Page 18 of Owned by Four Alphas (Silverthorn Alphas #2)

He couldn’t understand it. It was like Selena had completely withdrawn. She was a shell, a ghost even. It was driving Ronan mad. No matter what he did, no matter what he offered her, she would just stare up at him with those sad beautiful eyes.

It was setting him on edge.

Malek sat beside Selena, their heads bowed together by the tree, their murmuring voices quiet whilst Ronan was fighting yet another battle against Kaelen and Elian.

“What the fuck do you have against going back to my lands?” Kaelen spat, his arms crossed over his chest, “My palace is inside a fucking volcano. It’s the most defensible position in the Realm! Out here, we may as well paint targets on our backs.”

“Your people cannot be trusted,” Ronan thundered, his fists balling. “Do you really believe Selena would be safe amongst them? Because if you do, you’re a bigger fool than I realized.”

Kaelen growled in warning. These fights were happening more and more often. It would start with an attempt at civility, but then a scent would spike, aggression would come out, and Ronan’s alpha would take over, demanding respect.

He had heard of it happening before. He had no doubt Kaelen and Elian had, too. Packs like theirs, with more than one alpha sharing a mate, risked internal war if the bonds between them were damaged. It wasn’t unheard of for one alpha to kill another, or even multiple alphas to wean out those they didn’t feel capable of protecting their mate.

Or challenging their power one too many times.

It had crossed his mind more than once over the past two weeks. The line was clear. He and Malek on one side, and Kaelen and Elian on the other. Whilst undeniably more powerful in terms of brute strength, neither Ronan or Malek could withstand Elian and Kaelen’s magic. Not to mention, Kaelen breathed fire, the only thing that Ronan was physically vulnerable to.

If it came to it, if either faction decided that the only way through was to kill the other, Ronan truly did not know who would emerge victorious. It was more likely that they would all kill each other, leaving Selena alone.

It wasn’t something he wanted to risk. But his Alpha roared to establish dominance, to kill the perceived threat to his mate.

Something was bound to break sooner or later.

Elian stepped between Kaelen and Ronan, his irritation clear, his normally swaggering persona dropping to reveal the stony, ruthless truth of him.

“Kaelen’s right, Ronan. We can’t stay out here. What if something goes wrong with the birth? Unless you’re secretly a midwife, we need help.”

“Can’t your magic help her if there’s trouble?”

Elian ran his hand through his golden hair, “I can’t guarantee it, not when her own magic is so volatile. She’s at serious risk.”

“She’s at risk either way! At least out here, nobody will be lurking around the next corridor waiting to cut her throat.”

“I can control my own fucking people,” Kaelen snarled. “Do you think I would ever do anything to put her in harm’s way?”

Ronan scoffed, “Yes, you’ve been doing a magnificent job so far. When was the last time she spoke to you?”

Kaelen’s eyes widened slightly before he launched forward, a hand on his blade, a snarl on his face. Ronan grinned, dropping low, ready to tackle him—

Searing pain struck the side of his face and he bellowed in outrage, falling to the ground. Looking up, he saw Kaelen similarly panting, clutching his jaw. Elian stood between them, his shadows lashing from his hands.

“Fighting each other will achieve nothing,” he said, his voice unusually hard.

“Fuck off, Benellane,” Ronan got to his feet, his muscles bunching. “You aren’t even here half the time. Do you really think you can prance off to wherever the fuck it is you go with no explanation and then come back and dictate to us?”

Elian’s eyes flashed in warning. “What I’m doing may give us a solution,” he hissed, “I can’t tell you what it is now, but I will when the time is right. Don’t you trust me to have Selena’s best interests at heart?”

“You’re a fucking Fae,” Ronan growled. “I wouldn’t trust you to comb her hair, let alone keep her safe.”

Twin daggers appeared in Elian’s hands as his face split into a snarl, green eyes glowing unnaturally through the darkness.

“What did you just say to me, you filthy fucking mutt?”

“I said,” Ronan shifted into his wolf, his lips peeling back to show his teeth, his eyes locked on the Fae, “I don’t trust you to keep her safe.”

Quick as a crack of lightning, Elian surged forward, his blades swiping through the air and catching Ronan’s muzzle. Before Ronan could even react, he’d swung round again, shadows exploding from him.

Rearing back in shock and anger, Ronan snarled and charged, jaws snapping at Elian, but the air where he had just been was empty. Instead, more of that vicious magic slammed into him, fiery and hot.

There was an inhumane growl from behind him, and he barely caught wind of Malek’s scent before he was leaping over Ronan, paws hitting the earth as he struck out at Elian, hitting him square in the chest and pinning him to the earth.

Elian released a bitter laugh as Malek crushed him into the ground, jaws inches from his face, “It’s no wonder that you’d side with him. Mangy dogs always stick together.”

Malek roared with fury, his claws ripping through Elian’s skin. There was a flash of fear in the Fae’s eyes before he grit his teeth and used a wave of shadows to throw Malek from him. Like a cat, Malek twisted in the air, landing on his feet beside Ronan.

“Malek, back off,” commanded Kaelen. “You might lose control.”

Malek snarled in response.

“You’ve gotten far too comfortable issuing orders, dragon,” Ronan growled, “and look where it’s gotten us.”

Kaelen’s hands flexed towards his blades, his amber eyes narrow. “Is that a challenge, wolf?”

“Yeah,” replied Ronan, crouching low to the ground, “I think it fucking is.”

