Declan wandered beneath the tree that leaned toward his bedroom window. He shone the flashlight over the flattened grass and then upward to the branch that brushed over the bedroom window.
The damp lawn tickled his bare feet as the light illuminated a cigarette butt. He sniffed at it and frowned. As well as the usual burnt aroma, there was something else. And it was both familiar and foreign. Someone’s been spying on me.
“Forgive me. I shouldn’t have left that there.” A deep, melodious voice that reminded the omega of sweet, syrupy treacle rippled out of the shadows followed by a tall figure wearing a crinkled leather jacket who towered over the omega.
Vampire! And an alpha! The omega shrieked, “Jesus Fucking Christ.” His fight or flight instinct kicked in and the man’s scent overwhelmed his senses. He mentally cursed himself for leaving the phone inside, though it wouldn’t have been much use against the undead.
With one hand on his huge belly and the other wielding the flashlight like a weapon, he struck at the stranger’s head. Fluttering in and out of the wavering stream of light was a pair of startling, emerald-green eyes that shimmered and blazed in the reflection.
Despite the omega’s frenzied movements as he protected himself and his unborn child, the stranger didn’t dodge the blows. He stood quite still, without blinking, as Declan’s thumps rained down on him.
Though the omega wanted to claw out his eyes, the intruder’s reaction—or lack of it—was more menacing than if he fought back. Is he here to feed on me or kill me? Another thought, worse than the first two, raced through the omega’s mind. Or turn me into something like him?
The omega lashed out with the flashlight and it connected with the stranger’s chin, making a sickening crunching sound. The hair on Declan’s neck stood up and goosebumps spiked over his skin. His heart flip-flopped, and the baby woke and kicked, making him grimace.
But apart from his lips twitching, the alpha still didn’t move.
“It’s against the law what you’re doing. I’ll make sure they turn you to ash for this.”
Long fingers with manicured nails wrapped themselves around the omega’s wrist, but Declan refused to give up while adrenaline still pumped through his veins.
As the pair’s eyes locked on one another, the alpha revealed a set of gleaming white teeth. No! Declan placed his palm on the vampire’s chest in an attempt to push him away. He opened his mouth to plead for his child’s life but no words came out as the place where a beating heart once nestled was silent. His knees sagged, but a hand on the small of his back held him upright.
With their faces barely an inch apart, their breath mingled, and the stranger’s reminded the omega of a crisp breeze gliding over virgin snow. Is this the smoker or are there more of them?
Declan’s befuddled brain tried to fathom an escape route, but he was mesmerized by the green eyes, a pair of impossibly high cheek bones, parted lips and a strong, clean-shaven jaw. I’ve met him before.
The silence stretched between the pair, and the omega reached a breaking point as his mind went back and forth puzzling over the vampire’s intentions.
The stranger rubbed the spot on his chin where Declan had whacked him minutes earlier. “Ouch.” His voice broke the spell along with the tension.
“Get away from me.”
The man loosened his grip, and the omega stumbled backward and snarled, “If you don’t leave, I’m calling the police. And… and I have a gun.”
The vampire looked him up and down. “Doubtful.”
Declan whacked him with the flashlight. “Why are you here?”
“I didn’t mean to scare you. I apologize.” The alpha gave a sweeping bow. “I’m Alexander Fletcher.”
“You’re either extremely stupid or delusional. You don’t creep up on a heavily pregnant omega in the dark and act surprised when he’s terrified.”
“I saw you outside as I drove off and came back to make sure you were all right.”
“I am anything but okay. Now piss off back to your coffin.”
“Coffins are old school. Very cramped, and the old wood triggers my allergies.”
His infectious grin angered the omega more. But despite his fury, Declan hunted through his memories for where he had met the alpha previously.
The vampire’s aroma was tangled up in a web of grief, loss, fear and loneliness. A vision of himself and Ian jogging, his mate stumbling as he gripped one arm before sagging onto the ground, hovered in front of Declan. But before Ian’s eyes closed, a stranger was on his knees giving him CPR. He continued until the paramedics arrived.
