Alpha Ember (ALPHA KANE BOOK 2)

5. Fruit over Boys

Tyra

You know that thing that happens when you're walking down the street and it just so happens to be one of those days when you're particularly strapped for cash, with no secret savings coming to your rescue and unpaid bills piling up on your mounting stress and to make things even worse, all of a sudden you have the greatest craving for a Hershey bar you sadly cannot afford. So at this point you're in the middle of calculating whether robbing a bank so you can buy a chocolate bar is worth the risk of jail time when- VIOLA. There it is. That flash of a bill on the ground, its papery edges flapping in the wind as if deliberately seeking your attention.

Before your eyes are even on it, you've imagined- no, you've willed it to at least be a ten dollar bill.

But it's not.

It's not even money, it's an empty candy wrapper of all things, adding salt to the wound.

That scenario is pretty much what just happened to me. I'd turned around, saw grey fur and thought wolf ears and immediately assumed: soul mate. And like that quick jerk of your arm as it started to reach for the fake bill, the question jerked from my mouth, "Who are you?"

Then reality set in and I saw that he wasn't a crispy ten dollar bill. He certainly wasn't my soul mate, he was the Autumn Court's prince and what I'd mistaken for wolf ears were actually deer antlers.

"Oh," I said, shoulders slumping. "It's you."

"Considering how you've never laid eyes on me until now," said Prince Thorne, "I find your reaction to be quite offending."

I crossed my arms over my chest, rolling my eyes. "I've seen portraits of you. They're all over the Court if you haven't noticed."

"I've noticed," he said pleasantly. "My father has always appreciated aesthetics, he considers me his favorite creation."

The corner of my lips quirked upwards at this. "Sounds like something my own father would say." It didn't matter to Dad that he'd adopted me, he called me the daughter of his soul.

"I can see why he would," Thorne said, tawny eyes studying my face with appreciation. (Like I expected.) "Of course there's no need for you to say the same of me as well since we're both aware of my ethereal beauty and wealth."

My smile soured. I gave him a quick once-over. Deer antlers and a heavy fur cape whose thickness couldn't hide the haughty set of his shoulders, the constant glitter of jewels that he was covered in from head-to-toe (he had a ruby pierced into his lip for goodness sakes) and an attractive face that was more pretty than handsome. Pointed ears visible even with the long brown hair that came down to his back- which was also decorated with jeweled accessories. He wore the expensive stones like it was an everyday thing, as normal as eating a Hershey bar. It made my earlier excitement over my diamonds feel childish.

Which is exactly what he was aiming for with his snobby comment, showing off the unreachable goods to the girl who couldn't afford a candy bar so she'd be willing to take any crap he was no doubt going to throw at me in large quantities. Crap I'd have to put up with if I wanted my life to get better.

I studied my perfectly manicured silver nails, Elzeria had worked tirelessly on them for nearly an hour and they now resembled claws. Conveniently sharp claws. "I know I should be buttering you up considering I should want you to marry me, but using these babies on that 'ethereal face' of yours sounds a lot more fun."

Wrong thing to say, Dad would've said if he were here with me.

Too late.

I waited for Thorne's royal wrath to descend upon me, for him to order the guards to kick me out on my ass.

I found I couldn't care less if he did.

He smiled. "So long as you can keep your dark urges in check, I believe we'll get along well," he said.

Okay, different turn of events. "You're not angry? I thought..."

"Oh, you thought correctly," Thorne replied. "I am very much interested in a marriage between us."

"I don't like you," I blurted out.

The faintest of smiles from Thorne, then he slipped his ringed hand into the front of his vest. "But you like this, don't you?" he asked, revealing what he'd had stashed away.

Faerie fruit.

It looked like an apple but was pink and I knew from past experiences that it tasted more like a peach but infinitely tastier. So tasty one bite would lead to another bite which would then lead to bigger, faster bites until you just stuffed the rest of it into your mouth- tiny crunchy seeds included- and would start reaching for another fruit like a person possessed... but you couldn't. Because by then you would be possessed. Faerie fruit was one of the most basic pranks in the Faerie's Dummy Guide to Pranking Humans book. A single bite of it would trigger an uncontrollable need to dance and whether or not the human was a dancer, the human would certainly dance, giggling at first, still high from the initial euphoria the fruit brought on, then the fatigue would set in as the euphoria wore off and terror would come knocking when the human realized they couldn't stop. Fast forward to the screaming and pleading which the rowdy faerie pranksters would ignore, probably already bored with the prank by then actually, and a few days of non-stop dancing (depending on the human's stamina) would only come to an end when the human finally collapsed from hunger and dehydration.

Gruesome experience. I've gone through the process more times than I could count- excluding the screams and pleading. That happened on the first time I ate the fruit and not once since.

The sight of the wretched fruit should inspire fear in me- it was in fact making my muscles recall the burning pain I'd be visited with if I ate it- but at the same time my mouth was watering, head pounding at my temples. I wanted to eat it. Have been waiting impatiently all week not to meet my supposed prince on a white horse but to get my hands on this.

Thorne held it out to me.

I should've refused.

I should've been stronger and thought things through.

Should've remembered my biological mother and her own issues.

Instead I reached out and snatched the fruit away before he could change his mind.

And then I took a huge bite out of it.