Page 8

F aye

I awaken, feeling groggy and out of sorts. To my surprise, Eli is still holding me, his warm arms wrapped around me. It takes me a minute to realize what had drawn me from my sleep before I breathe in the scent of food. My stomach grumbles, and Eli lifts a brow.

“Hungry?”

Embarrassed, I simply nod.

He leans forwards and assembles a plate of food from the spread on the table.

Then I sit in his lap and slowly eat, trying to ignore the fact that he’s still naked, although he’s managed to clean off the vast majority of the blood that was on him earlier.

There’s a croissant with ham and cheese inside.

A ball that tastes like some magical mix of potatoes, cheese, and something gooey and perfect.

There are little pastries with cream and raspberries.

I eat all of it until the clawing in my belly eases.

“More?” he asks.

I shake my head. “No, I’m feeling much better.”

He sets the plate back down. “How are your injuries?”

I shift a little and wince. “They hurt, but they’re much better than I thought they would be.”

“That’s because my healers are the absolute best in the country. I watched everything they did to you, and I believe you’ll be just fine, with enough time.”

“Thanks again,” I say, then glance down at where his arms encircle me. At his bare chest. “If you want to, you can put me down. I’m okay.”

His arms tense around me. “I’d rather not.”

I look at him in confusion.

He sighs. “Listen, Faye, I understand there’s a certain…

reputation when you’re an ultima. But the truth is that I’ve spent most of my life surrounded by people who bow down to me and had no one who stands at my side.

I help out packs in all the various territories and keep myself busy assisting shifter-kind.

But all I’ve ever wanted is a mate. A woman to stand at my side.

To have children with. And now that I have you, I have no intention of letting you go. ”

I don’t know what to say to all of that. He needs me? He wants me?

“I–”

The door to the sitting room bursts open, and I smell my men before I see and hear them, but only just. They’re being plenty loud, like a pack of wild animals, destroying the stillness of the castle with ease.

When their eyes land on me, they widen, and they make a beeline for where I sit on Eli’s lap.

“Faye?” Ezra says my name, almost in disbelief, as they race to where Eli is holding me.

When I wiggle a bit, Eli reluctantly releases me and helps me to my feet.

He stands, his arm around my back to keep me steady.

I’m glad he does it, because my legs tremble, sore and exhausted after all I’ve been through.

It’s nice to actually be on my feet though, but I’m not sure I can be on them for long.

“Hi,” I greet all of them awkwardly.

“Gods,” Cayson murmurs, his eyes landing on my body.

Ezra’s gaze rakes over my body, as though identifying every injury. “Are you okay?”

I glance down at myself and remember that I’m wearing a pair of pink, silk pajamas. The spaghetti straps and short shorts do little to hide the bruises, cuts, and bandages that cover my body. Some of the worst ones are on my stomach. I flinch, realizing just how bad I look.

“Kurt?” Ezra growls, reaching out for me, but then letting his hands drop before they come into contact with me.

Maverick comes to my side, silently placing a hand on my bicep, his fingers trailing gently. “You’re hurt.”

My gaze moves between them, drinking them in.

Ezra’s normally neat dark hair is a mess, looking like a storm had swept through and destroyed any gel that might have been holding it back at one time or another.

His shirt and pants are wrinkled, and his shirt untucked.

Cayson’s blond hair, usually styled to stand up on the top of his head, falls into his dark eyes, and his clothes are a mess of grass stains and other things I’m not evening going to begin to identify.

Maverick’s long auburn hair looks like it went through a tornado, and his bright green eyes are bloodshot and full of worry.

Xander stands silently. His long black hair is tangled by anyone’s standards, and his blue eyes drink me in like he can’t quite believe I’m real.

I missed them. And like I thought, they weren’t doing well without me.

“She is okay,” Eli says, and all the guys look up at him, suspicion in their eyes. Their gazes sweeping over his large, naked form, a form I’ve been careful not to notice too much. I watch as Ezra, specifically, appraises him. “No thanks to the four of you.”