The omega had sat in the ambulance, mute and hardly daring to breathe, as they put paddles on his mate’s chest and shocked him. But Ian’s heart did not beat again.
“It was you!”
“Yes.”
The omega nibbled a nail. After the funeral, he had wanted to thank the vampire for trying to save his mate’s life, but he put it off as any memory of that day was so painful, he shut it away in a box. And now his anger at being stalked overrode everything else.
“You’re right. I’m an ass but I owe you something,” said the vampire.
The omega took a step backwards. “Like what?”
“I couldn’t save your mate, and I’ve been carrying the guilt since he died. But I can look out for you until the baby’s born.”
“Don’t bother.”
“I’ll be back tonight. You won’t know I’m here...” He rubbed his chin and frowned. “…hopefully.”
“No!”
“And you’re going to stop me how exactly? With your gun?”
Declan huffed and shuffled his feet as he fumed at the man before him. “I have garlic.”
Alexander raised a brow. “I wouldn’t.”
“So it’s true!”
The alpha scrunched up his face and smirked. “It’ll give me bad breath.”
The omega waggled a finger at him. “This is not a time for jokes.”
The clouds that had been threatening rain swooped over the pair and when Declan cringed against the inevitable deluge of water, the vampire picked him up and deposited him inside the house. The omega’s gaze flicked over his dry robe.
“You’re welcome.”
Declan shivered. Without thinking he blurted out, “I didn’t discover I was pregnant until a week after my mate died. He didn’t know he was going to be a father.”
The alpha steepled his fingers. “You’re living with guilt too.”
He’s right. I never thought of it like that.
They stood in silence until Declan remembered he was alone in the house with a vampire. He wrapped his arms around his chest. “You should go.”
“Yes. I have an appointment.”
“But first a question, Alexander Fletcher.”
“Shoot.”
“When I find my gun, I will.” Declan glared at the alpha. “Answer me truthfully. As I can’t stop you sitting in my pine tree, am I or my baby in any danger from you?”
“None.”
And then he was gone. Only his intriguing scent, which combined a virile, alpha aroma with a musky, mossy odor like the forest floor after rain, wafted through the air.
That was weird and creepy. Declan locked the door and rubbed his belly. “That vampire is bad news.”
Three
Alexander
As a weak sun peeked over the horizon and bathed the road in dappled light, Alexander made his way home. With his foot pressed against the gas pedal of his sleek, yellow sports car, the alpha roared around the winding road that led from the wooded area where he’d spent the night to his house on the other side of town.
He had the top down, and the early morning breeze whipped his hair and stung his cheeks as he negotiated the bends and overtook slow-moving traffic.
The wind whistled past his head, and the car purred as it raced in and out of the shadows from tall trees on either side of the road. With his hands gripping the wheel, the alpha absorbed the power from the
machine. It plowed through his veins like a drug, and he almost believed he could fly.
The pair were similar in many ways. But both alpha and machine were plagued with a savagery that maimed and killed and could be triggered by an aroma or pressure on a throttle. And yet they each had a gentle side that was hidden behind an impenetrable exterior.
They were always searching for something just out of reach—hidden possibilities that lay over the next hill or around a curve. And when he was driving at high speed, Alexander came close to absolute freedom.
But unlike the alpha, the car needed looking after, and would eventually surrender to old age. Alexander was jealous the magnificent beast was more human than him.
Sometimes when the little sports car hugged the road, Alexander was tempted to keep going and not look back. But while vampires could roam wherever they wanted, there was a link to the place where they were turned. No matter where they wandered, instinct lured them home just as an angler reeled in a fish.
And though it was a beautiful morning—perfect for a drive through the ancient forest which surrounded the city—something was missing and the alpha mulled over what was different. Was it because of his face-to-face-confrontation with Declan?
