Omega Phoenix: Pursued

Her Shifter Harem’s Babies 3

Layla Heart

Omega Phoenix: Pursued (Her Shifter Harem’s Babies 3)

Copyright © 2021 LAYLA HEART

All rights reserved. No part of this story may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without express written permission of the copyright holder.

This book contains sexually explicit content which is suitable only for mature adults.

ISBN: 9789493139312

NUR: 343

Edition: 20210415

Get updates about Layla Heart’s books by signing up to the Easily Distracted Media Newsletter:

Easily Distracted Media Newsletter

Blurb

Cyra has fled to relative safety with two of her Alphas, but her other two Alphas have gone missing…

Everything in Cyra’s life seems to have gone wrong since she attended the Night Gala, an exclusive event for rich shifters, a few weeks ago. She escaped the party with her four fated Alphas, hydra Zack, griffin Spence, cerberus Max and centaur Liam in tow. Only to go on the run from the paparazzi and Cyra’s parents as news articles about them started to appear. When Cyra finally found some control back over her life, her parents sued Max for defamation because he dared to try to expose her parents’ lies.

With Max back in his hometown trying to defend himself and expose even more of Cyra’s parents’ lies, Zack at his side to make sure he makes it back alive, things fall apart even further. The morning that Max is supposed to show up in court, the apartment that Cyra, Spence and Liam are hiding in is attacked, forcing Cyra to transform into her phoenix shape for the first time in decades as she desperately tries to protect Liam and they barely make it out alive. When a local centaur clan takes them in, the three find out that Max and Zack also tried to get to safety, only that it backfired and the two are now missing.

Winter is approaching quickly, which makes safe travel in the mountains where the centaur clan lives complicated. Add to that that Cyra is pregnant with four babies, the whole world now seems to be searching for the near-legendary Omega phoenix for their own goals and Max and Zack could be anywhere right now. The five mates are doing everything they can to find each other and make it through the winter alive, but will it be enough?

This is the third book in the Her Shifter Harem’s Babies series, a paranormal Omegaverse reverse harem #WhyChoose story. This book may include any of these elements: steamy scenes, ‘I need tissues NOW’ moments, cries of ‘why, oh, why’ and cliffhangers that make you bite your nails (and curse the author).

Get updates about Layla Heart’s books by signing up to the Easily Distracted Media Newsletter:

Easily Distracted Media Newsletter

Author note

I’m not a US or a UK author and this story does not take place in the US or the UK, so it will use a mixture of both. Most of the spelling and grammar will be in UK style, but a lot of US slang is used.

I want to specifically note that the spelling of griffin is used over the spelling of gryphon, and cerberus is spelled without a capital at the start because it’s used as a noun to describe mythical three headed dog creatures and not used as a proper name.

Thanks!

Happy reading!

1

Cyra

I’m standing at the edge of a steep cliff, the dark forest behind me, the tumultuous sea as far as the eye can see stretched out before me. Which, with my returning shifter abilities, is pretty damn far. I close my eyes, letting the salt air hit my face, trying to ground myself, to calm myself.

It’s been three weeks since Liam, Spence and I came here, to the centaur town. Three weeks where we’ve been getting more and more worried about Zack and Max. We’ve reached out to everyone we know, but nobody seems to have a clue where they are. It’s been exhausting and some days I wish I could do something, anything, to get them back right now. I’d do just about anything to have them with us.

Last week, during the full moon, I felt so raw, so rough. I didn’t shift into my phoenix, didn’t have the energy for it. I just didn’t know how I could shift and feel all those extra emotions, those extra strong mating bonds, when everything in my head was so messed up.

Spence shifted into his griffin and Liam shifted into his centaur and we spent most of the night huddled together at the edge of the forest, looking out over the sea, not really doing anything else. There’s something about being here, in the wide-open, the vast sea in front of me, that manages to calm me down somewhat. Even though phoenixes are fire-type creatures, looking out over the sea, the water that connects all the continents on the planet, it calms me. As if it brings Zack and Max closer to me, that they’re not far away, still nearby, connected.

“Here you are.” Spence steps closely behind me. “Liam said that you wanted to get lunch?” He slides his arm around my waist and I lean against him, closing my eyes, revelling in his warmth and closeness.

“I’m not really hungry right now.” My heart starts racing again. Just thinking of Zack and Max being out there, somewhere, and we have no idea where, it makes me anxious and nervous. Every time I get that feeling, my appetite vanishes, which is often these days.

