Page 25 of Bound to Four Alphas

The alphas had been called away by the time her heat broke.

It was like icy water had been thrown in her face.

Every moan, every whimper, every singlemortifyingdetail of her actions had been thrown into stark, harsh reality. Gone was the lust-addled omega telling her to submit, to beg, to obey.

The things she had done. The thingstheyhad done to her.

She buried her face in her hands, her cheeks growing hot as memory after memory rocked through her.

Rania, who had collected her from the chamber and taken her upstairs to bathe, eat, and rest, simply laughed.

“You don’t need to be ashamed, Selena,” she said, throwing back the curtains of the bedchamber where Selena would be staying from now on. “It’s all completely natural.”

Selena gaped at her. “But I … but they….”

Rania took her hand. “I know it’s overwhelming. You’ve never properly handed yourself over to your omega before, but it gets easier. You’re bonded for life; you shouldn’t have any shame about what you do with your mates. They certainly seem entirely too smug for their own good.”

She groaned, unable to even contemplate how she was supposed to look any of them in the face ever again. It was all far too much. She had been so wanton, so shameless for them, what must they think of her?

“Selena,” Rania said, her voice turning from gentle amusement to complete no-nonsense, “I know that you grewup on the edges of a human pack, and they have entirely different sensibilities. They hide their omegas, see them as a source of shame. Here, amongst the magical kind, omegas are to be revered. Trust me, judgment for your actions is the farthest thing from anyone’s mind. A mating ceremony is to be celebrated. Do you understand?”

Selena nodded meekly, trying to push down the waves of embarrassment and trust that Rania spoke the truth. But still, it wasn’t even just the mating. It was how open she’d been, how honest. Her heat had driven away all of her fear, but now that she was firmly back in her right mind, she couldn’t help the small tendrils that still flickered on the edges of her consciousness. There was still so much she didn’t know about the four alphas who were to be her mates for life.

“What happens now?” she asked Rania, fiddling with a strand of her hair.

“First things first—there will be a ball tonight.”

Her mouth fell open in shock. “A ball? Why on earth would we have a ball?”

Rania raised a rather unimpressed eyebrow. “As I said, your mating ceremony is to be celebrated. So we will celebrate it. Besides, Kaelen and Ronan have been away from their territories for nearly two weeks now, and both are getting anxious about the state of affairs. Delegations from the wolf and dragon clans are expected to arrive this afternoon.”

“Delegations, what? Why would they come here?”

“You do know who they are, don’t you?”

“Of course,” replied Selena, a little too quickly. She knew they were important; Elian had mocked Kaelen by calling him ‘king’ a few times, but as for the specifics…

“Ronan is the alpha of the western wolf pack. The most powerful in the five realms since he killed the previous alpha of the northern clan, Landon. He commands hundreds, if not thousands, of wolf shifters. The dragon clans are slightly more pompous, they have royal dynasties. Kaelen is ruler of the largest clan; he is the King of Embers, son of the Great Burning Moon from whom all dragons are descended, as far as the legend goes. He too commands armies. As you can imagine, it was quite the shock to both clans when their leaders suddenly left, not sending word for days.”

Selena felt her cheeks grow hot. “I hope I didn’t cause any issues,” she said, her voice small.

Rania laughed. “Don’t worry, they had me send word as soon as they arrived here. We’ve been communicating with both clans for days. They are very curious about the strange young omega who’s managed to bond the four most powerful beings in this realm.”

As she spoke, she beckoned in a few priestesses all laden with silks and jewels, each shade richer than the last, sparkling in the rays of light pouring in through the glass windows.

“You keep mentioning the realm, I thought we lived in the Silverthorn Kingdom?” Selena asked, intent on answers despite the sumptuous gowns paraded before her, a rainbow of sheer gauzy skirts and sleek satin bodices.

“Hah,” Rania’s nose crinkled. “The humans would certainly love you to think that. But no. Long before they established their squat, this land was the First Realm, domain of the Forest God. One of five.”

“Have you been to any of the others?”

“One or two,” Rania smiled.

“What are they like?”

“The same, but different. The human threat is everywhere, and the old Gods aren’t acting. War seems more and more inevitable.”

Selena swallowed, her throat thick. She was a human, but she recognized the Silverthorn Kingdom as exactly what it was. Stories of the cruelty of the King, of his son Damien, would occasionally make their way to the village.

---