Page 43 of Bound to Four Alphas

He sniffed the air. Once. Then twice.

Nothing.

With wary eyes, he lowered his head to the stream to drink.

Heat and pain exploded into him, and he reared back with a snarl of shock and panic.

Fire. There was fire.

More came raining down.

Barrels of pitch, launching through the sky, exploding upon impact.

“Hold on!” he roared to Selena, jumping and diving, lashing about to avoid the flames.

Selena’s hands tightened in his fur, her cries of fear echoing in his ears, driving him on. He had to protect her. He had to. Whatever this attack was, whoever it was by, he would not fail her.

But the fire kept spreading, the blazing pitch streaking across the stone, wall after wall of fiery inferno lashing out into the air.

Panic clawed in his chest.

He wasn’t immune to fire.

This attack had been meticulously planned.

He snarled as cloaked figures, human soldiers, melted out from behind the trees, his mind racing in confusion. How had he not seen them, smelled them? Heat licked at his fur, smoke thick and acrid in his lungs.

Magic. It had to be. The weapon the humans had could mess with his senses.

He crouched low, teeth bared as he faced down the growing number of men, fully ready to pounce and rip them apart.

One of them threw a torch. Ronan barely had time to look down, to spot the line of pitch, before the flames erupted.

He was trapped in a ring of fire.

The humans got closer, waving spears. Selena’s gasping coughs brought his mind back into determined focus.

He did the only thing he could think to do.

He raised his head to the sky, and howled.

Chapter 20 - Elian

Despite their injuries, their exhaustion, none of them were able to sleep. Kaelen in particular had taken to pacing the tree line, growling at every tiny noise. Elian was getting dizzy just watching him.

Malek was more heavily injured than he was letting on. He hadn’t expended any energy trying to change back into his human skin and was licking at his cuts like some kind of wounded lion, an occasional whine breaking free.

Elian grimaced. “Here, let me try.”

Malek bared his teeth as Elian approached, a warning growl low in his throat, but he nevertheless let Elian get closer and examine the sliced flesh. The gouges ran deep, shadows and an inky-black substance dripping from them, Malek’s blood.

Careful not to break his gaze, Elian let some of his power free to reach out for the wounds. Malek started as their shadows made contact, the rumbling in his chest louder, but he still didn’t strike or snap.

Elian’s brow furrowed. He had always assumed that Malek wielded a similar power to him, with command over shadow and darkness, but that wasn’t the case. Malekwasthe magic Elian could control, or at least another form of it. Elian had no doubt at all that should he try to bend Malek to his will, it would go badly, even though he suspected it was possible.

As such, Elian could command the shadows at ripped edges of his skin to close and heal, even though it took a considerable amount of energy. Malek’s eyes closed and he huffed out a breath, relief perhaps, as the injuries closed.

The action cost Elian more reserves of his magical power, a fact which chaffed him, but he knew now that the humans had figured out how to temper his magic. And while he could more than hold his own in a physical fight, not to the extent that Malek could. If they were to protect Selena, then they would need to play to their strengths.

---