Page 64 of Owned By Four Alphas

“Theldir?” Malek said, his voice a low growl.

Elian narrowed his eyes, “You missed a few things gallivanting around with our mate. Selena hasn’t been having dreams or visions of her father. Theldir is a Dreamwalker. He’s been posing as her father in her dreams to lure her towards him. Our best guess is that he wants her, or the child, or both in order to break free.”

Malek snarled, “What?”

“I’ll explain more when the others get here,” said Elian. “I’ve discovered a thing or two that may help us find him. Now be quiet. I’m going to try and trace her magic.”

That was the end of the conversation. Elian sat cross-legged on the ground, his eyes screwed shut in concentration, his shadows murmuring around him. Malek ignored the prickling feeling of his magic, the whispering of his flesh.

Kaelen was next, shooting through the clouds and landing in the ruins of the village, unbothered by the fire and smoke. Ronan was not long behind him, descending from the mountains and loping through the fields towards them.

“Malek,” Ronan roared, skidding to a halt. “What the fuck, why didn’t you alert us thesecondyou found her? How long have you been with her?”

Malek narrowed his eyes, his hackles rising. “I’ve been with her since the night she left. I found her in her village, weeping over the destruction. Weeping over the state of her pack.”

“You’ve known where she is sincethe first night?”

“I owe you nothing,” Malek snarled, snapping his jaws at Ronan. “I follow her. I obey her. She wanted to leave. So I went with her.”

“You fucking idiot, it’s your fault she’s been taken! You left her alone!”

“Maybe if you hadn’t been so focused on challenging Kaelen and Elian, you would have seen the warning signs that she wanted to leave in the first place. I was respecting her wishes.”

“And Elian shot her with magic, and I was too controlling, and, and,and—” Kaelen roared, pushing Ronan and Malek apart. “We’re all to blame. Some more than others. I know if I had listened to her the first time she accused me of controlling her, none of this would have happened. We failed her. We can’t undo that, all we can do is make sure we don’t fail her again.”

Ronan still snarled, but he backed off slightly, yellow eyes flashing.

“Malek, I will have time to be furious later, but for now, we need to pick up her trail. Tell us exactly what happened,” Kaelen said.

Malek walked them through the whole day, from seeing the village, to meeting Castien, to leaving to hunt.

Kaelen’s brow rose, “She really told you to summon me if something went wrong?”

“She’s been debating messaging you for days. She was going to when we found her father.”

Kaelen swallowed, lifting his eyes up to the sky, blinking a few times, a thousand expressions flitting across his face.

Eventually, he took a deep breath. “Alright. Elian, have you been able to find any trace of her magic?”

“Unfortunately not, but there is another way.”

“Well?”

“I think I can locate an entrance to a series of underground tunnels that lead through the mountains. It’s a maze, and I don’t know the way through, but perhaps once inside the Order didn’t believe it was worth wasting masking her magical energy anymore. It would take a tremendous amount of power to hide a signature as powerful as hers for so long. We might be able to pick up her scent.”

“Then that’s where we’ll go,” said Kaelen.

Malek shook his head, muscles flexing, ready to set off, when Kaelen held up a hand.

“Wait. Before we go in there, before we face…whatever it is we have to face, I need to say something.”

They turned to him, anxious to set off, but nevertheless surprised by the thickness in his voice.

“We nearly tore each other apart,” Kaelen said, his fists clenching. “That was a mistake. We are stronger together. And if we get through this…whenwe get through this…I won’t forget.”

“Neither will I,” said Ronan, bowing his head slightly. “Whatever we need to do, we’ll do it. It’s not too late to fix things.”

“Agreed,” said Elian, free from his usual sardonic tone.

---