Page 18 of Bound to Four Alphas (Silverthorn Alphas #1)

Two words. That was all it took to completely upend Kaelen’s life.

Two words.

Selena’s eyes were shining with tears as she spoke them, her hands clutching her stomach, her scent spiking and dipping enough to make him dizzy.

She was pregnant. She was carrying a child. Their child.

Kaelen wasn’t entirely present for what followed. His alpha took complete control over him, reducing him to pure instinct.

It was the same for the others.

Ronan took Selena to her tent, piling her with furs and cushions, Elian and Malek joining them soon after, drawn in by her scent. The four of them snapped and snarled at anyone who even got close to the tent, every protective urge magnified tenfold.

“For goodness’ sake,” Selena said from underneath the mound of blankets after she had calmed down somewhat, “I’m pregnant, not dying!”

Kaelen had nearly growled at her in response, but he was managing to fight out of the haze of instinct, rational thought coming back into clarity.

“Whose is it?” asked Elian once he was done casting close to a hundred magical wards on the tent.

Ronan snarled at the question, “It’s hers. Obviously.”

“Obviously? I’m not sure what you were told growing up, Ronan, but babies are made when a mommy and a daddy who love each other very much have a special cuddle—”

“Fuck off, Benellane,” Ronan growled, muscles clenching, “that’s not what I meant. Usually, an unborn child carries the scent of both its parents. I can only scent Selena in the child she carries, Selena and the magic of the forest.”

“That’s not possible,” said Kaelen, gritting his teeth. Bloody Ronan and his worship of the bloody magic.

Elian stroked his chin, “Actually, it kind of is. We don’t know what kind of magic she possesses, but we know it’s tied to the forest. Tied to us. I’m willing to bet that as far as the magic is concerned, we’re all part of that child.”

“What kind of ridiculous logic is that?”

Elian raised an eyebrow at him. “Kaelen, until a few moments ago, you weren’t capable of speech, let alone scientific inquiry. Your instincts have been triggered. That only happens to the biological father. And it happened to all of us.”

“But that is not the way of things!” Kaelen bellowed.

“Does it matter?” Malek’s voice was quiet. “I mean, we’re all mated to her. Whether one of us is the father, or all of us, does it matter?”

Kaelen ground his teeth, his dragon close to his skin, desperate to break free. But Malek had a point. Selena was his mate. Malek’s mate, Ronan’s, Elian’s. And as unexpected and unwanted as the arrangement had started out, with every passing day he couldn’t deny the bonds between them getting stronger.

But a child complicated things. In any other circumstances, he would have been overjoyed at the prospect of an heir. However, Selena’s life was in danger. She was being hunted by the Silverthorn Kingdom that, if rumors were to be believed, had access to some ancient weapon that could destroy the last vestiges of the First Realm.

“What do we do?” He turned to Ronan, jaw set and duty clear.

Ronan frowned, glancing around the rest of the camp. “We leave. Just the five of us. It’ll be faster that way. We’d have to at the border anyway. We get to the Marble Halls so that Elian can figure out what the hell Selena is, so that we know what Damien wants with her. That way, we will know how to defend her.”

“It’s dangerous,” replied Kaelen. “Damien has scouts, he’ll know where we’re going by now. If he knows it’s just the four of us defending her, he might be foolish enough to try and attack. And we don’t know what we’re up against.”

“Then we split up,” said Elian, “throw him off the scent.”

Ronan growled, “And leave only one of us to defend her if we get attacked?”

“We’ve been fending off attacks for days,” said Elian. “Damien’s only getting bolder, the chances of him attacking the five of us are very high. If we separate, he’ll have to divide his forces, his attention.”

Kaelen nodded slowly. He hated it, but he understood it.

“What if one of us is captured?” asked Malek, “And forced to give away who Selena is with?”

“We won’t know,” said Elian. “We’ll go to the four corners of the clearing. I’ll use my magic to conceal Selena’s movements, and she’ll choose who to travel with.”

It was clever. High risk, high reward. Kaelen could see Ronan wrestling with the logic, trying to fight down his wolfish preference for traveling and fighting in a pack.

The tent flap rustled and Selena tumbled out, her expression firm as he turned to her with a warning snarl.

“Don’t even try it, Kaelen, I deserve a voice in this conversation,” she said, her eyes narrowing.

He gritted his teeth, battling every instinct to throw her over his shoulder and never let her down. Ronan too was staring at her with a similar intensity, his own muscles bunching.

“I’ll do it,” she said to Elian, her little fists clenched with determination. “I think it's the best chance we have.”

Elian smiled. “Excellent choice, little dove. We’ll leave just before dawn. Come, we must warn the others. But only the ones we would trust with our lives.”

Malek stepped forward to join Selena in the tent as Kaelen cast his eye around for Iveir.

“Oh, and Selena?” Elian’s voice was filled with familiar cunning. “Don’t try and be clever with your choice. Damien will know to play those games. Roll dice, flip a coin, make your decision random. We’re all equally able to protect you, so don’t try and be smart.”