The alpha recalled the omega’s huge gray eyes ringed with long dark lashes, staring at him with a mixture of defiance and sadness, and he was tempted to do a screeching U-turn and return to Declan’s house. But as his foot hovered over the brake, he heard the omega’s voice in his head telling him to leave.
Reluctantly, Alexander pressed hard on the accelerator, though a smile flickered over his lips when he pictured the omega’s face and adorable cowlick on his hairline. A frisson of excitement shot through the alpha’s body and his foot froze over the gas pedal.
Smacking both palms on his forehead, he stared slack-jawed into the distance as the yellow car veered onto the wrong side of the road. What in the hell was that?
A huge truck careened around a corner and the alpha’s car barreled toward the oncoming vehicle. The sound of a jarring horn had Alexander’s reflexes take over and he swerved the car away from a collision. Shit! What’s wrong with me?
Abuse hurled at him from the truck driver had the alpha shake his head, and the euphoric sensation vanished. He ignored the thrill that had swept over him, refusing to see his time outside the omega’s house as anything other than him being a good samaritan. I’m acting as a bodyguard. Don’t make this into something it isn’t.
Instead, Alexander wrestled with something more familiar: dealing with humans and their reactions to vampires. The omega had compared his surveillance to harassment. This horrified the alpha, as Declan and the baby’s safety had been his priority.
Alexander had been under no illusion the two would become besties but he’d assumed the omega would be grateful. While keeping watch, the alpha had scared off a few kids and the odd vampire skulking about. Did I expect him to see me as a hero?
He tossed the idea aside but it niggled him. He put himself in the omega’s position and cringed as he imagined being pregnant and having a vampire loom out of nowhere. He must hate me.
Though some of his human memories were fuzzy, Alexander tried to remember what his mother used to say when he was full of himself. “Do you want a medal or a chest to pin it on?” He grinned as her voice echoed in his head.
But as he rounded a sharp corner and passed a turn-of-the-century house similar to Declan’s, his thoughts returned to the home beside the lake. The alpha gripped the steering wheel, resisting the irrational urge to turn the car around. As his fingers clenched over the soft leather, the expensive material shredded, and the car creaked and complained. “Sorry.” Damn, that omega has wormed his way into my head.
The forest thinned as factories and businesses popped up between the trees. The alpha drove through the city’s outer suburbs and patted the dashboard. “Sorry, Sunshine. We have to slow down. Too much traffic.” The truck driver’s reaction to the near-accident reminded the alpha his driving style unnerved the humans who shared the road with him.
A burning in his throat told him he needed to eat, and once again his mind was dragged back to his early-morning encounter with Declan. Facing the omega and inhaling his tantalizing aroma had been excruciating. He’d lied when he said he was no danger.
While he would never hurt the baby and had no intention of harming Declan, he was torn between wanting to stay close to the pregnant omega and fleeing. Vampires’ bloodthirsty temperament was a survival mechanism and tamping down the urge to feed directly from a human was foreign to them and threatened their survival. It took immense physical and mental strength to resist the call of fresh blood.
And he’d been plagued with guilt since Declan’s mate’s death. The principles he lived by did not allow him to turn the man without permission. Not to mention it was illegal.
But there had been a complication which he had assumed neither the dying alpha nor his mate were aware of. Alexander had caught the faint scent of new life secreted inside the omega. In those seconds when he tried to save the alpha, he’d wrestled with his conscience. As he pressed on the man’s chest and blew air into his lungs, he’d grappled with the idea of an unborn child’s needs outweighing the law.
He could have ignored the voices in his head and sunk his teeth into one of the alpha’s veins. Plenty of vampires disregarded the rules and not all paid the price.
His mind whirred while beside him the omega had screamed and banged his fists on the jogging path as he pleaded with his mate to breathe. The man had gotten on his knees, raised his head and outstretched his arms as if he were summoning a primeval deity.
Baring his teeth, a mournful howl had exploded from between his lips and would have had Alexander shivering and goosebumps crawling over his skin if he’d been human. He’d imagined the omega’s four-legged ancestors acting in a similar way centuries before.
