Page 28 of Owned by Four Alphas (Silverthorn Alphas #2)

Elian couldn’t catch his breath, his throat full of smoke and dust. He doubled over, coughing and wheezing, trying to clear his lungs.

The terrible reality threatened to cave his chest in.

Glancing down, he choked back a sob as a pair of wide, beautiful silver eyes peered back up at him, blinking and screwing together in the sudden light.

He fell to his knees, rocking the child. His child. His daughter.

She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

He couldn’t celebrate. His alpha roared and twisted, desperate to find his packmates, to reunite them, to get his brothers—

Selena let out a sob, her face pure devastation as she sank to the ground. Her cries echoed from the mountain, raw and untamed and heart-wrenching .

Elian almost couldn’t bear it.

He felt for the bonds of his pack, he felt for his brothers.

He couldn’t find anything.

“They’re not dead!” Malek growled, his voice cracking, “They’re not, we would feel it, they’re still alive!”

“A volcano just fell on their heads,” Elian gasped. “How can they still be alive?”

Selena beat her fists against the stone, her cries wracking her body. Elian crawled to her, pulling her into his chest, cradling her with one arm as the other held their baby close. She wailed into him, her fingernails scrabbling against him, her grief palpable and all-consuming.

Malek swiped his claws against the rock, bellowing and furious.

“It’s no use,” said Elian, “stop, you’ll just injure yourself.”

Malek ignored him, attacking the rock, face twisted into a terrifying snarl.

“Malek,” Elian tried again, “Malek, please!”

Finally, Malek relented, pushing off from the rock with a snarl, pacing in front of them. His eyes flashed, mouth twisting, before he finally stopped dead and sunk to his knees.

“They can’t be…” his voice was rough. “They just can’t be…”

Their baby, their daughter , seeing her parents’ distress began wailing too, shrill and sharp.

“Oh,” breathed Malek, crawling towards them, stopping just short, “she’s…she’s…”

“Hold her,” said Elian, his throat thick, his eyes turning watery.

Instead of taking her, Malek leant forward, his arms wrapping around Elian, Selena, and the baby, his head bowing low to kiss his mate’s head.

A low, rumbling growl of grief choked out of Elian and his head fell to Malek’s shoulder, tears leaking from his eyes. Between them, Selena shuddered with violent sobs, and their baby shrieked.

Elian lost track of time as they sat there, huddled on the side of the volcano, mourning their packmates.

His soul felt cleaved in two. He had his mate, had his child…but it was incomplete. There was a part missing. A loss that could never be replaced.

He wondered if it would ruin them.

He clutched the remainder of his pack closely, regret threatening to stop his very heart.

Selena gasped suddenly, as if in pain, clutching her chest and rearing back from him.

“Selena, what is it? Are you hurt?” Malek said, his voice urgent.

She sucked in another sharp breath, her eyebrows knitting together.

“I…I don’t know…I don’t think…”

She broke free of their embrace, staggering to the ruined entrance, her hands bracing against the rock.

“Selena?” Elian asked, climbing to his feet.

A breeze washed over him, pleasant and warm, like the coming of spring.

Her skin glowed slightly silver.

Around her, small fragments of rock began to vibrate, dust swirling between her fingers. The rock seemed to sing, melodious and clear.

Their baby gurgled, and she looked up.

The child’s eyes glowed silver, and a familiar magical tendril pulsed from her.

Magic that had been inside Selena.

Elian blinked, staring down at his child, understanding finally dawning.

She was full of magic.

Magic that had not understood, magic that fought against its confinement. Magic that was too big for the tiny life it inhabited. Magic that fought against its mother. Magic that was now free, unentangled, and testing its first breath of cool air in nine months.

“You!” Selena said, her voice breathy, “all this time, all that chaos…it was you !”

“Selena?” Malek asked, hovering over her.

She looked wildly around her, at the mountain, hand reaching out.

She breathed out, and it turned into a laugh.

“My daughter!” she breathed, giddy and full of so much love as she pressed her forehead into her child’s, “my baby!”

“Selena,” said Elian, hooking a thumb under her chin, tilted her glowing face upwards, “you don’t think…”

“It’s her,” Selena whispered, “not me. It was never me. I was just a vessel. And now I’m free. And so is she.”

Malek’s eyes widened, “you don’t mean…”

“The Forest God,” Selena wept, “it’s her now.”

Selena turned, breathing in, her magic pulsing from her, calm and powerful and so very alive .

“Step back,” she said, her voice full of wonder, “I think…I think I still have powers of my own. Powers that are my own.”

She lifted her hands, glowing faintly silver. Elian felt her magic reach out through her bare feet, to the earth beneath her. To the rock, the stone, the fire, the life still clinging on.

Grasping onto tendrils of power, she heaved. His shadows swirled around them, testing and bolstering her.

Demigod. She was a demigod.

That was why she had always struggled, why she could never keep control. It wasn’t her own magic she was fighting against, it was her father’s.

Her daughter’s.

She had rejected being a goddess, and the magic had latched on to the next best thing. A child with the power and essence of four of the most powerful alphas the Realm had ever seen. A body that could contain all the might of her grandfather.

And Selena was left, a demigod, with magic in her own right, unlocked all those months ago when she was crowned, but never free to express itself on its own.

Selena clenched her hands and the rock trembled and cracked, a great schism shooting upwards from the ruined tunnel, towards the great lip of the volcano. Elian and Malek staggered backwards as great chunks of rock lifted into the sky from the depths of the volcano, tumbling down the sides, swirling through the air.

