Page 65 of Owned By Four Alphas

“Agreed, said Malek.

Together, they set off towards the mountains, the glimmering threads of the pack bonds between them sparking to life once more.

Chapter 25 - Selena

She was racing through the forest now, tripping and stumbling over the branches, cutting her limbs on the whipping branches. Ignoring the stinging pain she forced herself onwards, commanded her limbs to move faster.

She had to reach him. She didn’t know why. All she knew was that she was in danger, and she had to reach him.

The lazy stream was a torrent, crashing and churning against the rocks, deep and dark and angry with the promise of drowning. The normally smooth rocks were jagged and misshapen. The trees reached like claws into the sky, devoid of any life, twisting and sharp.

And her father. He was there, on the other side of the river. His expression was twisted into something cruel, something fierce.

“Father!” she screamed, reaching out over the water. It was no use, she could not cross. “Father!”

The Forest God grinned, cracking his face in two, inhumane and terrifying. “Soon, my child,” he promised darkly, “soon.”

The visage broke, and then there was nothing but fire and fury and pain, pain, PAIN—

Selena woke with a scream caught in her throat, her limbs numb, her throat aching.

Her stomach muscles contracted, and she doubled over with a gasp, cramping pain shooting down her legs and up her back.

“No, no, no,no, no no!” she begged, rocking her stomach, her breaths coming out in gasps.

Not here. Not now. She couldn’t be going into labornow.

The seismic pain eased for a moment, and she staggered onto all fours, her skin scraping against the rough stone beneath her. With wincing care, she looked around.

She was in some form of cavern, huge and gaping, easily five times the size of any hall in Elian’s palace.

And it washot. Swelteringly so, the very rocks warmer than her skin. Not quite hot enough to burn, but enough to catch in her throat and choke her lungs, leaving her gasping for air.

Another contraction hit and she wailed, gripping her stomach, her forehead falling forward to rest on her hands.

“I’m truly sorry, Selena.”

She looked up. Sitting a few paces away, face contorted into abject misery, was Castien.

“You!” she hissed, grunting as more pain shook through her, “H-how could you do this? I thought you were myfriend!”

Castien nodded, chewing his lip. Behind him, she could make out the shadows of others passing through the hall, their murmuring voices quiet but excited, their faces shrouded in hoods.

“W-who are those people? Who areyou? Where am I?”

Castien rose, reaching towards her, but she flinched away from him. His hands stopped, suspended in mid-air, true regret twisting his features.

“Some part of me had hoped it wouldn’t be me that succeeded,” he said ruefully, his hands falling to his sides.

“There was more than one of you after me?”

“Oh yes,” he nodded, “we weren’t about to leave it up to only one of us. That would have been foolish. We had at leastfive operatives looking for an angle. I didn’t know who the others were, of course—part of the whole protection plan in case one of us got caught—but there were others.”

Selena tried to cast her mind back, her brain addled with fear and pain. “Egais?” she guessed, legs trembling.

“The dragon lord? Wouldn’t surprise me, but that hardly matters now,” Castien said. “The point is, we succeeded. And here you are.”

“You were never trying to help me find my father,” she spat. “What, are you a member of the Order of Theldir? Is that it? You were tricking me! My father…my father…” The rest of her sentence turned into a strained groan as she doubled over, clutching her stomach.

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