Flame of the Alpha Page 8

  “Mmm…intriguing.”

  The interest in Dante’s tone didn’t escape her. She forced a sense of casual ease into her voice. “What is?”

  “The fact that you’d feel the need to keep some rooms locked away from prying eyes.”

  “Many of our patrons demand privacy, whether they’ve initiated an acquisition or simply want a demonstration of our graduates’ talents,” Sophia said as she retied the sash holding her robe together. The garment was a mess of wrinkles, but there wasn’t much she could do about that now. With any luck, she’d have time to swing by her quarters and change before the first patron decided to have official purchase papers drawn up and she had to be present for the negotiation phase.

  “That’s all it is? The need for privacy?”

  Sophia opened her mouth, but the infernal peal of the door chime silenced her before she could say more. Whoever was out there didn’t seem satisfied with merely the chime the third time around. A rapid series of thuds shook the doorframe.

  “Mon patron!” Sophia pressed her hand to the panel to the right of the door and watched it slide seamlessly aside. “Someone better be dying out here, Brianna.”

  The guard’s well-trained gaze took in Sophia’s disheveled state, then slid past her to Dante, who’d propped himself on an elbow to watch Sophia move around the room. She cleared her throat. “Not yet, but I believe Captain Jolen has threatened something to that effect if we keep him waiting much longer.”

  Sophia’s spine went rigid. “Why is he back so soon?”

  Brianna lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug. “He said you’d be expecting him.”

  “Tomorrow!” Sophia threw up her hands in exasperation. “We were expecting him tomorrow. I haven’t prepared a training room for his use and Dante…” Her voice faltered. She licked her suddenly dry lips. “Dante’s not ready.”

  “I don’t think he’s going to care much for that excuse this time around,” Dante said.

  The low whirr of the motorized closet alerted her that he was on his feet and rummaging through the available clothes. Judging by Brianna’s furtive glance past her, Sophia guessed he hadn’t bothered to cover himself as he crossed the length of the room.

  She drew her bottom lip between her teeth, remembering the taste of his cock in her mouth, the feel of the thick shaft as it settled on her tongue, the way it spasmed and pulsed when the burst of seed spilled from the tiny slit to flow down her throat.

  “I apologize for disturbing you, M’Lady. We searched everywhere before coming here. Captain Jolen insisted on having you bring Dante yourself. We didn’t think to look here for both of you.” A flush crept up the other woman’s cheeks. Brianna had been working at the Academy for years, yet she’d never gotten used to the blatant sexuality of the place.

  Sophia couldn’t blame her. Anyone who hadn’t been trained as a pleasure servant still had the enviable ability to be awed by sex and all it entailed. Priestesses typically fell somewhere in between. As the Academy’s trainers, they were required to familiarize themselves with every nuance of the carnal arts. However, none of them had experienced the thrill of sex for the sake of pleasure. They offered themselves willingly to the pleasure servants in the name of the training and as part of their worship of Saint Valentine, but that was out of duty rather than passion.

  Until earlier today, Sophia had never done anything even half as impulsive as sucking Dante’s cock for the sheer enjoyment of the act. She’d wanted to atone for her part in his captivity, for the hardship he’d have to endure at Captain Jolen’s hands. More than that, however, she’d wanted to bring him pleasure.

  Only she hadn’t imagined that the act of making him come, an act she’d performed at rituals and gatherings countless times in the past, would bring her satisfaction as well. And she certainly hadn’t imagined she’d want to curl up with him afterward. Saints, she hadn’t done anything so reminiscent of her Alpha nature in…well, never.

  “I wasn’t gone that long, Bri. You could have told Captain Jolen to wait. As it is, he’ll have to wait anyway. I have to attend to the showing and make sure the patrons are pleased before they leave for the evening.”

  Confusion etched itself between Brianna’s blonde brows. “The showing’s over, M’Lady. The patrons all left when you didn’t return. Yesterday.”

  Sophia gaped at the woman. “That’s absurd. I wasn’t gone that long,” she repeated. Spinning around on her heel, she fixed Dante with a narrow glare. “What did you do to me?”

