Page 16 of Bound to Four Alphas (Silverthorn Alphas #1)

“She’s not in the gardens.” Elian brutally shoved a lion shifter out of the way to get to Ronan, his eyes flashing dangerously. “I searched them twice.”

Ronan’s fists clenched, panic coursing through him, practically choking him. “And there’s no sign of Malek?”

Elian shook his head, “I lost his scent near the woods.”

“Fuck,” Ronan snarled, whipping around, ignoring the fearful looks from those around him. “Can’t you use magic or something?”

“Oh yeah, hadn’t thought of that, what an obvious and easy solution,” said Elian with a sneer. “My powers are limited here, I’m practically blind.”

“Fuck off with your sarcasm, Benellane, now isn’t the time,” Ronan said, pushing past him with slightly too much force.

“What, you think I’m not taking this seriously?” Elian shouted after him. “I’m just as worried as you.”

“I shouldn’t have left her with Malek, fuck. Fuck! ” Ronan roared, punching the stone wall. The pain didn’t even register. All he could think of, all he could possibly focus on, was the fact that Selena was missing.

And she was in danger.

He had been joking with some of his warriors when he smelled it. Thick and pungent, it nearly sent him feral then and there. The scent of his mate in distress. And not just distress, complete and utter fear.

Elian had come running from whatever shadowy corner he’d been hiding in soon after, equally panicked, murder clear in his bright green eyes. Together, they’d combed the hall and the gardens but found no trace of her, or of Malek, beyond a lingering scent in the far reaches of the garden.

Kaelen appeared, all but spewing flames. “I swear to all the Gods, when I find her, I’m going to rip that piece of shit princeling limb from fucking limb —”

“We don’t know it was Damien,” said Elian with a growl, his fists trembling, shadows sputtering at his fingertips.

“Who the fuck else would it be?”

“Anyone who wants control of the magic,” said Elian. “Anyone interested in the prophecy.”

“Her rooms,” said Kaelen suddenly, spinning towards the staircase. “Have either of you checked her rooms?”

“If she’s been taken, they won’t have been stupid enough to take her there,” growled Ronan, aware of every single precious second slipping by.

“But she might have run there,” said Elian, “if she was being pursued. Come on.”

They took off, Elian at the front on his Fae-quick legs. For the thousandth time Ronan raged against the magical constraints to his power, his wolf howling below the surface to break free and hunt Selena down.

As they leapt up, five stairs at a time, he finally caught a fresh scent. “She’s been here,” he growled. “She came this way, maybe thirteen, no, fourteen minutes ago.”

Elian glanced to the side to let Ronan take the lead, following the scent of his mate. It was stronger now, laced with terror, and he couldn’t help the snarl that escaped him.

Skidding to a halt in front of her door, he tried the handle, but it was bolted shut.

But there, he could hear her now, she was behind the door.

And she was fighting.

“Move,” he bellowed to Kaelen and Elian, taking a few steps backwards so that he could ram into the door with his shoulder. The oak creaked, but otherwise held.

Elian snarled in frustration as his shadow magic curled a few inches from his hand before fading out, hindered by the temple’s own restrictions.

Ronan rammed into the door again. And again. And again.

Still it held.

Fuck.

He was in a frenzy now, wildly slamming into the door with every ounce of his human strength. If he was in his wolf form then a mere swipe of his paw would reduce the oak to splinters, but he couldn’t fucking turn.

His nose was full of Selena’s desperate scent, her muffled cries echoing in his ear. He had to get to her, had to protect her, had to, had to, had to—

“Fucking hell,” snarled Kaelen. He withdrew a sharp dagger and, with no warning at all, embedded it into Elian’s thigh.

Elian bellowed with pain and outrage, but Kaelen’s idea had worked. Elian’s shadows burst from his hands in white-hot anger, and Ronan barely had time to leap out the way before they battered into the door, wave after wave of relentless power.

It didn’t last long, the shock of the injury only able to negate the magic binding them for a small time, but it was enough.

With one last solid kick, the door flew from its hinges.

And Ronan saw red.

Selena was on her knees in the center of the room, her beautiful silver gown torn and smeared with a few smatterings of blood, tears staining her cheeks and sliding over a cut at her lip.

Five human males were backing away, clutching their weapons, pure terror reeking from them.

Five human males. Versus the three of them.

It was but the work of seconds.

Ronan struck the closest one with enough force to shatter his skull and the man dropped dead in an instant. The next one, he took slightly more time, grasping the wriggling human by the neck and lifting him from the floor with one hand, squeezing the very life out of him before snapping his neck.

Dropping the body to the floor, where it crumpled in a heap, he glanced over to see that Kaelen had brutally but efficiently killed two of his own. Elian, on the other hand, hadn’t ripped into the fifth at all. He had instead forced the man to his knees, fingers digging into his temples, Elian’s eyes closed and his face oddly serene.

And then the man started screaming, blood pouring from his nose and ears.

He fell forwards with a dull thud, and Elian stepped aside on his already-healed leg.

There was a beat.

