The Alpha's Temptation

Menkar reached a lonely spot on the harbor, soon. He inhaled the gentle sea breeze with a brine smell which always lured him. He took out the tangerine soul stone and smiled wickedly. The stone was cool against his skin. "I won't let you live peacefully, Tania," he hissed, seeing it. "And Taiyi will suffer in the fires of hell."

He closed his eyes and chanted a spell. Thick smoke emerged from his hands and enveloped the stone. A light flickered inside it and pulsated a little. "You are going to die slowly, painfully," he hissed.

The light pulsated a few times as if wanting to expand, as if wanting to breathe. But it snuffed like a candle in the wind. Menkar frowned. He narrowed his eyes. Taking the soul stone higher up against the night sky, he closed his eyes and chanted the spell again. Once again, the light flickered and then snuffed just as soon. "What are you doing, Tania?" he murmured. "Have you come to know how to use your fae magic? But even if you have, you can't escape from me." This time, he closed his fist around the soul stone and then chanted a stronger spell. A small light came alive in the soul stone. It pulsated as if breathing heavily. Menkar watched it like a hawk. He wanted to chant the same spell again, but the stone could have cracked. That was a risk he didn't want to take.

The light throbbed a little, but it extinguished very slowly as if gulping for air and then dying off. Furious as hell, Menkar roared. Using dark magic meant that he had to spend his energy in it. This depletion resulted in aggravating his pain. A pain blasted in his waist. More scales were showing up. Not able to combat the pain any longer, he let out a frustrated yell and then dived in the water.

He was standing over an arched road which was actually a small bridge. He swam towards a boat that was swaying over there in the water gently. This boat always stayed in this place. He removed the weeds and mollusks that had grown over it with time. When it was clear, he sat in it and cast a spell over it for it to float till the point from where he would enter the kingdom of King Izo.

The boat started to float over water on its own. He knew that it would take an hour for it to reach that point. Usually it would take at least a day to reach the right point of entry, but he had to make his way through the secret current that whirled inside the sea.

He waited to reach the place impatiently. As soon as he reached there, Menkar dived in water. His legs morphed into a dark green tail with olive green scales flaring on his waist. He cast another spell on the boat to stay in its place because he would return after ten days. He gritted his teeth when he remembered that he had asked his crew to wait for five days. He hoped that they didn't start finding him. How could his reasoning lapse so much?

Menkar didn't dwell much on this lack of logic. He just dived deeper in the sea in search of the whirling current that would speed up his journey to the kingdom of Murel.

---

Tania woke up with a start when she felt a slight stab of pain in her chest. Eltanin who was sleeping with her in his arms, woke up too.

"What is it, Tania?" he asked.

She took the stone out of her gown and saw that it had begun to flicker.

"Fuck the bastard!" Eltanin said. Rage smoldered inside his chest. He grasped the tangerine soul stone in his palm. Blue aether spilled out of his eyes and it lashed out like silver streaks that slanted back. Instinctively, his magic came forth in blue waves that rippled down his arms and covered the soul stone.

The stone had started to heat up. The skin of his palm was burning, but he didn't let it go. Sweat trickled down his brow as he continued to look at his fist which was now covered with swirling blue smoke. Slowly, the stone cooled down and when he opened his fist, he saw that the light had snuffed.

Eltanin took a sigh of relief. He withdrew his magic and pulled Tania in his lap. "Are you fine, Tania?" he asked.

"Are you fine, Eltanina?" she asked, her throat gone dry.

"I am," he chuckled and then bent over the bedside table to pick up the tumbler of water.

She gulped it down greedily. She had woken up after a long time only to see the light in the soul stone. She rested her face in the crook of his neck when the light flickered again. "Ah!" the pain was sharper this time.

"Calaman's horns!" Eltanin's magic reacted to his mate on a natural instinct now. It curled out of chest in the form of blue smoky waves that traveled all the way through his arms and then to the soul stone. This time twice the amount of earlier magic came out of him. But the fire inside it got killed fast.

His breath was labored at the end of it. Tania got up and brought water for him immediately. "I am so sorry," she muttered as he drank water. She wiped the sweat from his face with the sheet. "I think he is speeding his plans to take us down."

Eltanin plopped on the pillow, slightly exhausted. He hadn't used his magic like this. Although he had learnt how to control it, this was the first time his magic reacted to his mate. And in a good way. It wanted to protect her. "Come here," he said.

When Tania settled beside him, she said, "I wanted to ask something about the healer's report from Stourin."

"What?" He closed his eyes.

"One of the ingredients used in his potion was sea plankton. According to my mother, potions are species specific. So is it possible that Menkar is a merman?"