“What did you just say?” Ezra asks, and there’s a chill to his voice that makes me shiver.

“He insulted us,” Xander mutters softly.

“Who are you?” Maverick says, at the same time Cayson says, “ What happened, Faye?”

I swallow and glance back at Eli before refocusing on my four mates, their worried expressions making my chest twist. I need to tell them what happened, I know I do, but the story will be hard to tell, because it’s all still so fresh.

But you have to do this.

“Early this morning,” I say, breathing through the panic that rises in me when I start to tell the story.

“There was a knock on my door. When I answered it, it was one of the servants. I’d seen him around the castle, and that’s part of why I thought it was a legitimate note.

He handed me a paper, then left. When I read the paper, it instructed me to board a carriage outside the castle, suggesting you had a surprise for me.

I thought this was the surprise we’d talked about last night, so I didn’t question it. ”

They all stare at me, mouths slightly open.

As I tell the story, it becomes clearer to me, the lengths that Kurt had to go to manage this deception.

This wasn’t the same as seeing me in the hallway and assaulting me—this was premeditated.

It was completely planned, from beginning to end, and that makes it all the more terrifying.

“I followed the instructions,” I continue, swallowing, hard when I remember how happy I was, thinking I was going to find my four men waiting for me. “The carriage took me far away from the castle.”

Ezra’s jaw is ticking, Cayson has crossed his arms over his chest, Xander has started to pace, and Maverick is running his hands over his loose hair thoughtfully, eyes boring into me.

“But obviously, you all were not there when I got out. It was a ploy, a trick from Kurt to get me far away from anyone who could help me. He walked me into the middle of the forest, then told me to run.”

“Like that other game,” Cayson muses, his eyes hard, “when the omegas were supposed to run and we alphas were supposed to go after you.”

“Yes,” I say, swallowing and glancing at Ezra, who looks frozen with rage. “Back then, I was terrified that Kurt was going to catch me, and I’d have to go to dinner with him. This time I had to run or die.”

“Fucking bastard,” Maverick mutters, working his jaw.

“I thought—” I start, a sob catching in my throat when I think about the decision to jump in the water. “I saw the river, the rapids, that led back to the castle. I thought that it was my only chance to get help. My choices were to let Kurt catch me right away, or jump in.”

“ Faye ,” Ezra whispers, his eyes going wide. He must know the area I’m talking about, know what kind of leap it was into the water.

“That was very brave,” Xander says, his voice gruff.

“It was painful,” I admit, tears coming to my eyes. “I thought I was going to drown. Then, when I washed up on the beach, Kurt was right there anyway. He?—”

My voice catches again, and the guys all wait, watching me carefully as I breathe and try to work through the bundle of feelings—the relief at being okay now, the terror at the memory of his teeth on me, the anxiety of knowing he’s still alive and out there somewhere.

“He bit me, and hurt me,” I say finally, my voice small. “I thought he was going to kill me. And then…”

“I found her,” Eli says, sparing me from telling the rest of the story. “I heard her screaming when I was following her scent. I beat that puny little alpha to within an inch of his life, and even now, sitting here, I wish that I had ripped his heart out and left it beating on the sand.”

“Gods,” Maverick breathes, staring at Eli with wide eyes.

“This is Eli,” I say, clearing my throat and gesturing to him.

As I’m introducing him to my mates, to the four alphas in front of me, something solid and leaden in my chest tells me that this is the start of something, a new beginning for us all.

And I’m not sure how to feel about that.

There’s already so much to handle. I’m not sure more complications is what we need.

“Well,” Ezra begins, eyeing Eli. “We’re incredibly grateful that you saved Faye. Thank you.”

“If we couldn’t be there, I’m glad someone was,” Cayson tells him, reaching out and shaking his hand.

“And, it seems, your healers did a good job with her,” Maverick says with a smile. “As terrible as all of this was, we’re glad she got the help she needed.”

“We should take her home now,” Xander says, his words full of an unspoken emotion.

