Rejection on the Alpha #1

24. Alliances Worth Dying For

But that's just it, it was never there in my palm, it died the moment I tried to show him, the moment I wanted to understand and the moment I needed proof and I couldn't give it to him. because it was gone in a hiss of the wind in the air. It disintegrated, spun and left like its essence was nothing. Like it was too human to be nothing more than a figment of my imagination.

"You must be born with it, Celestine. Why do you want to know?" He asks me, voice a soft deep navigation where I believe he wished he could read my mind, follow each thought for each and every meaning that came with it, that stood behind it like the shadows that stood behind Elias, and the followers that fell into line with Martin.

"Elementals is what my mate is interested in. Colour me surprised." Martin's deep voice interrupts.

I close my eyes for a second, "What do you want?" I mutter, my annoyance flowing through and dying in the air around him.

He told me that I chose the right side. That killing my family was a mercy, that justice had to be served and that saving me just to use me made me childish and unknowing, it made me weak and vulnerable and it made me as insecure as the rest of the female mates who watched the illusion of dreams and nightmares tucked into one and the same.

"Leave us a moment, Elias."

My moment gone, my time limited because Martin thought he walked on water.

He stood behind me with the breath of someone who didn't need power here and yet he still used it against me, his fingers trail down the midline of my back, " You should be seated with me at the council's table. There is much to do." He says to me, undressing me with his eyes in a way most other women would find seductive and hot. I can never quite look at him the same again.

Elias and the elders don't move an inch.

Martin narrows his eyes, "Did you hear me?"

"We are loyal to the queen." Elias's voice deepened in a manner that seemed unnatural and my eyes snap to watch the elemental run his gloved fingers around the air, the molecules around me tightened like glass between martin and myself. It tingled and bristled, tightened and loosened all at once, a balance of each side of a coin.

Martin steps forward and tilts his head at the elder, "I could shred your flesh from bone in minutes, seconds don't allow suffering, Elder Elias."

"I could disintegrate your heart in seconds, because your mind would see through the pain for years. That's what we call immortality in the pits of hell." Elias explains stoically. Martin's form straightens and right when I thought he'd strengthen his fangs where a mouth should have been, his eyes trail to mine and fingers entrap and thrust me forward before I'm crushed through a portal to his chest and a private office with the private council room not four doors down. I stare at the fire place dazzling in front of me.

"He's oddly protective."

"Perhaps his father hit his mother and he's protective." I decide to say to Martin.

He sighs behind me as I sit down in front of the fire and watch every curl of the flame, so enchanted, more so than the man who moves in behind me and runs a finger, instructing it to trail own my shoulder, the other slithers its way against my abdomen as he corners me between his thighs.

"You're moody." He whispers.

His skin burned against me, not the other way around like a part of me somehow wished that if he'd just been good, this would change into something he believes it always should have been.

I look up at him, "What does this get you? Numbers against an enemy no longer here. It leaves you bored, it leaves you restless and that restlessness is taunted and slapped onto me when you get violent. Don't touch my skin with a caress or warmth that was happy to leave scars and blood exposed before." I say to him, moving his hand while his eyes listen to every word.