Testimony of Children (Alice Gray Book 2)

45

"You really know how to wind him up, don't you?" she said, gesturing at Thomas and referring to my current attire. "And what about this one? Has he fallen for you too? Where's that damn pendant?"

"Hey, I'm wearing it. You know I don't want any more men in my life. Anyway, it's not like that with Lucas. He's not an admirer, he's my Alpha."

"What the hell have these wolves been telling you? You're a witch not a shifter. You can't have an Alpha."

Lucas growled, stepping towards Emily to challenge her denial of our relationship.

"Pipe down Beta, that dominance shit doesn't scare me," Emily said.

"Alpha," Lucas corrected.

"He's telling the truth. Looks like you're going to have to register a second British pack, magistrate," Dominic interrupted. "One wolf and two witches." He walked out still laughing at the absurd diversity of our small pack.

"You can't be left alone for a minute, can you Alice? Bloody hell. A pack made up of witches and wolves," Emily exclaimed after getting control of her gaping mouth.

"Give it a break, Em, just for now. We need to consider the coven's next move. And where the hell is Stephen?"

Even without Dominic's large presence, the room was crowded. It was stifling, and I could hardly string two thoughts together. I'd slept a total of two hours in the last forty eight, not counting the three times that I'd been unconscious. My requirement for sleep was becoming undeniable.

"Are we safe here?" I asked the room, talking to no-one and everyone.

"I can set a boundary alarm," Evan offered.

"Better than nothing," I sighed. At least we'd know before we were set upon by whichever enemy reached us first.

My eyes gravitated to Thomas, who was looking at me like he wanted to devour me.

"Can you give us a minute?" I asked the rest of them.

No-one answered, but Emily herded them out of the room.

"Speak to me," I commanded Thomas when the silence got too much.

"Why did you do it, was the idea of being with me so repulsive that you had to give yourself to a wolf?"

Large brown eyes caught me in their sorrowful depths. My stomach opened up into a gaping pit of grief as I tried to form the words to explain that I hadn't forsaken him. That I still wanted him. That I'd never stopped wanting him.

"That isn't what happened. I haven't given myself to anybody. I can still feel you Thomas."

Stepping up to him, I lay my hand flat on his chest. The power buzzed between us, strengthened by the physical connection. It travelled over my skin like a rumbling purr of deep satisfaction. As the intensity increased, Thomas relaxed.

I understood his hurt. He thought that I'd purposefully discarded the connection we shared. But it wasn't that simple. Before it had been too intense. Our reaction to one-another agitated my life-force, wrenching the control of my power out of my own hands. I couldn't live like that. Always wondering if his feelings were genuine, or if they were stimulated by the silver magic that came to life through my emotions.

I needed our connection to coexist with my power if we were going to work out whatever we had between us. If I was going to protect Thomas from the effects of my life-force, my power had to be under my control. The pack bond helped with that.

I just had to convince him of the benefits.

Pouring desire through the physical connection, I could feel my power uncurling. My silver life-force brightened around my hand, as I willed it into Thomas. Confident that I could control the effects, I knew that he would not fall under its sway. Not unless I wanted him to.

The swirl of silver particles travelled over Thomas's chest. He followed it with his eyes, not able to see the magic, but tracking it by the shift in energy between us. Continuing over his body until it reached his head, I pushed once with the force of my will.

The silver disintegrated. All but for a flash in his dark eyes that was gone the second after I saw it.

"I knew that you could do it," he gasped.

There was nothing for me to say. I had pushed every bit of longing, all the heat of my desire for him and the sour remnants of unfulfilled lust from the last month, into the power transfer. And then I had called it back to me, before it could manipulate Thomas's will.

He knew now, without a shadow of doubt, that I wanted him.

He gathered me up in his arms, a tender embrace to honour the trust that I had put in him. The warmth of reciprocated love surrounded me in a blanket of devotion. But the heavy energy inside me slugged through my veins, making my organs heavy and ripe. I needed more.

Pushing him onto the armchair, I straddled him to sit on his lap. His hard thigh muscles tensed in anticipation. Thomas's eyes held mine while his hands travelled under my sweatshirt to encircle my waist. The cool sensation of his fingers on my ultra sensitive skin trailed little explosions of goosebumps everywhere that he touched.

Taking his head in my hands, I gazed into those deep pools of chocolaty brown as if I could see right into his mind if I looked hard enough. I needed to know that he understood. That he still wanted me as much as I wanted him.

Heat and acceptance swirled in his dark eyes, hypnotising me with the intensity of the emotions that they contained.

My mouth crashed down on his. The furious rhythm of our kiss being matched by my hips gyrating on his lap. I didn't even care about the layers of clothes that separated us, they just added to the delicious friction building where we joined.

Thomas shifted so that we fit together, his hardness rubbing against me, making my head spin with the churning energy that his contact stimulated.

It was too much. Every sensation, physical and emotional, inside and outside of me, crashed together in a massive wave of pleasure and belonging.

My body sagged into him, exhaustion catching up. Our foreheads touched as we caught our breath.

Tilting his head up so that our eyes met, I leaned in. This time it was me who offered the tender gesture of a kiss on his full soft lips.

"What does this mean?" Thomas asked.

"It means I love you, but you need to give me more time."

"I can do that."

He lifted me in his arms and carried me to the bathroom so that I could get straightened out. Placing me gently down, he dropped a light kiss on my forehead and then he left.

Gulp...But can Thomas really give Alice the time she needs? Does she really want him to?