There was an almighty bellow, a pause, a breath the world took.

And then a red-gold streak shot upwards into the sky, clutching a dark wolf in its claws.

Selena breathed out, and the rocks tumbled down, crashing to the earth below.

The dragon soared for a few moments before spotting them, shooting towards them with a powerful beat of its wings.

Kaelen had shifted into a human, bloodied and weeping, by the time he reached them. Selena staggered into his embrace with a choked sob, and he pressed her into him, lips crushing against hers, cheeks wet with tears.

“My Selena,” he breathed. “My beautiful mate.”

Elian didn’t know if Selena was laughing or sobbing as Ronan pulled her towards him, claiming a kiss of his own. Elian staggered closer, Malek beside him, to join the circle.

Selena choked back a gasp as she took her daughter from his arms, a finger tracing over her perfect cheek.

“She’s beautiful.”

“You both are,” said Elian, kissing her forehead, an unimaginable well of emotion swelling through him.

“Kaelen,” Selena sobbed, “Ronan, you’re both such idiots !”

Ronan laughed, cracking and joyous, but Kaelen’s face was somber.

“In so many ways,” he said, his throat bobbing, “Selena, there’s so much I want to say, so much I need to say…”

“It’s okay,” she replied, her silver eyes bright with love, “I know. I know.”

Kaelen fell to his knees, taking her hand, “Never again,” he promised, “I won’t ever do that to you ever again. My Selena, my beautiful Selena.”

She pulled his hand, forcing him to stand, “It’s okay,” she wept, leaning into his chest. “I maybe could have listened to you about the danger. If I had been honest about everything…Elian, if I had told you what I was doing, asked for your help, then maybe…”

“None of that matters now, little dove,” Elian said, stroking her hair, “we all have regrets.”

“How are you alive?” Malek asked, his hand braced on Ronan’s shoulder, his pale, stony face cracked in devastation.

“Kaelen here was trying to fight a fire god with fire,” said Ronan, and Kaelen choked out a laugh.

Malek’s brow furrowed, “But Ronan, aren’t you…”

“Vulnerable to fire? Incredibly so. When I leapt onto the great big bastard’s head and began to attack, it distracted him enough that Kaelen was able to break free from his grasp and decide that saving me beat taking out Theldir’s eye.”

Kaelen rolled his eyes. “Fucking heavy, you are. I managed to get him clear before the big rocks started falling, but the entrance was blocked, so all we could do was cling to the side and pray.”

“And then, our prayers were answered,” said Ronan, his yellow eyes flicking to Selena. “Was that you, little dove?”

She blushed, leaning back into Elian, not able or willing to take her eyes from Ronan or Kaelen, “It turns out I was trying to control magic all this time that wasn’t mine to control.” She looked down at their daughter, a smile playing on her lips. The baby gurgled, little face scrunching up. “She has the Forest God’s magic now. She is the Forest God, I think.”

Ronan and Kaelen’s eyes met, before turning down to their daughter.

“She’s a bit small for a goddess, don’t you think?” Ronan said, his face splitting into a smile, letting her grasp a thick finger in her tiny hands.

“She’s perfect,” said Kaelen, his voice suddenly ferocious and protective, his amber eyes glinting as he looked down at the baby.

“God help the male who flirts with her,” muttered Elian, and Selena elbowed him.

“So what now?” asked Malek, glancing back at the ruined volcano.

“My soldiers should be stationed nearby, they can bring us provisions and send word out,” said Kaelen, “Selena. Where would you like to go?”

Selena practically blossomed, her blush spreading to her ears, “You’re letting me choose?”

“Of course,” said Kaelen. “After all, you’re queen. That is, if you still want to be queen.”

She looked down at the baby, tracing the tip of her tiny nose, “Maybe. But only until she’s old enough to claim her birthright. And I want you to be king. All of you to be kings. I want to do this together.”

“Aye, sweetness, I’ll don a crown for you,” said Ronan with a grin.

“I’m already a king,” said Malek.

Elian sighed dramatically, “I suppose I could deign to wear a crown. It will be an awful lot of effort, but for you, little dove, I’ll do it.”

“Please, I’m amazed you didn’t crown yourself when your father died. The celebration certainly felt more like a coronation,” said Selena with a snort.

“You wound me, little dove.”

“Your palace is closest, right Kaelen?” she said, stroking her baby’s head, “Maybe we should go there first and regroup for a while. But then I want to go back to the Marble Halls. Caeda will want to meet her niece!”

“Very well,” said Kaelen.

“But then I want to build somewhere new! Somewhere in the heart of the Realm. A home for all of us, close to all your territories.”

Ronan raised an eyebrow, considering, “We could develop near the temple of the Forest God?”

“Perfect,” she said with a grin. But then it faltered slightly, and she looked back at the volcano.

“Theldir, is he…”

“He must be,” said Ronan. “We watched him be buried under a whole volcano of stone. Nothing could have survived that.”

Selena chewed her lips, holding their daughter closer. “Gods don’t die…” she said, trailing off slightly. With a shake of her head, she offered a small smile. “No, you’re right. Nothing could survive that.”

Elian caught the edge in her voice but didn’t comment. A conversation for another time, perhaps. As Kaelen stepped back to shift into a dragon, wincing at his wounds, Ronan stopped him.

“Wait, there’s still one thing we need to do.”

“What?” asked Kaelen, and Ronan smiled down at their daughter.

“What should we name her?”

“Eveya,” replied Selena, with no hesitation and a small, secretive smile. “Her name is Eveya.”