Emerald Flame: A Paranormal Romance (The Flame Series Book 6)

by Caris Roane

  Unbelievable.

  Incredible.

  She slowly fondled his powerful arms, looking up at him, at the lines of light-colored fur on his cheeks, his throat and extending in a V down his chest. She loved it and took a moment to run her fingers through the fine hairs.

  Warren then eased down on top of her and grew very relaxed. She caressed his thick, muscled shoulders. “I don’t know what that was, but I want to do it at least a thousand more times.”

  He chuckled then heaved a sigh. “I still don’t understand this storm thing.”

  His hair was dry now as was hers. She dragged her fingers down the full length all the way to the middle of his back. “You. The storm was you.”

  “I guess. Maybe.” He shook his head, but his lips curved. Another unusual smile.

  “What?”

  “A grotto, a storm, your wave of power. Surprising.”

  As she surveyed her bedroom, whatever the storm phenomenon was between them, everything remained perfectly in place.

  Kiara smiled. “Fitting, I think. You are a storm, in Savage, I mean. Without all that you do, the twelve main packs would have fallen a long time ago.”

  He was still buried inside her and she was in no hurry to have him leave her body.

  He responded, “And you’re a beautiful, deep grotto. I could stay here forever.” He arched his hips to let her feel him a little more.

  She smiled and hugged him. Her eyes grew hot with tears, but she restrained them. She didn’t want Warren to think she was upset. But she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this happy or satisfied.

  Although, that wasn’t completely true. Before she’d become an alter witch, before her life in Five Bridges, she’d been engaged and very much in love. Doug had been her love and her life. They’d planned on having a big family.

  The alter serum had changed everything. Like so many who ended up imprisoned in what was essentially an alter ghetto in the middle of Phoenix, she’d been served a tainted drink at a bar. Later it was learned, the serum had been added to a newly opened bottle of vodka. The change had begun within minutes. Her body had flushed hot then sweat had poured off her skin.

  Doug had just come back from the bathroom. She would never forget the horror on his face. But it had only mirrored what she felt. Terror had seized her at what she was becoming.

  Then pain.

  The alter serum transformed the body’s chromosomes to initiate the change. She had felt as though fire had burned throughout her entire body.

  Doug had stayed beside her as long as he was able. But she knew they couldn’t continue as they’d been. She was no longer the woman he’d fallen in love with. As soon as she was settled in Elegance Territory, she’d made him leave. He hadn’t put up a fight. They both knew the score. Very few humans lived in their cordoned off portion of the Phoenix metro area. Humans were weaker compared to any of the Five alter species.

  She hadn’t heard from him since and she hadn’t tried to reach him either.

  Now she was here with one of the finest men she’d ever known buried inside her and lying on top of her. The weight of him was like heaven.

  She settled her hand on the scarred side of his face and head, caressing him gently. She felt him sigh.

  ~ ~ ~

  From the time Warren had been burned, his life had been one long string of battles as he worked to protect his pack as well as Savage. In between, he’d had plenty of sex, usually a quickie outside a bar, or on the running track, or in his police cruiser, anywhere that couldn’t be construed as long-term. Each encounter was forgotten within minutes.

  But as he savored the feel of Kiara’s body beneath his and the pleasure of being inside her, he knew he needed to be much more careful with her. He was in no position to offer Kiara anything. He’d come to trust her, that much he could admit to himself. She was fully present and devoted to helping anyone in need including the wolves of Savage. Her secret refuge had proven her character to him yet again.

  The secretive nature of her refuge, however, and that she’d built it without him knowing, struck a wary chord within his wolf’s spirit. Wolves preferred everything out in the open, nothing hidden. If you had a complaint with someone, you voiced it. Sometimes the complaint resulted in a dominance fight, but that was the way of his world, one he valued and respected.

  Slowly, he withdrew from her. He realized she’d grown very relaxed and was almost in a doze.

  He smiled as he looked down at her, at the flush on her cheeks, her closed eyes, her arms thrown wide.

