Page 28 of Bound to Four Alphas (Silverthorn Alphas #1)

Kaelen felt it the moment it happened.

Malek went still, his jaw dropping open, his black eyes glazing over.

Kaelen roared and dove through the sky, ignoring the spears sent flying towards him.

But he couldn’t stop it from happening.

Damien had Malek under his control.

Malek blinked, his eyes turning to Selena, his jaws opening with an almighty snarl.

He was only able to take one single step before Kaelen was on him, wrestling him to the ground with his claws.

Malek roared in shock, twisting and embedding his claws into Kaelen’s legs. The pain exploded across his flesh and Kaelen bellowed, snapping his teeth to try and get hold of Malek’s neck.

The pack bond screamed within him. This was his brother, his ally, his family. And Kaelen was trying to get his teeth into his neck.

Malek showed no such struggle or restraint, dragging his claws down, leaving huge, bleeding gashes.

They were a tangle of teeth and fury, and Kaelen was quickly losing ground. His efforts to burn the camp to cinders had diminished his magical reserves, and he was fully aware that Malek exceeded him in brute strength.

He had to be clever.

Digging his claws into Malek’s flank, he used the momentum to launch himself upwards, just avoiding Malek’s snapping teeth.

As soon as he was free, Malek turned back towards Selena, his intention clear.

“No!” Kaelen roared, and released a great pillar of fire, wings beating in the air as the flames engulfed Malek in waves of heat and power.

Malek jumped out of the blaze, snarling and whipping around to douse the fire, and Kaelen stopped his assault. It was no use. Under the control of the crown, Malek was too strong, and the bond wouldn’t allow Kaelen to use the full extent of his magical fire to subdue him.

He couldn’t kill his brother.

Malek took another step towards Selena.

Tears were running down her cheeks and she was screaming something at Damien, pleading with him.

Ronan broke free of the soldiers and nightmares attacking him, chest heaving and fur matted with blood. With a snarl, he leapt over and tackled Malek from the side. Unlike Kaelen, Ronan was physically stronger than Malek. But he still had that drive to hold back.

A drive Malek currently lacked.

Malek growled and flipped Ronan over, using the temporary advantage to spear him with his razor-sharp antlers, the tips embedding themselves in Ronan’s ribs. Ronan howled in pain, bucking and kicking to get free.

Kaelen prepared to dive and rejoin the fray, but Ronan managed to twist under Malek, catching the monster’s neck with his teeth as he tossed him into a tree. Malek quickly shook himself off, hackles rising as the two enormous beasts circled each other, teeth bared and dripping with blood.

Ronan wouldn’t be able to hold him off for long.

Kaelen dove towards the ruins of the temple, transforming mid-air and landing close to Selena with a hiss, barely keeping on his feet. His vision was growing hazy, the wounds from Malek’s claws flowing with blood.

He shook his head, trying to clear it.

Now was not the time for weakness.

Siphoning a small amount of magical energy to stem the flow of blood, he withdrew two curved blades from his back to face the soldiers standing between him and Selena. Phaendar and Elian fought near her, equal in speed and physical strength, a blur of golden skin and silver daggers. Every time Elian even got close to Selena, Phaendar fought him off.

With a roar, Kaelen leapt into action, swinging his blades at anyone who got even slightly close to him, bodies piling up as he carved his way to his mate.

He could hear her words now, her shouting cries.

“Let him go! Don’t do this!” she begged Damien, the prince’s eyes wide and empty as he surveyed the battle, hands raised.

A slight tremor rippled down Damien’s spine.

Controlling Malek was consuming his focus.

That was all the distraction Kaelen needed.

Elian’s gaze passed over him for a moment, and the Fae’s eyes glinted in understanding. He broke away from Phaendar, feinting towards Damien, and Phaendar took the bait, following him and leaving Selena unguarded.

Kaelen ripped through the remaining soldiers standing in his way, rushing to Selena’s side.

