Page 12 of Owned by Four Alphas (Silverthorn Alphas #2)

Kaelen was aware he had lost himself to his alpha. He couldn’t bring himself to care. The image of his mate, of his omega , scared and trembling beneath falling rocks had been enough to tip him over the edge after a day already fraught with petty power plays and swaggering egos.

So as he threw her on the bed, careful to ensure she landed safely amongst a pile of cushions, he let his alpha take control.

“Why do you constantly insist on trying my patience, Omega?” he snarled, climbing on top of her and burying his teeth back into her neck, subduing her writhing form.

“I-I-I didn’t do anything!” she wailed, her hands grasping his shoulders. He growled and pulled back, capturing her quivering wrists and pinning them above her before returning to his assault on her neck.

“You put yourself in harm’s way. Those fucking males had drawn weapons on you. I should have ripped them apart for even daring to look at you.”

“I-it wasn’t my fault!” she begged, “I just lost co-control! Please, Alpha!”

He snarled again, capturing her lips in a punishing kiss. Her cheeks were wet with her tears, her luscious figure shuddering beneath him. Her magic still sparked and crackled, but his own had subdued it for now, blanketing her in his essence, marking her as his.

Her breaths came quicker now, her hips bucking slightly against him, drawing whimpers and moans from her pretty lips.

“Who do you belong to?” he growled.

“Y-you, Alpha!” she begged, utterly pliant beneath him.

He grabbed fistfuls of her clothes, wrenching them apart, tearing them straight down the middle so that her plump breasts spilled out to his hungry view. He attacked every inch of revealed flesh, sucking and biting, leaving a trail of marks over her creamy flesh.

“I keep telling you, Omega,” he rumbled, “I keep warning you that if you disobey me, there will be consequences.”

She keened as her nipples caught on the rough buckles of his leather doublet, little tongue darting out to wet her lips as her breaths came in sharp pants.

Rearing back suddenly, he flipped her over, relishing the small squeak that escaped her pretty mouth. With one hand, he pushed her shoulders forward into the soft bed, her hips instinctively bucking backwards against him. He snarled as the soft flesh brushed against his raging manhood, straining through his trousers.

“I think you need a reminder,” he said, his voice low and threatening, before delivering a short, sharp smack to the globe of her ass. She gasped and fell forward, quivering and shaking, a fresh wave of slick running down between her legs.

The scent nearly made him feral, and he had to physically restrain himself from burying his face into her hot, wet heat.

He smacked her again, grinning savagely at the large, red handprint imprinted on her skin. She moaned, her hips pushing back against him, “P-please, Alpha!”

“Please what?” he growled, grasping her luscious hips, preventing her from finding any friction against him.

She was practically shaking now, her sex throbbing with need, her hands scrabbling against the sheets. “Please! I need you! Please, Alpha, I need you inside me!”

“And why should I give you what you want?” he hissed, leaning forward to bite the soft curve of her ear. “Why should I, when you’ve caused me nothing but trouble?”

“I’ll be good!” she wailed, “I promise, Alpha! I’ll be good! I’ll listen to you, I won’t argue. I’m yours, Alpha, please .”

His alpha roared in triumph at her words, pride unfurling in his chest. With a wave of his hand, his clothes were gone, his naked frame hovering over her soft, pliant little body.

“You’re mine , Omega,” he snarled, lining himself up at her soaking wet entrance, “ mine .”

He pushed forward a few inches and she fell apart, begging and pleading, little fists twisting in the sheets.

“Your pretty tits are mine.” A few more inches, her glorious heat clenching around him, drawing him in.

“Your ass is mine.” He was nearly fully sheathed now, his hands bracing either side of her, covering her entirely.

“And this,” he finished, pushing forward, groaning in pleasure as her muscles clamped down around him, “this perfect little pussy is all mine .”

“Yes! Y-yes, all yours! It’s all yours! I’m all yours ,” she begged and whined, panting against the bed as he rocked into her.

He was in no mood to be gentle. As soon as he was within her, his hips drove forward with punishing brutality. Selena could do nothing but writhe and plead beneath him, taking the full force of his attack.

“Such a good girl,” he snarled, “taking all of me so well. Such a good omega.”

His words were enough to drive her over the edge, her orgasm hitting her in wave after wave of wailing pleasure, her muscles trembling and locking around him. He hissed, eyes narrowing, teeth sinking into the soft skin of her shoulder as he drove even harder.

With an almighty roar he came, spilling his seed into his sweet little mate as she moaned and pleaded beneath him, his knot swelling and locking them together.

He let his forehead fall down to meet hers, their breaths mingling in the aftershock of their joint pleasure.

This. This was all he wanted. Where he was happiest. His mate, safe and satiated beneath him, cradled in his arms, protected from anything that might harm her. Away from those who sneered and mocked her, away from those that wished her ill. No worries or cares in her pretty head as she took her pleasure from him, submitting entirely to him, trusting him to take care of her every need and want.