  He grabbed some tissues and tucked them between her legs. He was nothing if not productive.

  She squinted at him and murmured a sleepy ‘thank you’ then rolled onto her side and tucked her hand beneath her cheek. She closed her eyes and he could sense her drifting off.

  He wasn’t ready for sleep, though. He had a lot to think about, so he headed for the bathroom.

  He took a long, hot shower and washed his hair thoroughly. Bathing in the pool had been sublime, but so was the warm water now flowing over his head. He used Kiara’s fragrant, herbal soap and scrubbed up his arms and legs, his torso and groin. He might be a wolf and he might love to shift and run through the forest, but he liked to be clean as well. It was a way of getting rid of the night’s grime, the bad parts he had to live with every day of his life.

  It also gave him time to think about all that had happened, at the station and with Kiara. He was all about Savage and saving it from falling beneath Julio’s avaricious paws. Though his desire for Kiara was nothing short of profound, it could never eclipse his need to protect his territory.

  Setting aside the mind-blowing sex, tonight’s events had put a face on his deepest fears. Julio was after him. If Warren was killed, his pack would fall and the entire territory with it. His wolves had strength and worked as a unified group. But Julio’s power appeared to be backed by something greater than his own ambition and natural ability.

  When he’d taken over the two packs, reports had eventually surfaced that he’d used some kind of wave power to subdue all the wolves at the same time. That Kiara also possessed a similar ability spoke to the possibility someone from Elegance Territory might be involved.

  His suspicions began to take shape. What if a dark wizard, with a unique wave power, had backed Julio during the takeover of the two, less dominant packs?

  He shut the water off and grabbed a towel. As he slowly dried off, he turned physically toward the bedroom. He sharpened his wolf hearing. Kiara was snoring softly.

  He levitated the distance to the doorway and settled his gaze on her. If a wizard was making a play for Savage, would Kiara at some point become his enemy? Could she become the means by which Savage fell? Or would she be a potential ally?

  As the full weight of the situation settled into him, he sighed heavily. He would need to set some limits with Kiara. Making love to her had been extraordinary. But it was just sex, after all. Once the moment passed and reality returned, the decisions he made had to be for the Caldion Pack’s best interest. Being involved with a witch to any serious degree, and certainly long-term, was out of the question.

  He moved to stand over her. She was exquisite, though. His maleness had always responded to her beauty. Her complexion was creamy but with a slight olive tone. She had strong cheekbones which he suspected would photograph well. Her lips were full and sensual. He’d enjoyed kissing her.

  Sudden need for her swelled over him like a heavy ocean wave that crested then hit him hard. He’d always desired her. What man wouldn’t, she was that beautiful.

  But as he stared down at her, he realized that what he felt wasn’t simple. He didn’t just want the woman. He craved her. His bones ached and threatened to shift as he looked at her. A howl formed in his throat. He arched his neck and released it but only on the softest wolf-cry.

  She moved slightly on her pillow, but didn’t wake up. Did her neck arch as well, even in her sleep? Her lips parted and she bobbed her c
hin a couple of times. It was a very wolf-like gesture, a preparation for a responsive howl.

  Awareness rained down on him, drenching him. Kiara, a witch, had alpha-mate capacity. She could bond with him and serve Caldion as the alpha female of his pack.

  He took a step backward, then another.

  Braden, also an alpha, had recently bonded himself to a witch, so it wasn’t unheard of. Even Fergus had taken a fae to be his bond-mate and she’d made an exemplary female alpha.

  His fingers went to the left side of his face and scalp, to the deep grooved scars that had marred him almost from the beginning of his time in Five Bridges. A witch had done this to him.

  Kiara’s kind couldn’t be trusted. He’d experienced it first-hand. Even if she meant no harm, her powers could do damage without her even knowing what she was doing.