  Dante crossed his arms over his bare chest. He’d pulled on a pair of linen pants made for a much smaller man. They stretched across his groin, drawing her attention to the impressive bulge that strained against the material between his legs. The pants’ hem reached halfway down his calf.

  “My cum has magical properties. Or didn’t you know? One drop can knock a woman out cold.”

  It took Sophia a full ten seconds to figure out he was teasing her. She ground her teeth together, a muscle twitching in her jaw. “Not funny.”

  How was it possible that she’d slept through the night and part of the morning without waking once? She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept so soundly. Or for that matter, the last time she’d dreamed.

  Oh, mon patron…that dream.

  The memory of the dream shook her to the core. A trembling shudder traveled up the length of her spine, awakening sensations that had felt incredibly real while she’d slept beside Dante. She remembered the easy way she’d laughed at his teasing remarks, as though she’d become used to his irreverent quips. And the way he’d touched her, and called her Mrs. Lotton. And, oh, Saints, her rounded stomach…

  She forced herself to draw a deep, shuddering breath and release it on a soul-cleansing sigh. A dream. That’s all it had been. Dreams held no weight in the realm of the living. They weren’t important. And they certainly didn’t predict the future.

  Dante would leave as soon as Faye was able to get him off Earth, and Sophia would return all her attention to worshipping Saint Valentine. This was where her destiny lay. On Earth, with her patron Saint watching over her. And if it so happened that Dante was to be the man whose seed would finally take root within her womb? That was a very real possibility she couldn’t ignore.

  After years of participating in the Lighting of the Flame ceremony and failing her patron Saint miserably each time, she refused to let her emotions for Dante cloud her judgment. She’d already found her Flame. Now all she had to do was convince him to stick around long enough to go through with the ceremony, and keep him out of the Captain’s greedy clutches in the interim.

  Rubbing the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger did little to keep Sophia’s growing headache at bay. “How long has the Captain been here?”

  “A couple of hours, M’Lady. He’s in the Sanglant. And he’s not happy.”

  Sophia’s eyelids drifted closed as she forced her ragged breathing under control. Of course the Captain would choose that room of all those available. “No, I don’t imagine he would be. See to it that he’s served refreshments from the kitchen. Fresh strawberries, if we have them. And a bottle of champagne. Spare no expense. It might not soothe him completely, but I’m hoping it’ll calm him down enough that he won’t take his ire out on Dante when we arrive.” Brianna hesitated, so Sophia made a flicking gesture with her fingertips. “Go. We’ll be there shortly.”

  When the woman disappeared into the inner cloister, Sophia spun on her heel to face Dante. “You can’t meet him like this. You haven’t been trained and the Captain is…he’s…”

  “Volatile?” Dante filled in for her.

  “Something like that,” Sophia acknowledged. “He trains pleasure servants to switch from their submissive personalities to dominant ones. It’s technically a role reversal, and something we don’t encourage here at the Academy. Every pleasure servant is created with the submissive gene ingrained deep in his or her psyche. An obedient slave is a valuable slave.”

  Dan
te’s lip curled in distaste. “I’ve seen the way people treat their obedient slaves. Frankly, I’m not sure what this captain guy’s doing is such a bad thing, especially if he’s teaching servants to think for themselves and fight back when the occasion calls for it.”

  Sophia shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way. A pleasure servant trained to become a Dominant can perform the act, but he’ll revert back to his submissive tendencies, especially in an emergency. If his life or safety is threatened, he’ll cower and plead rather than fight back, simply because it’s what he’s been instructed to do here at the Academy. Even the captain can’t change someone’s attitude so drastically, and I think he’s come to realize that. Which is exactly why he wants you.” She blew out a breath that ruffled the bangs falling into her eyes. “You’re different, Dante, and he knows it. You can give him what he craves.”

  Anxiety flittered across his features for an instant. It dissipated quickly, leaving Sophia to wonder whether she’d imagined it all along. The cocky grin returned, and with it, the Dante she’d come to know. He strode toward her purposefully and swept her off her feet, lifting her in the air and pressing a firm kiss to her mouth.