A small gasp escaped Selena’s lips as she moved her hips slightly, her muscles clamping down on his hard length. He growled, claiming her lips again, cherishing every whimper and sigh as her small fingers curled in his hair and pulled him closer.

“Was I too rough?” he asked, rolling them over so that she could lie on top of him.

She settled against his chest, burying her face into the side of his neck, pressing every part of herself as close to him as possible. He didn’t care. He would happily live out the rest of his days with his mate naked and purring against him.

“No, you weren’t,” she said after a brief hesitation. “I think I needed it. Needed you to…help me get control back.”

He swallowed, tracing shapes against the warm skin of her back, bucking slightly further into her warmth as she keened against him.

“That’s all I want to do,” he replied quietly, “to help you.”

She was silent a while, her hips rolling against him, enjoying their connection.

“I think you want to face the world for me,” she said, her voice gentle as she peered up at him, her face vulnerable and scared.

He growled, his temper flaring at her words.

“That’s not true.” His voice came out harder than he wanted it to, so he pressed his lips to the top of her head to whisper again more softly, “That’s not true.”

“Isn’t it? I’ve felt so distant from you lately, Kaelen, and I hate it. I don’t want us to be like this. But I also can’t let myself become some…some doll for you to look after and play with.”

“Do you think that’s how I view you?” he replied, his grip tightening against her skin.

“It’s how you sometimes treat me.”

He snarled and flipped them over with no warning, pushing his hips into hers, capturing her whimper of shock with his lips.

“I don’t think you realize quite how much danger you’re in every single day, Selena.” She sucked in a breath, her hands braced against his chest, her eyes wide. “And I don’t think you know quite what that does to me. How could you? There are enemies at every turn, just waiting for the merest hint of a reason to depose you. I have to deal with it day in and day out, while also making sure you don’t kill yourself with your own magic.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but his growl cut her off. He wasn’t done.

“Don’t argue with me, Omega. You know it’s true. I would burn the whole world down to keep you safe, and all you do is fight me at every turn. I should chain you to this bed and never let you leave.” He punctuated the statement with a harsh thrust of his hips, his knot swollen and deep within her writhing form.

“Kaelen!” she gasped, pushing against him.

He didn’t yield.

“I offer you the entire world, Omega. I would lay it at your feet. All you have to do is obey me. Why can’t you do that?”

“I don’t want the entire world!” she cried, her eyes growing wet, turning her head from him. “I just want to be a part of it!”

He let out a bitter laugh. “My naive little mate. If I let you do as you pleased, you’d be dead within a day. There are so many that would see you fall. Some of my own people even, sniffing around my throne, seeking to weaken me in the hopes of getting to you. The only way I can keep you safe is by keeping you at my side.”

“If I’m in so much danger from your people, why don’t you go back to your lands and regain control?” she argued, her eyes turning fiery.

“Because I can’t leave you.”

“Yes, you can!” her little fists thumped against his chest, tears falling down her cheeks freely. “You have to trust that I’ll be alright! That I can look after myself, that you can rely on the whole pack. You don’t have to carry the weight of the world, Kaelen, nothing is going to happen to me! And if something does, you’ll survive it!”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he rumbled, flashing his teeth, pressing her deeper into the bed.

“Yes, I do!” she wailed, the fight raging inside her clear as day, her legs hooking around his hips and pulling him closer even as her hands shoved at his chest. “I won’t live like this, Kaelen, I can’t! If you carry on like this, you’ll lose me either way!”

“I don’t care if you hate me,” he snarled. “I don’t care if you never forgive me. As long as you’re safe, I’ll do anything. I’ll burn it all down.”

Her resistance was weakening, her body exhausted from her magical outburst and their activities. Some part of his mind reared in warning, desperate to care for her, to nurture her, to keep her safe and warm and happy .

He growled, shaking his head. She was making him choose. And he would choose her safety over her happiness any day.

She slumped down, her hands falling to her sides, her glowing silver eyes still shimmering with tears. “I can’t live like this. The magic, the pregnancy, the constant weight of everybody’s expectations. I need you on my side, Kaelen. I need my mate, not my alpha.”

“That’s not what you were purring into my ear moments ago,” he sneered, bucking his hips in emphasis.

She sucked in a breath, her eyes turning impossibly sad. “That’s cruel, Kaelen.”

Everything in him roared at the heartbreak in her voice, the quiver of her lip. This wasn’t right. He was failing her. Failing the pack. He was spinning out of control and he didn’t know how to stop it.

But he had to keep her safe. That was all that mattered. Nothing else.

He had to keep her safe.

“Keep testing me, Omega,” he snarled, “and I’ll show you exactly how cruel I can be.”