  In his case, the witch who had poisoned him had been his wife, Tonya. She’d only been in Elegance a week when she’d created the paste in her spellroom. She was soon diagnosed with a disease called alter dementia. She’d lived for the past eight years in an insane asylum in Revel, the Five Bridges Territory where fae alters resided.

  He still couldn’t think about it without experiencing a painful sinking sensation in his gut. Somehow, the terrible incident had come to represent all that he hated about Elegance Territory: The deception, the ability to hide and to disguise, the use of spells to hurt others.

  Yet here a witch lay, sleeping peacefully in a very wolf-like burrow. The fantasy storm he’d created had been one of the most powerful experiences of his life.

  He knew as well that if he took her to bed again, he’d be able to replicate the experience.

  He could sense her abilities as though they were his own. She had levels of innate power he’d never seen before which made her even more dangerous.

  He knew that given her beauty and the kindness of her nature, as well as his intense craving to make her his alpha-mate, he should disengage with her, the sooner the better.

  Chapter Four

  Kiara didn’t understand what she was looking at. She was in a dark pine forest. She could hardly see. In the distance was a figure in red, a woman with long blond hair.

  She remembered now. This woman chased her in her dreams. Repeatedly.

  No. Not again.

  Fear bolted through her. She turned and started to run. The path was narrow. Her bare feet hit a thick matting of pine needles.

  Cold fingers touched her shoulder. Kiara ran faster trying to escape the freezing touch. It felt like death. Leave him alone. You’ll kill him.

  Somehow, she knew the woman was talking about Warren. No. I care about Warren. I would never hurt him.

  You’ll get him killed. You’re a selfish woman. You need to leave Savage.

  The forest turned to brambles that sliced at her and forced her to stop running. Vines grabbed her arms, held her tight then spun her around.

  The ghost floated in the air. She wore a red dress. She had large blue eyes and her blond hair swirled around her shoulders. She was beautiful, but wore a pained expression.

  She opened her mouth as though trying to speak. Then suddenly her neck arched, and black smoke poured from her mouth.

  The sight was so horrifying, Kiara awoke from the nightmare and sat up. She put a hand to her throat. She looked at her arms to see if she’d been cut, but it had only been a dream. A terrifying dream.

  She lay back down staring up at her burrow ceiling. She’d needed not to feel as though she lay in a cave, so she’d had part of the rock framed with a diagonal collection of reclaimed wood. Somehow it eased her to let her eye follow the three-inch strips of different colored planks.

  Her heart was still rocketing. She put a palm between her breasts. She should be used to Five Bridges by now having lived here for three years.

  She may have been caught in a dream but parts of it had been real. The woman was a ghost and ghosts often visited alter people in dreams.

  She’d never told anyone, but this was a recurring experience, one she’d had several times since she’d recovered from the poisoned torture at Veyda’s hands. This ghost had come to her repeatedly, always intent on frightening her and warning her away from Warren and Savage.

  She turned her head on her pillow. Warren lay to her right, on his side and facing away from her. The sheet only covered him up to his waist, so she had a view of his extraordinary back. She noticed this about wolves, males especially, that they had powerful shoulders and heavily muscled arms and backs. She supposed it was from shifting, leaping and running the way they loved to do.

  She’d followed Warren many times in her invisible state. He would often run belowground on the enormous track he’d built for his entire pack to use at the Caldion compound. This track had been a small feat of engineering with numerous massive boulders and a few piles of smaller ones the wolves could race up and down. Four paws created a vast amount of traction.

  She’d been amazed to watch him and the other wolves run.

  Though the rise and fall of his steady breathing reminded her he needed his rest, she was tempted to run her hands over his body just for the pleasure of it.

  But she knew Warren. He would wake up if he felt her touch, so she contented herself with turning on her side to face his back, both her hands planted beneath her cheek.

  Warren.

  Her eyes grew hot with tears. She was overcome as she thought about what it had been like to make love with him. He was a storm and she a grotto. She smiled, but the curve of her lips quickly faded.

