Alphas Unleashed (14 page)

A shiver ran up her as she recalled Warren’s eyes when he’d talked about the genie. Eyes glazed with hungry greed. Not getting the bottle would make him mad and dangerous.

Cade giggled. “You’re too old.”

Half-listening, she ruffled his hair and stuck her tongue out at him. Stealing the bottle would be as foolish as climbing over a fence and kicking a bull. But if the genie was truly powerful, she had to try, had to take the chance for Cade’s sake. Who else would believe Warren was using magic to drain Cade’s life force. Her heart twisted as she looked into his bright eyes and big smile. “And you should be in bed.”

Her brother took his time licking his spoon clean and pushed away from the table. “Sounds like a good idea. I’m bushed.”

“You little toot! Don’t forget to brush your teeth.” Selene cleaned off the table and tried to think of ways to negotiate with the genie.

Once Cade climbed into bed, she pulled the covers up to his chin and tucked them around him. “Good night. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.”

When he smiled, she leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead. Her eyes pricked with unshed tears. She leapt to her feet and hurried from the room. At the doorway, she flicked off the overhead light and switched on the nightlight. Then she stole one last look.

Cade lay on his side, curled up like a shrimp afloat in a blue ocean of covers. God, he was so tiny. She had to save him from Warren.

Chapter 4

Darkness fell away and light filtered into the bottle and revived Rayez from his stupor. He raised his head from his knees. Selene’s face frowned at him as she set the bottle down on a flat surface, a table, and backed away.

She paced back and forth like a caged panther. Lithe, lethal and pissed. What the hell did she have to be pissed about?

He studied the room around her. They seemed to be in a tiny apartment, where a dining bar separated the kitchen from the living area. Large black and white photographs hung on the walls and dominated the space. From baby pictures, to toddler-hood, to the boy he’d seen earlier. In all the pictures, his eyes shone with mischief and love.

Selene approached with wary steps and stopped in front of him. Her face held grim determination as she reached forward. Her hands trembled. Then she pulled the cork.

Fresh air rushed in and he breathed it in deep, saying a silent prayer of thanks to the Creator.

Through the opening he saw a circle of textured white, which hung at the mouth of the bottle like the untouchable moon. A popcorn ceiling, perhaps? He rose to his feet in slow motion, working out the kinks in his muscles and rolling his shoulders.

His breathing eased when minutes passed and the opening remained unsealed. He focused on that tiny bit of ceiling. Anger burned bright and hardened his determination. Bunching his leg muscles, he launched himself upwards, toward freedom.

He slowed as he drew closer to the opening and hovered just beyond the lip of the bottle. The air teased and tempted, urging him forward. But reason warned. The woman had trapped him, and now unsealed the bottle. What calamity waited for him outside?

Rayez coalesced into dark, swirling smoke, the hardest form to trap and hold…except by magic. Unfortunately, Selene seemed to know magic. Well, he wouldn’t cowardly submit to her will without a fight. And he wouldn’t be stupid. He emerged into the room, sending out a few tendrils of smoke first, akin to dipping a toe to test the waters. When nothing dire happened, he pushed forward in great billows and clouds. Smoke thickened the air.

His enemy stood a healthy distance away, aiming a fire extinguisher at him. Despite the situation, he almost laughed. Not a bad thought, but he’d outlast the damn thing. What stole his breath was the fierce light in her eyes and the rock solid steadiness of her stance. She was a beautiful woman. One that needed to be taught a lesson.

Rayez pulled himself together, knitting the ephemeral smoke into a more solid form. He chose to be dark and muscle bound, twice as large as his human shell. His anger fueled essence burned hot and made his skin glow a burnished red like banked embers.

Since she obviously wanted a genie, he wore loose billowy pants of black silk and a matching vest. Too bad he didn’t have a villainous goatee and a cue to complete the stereotype. He did however manifest the illusion of a flaming scimitar in one hand. With a clap of thunder and the flash of lightning, he cleared the smoke away and let himself be seen.