“You need something in your stomach.” Spence tightens his arm around me slightly, his breath on my neck soothing. “Did you at least manage to sleep last night?”

I’ve been sleeping very poorly, and it seems to have only gotten worse over the last two weeks. My anxiety, my fear, it keeps waking me up, leaving me exhausted all day. “A little.” I wrap my arms around myself. “The nightmares make it hard to even want to sleep. I keep getting so anxious and that only makes things worse.”

Nightmares of some invisible force killing Zack and Max, of them drowning, left to starve in some warehouse or cave, anything my mind can come up with. I have no idea what it is, who is behind the dark force, just that I wake up with this sensation that I might never get them back, at least not alive, and I can’t deal with it. Some nights... Some nights it’s not just Zack and Max, some nights Liam and Spence are there too. Some nights, I’m left with no mates at all. Those are the worst.

Spence nods slightly, leaning his chin on my shoulder, his voice dropping. “I know. It’s been...” He sighs, his chest moving up and down slowly against my back, a steady reminder that I’ve at least got one living mate. “I guess it’s...”

“It’s more than just anxiety about where they are.” I turn around, looking up at him, at his golden eyes, which look almost a dull light brown right now, dull from the pain and exhaustion. “I feel like... Like it’s more about being away from them than not knowing where they are precisely. Like being apart from them for too long is why I’m feeling like this.” My voice falters, my throat closing up with tears, always so close to the surface these days.

He closes his eyes and gives me a soft kiss on my forehead. “We’ll find them. We have to.”

“Will it be on time?” I wrap my fingers in his shirt, holding on, forcing the tears down. Not now. “What happens if we’re apart for too long?”

Spence tenses, swallowing hard. “It’ll be the same as losing your Alpha...” His voice is rough now, low. “If this goes on for too long, you’ll go through the same experience as if they’d have died, even if they’re actually alive somewhere out there.” He puts his forehead against mine, our breaths mingling in the cold winter air. “This is why it’s not a good idea to separate Alphas and Omegas. If they’re apart for too long...”

I nod quickly, nearly headbutting him, before I hide my face against his chest. If we’re apart for too long, our bodies panic, we start feeling bad. We need each other. After Alphas and Omegas are mated, they can’t be separated from each other for weeks and weeks at a time, and definitely not for months.

I’ve not seen Max and Zack in almost six weeks. It’s unnatural for Alphas and Omegas to be apart for this long, especially so soon after having been mated and during the mating season on top of that.

There are a few Omegas in heat in the centaur town right now. I’ve only slightly noticed it, but both Spence and Liam have complained about not wanting to go outside when too many of the centaurs are out and about, because it doesn’t feel right for them. Not that they respond to it in a ‘need to mate the Omega’ way but once an Alpha mates an Omega, the scent of other Omegas becomes unappealing to them. Maeve, the Beta centaur we’re staying with, said that it’s normal for Alphas to feel like this so soon after having mated their Omega and that it will go away over time.

I guess Spence and Liam are just not used to it, not having gone through the mating season before while being mated. They said it’s been getting better in the last days.

We’ve spent a lot of time at the beach for the last week or so, just to be away from the centaur town and because we needed the openness, since we’re finally no longer locked inside the stupid apartment in the middle of the city.

“Do you like these?” Dec holds up a pair of cotton pants. “They’re the right size, but they’re not really my thing.”

We’re in the walk-in closet in Dec and Maeve’s house.

Maeve is the Beta daughter of the head of the centaur clan where we’re staying. She and her Omega husband took us in when arrived, since Maeve is an old friend of Liam.

It’s a little calmer here than in the house of the head of the clan, where people are constantly coming and going. And having no other Alphas around seemed like a good idea right now, since Spence and Liam are a little on-edge.

Between me being pregnant, us being on the run from what feels like the entire shifter world and Zack and Max being missing... Spence and Liam had to take a couple of time-outs. Which is easier to do here than it was back in the city, or if we’d been staying at the house of the head of the clan, as they can just step out of the back of the house and take a walk in the forest.

“I’m glad we’re the same size.” I smile at Dec as I take the pants, running my hands over the fabric, it’s so soft. “Yeah, I think this is a good idea. Thanks.”

