Page 19 of Owned By Four Alphas

He huffed out a laugh. “He doesn’t seem to like anyone all that much.”

“So you’ll help me?”

The male sighed, glancing around the empty library, his scent nervous and scared. “Won’t your…I mean, are you allowed to be alone with another male?”

“I’m allowed to do whatever I want, thank you very much!”

He winced, “I’m sorry, Your Hi—Selena. That’s not what I meant. Of course you may do as you please. It’s just that…”

Realization hit her, “Oh, don’t worry about my mates. They can be protective for sure, but they’re not unreasonable.”

For the most part.

He didn’t seem much reassured by her words, but when he looked back at her eager face, she sensed his resolve start to crumble slightly. “What can I assist you with?”

She gestured to the towers of books, the dark aisles and rows that stretched out. “I’m looking for information about the Forest God. Or his magic. Or…visions.”

The male’s eyebrow twitched upwards. “Visions?”

“Yes, visions. Visions and dreams. Of gods. Er…sorry. I know that’s not very specific.”

“You’d be surprised,” the male said with a huff of laughter. “Alright. Books about visions and dreams and magic. I know a few places we can get started.”

Chapter 8 - Malek

A few days had passed since the Winter’s End festival and Selena’s magical outburst. As she had requested, Malek and Ronan had left her alone in the library and returned some hours later to find her eagerly poring over several books in front of the fire with a male librarian.

While Malek certainly wasn’t happy to see his mate alone with a male, he at least managed to resist growling and snapping. Unlike Ronan. That the male was an omega was probably the only thing that saved him from the wolf’s jaws in Ronan’s already frustrated state. The librarian, a Fae named Castien, had taken one look at them both and scurried out of library with hardly a backwards glance.

He and Ronan wasted no further time in divesting their little mate of her clothes and taking her before the roaring fire.

Afterwards, Selena hadn’t wanted to sleep. She returned almost immediately to her books, her eyes bright with renewed vigor, and she had barely left the library since. She remained fairly cagey about her research, only mentioning trying to control any further magical outbursts, and Malek was content to let her keep her own council for the time being.

The sun was just starting to peek over the trees of the forest beyond the Marble Halls, the shadows swirling and hazy in the pale morning light. He had spent the night with a few fellow Nightwalkers, coaching them in restraint and control.

It had not been successful.

He sat in his true body, surrounded by the ravaged corpses of forest animals, the last of his kin slipping away further into the forest to await the return of night.

He had thought teaching them to speak might be the key to unlocking further humanity. He had been wrong. Instead, they had paced and snarled, their voices barely more than growls, their sentences distorted, as they repeated one request over and over again.

Give us more blood.

Loathing curled in his stomach. Not at his kind, but at himself. It had not been so long ago that he too had been single-minded in his desire for blood. Not so long since he had killed for it. The same blood that ran through Selena’s veins.

Quite against his will, a long, low whine escaped him. Ever since she had nearly been taken from him, ever since his own mind had been turned against his pack by Damien and Phaendar, his strength of will had only grown.

But her magic, unstable and unsteady, was beginning to throw him off. His very being was so innately tied to the magic of the Forest, and Selena, for all her efforts, could not yet control it. The land itself painted the picture quite clearly. Raging storms and blistering cold, tremors and rockfalls, the very trees groaning against the bucking, thrashingfightof the magic within Selena.

He, too, felt the strain.

Tensions within the pack were not helping, either. Both Elian and Kaelen had separately gone to the library to try and make peace with Selena, but she was not so easily swayed to forgive and forget. Kaelen had become almost unbearable, angry and volatile, spending more time as a dragon than a man. Elian’s worst tendencies only intensified, and he could normally be found with a band of Fae nobles wreaking havoc down the local tavern.

Malek remembered Kaelen’s words, his assertion that he was more than happy to let Selena hate him so long as she was safe. He wondered whether the dragon realized what that truly meant. He couldn’t imagine Selena hating him. His heart, or whatever lay within him, cracked in two just thinking about it.

He stood, shaking out his coat, his nose full of the stench of blood and viscera. He was more used to it now, but it still tugged on the edges of his monstrosity, reminding him that his true nature would always be there to haunt him.

Taking off in a sudden burst of speed, Malek left the destruction behind him. He would try again with his Nightwalkers in a few days. All he could do was try.

---