They go to reach for me, and Eli steps into their path. “I don’t think you completely understand. Faye is my mate,” Eli says, and I watch as the guys all react in their own ways.

Ezra looks like he had suspected as much already. Maverick and Cayson look equally shocked and confused, and Xander looks like he’s still hung up on the last part, about how Kurt was beating me. Overall, there doesn’t seem to be any happy reactions.

Me? My mind is still reeling over all of this. I feel like Eli is just calling me his mate, hoping if he says it enough times I’ll believe it.

“An ultima,” Ezra says, his eyes flicking between mine and Eli’s.

I blush, swallowing, still unable to believe it myself.

“Yes.” Eli chuckles, as though our constant disbelief is very funny to him.

“An ultima. This will shift the dynamic of this group, as I’m sure you all understand.

Naturally, I am more powerful and influential than the four of you, which will lead me to make more of the decisions.

Our natural instincts will guide us in that direction. ”

I watch as the men stare back at him silently.

“However,” Eli says, clearing his throat, “I would very much like for us all to be a family, to work together to keep our omega safe, cared for, and happy. I believe that it is what our omega wants, as well.”

“Faye?” Cayson asks, his eyes meeting mine.

I gaze at all of them, heart racing in my chest. I never thought it would end up like this. If anyone had told me that this would be the result of The Selection, I would have thought they were mad.

But here I am, apparently with five mates, one of whom is an ultima. I’m not a math person, but even I understand how incredibly rare this situation is. If someone has a mate as an ultima, they normally don’t have any other mates. One mate is enough in that situation.

Maybe this is because Cayson and Ezra aren’t really your mates. I try to push the thought away. Everything inside of me says that what we have is real. Just as real as what I feel with Maverick and Xander. I just need to know if Cayson and Ezra feel the same way.

Either way, if all I wanted was to be safe, there’s nowhere safer for me to be than with the protection of these men: An ultima, who bows to nobody, and four other strong, capable, loving, goofy men.

“I don’t know if Eli is my mate,” I confess. “But I know that I only want to be in a relationship where all my mates are equal, at least within the confines of the relationship.”

“Agreed,” Ezra responds easily, glancing at Eli.

Eli turns me to him and then uses his hand to lift my chin way up to look at him. “What makes you doubt I’m your mate?”

I’m trembling. “You’re an ultima. I’m a weak omega. This… this isn’t how things work.”

He doesn’t let me look away. His gaze holds me in place. “But when you look at me, can you honestly say you don’t feel the connection?”

I don’t know what to do. What to say. Do I feel a connection to Eli? Of course I do. But I barely know him. Power radiates off of him in waves. It just doesn’t seem possible.

Choosing my words with care, I say, “I-I feel something, but it’s overwhelming.”

He smiles, then leans down and kisses me lightly on the lips. “Unions with ultimas can be hard in the beginning, as you adjust to my influence.”

Ezra tries again. “So this is what you want… the five of us?”

I wonder if he actually means that. The five of us. Or if he’s still keeping up the ruse.

A crazy image comes to my mind of me, pregnant, surrounded by these five men. All of us together. A family. The first real family that I’ve ever had.

“Yes,” I hear myself say, the smallest smile gracing my lips. “I do. I want that.”

Cayson sighs loudly, but there’s a smile teasing his lips. “So, now we have an ultima in our little group?”

“That will complicate things,” Maverick says.

“But I can’t imagine Faye being in a safer position,” Ezra says thoughtfully.

“Definitely not,” Xander grunts.

“Even though egos might get in the way a bit,” Cayson cautions.

“Yes, but there could be a benefit to having your influence,” Ezra says, his voice still slightly tense as he addresses Eli. “Can you finally take care of this situation with Kurt? The council would not listen to us, but perhaps they’ll take your claims more seriously due to your position.”

I feel Eli’s power wash over the room, and it’s impossible to ignore the anger he feels at the mention of Kurt’s name. His face remains still. His hand on my back are steady, but his anger can’t be ignored.

“Not to worry,” Eli says, his voice still as calm waters. “I assure you it will be handled swiftly.”