Page 44 of Bound to Four Alphas

“Thank you,” said Malek, his eyes clearing slightly, some of that mindless rage receding.

“Don’t mention it,” Elian said, painting an easy grin on his face to hide the true extent of his fatigue. “Can’t have you bleeding out, you’d make a terrible throw rug.”

“Elian,” snapped Kaelen, his amber eyes half-wild, “now is not the time.”

“I couldn’t be sorrier, oh great and powerful King of Embers,” Elian retorted, narrowing his eyes. A few hours without Selena and they had resorted to jabbing each other like children. Elian couldn’t find it in himself to care.

“Listen here, you arrogant little—”

A series of howls tore through the night sky.

Ronan was calling.

They turned and sprinted into the forest without a moment of hesitation.

Elian gritted his teeth, shifting mid-stride into a mountain lion, the extra boost of agility and speed helping him to keep up with Malek. Kaelen used a fallen log to launch himself into the air, shifting in the blink of an eye back into a dragon.

They were getting closer, the snarls and growls louder, alongside the shouts of men and the smell of pitch.

Fire. That’s what they could use against Ronan. The wolf’s skin was impenetrable to nearly every blade or fang, but he was not impervious to fire.

Sure enough, as they broke through the tree line into a rocky outcropping at the base of a hill, Ronan was trapped inside a circle of flames that licked at his feet and singed his fur. Selena was clinging to his back, coughing through the thick cloud of smoke. Soldiers stalked the edges, jeering and shouting.

“Wait!” Elian yelled to Malek, who looked ready to launch into the fray, “Let Kaelen!”

Fire was deadly to Ronan, for sure. But to Kaelen, who made his home in a dead volcano and poured lava from his belly, fire was a blessing.

The inferno surged, closing in on Ronan, who barked in shock and pain, his yellow eyes wide with fear. The soldiers cackled and threw stones, waving their puny spears in the air.

They didn’t see the red-gold streak slamming down towards them until it was too late.

Kaelen landed like a strike of lightning amongst the flames, molten fire dripping from his teeth, a roar that cracked the earth shaking the men to their knees.

Then, to Elian’s combined horror and fascination, Kaelen rolled through the flames, setting his scales alight. As he emerged, wings spread and engulfed in fire, the soldiers shrieked and ran straight into Malek’s waiting jaws. Kaelen snapped his great maw, catching a few men in his teeth, before spinning and lashing his tail in an arc of flame through the row of soldiers. More shouted and ran towards them, hundreds pouring down the side of the hill.

Elian leapt into action.

His paws thundered over the stone as he side-stepped Malek’s trail of bodies and ducked low to avoid the fire raining down from Kaelen’s mighty wings.

Ronan was choking on the smoke, his chest heaving, still trapped by the wall of flames. Elian jumped and plucked a string of shadow from the smoke with his mountain lion’s teeth andpulled.

The inferno raged against him, but he roared in anger and sent wave after billowing wave of shadow to smother the flames. His energy was low, but he would do this. He had to do this.

Pain tore through him, his very core writhing in agony, but he ignored it.

With one last surge of energy, he managed to part the flames for just long enough that Ronan snarled and took a great running leap through the gap.

He cleared it by a hair’s breadth.

Elian collapsed, the shadows snapping as the fire raged upwards again, but didn’t matter. Ronan got free. Selena wassafe.

Ronan thundered towards him, not losing speed, and Elian just managed to stagger to his feet and launch himself onto the enormous wolf’s back before they were disappearing back into the forest, leaving Malek and Kaelen to finish off the soldiers.

In his weakened state he very nearly slid off Ronan’s back, but dug his claws in and heaved himself upwards, ignoring Ronan’s snarls of pain. Selena launched toward him and grabbed his neck, heaving with all her tiny amount of strength until he was safely balanced behind her.

“Are you alright?” she shouted as the wind whipped past them, soot smeared over her cheeks and staining her fur-lined dress.

“Yes,” he managed, groaning as his transformation fell away back to his Fae form. “Are you?”

---