NocC 023 - The Ancients 05 - Bonnie Vanak - Incubus Wolf - Harlequin 2012-09 (7 page)

Chapter 9

The wizard stared, dumbstruck, at the incubus wolf
who’d walked into his living room. And why not? Dominic thought cynically. After
all these months of playing games, he’d just walked into his lair like a deer
into a wolf’s den. He’d avoided the cabin so many times before in his midnight
raids to free the captured wolves, hell, he could find it with his eyes
closed.

“Farrell.” Belaramos flung his hands back as if to send an
energy bolt.

“Do it and you’ll damage the goods.” Dominic tapped his chest.
“Me.”

The wizard lowered his hands. “Why are you here?”

“To surrender. You can have me. Just one condition.” Dominic
spread out his hands to show he wasn’t armed. “Give Alexandra back her illusion
of beauty.”

Belaramos laughed. “Why? You don’t want her, incubus. You only
wanted her when she was beautiful. Now she’s ugly as a moose.”

Moose were beautiful, Dominic thought. So was Alex. Her inner
beauty could not be dimmed.

“You and your pack of misfits. Why do you take in such ugly
rogues?”

Because they needed a home and deserved
the freedom of not having anyone judge them. Just like they do not judge me
for being incubus.
But he kept these thoughts silent and guarded.

Belaramos went to a cabinet and removed a vial of liquid. It
glowed green. “This will restore the illusion. She’ll remain blind to her true
looks. Now, will you cooperate?”

A calculating smile, cold as ice, touched the man’s face. “It’s
so much better if you’re alive when I drain you. The blood maintains more
power.”

“Yes, but I don’t trust you to deliver it yourself. Carla,” he
called out.

The small, frightened woman came in from outside where she’d
been awaiting his signal.

“Take the vial to Alexandra. No,” he added as Carla began to
cry. “Do as I say. That’s an order.”

He paused a minute, his heart twisting. “And tell her… to be
happy. I only want her to be happy.”

Carla left, clutching the potion. His shoulders sagged with
resignation. Alexandra would always feel safe and beautiful now, secure in the
illusion. So be it. She came first. It broke his heart to know he could not be
the one to make her happy.

The wizard led him down steps to a well-lit basement to a long
metal table and ordered him to strip and lie down. Pain stung his wrists as
Belaramos fastened his wrists and ankles to silver handcuffs attached to the
table. The table sloped down toward a small drain. Dominic realized with
sickening clarity it was to hold his blood.

The wizard removed a curved blade from a cabinet, toyed with
it. It winked in the sharp overhead light. “What a fool you are. Giving your
life up for an ugly whore like Alexandra.”

“I don’t care what she looks like. She’s always beautiful to
me.” He gathered his strength. “If we were together, I’d age one day and be a
toothless old man. And I know in my heart she’ll still see me the way I am today
just as I see her inner beauty because she loves me.”

“Love is for fools.”

But he heard the doubt in the other’s voice. Dominic seized on
it.

“No one will ever love you because you’re ugly inside. Dark and
disgusting.” His voice dropped to a deep whisper that echoed through the room.
“Rotting wormwood.”

Belaramos screamed, holding his face. Blood began to seep from
between his fingers. “What have you done to me?”

“Only what you’ve done to yourself.”

Snarling, the wizard jerked Dominic’s head back. He saw the
gleam of the blade and braced himself. For you, Alexandra, he thought
desperately.
Be happy.

Footsteps, fast and furious. Alexandra leaped from the middle
step and landed on her feet. Behind her was Michael, his weapon drawn.

“Belaramos, you cheating, lying son of a bitch. I don’t want
your potion.”

As the wizard took the blade to Dominic’s throat, she pointed
and fired.

The shot rang out, her aim true, as the wizard dropped dead.
Michael raced to Dominic, unchaining the silver cuffs, wincing as the metal made
contact with his bare fingers.

Alexandra ran to him as he stood, kissing him fiercely. “You
brave wolf. Did you think I was that shallow, that I didn’t love you, that I’d
let you give up your life just for my silly looks? I knew something was wrong.
Fortunately, your second in command doesn’t listen well to your orders.”