“Kaelen,” she sobbed, “you have to stop Damien, he’s hurting him! He’s hurting Malek!”

“I know.” Kaelen dropped the weapons on either side of him and grasped her face in his hands, the wetness of her tears practically scalding him. “I will, we’ll stop him, I just need to get you free first.”

Ignoring her cries to leave her, to help Malek, he swiftly unbolted the chains holding both her feet, running around to unclasp the one on her right hand. He was running to undo the final chain when a heavy weight slammed into him, knocking him to the ground.

He rolled over but was pinned beneath Malek’s slavering jaws, heat and death pouring from between his teeth.

“Kaelen!” Selena screamed, tugging desperately at the final chain, “Malek, stop! You can’t!”

Malek’s head whipped up, his gaze finding Selena.

“Yes, it’s me, Malek, it’s Selena!” she begged, rising to her knees on the altar. “You have to fight it!”

“Selena!” Kaelen roared, reaching an arm out. One of his blades was there, just out of reach. He couldn’t shift here; he was too close to Selena, he would injure her, bring down the rest of the roof onto her head. “Selena, don’t!”

Malek stilled, his muscles trembling. Kaelen looked over and saw Damien staring straight at him, his jaw tense and teeth gritted together with effort.

Malek was fighting him. Fighting his control.

“You can’t do this,” Selena whispered to him, and Kaelen practically roared with the effort of trying to reach the knife.

“Selena!” Elian shouted, Phaendar using the distraction to knock him to his feet, pin him with a dagger at his throat.

Malek considered her, black eyes a raging storm.

Kaelen felt his joints pop.

Just. A little. Bit. Further.

From a distance away, Ronan roared, overcome with shadows and soldiers, his hide carved up from Malek’s teeth.

Damien’s eyes narrowed.

Malek shifted.

“Please,” Selena whispered, “I … I love you.”

A whine tore from Malek’s throat.

The pressure on Kaelen’s ribs eased as Malek backed away, his ears flat against his head, his eyes murky with sorrow and regret.

There was a brief silence.

Damien roared and several soldiers launched spears, the ends embedding into Malek’s flank.

The spell was broken. Malek whipped back towards Selena, a renewed growl rumbling in his throat as his teeth bared, ready to strike-

Kaelen grasped his weapon and embedded it into Malek’s paw, driving it all the way through and down into the stone, pinning him where he stood.

Malek screamed in fury and pain, tail lashing, great antlers narrowly missing from ripping Kaelen’s stomach open as he thrashed his head.

Elian managed to whip a shadow across his father’s face like the crack of a whip, tossing the Fae aside. “Keep him down!” he roared, and Kaelen caught Phaendar in the air and slammed him down, his strength far outweighing the aging lord’s.

Darkness ripped through the room, a swirling storm, a hurricane of power and death.

Elian at the center.

He opened his mouth to scream, green eyes flashing like fire, unbelievable power ripping out of him and hitting Malek squarely in the chest. Wave after wave of dark shadow battered into him, long roping lengths securing and pulling like chains between the Fae and the monster.

Damien screeched in horror, but Elian had Malek under his thrall.

He couldn’t break the control, but he could take it over.

With a heaving bellow of effort, Elian turned Malek towards the hordes of nightmares and soldiers currently ramming into Ronan, the sword trapping him into the stone melting away as Malek broke free and charged.

Phaendar struggled beneath Kaelen’s grip, shouting and snarling to break free.

Damien’s face twisted, ugly and enraged, his eerie, blank gaze falling on Elian.

But Elian was so concentrated on keeping control over Malek, on stopping him from falling back under the crown’s control, that he didn’t see the prince advancing on him.

Kaelen had no choice.

With a heavy blow to Phaendar’s head to try and keep him down, Kaelen barreled into Damien, knocking him to the floor.