She pouted at him, and Elian chuckled. Kaelen fought a fond smile. If he had learned one thing about Selena over the weeks, it was that she adored the acquisition of knowledge, and hated any implication that she wasn’t smart.

When they had eliminated the threat, when she was safe, he silently promised that he would buy her every book in the world if that was what she desired.

The night was long and tense, and just over an hour before dawn, the four alphas rose and said their farewells, leaving Selena nervously waiting in the center of the camp, surrounded by a guard of wolves and dragons that would alert them if anything happened.

“When the first rays of light break the trees,” Elian said, “leave. Good luck, and I hope to see you soon.”

Kaelen swallowed but nodded, making his way to the northernmost tip of the clearing. A few moments later, every one of his senses was cut from his mate.

He couldn’t stop the growl that escaped him.

The wait was excruciating, but as the sky started to burn with the first rays of dawn, he knew she had gone to one of the others. He bit back the frustration. It had been a random choice.

As the first beam of light broke through the trees, he launched into the air and transformed, his dragon breaking the canopy with a bellow. As decided, he would follow the northern path. Elian would loop south. Ronan would head directly through the trees, and Malek would pick through the tiny, winding lanes made by the forest creatures.

As a dragon, the journey would take him three more days. Three days, alone, without his mate or his pack.

On the second day, he understood why Elian’s plan had been necessary. Damien had indeed split his forces in an attempt to find Selena, and Kaelen had to weave through great shooting spikes aimed at him from the ground before he looped back to incinerate the wooden devices with a great burst of fire.

He lost half a day to fighting, sustaining more injuries than he’d have liked but laying waste to hundreds of men.

The human invasion had begun.

He only prayed that whichever one of his packmates carried Selena had managed to escape facing the same threat that he had.

By the time he reached the towering gates of the Marble Halls, so tall he could perch on the top and see all the way to the northern volcanoes he called home, he was exhausted and depleted.

And the first to arrive.

No longer caring about Damien’s soldiers so close to Phaendar’s throne, he roared out, the sound shaking the trees below him. If any of them were in danger, he hoped they would respond. He would be there in an instant.

There was silence. Then, a golden hawk shot out of the forest, looping through the archway and coming to rest beside him.

“It wasn’t you?” Elian asked, green eyes narrowed at the trees.

“No,” replied Kaelen, “and no sign of the others yet.”

They sat, scanning the canopy, the daylight fading into night, until a commotion at the edge of the trees near the great stone bridge leading into the mountain home of the Marble Halls drew their attention.

Malek, stumbling out of the darkness, shadows thrashing around him.

Nightmares.

“Fuck,” Elian said, spreading his wings and shooting down.

Kaelen was close behind him.

Elian transformed back into his true form upon reaching the ground, but Kaelen stayed as a dragon, incinerating any nightmares that tumbled from Malek and made to run back to the safety of the woods.

Elian, eyes narrowed and jaw set, braced his hands against the empty air and roared as he tried to get control of the shadowy creatures. Malek was still carving through them, a whole legion of them, his fangs glinting as he ripped them apart.

By the time they were done, all three were panting, Elian nearly crumpling to the floor from the drain on his magical energy.

“Fuckers,” he gasped, “I’ve only ever managed to control small ones before.”

Malek groaned, still in his true form, shadows leaking from great cuts in his flank where nightmares and tried to leap onto him by dragging huge claws down his back. “You can control nightmares?”

“I can control shadows,” Elian clarified, rubbing his temples, “but these weren’t normal nightmares. Something else was controlling them, bidding them to attack.”

“Something was,” said Malek, shaking his shaggy-maned head, “Damien’s weapon. It has to be.”

“Selena’s with Ronan?” asked Kaelen, wincing as he shifted back to his human skin, ragged pants tearing from his lips at the exertion.

“Must be,” said Elian, “I had to fight my way through a hundred to get here. The bastards caught me in a net . It restricted my magic. I had to fight my way out with daggers.”

“They have these machines,” said Kaelen, “that launch spears into the air. Dragon-killing spears.”

“And they sent nightmares after Malek,” said Elian, glancing over at their wounded packmate. “Looks like Damien’s been doing his research. The real question is, what did he send after Ronan?”

They all glanced back at the forest, the tension rising with each passing second.

“Should we try and find them?” asked Malek, black eyes flashing. “What if they’ve been caught?”

Elian shook his head. “They’d have to kill Ronan to stop him from defending Selena, and he’s not dead. We’d feel it if he was. Chances are he just couldn’t travel as quickly with her.”

“If they’re not here by morning,” Kaelen said with finality, “then we go after them.”

“Deal,” said Elian, glancing back at the gates. “It’s a few hours journey through the mountain pass until we get to the Marble Halls, but I don’t doubt word has reached my father. He’ll be expecting us.”

Kaelen glanced back into the trees, worry gripping his throat. It was going to be a long night.