Kaelen drew out his swords. “Come on then, let’s get this over with.”

“Not going to shift? I didn’t realize you had a death wish.”

Kaelen sneered, “I don’t need any extra help to put you down.”

Ronan’s muscles bunched, tense and ready to attack. Kaelen would regret that decision.

“Will you stop it !” Selena yelled, wobbling to her feet, one hand braced against the tree, the other cradling her stomach, “This is stupid, and you know it!”

“Stay out of this, Omega,” Kaelen growled, not taking his eyes from Ronan. Malek pawed the earth, a low whine escaping him. Elian sneered.

“Don’t tell her what to do,” Ronan hissed.

“She’ll get herself killed.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“I’m serious,” she shouted, her magic beginning to crackle down her skin in distress. “Please don’t do this!”

Malek whined again, turning back towards her.

Elian, traitorous Fae shit that he was, used the opportunity to lash his magic forward and strike at Malek, trying to contain him before he could attack.

Something between them all broke.

With a furious snarl, Ronan thundered forward and met Kaelen in a clash of teeth and metal. Malek roared in agony, his eyes losing any sign of humanity, and bolted forward to attack Elian. But instead of sinking his claws into him, he instead leapt over, racing into the tree line and away from them all.

Somewhere behind him, Selena sobbed in heartbreak.

“Looks like you’re outnumbered, Ronan,” Kaelen sneered.

“He’s losing control, and doesn’t want to hurt us,” Ronan snarled. “Makes him a damn sight more noble than you two.”

“Why can’t you see that everything I do, I do for her!”

They clashed together again, except this time Ronan caught Kaelen in the side with a paw, sending him spinning through the air. He landed heavily, his expression turning wild, before his human skin melted away into red-gold scales and his bones cracked into claws and wings and fire.

“So much for it being easy,” Ronan sneered. Even as a dragon, he was confident that he was stronger than Kaelen. As long as he could stop him getting into the air to rain fire down, he would be triumphant.

He stepped forward, ready to launch, when a slight movement caught his gaze.

He realized too late that he hadn’t checked where Elian was.

An overwhelming tidal wave of magic swept into him, knocking him clean off his feet. He bellowed in pain, every nerve ending on fire, as Elian’s magic battered into him.

Somewhere, Selena was screaming. The lightning-scent of her magic thrashing through the air.

His mate was in distress.

With every last ounce of strength he possessed, he leapt clear of the shadows, bucking and shaking to rid himself from the aftereffects. Kaelen snarled and lunged forward, but Ronan was too quick. He narrowly avoided Kaelen’s swiping claws and instead leapt into the air to dig his own into the dragon’s flank.

Blood sprayed down as Ronan dragged Kaelen to the earth, roaring in pain and fury.

He was hit again by magic, and darted to the side, releasing Kaelen.

Elian sent bolt after bolt of magic after him, spears flying through the air, and Ronan ran in a great circle to avoid them as they got closer and closer.

One, deadly sharp and crackling with malignant power hurtled towards him.

He leapt, the bolt streaking past him, just missing him, and landed in triumph, but then—

A scream behind him stopped him dead in his tracks.

He turned, stomach sinking, blood pounding.

Selena, her arms braced above her face, the skin peppered with cuts, her own magic barely lashing out in time to dissolve Elian’s blast.

A trickle of blood ran down her forearm and she collapsed.

All thoughts of fighting disappeared.

They were by her side in an instant, all in their human skins, all frantic with worry. Elian, his hair clutched between his fingers, knuckles white, could do nothing but apologize over and over and over again.

Selena let out a small sob, lowering her arms, blood staining her clothes.

“Selena, fuck , are you okay? Are you alright?” Kaelen’s voice was loud, his face desperate, his arms reaching out to take her.

She batted them away. All of them. Ronan included.

Despair threatened to choke him.

“You can’t do this to me,” she wept, burying her head in her hands. “For months I’ve been battered between you, told what to do, ignored, abandoned, not listened to. And for what? Just so you can kill each other? What’s the point of any of it?”

“Sweetness, please, you know we only want to—”

“Protect me, keep me safe, yes. I fucking know!” Her voice was raised into a shriek, her fists balled, her cheeks wet with tears.

“Please, Omega,” Kaelen begged, “what can I do? How can I make it better?”

“Something needs to change,” she said, her voice breaking. “Something is damaged, and if it isn’t fixed, the pack is going to tear itself apart. And I won’t survive that. I can’t. You need to stop fighting, or I swear to all the gods, you will lose me!”

Ronan glanced over at Kaelen, at Elian’s pale, devastated face. “Sweetness, none of us want to fight, but…”

“But what, Ronan? What?”

“These things aren’t simple, Omega,” Kaelen said, impossibly distressed.

She opened her mouth, fury flashing over her face, but then like the turning tide her expression turned blank. She closed her mouth and wrapped her arms around herself.

“Let me heal you, please, little dove,” Elian begged, on the verge of tears.

She looked at him, her eyes dull, and held out her arms. He accepted them, caressing them, kissing her palms as his shadows healed her. As soon as the cuts closed, she pulled back her hands.

“Let’s make camp,” she said, her voice devoid of any emotion.

Ronan stood, helpless to do anything but obey, his heart sinking into his stomach. Fear, anger, accusation, he could handle all of that.

But a return to the strange, blank, emotionless void…

It filled him with unimaginable dread.