It turns out, it’s not a good idea to wear clothes that aren’t made with natural fibres when you’re a pregnant phoenix shifter who’s having trouble keeping their emotions under control. The ones I was wearing this morning have... Ehhh... They’ve got a couple of melted patches in them now. At first, I was worried that the melted fabric might stick to my skin, because those would have created some nasty burns. But as they melted, they got a little patchy and a little crunchy in places, but it didn’t seem to stick to me or burn me, luckily.

I hold the pants out in front of me, frowning at them. “I guess I might want to invest in some more fire-proof clothes... Or I’ll go through your closet in just a few days or weeks.”

Dec lets out a soft laugh and hands me a stack of shirts. “I think that’s a good idea, especially because you’ll be starting to grow soon-ish.”

“Ugh.” I put the pants and the shirts on the dresser next to me. “I thought that seven weeks would be too soon to see anything. That I was just making things up in my head. That I was just gaining a little baby weight. Or that it’s because we’ve been having massive meals since we got here, but...” I sigh. “Turns out, when you’re pregnant with four babies, you start to show much sooner.”

I flatten the shirt over my stomach, sliding down to where I can feel a slight bump. It’s nothing compared to what I’ll look like in a couple more weeks, but the midwife told me, and showed me, that the little bump really is from the pregnancy and not just from eating well. Though that definitely helped.

The door to Dec and Maeve’s bedroom opens and Maeve’s Omega mum, the wife of the head of the clan, steps inside, holding up a laptop as she makes her way over to us. “I need your size so I can finish the order.” She smiles at me.

“I’m the same size as Dec.” I shrug, not really sure what the problem is.

She gives me a bigger smile, a twinkle in her eyes. “I never had to order bras for Dec, but I thought you’d probably appreciate a few that you can wear in the coming months.”

I feel my cheeks flush as Dec laughs and I smack in his direction. “Right... I... Ehh...” I’ve not been wearing a bra much lately, I’ve already outgrown the few I had with me.

“You might want to consider getting a couple. As your body grows, you’ll probably appreciate the support.” Maeve’s mum puts the laptop down on the dresser.

“Right.” I nod. “I’ll... Ehhh... I’ll pick them out myself.”

Hell. This is awkward. I’ve always ordered my own bras and underwear, even when I was a teenager. I’ve never had anyone choose them for me and I’m not keen on starting now.

“Of course. That was why I came here.” She laughs. “I’m not really comfortable choosing underwear for others. You should definitely pick them out yourself. I just wanted to show you a website that makes great natural-fibre pregnancy underwear, and it’s even a little cute.”

“I don’t know if Liam and Spence care if her underwear is pretty or not.” Dec laughs and I smack in his direction again, managing to hit him on the arm and he just laughs harder. “You should totally see your face...”

I groan, the heat on my cheeks almost burning, and I quickly grab the laptop. “I’ll do this elsewhere, in quiet. Alone.”

I leave the room and instead go to the bedroom I’ve been sharing with Spence and Liam, who luckily aren’t here right now. I’m not really a prude. I’m fine being naked around other shifters, mostly, but sometimes...

I’m just not used to living in a clan. Especially not one where everyone seems to know everything and where everyone offers their ‘help’, no matter how awkward the subject. It’s nice, most of the time, but it’s still hard to get used to.

I didn’t grow up like that, my parents weren’t like that, open and warm and welcome, and when I lived as a human, I was always on my own. Living in the centaur territory is a big change from all of that and while I appreciate it most of the time, sometimes I just need to be on my own.

Like right now. At first, I felt like I should have changed more sooner, that my body was still too ‘normal’ for how different my life had become. But now I feel the opposite. It feels like my body changing, showing my pregnancy, growing in new ways, it’s too fast and too soon. It’s another thing changing while the rest of my life is still feeling much too new and unsteady.

I wish I could stop time, pause everything, and just take a few moments to myself, but that’s not possible. Time keeps ticking, and I’m fighting to keep up with it. Fighting and, some days, I lose.

2

Zack

I bang my fist into the metal wall of our ‘cell’, the side that’s against the outside of the ship. I glare at my fist. It’s still fully human. I try to force it to turn into my hydra claw, but nothing happens, the energy spiking a moment and then immediately disappearing.

From the bottom bunk, Max lets out a groan. “You trying to punch a hole in the wall and flood the inside of the ship or something?”

“Shut up.” I ball my fist again, but then relax it as I slide with my back down the wall until I sit on the floor. “Can you be a bit more annoyed that we’ve been locked in here for who knows how long, and we’ve got no idea where we are?”