The omega’s heartbreak had tempted Alexander to bite the dying alpha, but cases of transformations gone wrong had him back off. While a mortal life was gloriously unpredictable, turning a human into a vampire was also an inexact science. The heart stopped beating, new vampires needed to feed, they gained speed and superhuman strength. Those things were a given.
But the change sometimes messed with their personality, passions and even their memories. Their bodies survived the process, but it was a crapshoot emotionally.
Alexander had sensed the alpha would not recover, and later when he confirmed the man had died, he’d debated whether to tell the omega about the baby, but decided against it. He’d reasoned the bereaved man would find out soon enough and needed time to process what had happened before being presented with more changes.
But he’d made a decision to look out for the omega and sat in that damned uncomfortable pine tree each night. If it hadn’t been for Victor’s intrusion, Declan would never have discovered he was there.
Alexander gritted his teeth as he pressed his foot on the pedal and pondered whether a guilty conscience was the only reason he’d done what he did. It’s what any honorable vampire would have done. The omega was grieving, pregnant and facing life as a single parent, and he’d brought out a nurturing side of the alpha.
Alexander had wished he could take away Declan’s pain, but not even he could do that. He shook a mental fist at fate for giving vampires heightened senses and abilities and yet withholding the power to soothe heartbreak.
But there was a flip side to his wanting to protect the omega. Having clashed with Declan earlier, Alexander was intrigued by his fierceness and independence as well as his sassiness. The pregnant omega had attacked a vampire—with a flashlight! And threatened him with a gun.
Alexander’s eyes crinkled, revealing faint lines as he recalled the omega’s stubborn expression when he pretended to have a weapon. His body language had screamed, “I’m making this up,” and his words had amused rather than annoyed the alpha.
Despite being confronted by a vampire in the dark, the omega
had not cowered. He’s feisty! Such courage was rare, and the alpha hoped if the positions were reversed, he’d have acted the same.
While Alexander had mortal friends, their first meeting usually followed a pattern of anxiety, uncertainty and reluctance, and if they made it to the final stage, acceptance. Even worse were the humans who stalked the alpha, begging to be turned into a vampire. He cringed at the memory of being offered naked flesh.
But as he maneuvered his way through the streets, Victor’s words about Declan not accepting him repeated in his head. The alpha eased his foot off the accelerator while he puzzled over his earlier reaction but a sickening sensation had him hitting the brakes. A driver on his tail beeped his horn and yelled, “Fucking idiot!”
Shit! The alpha allowed the engine to idle as the car sat in the middle of the busy road. Humans drove past swearing and cursing while vampires threatened to report him to the council. Pedestrians pointed at the car stuck in the middle of the intersection, and after their eyes darted around and took in the chaos, they backtracked.
A buzzing combination of fear and irritation from the onlookers surrounded Alexander, but his mind was engulfed with a terrifying thought. He gulped and swallowed, and even though he’d been a vampire for years, he instinctively wiped imaginary sweat from his brow.
The alpha had not questioned his need to be close to Declan after the accident, though witnessing the omega’s mourning had rekindled faint images from Alexander’s human existence. They flitted in and out of his thoughts as though playing hide and seek, and as he reached out, they taunted “Na, na, na, na-na!” and scampered off.
But the omega had unwittingly given Alexander something in return for his safety. Listening to Declan tapping out reports on his computer, humming to music, cooking dinner and watching TV had brought a sense of normalcy that Alexander no longer had. It snuggled around him and reminded him of being tucked into bed as a child.
I’m a fool. He’d convinced himself his actions were for the omega, but in reality he’d been greedy and taken much from Declan. That idiot Victor had been closer to the truth than he realized. It wasn’t only sympathy, a sense of guilt or even a weird longing for his former mortality that coursed through his veins when he sat outside Declan’s house.
The Alpha Vampire's Proposal: An Mpreg Paranormal Romance (Flickering Shadows Book 1) Page 2