Damien hissed, high and unnatural, the sound echoing in Kaelen’s head. The crown. He had to get the crown off Damien’s head. It was stuck there, welded to his skin, unmoving. He would find a way, even if he had to carve it from Damien’s flesh.

The prince was strong, so strong, his muscles invigorated with power. They wrestled, rolling over each other, both weaponless and resorting to fists.

Kaelen could live with that. He would beat the human into nothing more than a pile of gore for laying his hands on Selena.

Selena.

Her scent spiked in fear, and she cried out, the remaining chain rattling as she tried to break free. Phaendar had staggered to his feet, a sneer painted over his lips as he advanced, a knife in his hands.

“No!” Elian roared, leaping towards his father, reaching him just in time to plunge a dagger into his back.

Malek turned, his eyes once more blank, Damien once more in control.

Ronan snarled and tackled him, stopping him from bounding over.

It all happened so quickly.

From his tunic, Damien pulled out a knife. And embedded it into Kaelen’s chest.

His whole world ground to a halt as Selena screamed out his name.

He looked down.

Blood was welling up where the golden hilt stuck out.

The pain hit him, waves of agony.

His mate’s cries filled his ears.

Elian roared in anger, his green eyes wild.

Damien smiled down at him, thin and victorious.

Unguarded.

With one last burst of strength, Kaelen surged upwards and grabbed the crown, wrenching it from Damien’s head, ignoring the prince’s screams of agony as his skin ripped away.

And then he threw it.

It sailed through the air, and time slowed.

Until Selena reached up and grasped it.

Kaelen breathed out.

Selena looked at it, turning it over in her hand.

She swallowed.

And then she crowned herself.

Silver light exploded from her, filling the room, banishing the darkness of the shadows and night.

Waves of beautiful, healing magic, practically thrumming with life, dancing through the air.

And Selena. His beautiful mate. Daughter of a God. Her eyes glowing with silver fire. She turned to Damien.

The remaining shackle faded away to nothing, and she stood, walking with ethereal grace towards him, her beautiful face glowing like a star.

Damien looked up at her, his face pleading, “Goddess,” he whispered, “spare me.”

She cocked her head, sympathy flooding her features. Kneeling before him, where he cowered on the ground, she took his face in her hands.

“No,” she said.

He was dead before his head hit the floor.

Malek was there, low to the ground, his head bowed in subjugation, free now from any control.

“Goddess,” he said, his voice full of agony. “Selena. I am sorry. So, so sorry. Please,” he begged, “kill me. Punish me. I am yours.”

“Malek,” she said, her voice full of warmth and love, “there is nothing to forgive.”

The others came now, Ronan and Elian, covered in blood and mud. Phaendar groaned in pain, his voice a death-rattle as he spoke. “You can’t win,” he choked, gurgling on his own blood. “There are others—darker forces beyond the borders of the First Realm. You can’t defeat them!”

Selena turned to him and blinked. She was herself, but not herself. The beautiful, sweet girl he knew, and all the might of the Forest God.

“You would not have defeated them either.” Her voice was heavy with promise. The promise of a God. Prophecy. “Only light can defeat the darkness.”

Phaendar’s eyes widened as he coughed and gurgled.

Then fell silent.

Kaelen sat, gasping in cool air, his hand flying to his chest. The dagger. It was gone. He was healed. He staggered to his feet, gazing at Selena in wonder.

The others too, in their human skins, cleaned of all wounds.

“My mates,” Selena said, her voice clear and beautiful, forging them anew, “together, we will unite the realm.”

The light intensified, nearly blinding, then as soon as it had appeared, it was gone, faded from her. She collapsed to the floor with a gasp, the crown rolling from her head.

“Easy,” Elian rushed forward, catching her before she could hit her head. “That was your first time channeling magic, just try to breathe!”

Kaelen too rushed forward, falling to his knees at her side. “Selena,” he said, his voice thick with emotion, “my beautiful Selena.”

The ghost of a smile brushed across her lips, and she raised her hand to his face.

“We did it.”