Max sits up on the bed, his head bowed, his shoulders strong, as he puts his legs over the edge. “You think I’m calm?” His voice is scarily quiet and I instantly remember when I’d pissed him off a couple of days back and he’d thrown me against the door. He claimed he was testing how strong the door was, but I still don’t believe him.

Max looks up and it’s currently very obvious that Max is a cerberus shifter. I had no idea how often he shaved, he always had dark stubble, but I’d not seen him with more than that, but he’s got a full-on beard right now.

I’m not allowed to ask if it’s soft and fluffy and if I can pet it. I did that once. It did not end well. And I’m supposedly the one with a short fuse...

I shrug, not able to stop myself from pushing his buttons at least a little. “I think you’re keeping all the ideas to yourself and not sharing with the group.”

“What group?” He looks around pointedly. “Unless you mean the bastards who are keeping us locked in here?”

“Me. I meant me.” I stand up again, walking from one side of the room to the other, giving myself something to do. “Tell me what you’re working on. What you’re thinking of.”

We’ve tried all my plans in the first week or so that we were here. Not that time has any meaning. I have no idea if it really was a week or maybe longer or shorter than that. Since we have no windows here and can only try to keep the time by when someone brings us food, which might not even be on a real schedule, we estimated that it was probably about a week. And it’s been over two weeks since we were locked in here.

When my Alpha dad left us and told us that we’d be leaving in ten minutes, we contemplated for a moment that we could just escape and try to make our own way for a while. Slowly circle back to where Max thinks that Liam would bring Cyra and Spence, a centaur clan north of the city we were staying in. But only a couple of minutes had passed when a group of people barged into the room, and someone took us out.

We woke up in the hull of this ship. First, we tried to shift into our shifted forms, but that didn’t work. We were locked into our human form. Not good. Then we tested if our strength had remained, which it luckily had, so we were simply not able to shift. Still not good, but also not the biggest issue.

When we had our first meal delivered, we’d planned to try to get out of the room. That was our first real attempt of breaking out. But they opened a small hatch at the bottom of the door and shoved two trays with food through it before closing.

I’ve tried to grab the arm of whoever feeds us, but they’re too fast and get away before I can get a hold of them. I’ve tried to hold onto the top of the hatch and get leverage on the door that way so I could somehow wrench it to the side. Also didn’t work. I’ve kicked and hit the door to no avail. I’ve tried to kick and hit just about any surface of this cell, but none of it has worked yet.

“We can’t break out. But we can wait until they reach their destination and then escape when they try to move us.” Max’ voice is a low growl and he doesn’t look up, he keeps looking down at the floor. “Even if we escape now, while we’re in the middle of some sea or ocean, what are we going to do then? How will we get back to land?”

We’ve had this discussion before, many times. “I can fly us away from here. But not if we have no idea where the closest landmass is.”

“Right.” Max nods and he lies back down on the bunk. “I hope Cyra is safe. I hope she’s not feeling too poorly and that they’re taking good care of her.”

I nod too, not finding any words to reply to him, and push myself onto the top bunk, dropping on my back and looking at the ceiling above me.

Even though I can’t shift, I can still feel my hydra and he’s not happy, at all. The longer we’re away from Cyra, the more this explosive feeling is building inside me. I want to destroy things, rip them apart, let my hydra loose. Anything to calm down again, anything to finally be able to feel calm again, something I’m definitely not feeling right now. If I’d been able to shift into my hydra, I would probably destroy this ship and anyone on it in no-time.

I need to get back to Cyra. I need to protect her, I need to make sure that she’s okay. And this destructive feeling inside, this need to destroy and kill and maim and all things deadly, it’s not going away until I see her again.

Please, let us get to a port soon, before I do something I’ll regret, or before Max does something more than simply throwing me against a wall when he’s in one of his moods.

Max gets up from his bunk, going over to the wall that’s on the outside of the ship and he puts his hand against the metal, a very focused look on his face.

I sit up too quickly and nearly bang my head against the low ceiling and I let out a quiet curse as I slide down to the floor. I’m glad shifters heal fast, or I’d be covered in ugly bruises from banging against the stupid walls all the time, either awake or asleep.

“What is it?” I walk over to him but he holds up his hand, giving me a hard look, making me stop in my tracks.