Selena drew in a shuddering breath, her eyes meeting Kaelen’s, before she launched herself into his chest with a fresh wave of sobs.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry .” Her voice was muffled against Kaelen’s shirt as his arms wrapped around her, his face burying into her shoulder.

“It’s okay,” he murmured, his voice still frantic. “It’s okay, it’s not your fault. Are you hurt? Are you alright?”

She sobbed harder, and under any other circumstances, Ronan would have laughed at the sheer terror on Kaelen’s face. He clearly had no idea how to soothe a bawling female.

“I shouldn’t have left you,” he said into her hair, “I should have stayed by your side. You were right, of course you were right, I was being controlling, I’m so sorry. I’ll never leave your side again.”

Whatever effect Kaelen had thought his words would have, they had the opposite, and Selena’s wails nearly shook the walls.

Turning away from the pair as Kaelen tried desperately to calm her, Ronan considered the man at Elian’s feet with an eyebrow raised in silent question.

“So it turns out,” Elian wiggled his fingers, “the temple only restricts physical magic. I could get inside his head just fine. He experienced five hundred years of torture in just a few seconds before his heart gave out.”

“Fucking hell,” said Ronan. “Did you learn anything while you were in there?”

“Not a thing,” said Elian, his face turning grim. “Whoever hired them covered their tracks very well. They were paid to kidnap the girl with the silver eyes and take her beyond the boundaries of the temple. They were not to harm her. They didn’t expect her to fight back.”

Elian jutted his chin towards the iron poker lying near Selena’s feet.“. Given that they couldn’t hurt her, it must have taken them a while to disarm her.”

“But they did,” Ronan growled, rage bubbling up again as he strode over to Selena, taking her from Kaelen’s arms and examining her bruised lip. Fuckers. He should have made their deaths much more painful.

“Yes,” Elian’s voice was pure ice. “They did.”

Selena’s lip wobbled and she fell forwards into Ronan’s chest. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to end up by myself.”

Ronan stroked her hair, breathing in her scent, trying to wrestle his alpha back under control. “What happened?”

“I was in the garden with Malek,” she said. “He noticed something in the trees and took off after it. It was like he wasn’t human anymore, he wouldn’t listen to me.”

Ronan exchanged a glance with Elian, whose eyes lit up in understanding. “A distraction,” he said. “They knew Malek would likely be shadowing you, so they needed to distract him. Dump a few fresh carcasses near the tree line, it would be bound to attract nightmares, and the urge to protect Selena mixed with the blood … well, I’m not surprised he lost control. I’ll bet he’s prowling around now killing them off, he’ll be back in time.”

Just then the priestesses arrived, having sensed the magic, and the next hour was a blur of removing the bodies, coaxing Selena into fresh clothes and cleaning her face—both of which Rania tried to do, but Ronan growled and snapped at her until she handed him the clothes and medicine and let him care for her.

He carried her to his room, Kaelen and Elian close behind after talking in hushed murmurs with the priestesses. After changing, Selena crawled under the blankets of his bed, holding her hands out wordlessly for him to join her. He pulled off his clothes, uncaring about his nudity despite the blush on her cheeks, and settled under the furs next to her.

Almost immediately she was asleep. It was understandable. After an attack, the shock was pretty much the only thing that kept him going until he crashed. And he was a seasoned warrior.

Kaelen settled into an armchair, his expression thunderous, and Elian seemed happy to curl up on the floor in front of the fireplace like a cat. The three of them drifted in and out of sleep, wordlessly coordinating so that someone was always awake to listen out for any further danger. The sun peeked through the sky after only a few hours, and Kaelen shut the heavy drapes with a growl.

Some hours later, the door creaked open, all three alphas bolting upright with snarls and growls that woke Selena, who blearily sat up.

It was Malek, his robes in tatters, covered in mud and blood.

In his hand was the head of one of Prince Damien’s human soldiers.

“I found them,” he said, his voice rough. “Three soldiers left behind. I killed them, then tracked the others south. I lost the trail beyond the border of the realm and had to turn back. Damien escaped.”

Selena crawled out of bed, her movements stiff and slow but determined as she threw herself into Malek’s arms, ignoring the filth that covered him.

“I left you,” he said, his voice choked. “I failed you.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” said Elian, drawing surprised looks. “I know enough about your kind to know about the blood-haze. You couldn’t resist. Your instincts told you to protect her, and you did in the way you know how. We failed her by not being there when you were drawn away.”

Malek’s eyes clouded with emotion, his whole body thrumming. But then he nodded once, jerkily, and pressed a kiss to Selena’s head.

“So it was Damien who hired those mercenaries,” said Ronan, brimming with rage. “What do we do now?”

“We leave,” said Kaelen, “as soon as possible. Our powers are limited here, it’s not safe.”

“Where do you suggest we go, back to your kingdom?” Ronan said, an edge of apprehension in his voice.

“We’ll go to the Marble Halls,” said Elian, his voice firm.

Ronan opened his mouth to protest, but Elian held up a hand to silence him.

“If we are to defend her, then I need to work out the magic within her. I need to see this picture in full, rather than in bits and pieces. I need my research.”

Ronan glanced over at Kaelen, then turned back to Elian with a set jaw.

“Then we shall go to the Marble Halls.”