  What if the ghost in her dreams was right, the unknown woman with long blond hair? What if she was simply trying to warn Kiara that she posed a threat to Warren? Wouldn’t leaving Savage behind be best for him? For her?

  Her throat tightened. She didn’t know, but the thought of leaving him hurt badly as though powerful hands gripped her insides and twisted hard. Again, the compulsion to touch him had her hand sliding away from her cheek and extending her fingers toward him.

  Again, she held back.

  She adjusted her pillow instead then released a sigh. She knew what she had to do. As soon as Warren was safe, she would leave Savage for good. She’d never thought she had a real future with him and his safety was paramount.

  ~ ~ ~

  Late in the afternoon, Warren sat on the side of Kiara’s bed striving to wake up. He had his hands planted on his knees and he stared at the striations in the earthen floor. The humidity of the nearby grotto was a relief.

  Events of the previous night had taken a toll. They moved through his head like a video on a constant loop, of coming off his Border Patrol shift, escaping from Julio and the forces aligned with him, then going invisible with Kiara. Later, of course, there was all the storm sex and his decision to disengage from her as soon as possible.

  The storm experience played over in his mind yet again. How he wished his life was different, that he wasn’t in charge essentially of an entire Territory. He’d leave the bedroom right now, hunt Kiara down and haul her back to bed. He wanted to feel his storm take possession of her once more.

  He touched his chest remembering how the storm had come out of him. Savage needed a storm right now, something powerful enough to stand against Julio’s ambitions and whatever monster was behind him.

  Right now, though, he felt weary. He’d dreamed of Tonya again, the way she’d been before the alter serum had turned her into something unrecognizable. He planted his head in his hands.

  He’d loved her so much. She was only a shell now, something he kept hidden away from everyone who knew him in Five Bridges. She wasn’t a ghost, yet she haunted him. She had a strange power to appear in ghost form, even though she wasn’t dead.

  He felt as though he hadn’t slept at all.

  “Hey, there. I thought maybe you could use this.”

  He looked up. Kiara stood in the doorway not far from him with two mugs of steaming coffee, one in each hand.

  For a moment, time skidded to a halt.
He always forgot how beautiful Kiara was until he laid eyes on her. She took his breath away. Her large eyes were an enticing shade of brown, somewhere between mahogany and chocolate. She wore her thick brown hair parted in the middle. It lay over her shoulders and chest in waves. Her purple tank was tucked into snug jeans. Maybe it was the color of her shirt, but her complexion seemed to glow.

  A familiar ache drove through him, a need so strong he felt it had no end. He craved her. He wanted to go to her, to take the mugs from her hands and drag her into his arms. He wanted to kiss her into eternity.

  She never stopped looking at him and her smile dimmed to be replaced with a matching desire. The sweet freesia scent of her floated in the air. His jaw quivered. His nostrils flared. She was life to him and fire and everything he’d wanted but knew he could never have.

  She set the mugs on the bedside table and came to him. She dropped to her knees. When he opened his arms, she settled her head on his chest then wrapped her arms around his waist.

  He felt her shudder. He kissed her temple then rubbed her back. She was feeling it as well. She matched the state of his heart and his need. Yet within her, as with himself, was a chasm of hesitation. He could sense how she felt, but more with a warlock’s ability than a wolf’s intuition.

  He held her for a long time, surprised that no words needed to be said, no explanations, no judgment, just shared longing and pain.

  When she drew back, she stood up and retrieved the mugs. She brought one to him, then drew a chair forward, sat down and cradled her own mug in hand. She didn’t look at him as she sipped. She appeared deep in thought.

  He let her be and followed her lead.

  He understood in that moment how complicated their relationship was and how equally impossible. He absently touched the ridged, tattooed scars on the side of his head. They were an ever-present reminder of the deadly nature of his world. With so many lives to protect, including his own, he couldn’t take risks. The smallest one could bring him down which right now meant Savage would fall.

  He glanced at her and saw that her gaze was fixed to his bare chest. Without giving it a thought he did a very male thing and flexed his pecs for her.