He moves his hand down the wall and then up, frowning before he stops, his shoulders sagging and he goes back over to his bunk, sitting down, thinking.

“And? Share, please?” I put my hand against the wall too, but don’t feel much, just the vibrations of the ship and the waves banging against the sides.

“I thought I heard something. I thought I felt that we’re hitting a different type of water, the waves felt different, but maybe I was wrong.” He sighs and then looks at me, his dark eyes almost black from pain and desperation.

“Different water?” I frown, trying to become aware of the movements of the ship, but I don’t feel much. The ship is still being beaten by the waves and sways slightly, not really much that I can sense. It feels the same as it has ever since we woke up.

“Like we went from open waters, deep seas, to shallower water, getting nearer to the coast.” He stands up again and goes back to the wall, this time, instead of going all over it with his hands, he just sits down against it, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. Almost like he’s asleep, but I’ve spent enough time with him now to know that he’s just thinking.

My heart starts beating faster. Closer to the coast? “You think that we might get to a port soon?” If we’re getting close to a port, that means we might be able to escape soon. We might be able to finally get away. No longer locked in a stupid metal box at sea. That would be good.

“Maybe.” His voice rumbles almost as low as the ship and he opens one eye, looking me over. “Don’t get too excited. They might just stop at the port, load some cargo on and off, refuel, and then get back to the ocean again. It might not mean anything for us.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I roll my shoulders. This is the first time in weeks that we have some hope of getting out of here and he’s telling me I shouldn’t get excited over it? Who does he think he’s talking to?

If we can escape from our captors, we might be able to find out where we are and then hopefully find the quickest way back to Cyra. Or, at least, find a way to communicate with someone who can get us in touch with Cyra and the others, no matter where they are.

We just have to escape, we just have to get away from our captors and then things will be fine. Once we get away from them we’ll be able to survive and get back to our mate. We just have to escape. That’s all.

Time passes, minutes, hours, maybe even a day, and the excitement over Max saying that we reached a different type of water has faded away. It was too good to be true.

I stalk over to the bunk beds, before I go to the door and put my ear against it. No matter what Max said. I can’t hear anything different. He’s probably right, it was probably nothing.

We need to get out of here. We need to get out, but I have no idea if we can, if we’ll be able to... Or when we’ll be able to. If it might already be too late for us...

Fuck.

3

Spence

It’s hard to watch Cyra be so lost. As the days pass and we’ve still not heard anything about Zack or Max, she seems to have less and less energy.

I know that she’s not sleeping well at night, no matter what we try, but this seems to be deeper than that. This exhaustion seems to be more than a combination of being pregnant and having crappy sleep at night. I’m afraid that if we don’t find Zack and Max soon, she might go into the first stages of losing her Alphas, and that scares me.

There’s a reason that Alphas and Betas mate their Omegas, it’s because we belong together. Even if Alphas or Betas mark other Alphas or Betas, like I wanted Max to mark me, that same connection still exists. It tells us that we belong together, that we’re better when we’re together and we can’t be away from each other for too long. Definitely not months and months at a time.

I’m sitting in the doorway to Maeve’s house. We threw open the doors so that the house could properly air, which seems to be a big thing for centaurs. Cyra is sitting a little while off, with Dec and a few other Omegas that live in this town. Some of them are mated, and others are still too young for that. They’re quietly talking and sharing experiences.

At first, Cyra was a curiosity to them, but these days, she fits right in. At least she can feel welcome and experience how not all clans are like her parents or Zack’s parents. But I have no idea how we’ll be able to take her away from here once Zack and Max are back and she’ll have to leave this community behind...

Liam sits next to me and looks over to Cyra and the other Omegas, his stance changing as he takes a deep breath. “We have to do something. She’s not going to last much longer like this.”

I nod, not sure I can talk right now. I feel it too, this worry about her, but also this haunting sensation because Max is gone for so long.

“How are you doing?”

I shrug and glance his way. His eyes are serious, worried, and I know that he means well. “I’m fine. It’s Cyra who...” It’s Cyra who we need to worry about. It’s Cyra we need to focus our attention on. All my focus is on her, because if I let myself consider my own feelings for even a moment, I don’t know if I can hold on.

“Do you feel a deep restlessness in you? That never being able to really relax, even if you’ve got Cyra in your arms? Even though we’re safe here, you’re not able to let go. You’re still on edge, no matter what you try?”

I nod quickly. “You too?” Looking at him in surprise.

