informative as to his nature or history. But I knew a lot already. He’d revealed himself. He’d told me in a few words of his tragedy. His love for a boy. His partial bond broken.
I took a deep breath just as I heard his footfalls and he came back into the room.
“I just checked in person with Doctor Prim. You can have coffee. It’s simply not a part of a Sylph’s normal diet.”
Ah, but I wasn’t a normal Sylph. I knew it already, but I didn’t like to think of myself as abnormal, either. I wanted to be as normal as possible. As an Alpha. Or as an Omega.
He handed me a steaming cup of the dark liquid. Slowly, I took a sip. It burned my lips a bit but I took a little of it into my mouth and it coated my tongue with a semi-bittersweet flavor tinged with fire.
Geo crossed his arms, still standing by the side of his desk. “You like it?”
“Yes.”
The cup warmed my palm. I wasn’t cold but it was a comforting feeling. Like a soothing caress.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Did you want to see me about anything specific?” Geo went behind his desk again, and sat facing me.
I thought about that word.Specific.Yes. I came here because of something specific. I came here because of Geo and how he made me feel. Because I missed him. Because more than my physical body yearned for him. It was core-deep in me, this sense of longing. I’d never had it so strong before. As if I’d come apart and die if I didn’t feed that longing.
How could I say these things to Geo? He was the king. It was taboo if he ever thought of me as more than a Sylph-prince of the castle.
I knew he did think of me as more. I’d felt it in the bathtub. I’d seen evidence in his response, in the line of his erection through his pants.
I decided to lie.
“No. I was just curious where you worked. And you’ve been the kindest person to me in the past week. I wanted to tell you. To thank you.”
His eyes half-closed as he smiled at me, as if to both accept me and shut me out at the same time.
“You’re welcome.”
“I appreciate that you’re advocating for me.”
“I am. But I have hit some snags.”
“Oh.” My heart flipped in my chest.
“Rehabilitation, for one. You have never been outside these walls. You would have no ability to survive on your own. You’d need a sponsor at the very least. But worse than that, you are a Sylph. I can’t find any records of a Sylph living free and whole in society. It just doesn’t happen. If you go out, you will not be a danger to others, as would most Sylphs who cannot control their emotions and behaviors. But you would be in danger. So rehabilitation at this point with that as a goal is on hold.”
“I’d be in danger from other Alphas, yes, I tried to tell you that before.”
He frowned as if he didn’t understand me. “There is a pheromone all Sylphs produce that spreads into the air. In children it is to lure another into caring for him, feeding him, seeing to his needs. But as an adult it is much more than that.”
“I know all this,” I said. I wasn’t bored, but my low tone might have conveyed otherwise.
“Yes. So did I. But I had hoped there might be a way to suppress that for you. Disguise it. I’m still looking into that, but nothing so far.”
“You mean through drugs?”
He nodded. “Or outside interference. Such as colognes that might act as filters.”
“I understand. It is impossible, of course, that I could ever live outside these walls without some assistance. And my guards.” I tilted my chin down and eyed him with all the humor I could manage. I added, “I am, after all, a prince.”
