Page 61 of Claimed By the Feral Wolves

23

Faye

Please reportto the carriage house for a special surprise.

I re-read the instruction again, standing in front of the carriage house. I’m wearing a dress with a long coat, but the early morning breeze whips around my ankles, making me shiver. It’s strange that there are no other omegas out here, but maybe they’ve staggered our departures for the purpose of the game. Maybe it’s some sort of scavenger hunt.

No doubt the second my men get their instructions they’ll be bolting over here, not wanting me to be alone. They were very clear about the fact that I should never be on my own. In all honesty, I probably wouldn’t have left my room if I wasn’t expecting to see them here.

“Where are they?” I ask softly, staring around at the quiet morning.

Knowing them, they have something planned.

Bouncing on my heels, I try to contain my excitement. No matter what the game is, I’m actually excited to see my alphas. I think about how they’d gathered around me yesterday, theirhands on me protectively. I’m not sure what’s going to happen to us in the future, but I’m glad to have them here with me now.

“Good morning,” I say to the driver, when the carriage finally pulls up.

The driver just nods, hopping out of the carriage and helping me inside. It’s a posh carriage, with thick, red velvet interior trimming. The Selection is many things, but it’s definitely fancy. It makes all of us omegas feel like princesses, even though we’re princesses who are sort of being sold off.

We pull away from the castle and start down the main road that leads from the castle. I keep waiting for us to stop, expecting whatever our next game is to take place somewhere relatively close by, but the carriage keeps moving. Smiling, I think about which of the guys I’ll be paired up with next. They won’t let Kurt near me, so I don’t have to worry about him any longer. I just get to look forward to a day spent with some, if not all, of the amazing men I can’t stop thinking about.

I glance out the window and realize we’re nearly leaving the castle grounds, which must mean we’re going to the city. It will be nice to get away for the day.I wonder if we’ll be visiting some of the nearby towns, maybe chatting with the villagers and getting to know more about their farms and livestock.

Exactly the kind of thing I might be doing if I bond with the four alphas. The fact that that doesn’t send shivers running down my arms is a testament to how much I’ve changed since arriving here. I’m, somehow, open to the idea of a future with all four men in it, even if it’s a future I never planned for.

“A future with four men.” I laugh a little at the absurdity of it all.

Me, married to four men. Having kids. Living in a town.It’s like nothing I ever wanted and maybe everything I needed, even if I don’t entirely know what Cayson and Ezra think of the whole idea.

I have to hold onto the sides of the carriage as we go over uneven ground, and I shake my head a little at how crazy all of it is—The Selection and their strange games, always pushing us further and further to try and help us find our mates. It all seemed so stupid, but it also seems to have worked.

Finally, the carriage comes to a stop, and when I look out the window, I realize it’s in the middle of a large, barren field surrounded by the woods. The driver appears at the door. He opens it and helps me down again, his face a passive, blank slate.He won’t give the game away to me.

When I’m firmly on my own two feet, the driver climbs back onto the carriage and leads the horses away from the field, getting back on the road and heading for the castle. I watch it go for a moment, pulling my coat tighter around my body.

The sun is fully up over the horizon now, but it’s just a tiny pinprick, barely coming through the gray cloud cover and the dense fog hanging over the ground. I put the hood up on my coat as another shiver runs up and down my arms.

Where are they? What are the instructions for this game?

“Okay,” I call, laughing and skipping a bit. “You guys can come out now!”

I scan the dense line of trees on the other side of the field, looking for my men. My alphas.

“Ezra?” I shout, cupping my hands around my mouth and projecting my voice into the field. “Come on, come tell me what the game is!”

A moment later, still none of them have appeared.

“Cayson?” I call, turning on my heel and scanning around me. A haunting, overly-aware feeling of apprehension crawls up my back, and I suddenly realize that I’m standing in the middle of a field, alone, waiting for my alphas to come out.

“Maverick?”

My voice is laced with the tiniest bit of desperation now, a hint of panic touching at the bottom of my throat.

“Xander?”

Still nothing.

“Guys!”

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