Page 2 of Bound to Four Alphas

“Why are you doing this?” she begged, eyes skittering wildly from one man to the other, unable to stop the fresh wave of tears from streaking down her face.

One of them gave her a disgusted look. “Fucking hell, Derry, she fuckingstinks.”

“What do you expect?” the man behind her, Derry, responded. “She’s a rogue omega in distress, she’s putting out hormones.”

“Yeah, well, it’s fucking disgusting.”

Selena whimpered and pulled her legs in tighter to herself, shrinking at the alpha’s cruel words. She couldn’t help her scent, her distress, and right now she wished more than anything that she wasn’t an omega at all.

“Alright, easy there, darling.” Derry finished tying her to the tree and stepped out in front of her, kneeling to peer down at her. He was one of the stronger alphas in the village, slightly older but no less horrible to her. Of this bunch, she could smell that he was in charge. Her body was wracked with trembling.

Derry’s smile grew sinister. “Not getting out of this one, are you?”

“Please,” Selena whimpered, “please just let me go. Don’t do this.”

His eyebrows furrowed for a moment before he threw his head back and started laughing. “Listen to this, boys, she thinks we’re going to fuck her!”

The alphas all howled with laughter, mocking and cruel.

“Like any of us would ever touch a filthy rogue like you,” Derry sneered. “I mean, look at you! You’re disgusting! A dirty little witch who’s cursed our crops and called down the plague.”

“That wasn’t me, I’m not a witch, I didn’t do anything!” Selena was sobbing now, wrenching and pulling at the rope, ignoring the slickness of blood as she shredded her skin.

“Doesn’t matter now,” said Derry. “You’re a sacrifice. The village elders decreed it today. Maybe if we feed you to the forest, it will grant us peace for a season.”

A sacrifice.

They were sacrificing her to the forest.

She had to get out of there.

As the men began rounding up, casting watchful glances to the tree line, she shrieked and cried and fought against her restraints with all her might. Somewhere, out in the darkness, a wolf howled. It was faint, miles away perhaps, but distinct. She fought even harder.

The alphas cast wary, watchful eyes to the horizon.

“Come on,” said Derry, “let’s get out of here. I don’t want to be around when whatever’s coming for her gets closer.”

With murmured agreements and final, scornful looks towards her, the alphas turned and disappeared back the way they came, taking the warm glow of the torchlight with them.

Selena called out to them, begged them to come back for her, not to leave her alone, but all too soon their footfalls faded away and she was left alone in the clearing.

She swallowed, shaking hard against the cold and the fear, and scooted backwards until she hit the trunk of the tree.

The night was oppressively dark, the wind whipping through the forest, haunting and dangerous. Every rustle, every creak, every tiny noise set her teeth on edge and sent a fresh wave of panic coursing through her. She was paralyzed, unable to move, unable to speak.

There was a reason her mother had taught her how to protect her property from whatever monsters lurked in the shadows of the forest. Selena had never seen one, only heard about them. Nightmares made flesh, she had heard, great monstrous beasts of tooth and fang.

A rustling in the tree line caught her attention, and she sucked in a breath, eyes wide, trying to see what it was.

A brief moment of silence, and then…

She shrieked as a great, golden hawk broke free of the canopy, its huge wings like sun fire against the black of the night. It hovered there for a few seconds before swooping towards her, a blur of color and claws. She ducked her head down into her knees just as it flew over her head, a few wisps of her dark hair blowing around her face. She braced herself for the attack.

It never came.

Slowly, she lifted her head and saw the hawk settling on a branch above her, its gleaming body unnaturally big. It cocked its head at her.

She couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled out. A bird. It was just a bird out hunting, curious about the noise, no doubt. And if it was bigger than any hawk she had ever seen, then she supposed that was just another mystery of the forest.

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