Page 26 of Owned by Four Alphas (Silverthorn Alphas #2)

Ronan hated cramped, enclosed spaces. Small huts, low ceilings, long testing mountainous tunnels.

Just like the one they were currently creeping through, careful to keep silent, trying to establish what exactly it was they were up against. He’d stayed in his wolf skin, wanting to keep his keen senses, and his shoulder and flank were constantly brushing up against the rough ceiling, so much so that he was having to half-crouch.

Malek was in the same position, only marginally smaller than Ronan, his antlers causing him no amount of struggle. Kaelen was practically spitting fire, his dragon far too big to comfortably travel through the space, even though Ronan knew he was burning to shift.

Only Elian seemed happy, prancing down the passageway, his shadows spread out ahead of them searching for any sign of their mate.

“Anything?” Kaelen asked, for the third time.

“Not yet,” Elian said, and Ronan dipped his head to the stone, his nose twitching, seeing if he could pick up any scent where Elian failed to detect magic.

There was nothing. Only brimstone and ash.

So far, it had been relatively straightforward. A singular tunnel, unguarded, stretching out into the darkness ahead of them. Ronan growled. He wanted clear open space. He wanted knowledge about his enemy.

He wanted his mate back.

And up ahead, practically mocking them, there was a fork. Two corridors, equal in size, identical in shape, diverged from the main passage.

Elian stopped, running his hand through his hair. “I don’t know which way to go.”

“We could split up?” asked Malek, but Elian shook his head.

“There are hundreds more divergences after this one. We split up, there’s no guarantee we could get back to one another.”

Kaelen growled, twirling a curved blade around, striking it against the floor. “Left or right?”

“We can’t leave it to chance,” said Ronan. “Benellane, is there no way you can use your magic to detect her?”

“Perhaps,” Elian’s green eyes narrowed, “but not if we want to stay undetected.”

“Should we risk it?” Kaelen turned to Ronan, and he grunted in slight shock.

Having Kaelen ask him for advice had not been a common occurrence up until this point.

“I think we should—”

“Wait!” Malek lowered his head to the ground sniffing, his black eyes flashing in concentration.

“There’s nothing here, Malek. If I can’t smell her, then you won’t be able to-”

“It’s not Selena,” Malek replied, flashing his teeth, “it’s leather. I can smell leather. It smells the same as the Fae librarian’s satchel.”

Malek pushed past, his nose to the ground, his shaggy mane brushing the floor. He approached the divergence, trying one passageway, then another.

“It’s this one,” he said, raising his head and peering through the darkness of the one on the right.

“Can you keep the trail?” Kaelen asked, his voice bubbling with excitement.

“I’m not sure,” said Malek, his nose to the ground, “it’s very faint.”

Ronan sniffed, taking in the information from the rock, looking for the sharp, acrid scent of tanned leather. Sure enough, there it was. He had mistaken it for Elian’s clothes, but now he knew to look for the difference, it was distinct.

“I’ve got it,” he growled, taking off into a run, the others close behind him. They encountered many twists and turns leading deep into the bowels of the earth, but Ronan was a born and bred tracker. Once he had a scent, it was nearly impossible to throw him off.

They were close now. Heat radiated from the rocks, sharp and unpleasant. The tunnels, previously so cramped, were widening out, leading deeper and deeper.

“Wait,” Elian hissed, his head cocking, withdrawing a dagger, “I hear something up ahead.”

Without warning, he darted forward into the darkness, enveloped in shadow.

“Hold,” Kaelen held up an arm, stopping Ronan and Malek from pursuing. “Let him come back first.”

After a few silent, heart-pounding moments, Elian emerged from the darkness, a drooling Fae in his clutches. Elian threw the male the ground with a sneer, and he rolled over, incomprehensible babbling pouring out of his mouth.

“What did you do?” asked Kaelen.

“Searched his mind, got some key information, and then locked him inside with his worst fears,” replied Elian, dusting his hands. “I know the way now. And I know what we’re up against.”

“And?” asked Ronan, stepping over the quivering male.

Elian’s eyes narrowed, his jaw setting, his voice low and rough with anger. “She’s in labor, they’re preparing now. The gates are opening. We don’t have long.”

Ronan’s snarl reverberated off the walls.

“Are you done with him?” Kaelen asked, his voice flat.

“Yes,” said Elian.

Almost too fast to see, Kaelen unsheathed one of his blades and swung it through the air, cleaving the Fae’s head clean from its body. It rolled a few feet before settling, glassy eyes staring into nothing.

“Let’s go,” he said darkly, gesturing at Elian to lead the way.

They were nearly there. They encountered more and more guards, swiftly killed either by blade or fang. The temperature was rising, and the very rocks seemed to be groaning with the weight of something mighty and terrible. No longer were they in complete darkness, relying on Elian’s magic. A fiery glow pulsed through the tunnels, flickering and living .

The distant thundering of stone rolling over stone became louder, joined with the roar of a great inferno. But beneath it all, echoing and bouncing off the stone as they got closer, their mate’s screaming.

Elian hissed, “What’s the plan? Try to go in quietly, or storm it?”

Ronan glanced at Kaelen. “We go in hard, cutting down everything we can see. Malek and Elian, you follow quietly. Dispatch any hidden members of the Order.”

Kaelen’s blades shone as he twirled them through the air. “Deal.”

“Good luck, boys,” said Elian, before melting out of sight into shadow. Malek nodded, settling on his paws, eyes fixed on the entrance up ahead.

Ronan shook his head, teeth gnashing. “Let’s go get our girl.”