  She barely had time to react before his tongue slipped its way past her defenses to sweep against hers. A moment later, he withdrew and placed her back on her feet. The world tilted and the room spun around her as she gasped for breath. The feel of his mouth on hers made her lips tingle, and she pressed her fingertips against the spot.

  “What about you, Priestess?” Dante asked, his crooked smile stealing the breath from her lungs. “Can I give you what you crave?”

  She shook her head, though not in answer. “You’re incorrigible.”

  “I’ve been called worse.”

  Sophia stepped over the threshold and into the cloister. Rays of early afternoon sunshine beamed down through the latticed roof. The scent of blossoming orchids filled the air. Unlike the synthetic, year-round blooming plants that grew outside the Academy walls, the flora in the garden and the inner cloister was as real as it came.

  Sophia drew in a deep breath, but instead of orchid, another scent dominated her senses. The musk of aroused male blended with the spice of sweat. Far from being unpleasant, it caused a trickle of cream to drip along her inner folds.

  She drew in a sharp breath as they rounded a corner, remembering the way Dante had looked when he’d hovered on the precipice of climax. Her hand shot out and she gripped his wrist, stopping him in mid-stride. “You can’t come.”

  Dante raised an eyebrow. “You want to take my place?”

  “No. I mean, you can’t come. Climax. Orgasm. Shoot your load.”

  He looked at her as though she’d lost her mind. “Jealous, Priestess?”

  “No!” Aggravation pooled in the pit of her stomach until she was ready to stomp her foot in annoyance. “You can’t control your inner beast. Not when you’re that close. If you let yourself come, he’ll know what you are, even without the use of his fancy DNA scanning tools.”

  Dante looked skeptical, his mouth quirking upward in a smile. “I can control myself when I have to, Sophia. I hate to break it to you, but I’ve come before. With humans, no less. None have ever been the wiser as to my true form.”

  That admission gave her pause. A sliver of something akin to true jealousy settled low in her belly. She pushed it aside, focusing on Dante’s words instead. “That can’t be true. I saw you in the garden when you were watching me. I could tell you were close. You were…” Beautiful. “Changing.”

  “I was not,” he said, almost defiantly. “I know how various races across the galaxy treat those like me. Some are kind, others are indifferent, but there are those who’d wipe me out in an instant just because of the DNA that flows through my bloodstream. Trust me. I know what’s at stake.”

  Sophia swallowed hard. “I don’t think you do.”

  Before she could change her mind, she let her fingers slide from Dante’s wrist to his palm and wrapped them around his hand. If he was surprised, he didn’t show it.

  She turned right, away from the training rooms where Captain Jolen waited and led them through a large archway that gave way to a narrow passage. To his credit, Dante didn’t ask questions. He let her pull him through a series of double doors, each requiring a more significant security check than the one before it.

  She paused in front of the last door. Unlike the other doors in the temple, which were mostly wood etched with elaborate carvings depicting Saint Valentine in various states of debauchery, this one was made of pure metal alloy. Impenetrable, and shielded from Terran officials’ heat scans. For all intents and purposes, the room didn’t exist.

  “Can I trust you, Dante?” Sophia whispered as she pressed her palm to the security panel and leaned in for a retina scan.

  “You know you can.”

  She swallowed hard. A breeze of filtered air blew from an overhead vent, tousling her bangs. “Not good enough. I need to hear you say it.”

  “You can trust me, Sophia.”

  She closed her eyes, analyzing every nuance of his voice. She had no way to know for certain whether he was telling the truth. Not really. But she hoped she’d judged him well enough to risk…everything.

  The door slid open with a dull hiss.

  “Sophia!”

  Saints, there was no sweeter sound than the voices of half a dozen children hollering her name in unison. She made it as far as the middle of the room before the youngsters leapt upon her, hugging her and squealing happily as they wrapped their small arms around her waist.