His heart beat fast with love at her firm declaration. She’d
made a sacrifice of her own to save him, but more importantly, proved she’d
accepted her own true self. She’d be a worthy mate if she agreed to take
him.

Dominic held her tight, laying his head atop her head. He
kissed the golden locks, relishing the silk beneath his mouth. Then he leaped
off the table and dressed.

She wiped furiously at the tears on her cheeks. “At least he’s
dead now and will never bother you. Belaramos, you bastard…”

Alex stared in horror at the dead man.

Then she looked up, and he realized she discovered the hidden
truth at last.

*

The dead man lying at Dominic’s feet was not a stranger
but her stepfather, Devin Edwards. The glamour had faded, revealing the harsh,
puffy face and the slight paunch that was always an affront to her stepfather’s
vanity.

Shock pummeled her. It couldn’t be Edwards. He loved his power
too much as leader of her clan to give it all up for Alaska’s wilderness. She
stared at the man’s face. Scars marked every inch of his skin. Puckered,
twisted, they made him appear vicious and evil, even in death.

“I don’t understand.” Alex looked up at Dominic. “How could he
have slipped past me like that? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“Two years ago, the Society hired a new director. He looked
into cases, like mine, that reeked of political injustice. He exonerated me,
restored my powers twice-fold, and privately told me I could punish Edwards for
framing me for a crime I did not commit… raping a virgin Fae.”

Dominic’s eyes narrowed. “The director told me I could do
whatever I wished to make up for my years in prison. I just had to keep it
quiet. The director needed to be disavowed of the process because of politics.
He was new, and still weeding through bureaucratic red tape.”

He opened his right hand. Power sang in the air as white fire
surrounded his hand. Dominic closed it, making a fist.

“I’m much more powerful than you realize, Alexandra. I cursed
your stepfather for every hurt he inflicted on you. I did it for you. I didn’t
know what he had done to you, but I knew you were hurting.”

“You marked him.” Wonder filled her at this man who had
fiercely defended her and gone to prison to protect her.

“No,” he said quietly. “I only made him as ugly outside as he
is on the inside. The world would never see him again as handsome and charming,
but witness the darkness of his soul. If he ever experienced a true change of
heart, he would have regained his looks. It’s why he wanted my blood. No woman
would approach him. He was thrown out of your colony and the rival Fae king took
over. Edwards thought my blood would make him sexually appealing to women. He
came here to Alaska after the real Lord Belaramos died and assumed his identity.
He hid behind a lie.”

She hugged herself, trying to deal. Lies surrounded her from
the moment she’d stepped into the trap. “The potion, he lied to me.”

Dominic gentled his voice. “He used a spell to make you believe
you looked as you once did. But to others, it made your runes appear. It did
exactly the opposite of what you desired.”

There was no magick cure, no potion to make her beautiful. It
was all a ruse.

She’d been ugly from the moment he’d tossed the elixir on her
face. Yet Dominic and the pack knew what she looked like.

And they treated her with respect.

“You saw what I really looked like. And you didn’t run.” She
looked at Michael who nodded.

“Because we saw inside you, Alexandra. We saw your heart,” he
said quietly.

She’d always be ugly and repulsive to the world. Maybe. But not
among Dominic and his people.

He cherished her, this wolf who’d gone to great lengths to make
her dearest dream come true.

“Michael, burn him.” Dominic gestured to her stepfather. “I do
not want his blood tainting the earth.”

Dominic led her upstairs, out into the clean, cold air. They
walked back to the lodge in silence. Inside the living room, he threw a blanket
over her shivering body, rubbed her to keep her warm.

Then sitting on the couch, he took her hand, his fingers warm.
He opened his other palm, revealing the ugly scar on it. “I received this when I
was twelve and my father kicked me out of the pack for being different. He was
afraid I’d take over and pollute the pack with more hybrid blood. I’ve left it
as a sign of honor. Just as your marks are badges of honor, Alexandra, of your
inner strength. Will you stay with us and be my mate?”

Alex crossed the room to stand before the mirror above the
fireplace. Dominic joined her as she looked, really looked at herself. The runes
were intricate and elegant. Not ugly. They were marks of courage, as Dominic
said.