Kaelen was first through the narrow entrance, launching himself from the small step and up into the air, muscles twisting and enlarging until his dragon swept through the air. Ronan followed, leaping into the cavern, instantly assessing the danger.

The cavern was enormous, larger than any hall Ronan had seen, carved entirely from rock. And instantly at the far end, Ronan saw the true danger.

A great pair of doors, chains thicker than an oak falling to the floor at its feet, with thunderous, screeching echoes, groaning as it slowly swung open.

Kaelen bellowed above him, shooting towards the doors, muscles bracing as he collided with the heavy stone. His wings beat furiously behind him as his claws embedded into the rock, trying with all his strength to keep them closed.

The members of the Order, maybe fifty of them, maybe more, yelled in shock and began to flock into formation, assembling weapons and a barricade around something.

Around Selena .

Because there she was, maybe five hundred paces away, trembling on all fours as she screamed and panted, her muscles contracting. The scent of his mate in pain, in distress, scared and vulnerable, was enough to make him lose all sense.

With a ferocious roar he lunged forward, claws sparking against the stone, heading straight for the mass of Order members.

He never saw the spear coming from the side.

Like fire it struck him, lancing through his hind leg, cleaving through skin and muscle.

He bellowed in shock and pain, flipping over, instinctively pulling. But the spear was tipped in barbs, barbs that burnt like hot coals, and in his panic they embedded themselves further into his flesh. Looking up, his mind a swirling vortex of confusion and rage, he saw the spear was connected to a metal chain, launched from a carefully hidden alcove carved into the rock.

He started towards it with a snarl, but another burst of agony hit his flank on the other side, ripping through him and catching him like a hook.

Then another hit him, this time in the foreleg, then another in the stomach.

“Heave!” someone yelled, and the spears were pulled tight, forcing him to the ground, pinning him there unable to wrench himself free.

“Ronan!” Kaelen bellowed, his claws scrabbling against the stone, barely managing to keep the door closed.

“Now!” the same voice yelled, and from between the sweeping robes of the Order members a trebuchet glimmered into appearance, firing a projectile towards Kaelen. He roared in shock, ripping his claws from the door just in time to miss the projectile, but another one caught him as he reared away, spinning out over him and dragging him to the ground.

A net. A net of iron that only wound around him tighter as he thrashed and writhed, trying to break free.

“Kaelen!” Selena cried, groaning in pain, helpless to do anything but watch.

The male was there, by her side. Castien. He knelt near her, rubbing her back, his eyes flashing between her and the roaring dragon.

Ronan snarled, trying to stagger to his feet, but the spears tightened against his skin forcing him back down to the floor with a grunt.

The doors began to grind open, fire and lava spewing from the gap. Ronan could only make out a shadowed pit plunging deep into the earth. From within it, something roared, the clanging of great chains rumbling through the very ground beneath them.

Ronan’s throat seized in fear.

Theldir.

The Order members swelled and cheered, some falling to their knees, some chanting and raising their hands to their god. Their red robes glowed almost incandescently in the fiery light spilling from the great prison beyond the doors.

“It’s almost time!”

“My lord! My god of fire and death, come to deliver us!”

“Can we kill the babe, set him free?”

“No! Not until it has been born.”

Ronan snarled, ignored his screaming muscles as he wrenched and pulled against the spears, blood pooling at his feet. With every movement, burning fire licked through him, his vision going blurry from pain. He let out a ragged grasp. He’d never come across anything like this before, nothing could penetrate his hide.

Except fire.

Had they somehow worked out how to imbue the very spears themselves with fire? Ronan bellowed, struggling even harder against his restraints, rolling and snapping his jaws, trying to find purchase.

It was no use.

Kaelen, similarly trapped, was beating his wings, coating himself in fire, trying in vain to melt the iron.

Selena was screaming. There was so much screaming .

“Are they secure?”

“Yes! The enchantments are holding.”

“Good, don’t let either one of them slip free, slit their throats if you have to!”

“Where are the other two?”

“Keep your eye out for them!”

“They weren’t supposed to find us!”

“It doesn’t matter, the precautions worked!”

“How is the birth?”

“She’s nearly there, we’re moments away!”

“After all this time…our lord, our god!”

“Truthfully, I don’t really see what all the fuss is about.”

Ronan glanced up in shock at the Order member who had spoken. He was standing, his arms crossed, his red robe concealing his face.

“I mean really, could we not find a god to worship that doesn’t stink so heavily of sulfur and brimstone?”

“How dare you!”

“You blasphemous…”

“...will be punished for…”

“Yes, yes, yes,” the male lifted his hands, “I’m a very naughty boy.” He shook them, and twin daggers appeared in his grasp.

The robe fell to the floor.

“Question is, what are you going to do about it?”

“It’s Lord Elian!”

“Quick, get the—”

“—how did he—”

“—don’t let him near her!”

Their momentary shock cost them, as in a blurred shadow of movement and death Elian struck, three falling dead at his feet. He flicked a dagger, blood splattering from it across the stone, an easy smirk on his face.

“Really, it isn’t me you should be worrying about,” he said, dodging an attack and slitting yet another throat.

The burning pain of the tensely pulled spears lessened as they went lax, the metal chains falling free from the blades. Bodies thudded to the ground in the shadowy alcoves from where he had been struck.

Elian grinned in delight, pointing with a dagger. “It’s him.”

With a thunderous growl, Ronan climbed to his feet. The spears were still embedded in him, but that didn’t matter. Now, he could move again.

Now, he would destroy anyone and anything that got in the way of him and his mate .