The Alpha's Temptation

Eltanin was... dazed.

The gray tendrils lifted from the book and curled around Tania's wrists. He looked at them and felt as if they were calling him. They hissed as they crawled over her skin, trying to slither like a serpent. Tiny wisps would escape and touch the skin on his forearm. He should have felt repulsed, but he felt... entranced. He wanted to be one with them. The magic was extremely powerful.

"Eltanin, leave her!" Rolfe shouted, hoping to break his trance. But Eltanin only tightened his hold on Tania.

Tania was dazed too. She wanted to absorb the magic of Yunabi. The attraction, the call to it, was impossible to ignore. Her breath became ragged as she closed her eyes and fell on Eltanin's chest. She wanted to be one with the magic who wanted to claim her as its.

Rolfe gritted his teeth and glanced at Ileus and Anastasia. "Is there a way to stop it?" he rasped, looking at the tendrils that were now curling rapidly around them.

"The call is too strong," Anastasia said. "If he doesn't come out, he will find himself trapped in the world of magic."

"Damn!" Rolfe rubbed his face with his palms. If he knew this would happen, he would have thought of another way.

"I am going to try to pull him out!" Ileus shouted.

"No!" Rolfe protested.

"Do we fucking have a choice?" All at once, Ileus burst in shadows and smoke. With the speed of the hurricane, he rushed towards Eltanin and covered him completely. The next moment, he was yanking Eltanin from the grasp of the magic. Tania started falling down but Anastasia rushed to her side quickly and supported her. Tania's head fell over Anastasia's shoulders and her body went limp. The tendrils curled and roiled and hissed as they entered Tania's mouth. They didn't touch Anastasia as if fearing her.

Eltanin growled at Ileus when his daze broke. He found himself on the floor with golden eyes glaring at him. Ileus was covered with sweat. "If Rolfe fucking asks you to pull, you pull out!"

"I want to go back to her!" Eltanin growled at him. He looked menacing. Ileus was like a challenge to him who dared to remove him from his wife. He wanted to fight with him.

Ileus narrowed his eyes. "Remember I am going to rip you, limb by limb if you dare to fight with me!"

Eltanin got up on his feet. "I am going to do the same!"

"Shut up, both of you!" Rolfe yelled.

However, Eltanin attacked Ileus. The two of them were a blur of shock and speed and punches and growls as they crashed in and out of the cave. It was only moments later that the two stopped when Biham intervened.

"Are you both insane?" Biham snapped. Biham walked to Eltanin. He knew that Eltanin and Ileus were undergoing a lot of tension. It just came out like this and it was necessary.

Eltanin spat blood and looked at Ileus with a swollen eye. Ileus glowered at him with blood trickling from his nose. They both were heaving heavily, their muscles bulging. After their staring match, they both walked different ways.

Ileus rushed back to Tania. Seeing him, Anastasia stepped back when the magic of that page was absorbed by Tania. Tania's back started itching. Badly. White streaks of lights ran across her back forming rough patterns of wings, trying to reveal their shape. Th

Ileus was looking at Tania's back with bewilderment. Were her wings growing on their own? How could she not feel them? Or was it that she felt the pain and couldn't relate?

Rolfe glanced at Ileus, who shook his head, scared that it was too soon for him to unlock her wings. He wanted to double check. Everything became all the more complicated.

"When do we leave?" Biham asked, serving rabbit stew to Anastasia who had come out.

Anastasia accepted it with a smile. "As soon as they finish the next few pages," she murmured. "Once she reaches Vilinski, I am sure that Kinshra might not allow her to leave. In that case, only her magic is going to help her."

Biham cringed. He looked away, towards Eltanin. "I hope she reasons..."

Anastasia took a spoonful of stew in her mouth and froze. The stew was horrible. She wanted to spit it out but she couldn't insult king Biham. Had he made the stew for the first time? Poor Eltanin. He hunted for rabbits in the rough terrain of Sgiáth Bio and this was what came out of it.

"Kinshra was a very sweet fae. I don't think--" Biham let out a rough breath. When he looked at Anastasia, she seemed to be gulping the stew. He felt happy that his efforts paid off. The king had never in his life known how to cook. He only assumed that this could be the way. So he burned the rabbit in skewers over fire, added salt to it and then sliced it into pieces. After that he boiled water and added it to the sliced pieces.

Anastasia paled after gulping down the stew. In a squeaky voice she asked, "Where's the second rabbit?"

Biham's chest swelled with pride. He thought that she wanted him to cook more. "I have already skinned it, cut it into pieces and packed it for our journey." He pointed at his saddlebag. "It is stuffed there."

Anastasia kept the bowl down, went to the saddlebag and took the skinned rabbit out.

"Do you want me to cook it?" Biham asked, confused.

"No!" she replied quickly. "Your saddlebag seemed to tear with its weight, that's why I removed it!" Before Biham could reply, she stashed it into her saddlebag.

Very proudly, Biham served the stew to Eltanin.

All at once, a loud scream emanated from the cave. Abandoning their tasks, the three ran inside. They found Tania suspended in the air. Her tunic and trousers were tattered. Her arms were above her head and a gale-like wind was whirling around her. Dark magic of black and gold glittery tendrils was swirling viciously, circling her like she was an epicenter of a hurricane. Her hair was blowing around her face and her eyes were violet. White streaks of lights zigzagged across her back. Suddenly they lashed out of her body and sizzled in the air in the form of wings.

Ileus was standing on the ground, his hands flung in front of him as he cast a spell. His eyes were blazing like fire.

"Tania!" Eltanin rushed to her to help her come down, but Anastasia stopped him. "She must be under a lot of pain," he said, his heart exploding with the misery his mate was feeling. At the same time, he was awestruck by the lights that sizzled in the shape of her wings.

"Please take her down," Biham pleaded. His eyes welled with tears.

"Eeeeee!" Tania screamed once again as Ileus chanted spells. Her magic whipped at Ileus to protect her.

He dodged it again and again. In the end, he withdrew his spell and Tania fell down, unconscious. However, he caught her before she hit the ground and handed her to Eltanin. Ileus was sweating profusely. He looked from Tania to Eltanin and Rolfe and then back to Tania. "There are three layers of magic on her wings. I managed to break the first!"