Page 48 of Owned By Four Alphas

Selena let out a small sob, lowering her arms, blood staining her clothes.

“Selena,fuck, are you okay? Are you alright?” Kaelen’s voice was loud, his face desperate, his arms reaching out to take her.

She batted them away. All of them. Ronan included.

Despair threatened to choke him.

“You can’t do this to me,” she wept, burying her head in her hands. “For months I’ve been battered between you, told what to do, ignored, abandoned, not listened to. And for what? Just so you can kill each other? What’s the point of any of it?”

“Sweetness, please, you know we only want to—”

“Protect me, keep me safe, yes. I fucking know!” Her voice was raised into a shriek, her fists balled, her cheeks wet with tears.

“Please, Omega,” Kaelen begged, “what can I do? How can I make it better?”

“Something needs to change,” she said, her voice breaking. “Something is damaged, and if it isn’t fixed, the pack is going to tear itself apart. And I won’t survive that. I can’t. You need to stop fighting, or I swear to all the gods, you will lose me!”

Ronan glanced over at Kaelen, at Elian’s pale, devastated face. “Sweetness, none of us want to fight, but…”

“But what, Ronan? What?”

“These things aren’t simple, Omega,” Kaelen said, impossibly distressed.

She opened her mouth, fury flashing over her face, but then like the turning tide her expression turned blank. She closed her mouth and wrapped her arms around herself.

“Let me heal you, please, little dove,” Elian begged, on the verge of tears.

She looked at him, her eyes dull, and held out her arms. He accepted them, caressing them, kissing her palms as his shadows healed her. As soon as the cuts closed, she pulled back her hands.

“Let’s make camp,” she said, her voice devoid of any emotion.

Ronan stood, helpless to do anything but obey, his heart sinking into his stomach. Fear, anger, accusation, he could handle all of that.

But a return to the strange, blank, emotionless void…

It filled him with unimaginable dread.

Chapter 19 - Selena

Things were undeniably tense as Ronan, Kaelen, and Elian built the camp, their gazes always returning to her, a mixture of fear, anger, and regret.

She didn’t look back. Merely sat against the tree, staring at her hands, everything numb.

Malek still hadn’t returned. She wanted him back, but also understood why he had run away. Ever since she had collapsed the ceiling, causing him to lose control, he had been so cautious around her. The merest hint that he might lose control, and he would run away, returning in a few minutes once he’d calmed down.

This time, though, Elian’s magic was likely to have driven him over the edge. It could be hours before he came back.

Despite Elian healing them, her arms still stung slightly with the aftershock of his magic. It hadn’t hurt much, not really, not when her own magic had risen to protect her. In fact, she suspected it hurt Elian a lot more. He had been pacing, an agonized look on his face, shaking his head occasionally. It was no surprise. Alphas couldn’t bear to hurt their mates, not if that wasn’t their inclination. And Elian had never physically hurt her before.

She considered speaking up, consoling him. After all, any one of them could have accidentally injured her, losing control over themselves as they did. It was just bad luck that it happened to be Elian.

But she didn’t. Some part of her knew that it wasn’t her place to comfort her mates for hurting her. Not when it was because of their own actions. To do so would be giving up part of herself, putting their emotional needs above her own.

And right now, the last thing she wanted to do was concede any ground at all to them. She had meant what she said.

She couldn’t go on like this. She wouldn’t survive it. And they hadn’t given her the response she needed.

They seemed determined to fight, to go against each other. It would only be a matter of time until they fought again. And next time, what if one of them got killed? What if all of them did?

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