Then she glanced up and saw him looking at her with tenderness,
with love, with admiration. As if she were the Alexandra who’d first taken him
into her bed.

Alex turned, watching Dominic. Waiting, his big shoulders
tense, every muscle taut. Waiting for her to give an answer. He would not force
her.

With him near, she would never hold the illusion of beauty
again. Yet the thought did not distress her. She touched her cheek.

He seemed to understand and placed his palm over hers. “You’re
beautiful, Alexandra. You always have been to me. All those years in prison, I
kept the memory of you alive and it gave me strength.”

Emotion clogged her throat as he took her palm and guided it to
her chest, letting her feel the steady beat. “But your heart. This is the real
you, the woman I’ve craved all these years.”

Alex rested against him, happiness stealing over her. Then
realization struck.

“I don’t get it. If you were released from prison, why did the
Society send me after you?”

“I set you up, sweetheart.” Was that a sheepish look on his
face? Dominic shrugged. “It’s why the Society gave you this assignment.”

Alex drew back. “I got this assignment because I claimed
celibacy and immunity to your charms.”

“No, I arranged with the director for you to get this
assignment so you would come after me. It was the only way I knew to reel you
in.”

“I’m not a damn fish,” she snapped. “It was all a ruse?”

Dominic gathered her hands into his, resisting her efforts to
pull away. “For you, sweetheart.”

Emotions spiraling out of control, she shook her head. “I don’t
understand. Why the scheme? Why didn’t you contact me directly?”

“I tried. All these years, I sent letters, I even bribed guards
to deliver messages. I tried to contact you, but you threw away all your letters
the Society sent. And you blocked all emails. So the director arranged for you
to come to me instead, with the guise of the bounty.”

Alex felt a sinking feeling settle into her stomach. She’d
shunned any contact or mail because she’d been so badly hurt, and Dominic had
been trying all these years. “Why did you go to such lengths?”

The words were a whisper, her heart beating fast.

“Because I wanted you from the moment you set the gold coins in
my hand. I fell for you, the little stubborn line between your brows that said
you were not backing down, that no one told you how to live your life. And after
we’d made love, I knew I could never leave you.”

“It was all just sex to you.”

Tenderness shone in his face as he framed her face with his
hands. “No, it was something I’d never felt before, and had been searching for
my entire life. Not sex. But a connection, one forged so deep I could never
forget it. I did not put my mark on you, Alexandra. You put your mark on me, on
my heart.”

“I thought you’d forgotten about me.” Tunneling her fingers
through his hair, she gazed into his eyes, seeing the lost Dominic who had
patiently waited for years in a cold, dank demon prison.

“Never. I did my time to keep you safe. I knew if I were locked
up, your stepfather would have no claim upon you. He’d be forced to let you go
or have to answer to the Society.” His expression darkened. “Although I didn’t
realize he would mark you first before banishing you.”

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I’m not afraid of showing them
anymore because now I’m like your pack. I have my own scars.”

Dominic traced the edges of a flaring rune. “These are symbols
of independence and the courage of a woman who dared to walk her own path, no
matter what the adversity. The kind of woman I need at my side to rule my pack.
I want no other. Will you have me, Alexandra?”

A lump rose in her throat at his simple declaration. He saw the
heart of her, her true self, no matter what had been done to her body.

“Yes,” she said.

Desire flared as he kissed her, his tongue sweeping into her
mouth as he nibbled at her lower lip. Leaning into him, she gave herself fully
to the kiss, to the bond that had been forged from the moment their palms had
touched.

When they drew back for breath, both a little shaky, Alex
managed a smile. “So, when do we get mated? I want to take advantage of your
skills as soon as possible and keep you locked up. Can I take your incubus half
for a test drive?”

Dominic laughed and playfully rubbed his nose against hers.
Every nerve ending seared with heat, even as something settled over her so new
and wonderful that she barely recognized it.

Peace, she realized. She’d hoped to find it in Colorado, but
instead, found it with a wild incubus wolf in Alaska.

“We’ll be formally mated as soon as possible.” Mirth twinkled
in his gaze. “Because I intend to have my wicked way with you in bed. For a
very, very long time. You’ll never be bored.”