“I’d clap, but my hands are kind of full,” she said. “You can put that big sword of yours away because the last time you tried to attack me, it didn’t work so great.”

And why didn’t it?
Rayez narrowed his gaze at her. “I didn’t attack you, I was trying to defend myself.” His voice dropped a notch, carried a dangerous softness, as he shrugged. “Sorry, but my sword stays as long as you have a weapon.”

She put down the fire extinguisher and showed him her empty hands. Rayez extinguished the sword. Bigger males than her had quaked in fear when he’d appeared to them in a similar guise. She dropped her arms to her side and looked him in the eye. “We need to talk.”

He crossed his arms and glowered down at her. While their gazes clashed in stony silence, he continued to let his heat build and fill the room.

The air grew hot and sticky as if the desert sun he’d grown up with was bearing down on them. Sweat beaded on her skin, then ran down her face and neck in rivulets. Her pink cotton tee-shirt grew damp and clung to her curves, giving him tantalizing hints of what lay hidden. Damn, she had a smoking hot bod.

“What do you want?” His voice cracked the silence like the rumble of a volcano about to blow.

Her tongue, pink and delicate, swept across her lips. “Wishes.”

An unwanted pang of desire shot to his groin. Fortunately, billowy pants hid all kinds of sins. Damn, he needed to get laid. It’d been too long. He shook his head both at himself and her. Humans believed the craziest things—pots of gold at the end of rainbows, lucky rabbits’ feet (not so lucky for the rabbits) and wishes coming true. He cocked his head to one side and raised an eyebrow at her. “Wishes?”

She wiped sweat from her forehead and nodded. “Yes, I released you from your bottle and now I want my wishes.”

Unbelievable. The woman was abso-fucking-lutely unbelievable. Heat spiked in the room and the lights blazed brighter. Small tongues of flame licked across his body.

“You look like a freaking effigy,” she said, snatching up the fire extinguisher again. “All I have is cheap, very flammable furniture so I’m prepared to use this!” Her threat ended on a squeaky note.

Rayez glanced around the room. She wasn’t kidding about the furniture. There wasn’t much besides an ugly brown and tan plaid couch, a blue bean bag that seemed to have lost most of its beans, a pressed wood bookshelf packed with books and a scratched and marked coffee table. Oatmeal colored carpet and off-white popcorn walls. He could see the Formica covered kitchen cabinets from where he stood. Cheap and tiny.

Maybe she really needed those wishes. The thought gnawed at his conscience, but he wasn’t letting her off the hook yet.

He dampened the flames and stalked closer. She retreated, still clutching the extinguisher in front of her. “You’re the one who trapped me in the first place,” he said. “Now you want to be rewarded for releasing me?”

He leaned into her space, close enough to smell her light lavender scent. Close enough to see the rapid beat of her pulse in the sexy hollow at the base of her glistening throat. He wanted to kiss the spot. Need tightened his throat.
Enemy
. He tore his gaze back to her face and gave a scoffing laugh. “Doesn’t work that way, sweetheart.”

She backed up until she bumped into a wall, and then stood still. Worry and something else darkened her gaze. “How does it work then?”

The need to touch her, feel her skin against his, was like a siren call. A saner part of him knew he was thinking with his dick, that she was trouble and he needed to get away from her. As a compromise, he slammed his hands against the wall on either side of her head, trapping her in place with his arms and body.

Her gaze darted to his lips, then returned to his eyes. Her tongue flicked out again, wet her bottom lip. Her lips parted and she leaned forward just a fraction. Fuck, he was in trouble.

They locked gazes for a long moment. “Sorry sweetheart, I don’t come with an instruction manual.”

“Stop calling me sweetheart.”

“Why? Does it bother you, sw—he choked on the damn word. Being bound by her meant he had to obey her commands until she released him or gave his bottle away to someone else. But she didn’t seem to know that and he wasn’t going to give her a clue.

