Page 52 of Owned By Four Alphas

Lifting his kill into the air, he turned towards the clearing where everything had begun, the first rays of the morning sun kissing his wings.

He may not have known how to make things better, but breakfast seemed like a sufficient way to start.

He soared above the clearing, clicking his beak when he saw Ronan and Kaelen still slumbering by the smoking embers of the fire. Figuring Selena had to be nestled beneath thebranches of the birch, safely out of sight, he circled down and landed, letting his feather fade away and his true self emerge.

Instantly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

Something was wrong.

Both Kaelen and Ronan were asleep. Malek hadn’t returned. And Selena…

He couldn’t scent any trace of his mate.

“Kaelen,” he said, discarding the rabbit and giving his packmate a kick. “Kaelen, get up!”

Kaelen groaned, rubbing his eyes, his movement unusually lethargic as he rolled back over.

“Ronan!” Elian yelled, but the wolf didn’t even stir.

He whipped his head around, his heart in his throat. Yelling and shouting couldn’t raise his packmates, so he instead sent bolts of shadow to their flanks.

Ronan was on his feet instantly, jaws snapping and growling. His yellow eyes locked with Elian, and he let out a furious roar, preparing to pounce—

Elian just leapt out of the way of Ronan’s furious jaws.

“Wait! Wait, I’m not attacking you, I was waking you up!”

Ronan, still sleep-addled and confused, whipped around, his teeth bared, “You backstabbing little—”

“Really!” Elian held his hands up, backing away from the wolf slowly, his head lowered, “you weren’t waking up. Neither was Kaelen. Something’s wrong.”

Ronan blinked a few times, his heavy head swinging towards Kaelen, the murkiness of sleep finally clearing as he saw Kaelen grunt and push himself up, rubbing irritably at his leg.

His nose flared once. Then twice. His gaze snapped to the tree.

“Where’s Selena?” his growl shook the very earth.

“I don’t know,” said Elian, running his hands through his hair, “I don’t know, I just got here! You were both asleep, and she was gone, and I can’tsmellher…”

Kaelen rubbed his eyes, shaking his head, his face twisted into a snarl, “Elian, did you fucking enchant us to fall asleep?”

“What, no!”

“Are you sure? This sure feels like the aftereffects of magic.”

Comprehension dawned on Elian, sinking like a stone in his stomach, ice crawling down his back. “Could it have been Selena?”

Kaelen was regaining clarity now, too, fury and pure panic replacing his confusion. “Where the fuck is she? Could she have gone into the woods?”

Ronan was off like an arrow from a bow, speeding through the trees, circling the clearing with no attempts at subtlety. When he thundered back, eyes wild, Elian’s heart wrenched. He already knew without Ronan saying anything.

It was as if she had disappeared.

With a snarl, his shadows exploded from his, racing through the clearing, searching for any sign of Selena’s latent magic. The only threads he could find were from the sleep magics cast over Kaelen and Ronan themselves.

“It was her,” he choked out. “She sent you to sleep, her magic is all over you.”

Kaelen shook his head, his fists clenching, his eyes wild, “No, no, it couldn’t have been her. She wouldn’t have done that. Shecouldn’thave!”

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