  She ruffled the hair of a blond, blue-eyed boy named Michael. “Children, I’d like you to meet a friend.” She glanced up and met Dante’s stunned gaze. “This is Dante. He’ll be staying with us for a while.”

  “Hi, Dante!”

  The cheerful chorus drew a genuine smile from Dante. There was nothing cocky about this grin. Instead, it showed surprise and pleasure, widening when the kids abandoned Sophia to attack him, instead.

  They leapt upon him with big, exuberant hugs. Astonishment flared across Dante’s face for only an instant, before the kids knocked him to the ground. His laugh echoed through the cavernous room and bounced off the metal walls.

  Sophia’s hands shook as she walked to stand beside him, so she folded her arms across her breasts to keep him from noticing. Looking down, she met his questioning gaze.

  “You wanted to know what a Flame is. As I told you earlier, a Flame is someone who takes part in the most important ceremony conducted at the Academy in worship of Saint Valentine. What I didn’t mention is that a Flame is the only one who can claim a Head Priestess. He’s a supplicant. An inamorato.” She smiled at the sight of the children tumbling on top of Dante. “And if the Saint grants it, he’s also a father.”

  Chapter Six

  The filthy whores were ignoring him. No, not just ignoring him. They’d locked him inside a training room like a common slave!

  Neo paced the length of the cavernous chamber, hands balled into fists at his sides. How dare they treat him worse than a common patron? Didn’t they know how much pull he had with the Central Command authorities? How he could have them storm into this place and tear it down brick by brick if he as much as suspected the priestesses were harboring Terran enemies or Alpha carriers?

  A low growl escaped his gritted teeth. He’d been in this room for almost three hours. Three fucking hours! With the door fused shut from the outside. Someone had to pay for this gross insult. At the moment, he didn’t care who.

  Draining the remaining contents of champagne from a two-toned goblet, he tossed the glass against the wall. It shattered instantly, spraying the marble floor with shards of crystal. For a moment, he allowed himself to picture the High Priestess on her knees, the glass slicing her flawless skin as she sucked him off.

  His cock hardened, pulsing sleek and hot against his bare stomach. He’d discarded his armored uniform, along with his concealed weapon, long ago. He wouldn’
t need either for what he had in mind.

  Neo trailed his palms along the lush breasts of a bronze sculpture as he grew harder It was a woman’s life-sized nude form, delicately sculpted to showcase high breasts dangling like two perfect pendulums as she bent over. Behind her, a man ‑‑ presumably Saint Valentine himself ‑‑ thrust a thick spiral dildo into her. With one hand, he held her wrists firmly behind her back, which only caused her breasts to jut out further as she bent over. The woman’s face had been carved with exquisite care. Her eyes had rolled back into her head and her mouth formed a perfect “O” at the level of Neo’s crotch.

  If only that luscious mouth hadn’t been made of bronze…

  Not that he was desperate enough to thrust his cock into a statue, no matter how life-like it seemed, but he needed something wrapped around his dick. Anger boiled in his veins, making him even harder. Adrenaline surged through him, pouring the ire into his balls, stiffening his rod until it seemed to be made of the same solid material as the sculpture.

  The hiss of the door opening alerted Neo to someone’s presence. Aggravation flared anew as he spun around, ready to rail at whatever minor servant they’d sent in with food or drink this time.

  But it was the High Priestess herself who strode through the door, followed closely by Dante.

  Her face was flushed, her eyes fever-bright. The smile that tilted her lips looked anything but genuine. “I apologize for keeping you waiting. We were…needed elsewhere.”

  Neo waited until the door slid closed before replying. When he spoke, the words came out gritty and hoarse. “I don’t enjoy being caged like a wild animal. And any excuse you utter for Dante’s absence is irrelevant. The only reason he’d be kept away from me would be if he had a prior engagement. I will not tolerate anyone else touching my servant. My deposit makes him mine exclusively. Or have you forgotten?”

  “No one’s touched him except for the purposes of training, I assure you.” Long eyelashes shrouded the High Priestess’s eyes as she spoke, making it impossible for Neo to gauge the truth of her words.