Page 58 of Owned By Four Alphas

“Please, I’m faster than you.”

Without a backwards glance, the two took off, Elian’s lithe frame indeed outpacing Ronan’s wolf.

Kaelen growled and spread his wings, shooting upwards into the sky with several powerful beats.

It was likely they would encounter some problems at his seat of power. He didn’t care. At this point, he was far past diplomacy. He would rip apart anyone who stood in his way. His people needed a reminder of why exactly it was he was the King of Embers.

As he flew, gliding through the cool summer air, he was haunted by Selena’s eyes.

He had nearly done it. He had nearly collapsed at her feet by the tree the previous evening and begged her forgiveness. Confessed his love, his adoration, hisservitude. She had looked up at him, silver eyes wide with hope, and everything he wanted to say was there on the tip of his tongue.

I’m sorry, my love. I’m so, so fucking sorry. All this time, you were right. I’ve been controlling you, keeping you under my thumb, desperate to shield you from those who would harm you. But I was wrong. So very wrong. I thought it would be enough, keeping you safe would be enough. But it wasn’t. Seeing you withdraw, watching you grow to hate me, it’s eating me alive. I got this wrong. I got all of it so wrong.

But he hadn’t said that. He’d let his fear, his need to protect overwhelm him. And now he was paying the price.

If he’d spoken those words, would she have run away? Would she have truly believed that she was better on her own? He had failed so spectacularly. His job wasn’t to control, wasn’t to dominate, it was to care for her. And she had tried to tell him so many times that what he was doing to her wasn’t caring for her at all. He hadn’t listened. And in the end, it didn’t even matter. She was gone.

He vowed to himself, then and there, that once she was safely back in his arms, he would never make the same mistake again.

It didn’t take him long to reach his palace. A few hours, perhaps. The sun had passed its high point and was sailing to the west.

He landed with all the force of a crack of lightning through the mouth of the dragon door, his claws scraping against the basalt. Several dragons, in their scales and humanskin, startled backwards as he shook his wings out with an almighty roar.

“My king!” Iveir was shoving through the mass of rearing bodies, his arm heavily bandaged, his leg limping.

Some of the dragons crouched low, growling at him, their wings spreading in direct challenge.

Kaelen roared again, lashing his tail around, fire spilling from his teeth.

“If any are brave enough to try and stop me claiming my throne, I dare them to try now or submit.”

A dragon he recognized as Egais’s brother launched forward with a snarl, his copper scales glinting.

“Your mate killed my brother,” he said, his chest heaving, smoke billowing from his throat. “I demand retribution.”

“Then try and take it,” Kaelen hissed, spreading his wings.

The dragon roared, tackling Kaelen out of the dragon door and into freefall down the side of the dead volcano, teeth snapping at his neck.

Kaelen growled, wings catching an updraft and flipping them over, digging his claws into the dragon’s belly. It screeched in pain and outrage, lashing out at Kaelen. He grunted as the dragon’s sharp claws ripped through his shoulder.

His eyes narrowed.

The time for peace and negotiation was over.

He was king.

And despite all the dragons’ pretense at nobility, their carefully honed airs and graces, underneath it all they remainedas savage as their ancestors. And they respected power. They feared the spilling of their blood.

The strongest among them was the one unafraid to rip his enemies apart.

And so Kaelen did.

He drove the dragon into the side of the volcano, dragging his frame against the jagged rocks, shredding his wings. The dragon howled and lashed, but Kaelen showed no mercy. With a fearsome strike of his teeth, he tore out the dragon’s throat, leaving his bleeding body to fall down the rest of the volcano.

This time when he flew through the dragon door and shifted, his clothes smeared with blood, he was met with bowed knees and murmured submissions. He snarled, muscles bunching, relishing how his people cowered and bent their heads to the floor.

He had tried the peaceful way for months. This was the true way of things. He knew Selena would not like it, but they had been given a choice. And some of them had chosen wrong. Any further disobedience would be met with swift death.

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