He managed a smirk. “You know what? I’ll call you honeybuns instead.”

“Don’t—

He interrupted before she could complete her sentence. “Maybe I should call you Honeytrap, since you
trapped
me.”

“Call me Selene.” Her gaze skittered away from his.

Again with that tongue. She looked up and blinked at him. “Okay, what I did was wrong, and I’m sorry.” Her voice shook. “But you have to help me.”

The compulsion washed over him like invisible rain. Rayez pulled in a deep breath and pulled his tattered control together. If he could just keep her from stating specifics. If he could just stop getting distracted by her enticing scent, by the desperation in her eyes. If he could just be free.

He stepped back, put some distance between them. “Why should I? Last time I tried to help you is when my troubles started.”

“I said I am sorry and I meant it.” She paused and drew in a deep breath. “You have to help me because if you don’t I’ll seal you back in the bottle.”

Her threat hit him like a bucket of ice cold water. How in two dimensions could he find this woman even remotely attractive? “I should call you a selfish bitch because that’s exactly what you are.”

“You can call me whatever you want.” Her voice rose to match his as she stepped into his space. “But you’re going to help me.”

He clenched his fists and leaned into her. Puffs of her ragged breath skimmed and fluttered over his skin, a sweet caress that sent shivers of pleasure down south.
Think with your other head, bud.
“You can go to—

“Sel!” A small whirlwind rushed past him and within seconds the small boy he’d seen earlier had his arms wrapped around Selene’s slender form. The boy looked over one shoulder at him with eyes wide with fear.

“Oof,” she gasped and dropped the extinguisher on the carpet, where it landed with a muted thud. Her arms wrapped around the boy in return and she tried to turn him to the side.

But the boy stiffened even more and dug into the carpet. “No! I don’t want him to hurt you!”

“And I don’t want you to get hurt,” she said.

Looking at the two, trying to protect each other, the fear in the boy’s gaze, threw a switch inside. Rayez found himself letting go of his anger. “No one’s getting hurt.”

Rayez’s words quieted the panic inside Selene at having Cade there in the presence of the angry djinn. For some strange reason she believed him.

She didn’t have much reason to trust anyone, learned at a young age she couldn’t count on anyone but herself. Their mother had married Warren and brought him into their life. And he’d taken every advantage of his position to get what he wanted.

“Sel, who is he?” Cade’s worried question pulled her back to the situation at hand.

Selene mustered up a smile. “This is a friend of mine. His name is Rayez.”

“If you’re friends, why were you both yelling at each other?”

She stilled wondering how to answer him. How much had he overheard?

Rayez hunkered down to the floor and looked Cade in the eye. “Sometimes when people talk they get so excited or upset about what they’re talking about they don’t realize how loud they are being,” he said. “I’m sorry our discussion woke you up and scared you.”

Cade nodded. “You sounded real angry.”

Selene ruffled his curls. “Sometimes people make mistakes and hurt others without meaning to,” she said, looking at Rayez. “I hurt Rayez and so he has a very good reason to be angry with me.”

The djinn’s gaze darkened, but his expression remained neutral. She supposed that was better than the angry clenched jaw and flaming eyes look he’d sported earlier.

“Did you apologize to him?” Cade looked from one to the other. “Because you know you should.”

Selene laughed. “Yes, I did.” Still grinning, she looked up at Rayez. “By the way, this wise young man is my brother Cade.”

“Nice to meet you.” The djinn held out a hand. Without hesitation, Cade grabbed it with his much smaller hand and shook.

“Now it’s back to bed for you,” she nudged Cade toward his room.

“Aww, but I just met Rayez and I still have more questions.”

She mock frowned. “One more question and then you say good night. It’s late.”

Cade turned toward their guest with a grin. “Why are you wearing such strange clothes?”

“Cade! That’s not polite.” She cast an apologetic look at Rayez. The clothes in question showed off his broad chest and tattooed muscles to advantage. As far as she was concerned, the clothes worked.