He slowly shakes his head, his eyes even more worried, tense. “No. I was just checking. Because that’s what it feels like when your fated mate is away for too long.”

“Fuck. Asshole.” I push at him and get up, frustration flashing through me. “I thought you were—”

Hell. I thought he was actually sharing something with me. But he was just trying to catch me off-guard. Fucking meddling asshole. Why can’t he take anything seriously?

He quickly grips my wrist, stopping me. “Spence...”

“Let me go.” I keep my voice low, I don’t want to pull the attention of Cyra and the other Omegas. “Let. Me. Go.”

“You can’t keep going like this. You’ll do something you’re going to regret.” But he lets me go, dropping his arm and staring over to Cyra. “If you’re conflicted, fighting your own instincts, you could become a threat to Cyra.”

“Stop meddling. I’m fine.” I stalk out of the house, towards the trees and out into the forest.

He has no idea what he’s talking about. He has no clue what’s going on. When I’ve got Cyra in my arms, it’s the best feeling in the world, but there’s always this missing piece. It’s like we’re not fully whole. And Liam has no idea what that feels like. He has no idea. He should stay out of this. He can worry about Cyra, but he should leave me alone.

I quickly strip and transform into my griffin. The moment I jump into the air and the air catches under my wings so I can fly up, letting me look out over the tops of the trees, a calm settles inside me.

I could just keep flying. No direction, no plans, just staying in the air until my griffin gets hungry, then we’ll catch a prey, eat, sleep and fly on again. I could fly away, and not have a care in the world.

Then my griffin reminds me that he wants Cyra with us. He doesn’t want to fly up here all alone. He wants Cyra at our side. Her beautiful slender and fiery body, her wings of pure fire and her eyes like embers. And when we sleep, my griffin wants to be able to curl up with Max and Cyra. Our own safe place, the place where we belong. Where we belong together.

The pain from that thought, that need to have Cyra and Max with me, not being able to live without them, suddenly forces my griffin down and I transform back into my human form in mid-air out of shock.

Fuck. No.

I try to focus, try to get my griffin back up but it doesn’t work. It’s almost like he’s too hurt, like he can’t do anything right now, like he’s in shock. His need is so strong, so overwhelming, that I can’t reach him anymore.

The trees are coming closer at a sickening speed and I manage to fold out my wings at the last moment. The jolt as the air catches under my wings and stops my freefall forces the air out of my lungs as pain flashes through my body.

I soar over the forest for a while, trying to get my heart back under control, before I carefully land between the trees and I immediately reach back, soothing my shoulder muscles. They’re all tight and hard, painful. Fucking hell. That’s never happened before.

I try to shift into my griffin again, but he lets me know that something is wrong. He’s in pain, and while I could force him to come out, I know that that’s not a good idea right now.

Fucking hell.

Looking around, I find a patch of moss and sit down, leaning back against the rough bark of a tree. I close my eyes, tears sliding down my cheeks and my heart hurts.

My griffin is hurting. He needs Cyra but he also needs Max, and the thought that Max might never get back to us is freaking him out. I want to tell him that it will work out. That we’ll all be fine as soon as we get Zack and Max back. But I know that there’s a chance that that might never happen, and my griffin knows it too.

How can we protect Cyra if Max and Zack will never return? How can we protect her and our children, when they’re never coming back?

How can we do this without them?

At first, I thought we might be able to do this, live together, just the three of us. But the longer we’re away from Zack and Max, the more I’m convinced that we can’t do this without them. Not because we can’t physically protect Cyra, but because our family isn’t whole without them. Cyra isn’t whole without them. We need them because they’re part of our family.

I hear the sound of hooves in the distance, coming closer and closer at a high speed, until they slow down.

“I thought it was around here.” Owen, Maeve’s younger Alpha brother, sounds clear in the forest. “I’m sure I saw him here.”

“What are we looking for? Did he just land or should we be looking for a bloody corpse?” Harper, the youngest sibling, also an Alpha, lets out a sound as someone seems to have smacked him.

“Don’t even joke about it.” Liam’s voice is tense, low, filled with panic and pain. “Just find him. He has to... He has to be fine.”

“With how he fell from the sky...” I hear Owen come closer.

“Shut up!” Liam’s voice almost breaks. “Just look for him.”

I carefully get up, my heart racing. What’s going on? Are they looking for me? Did someone see what happened? Fuck.

My whole body is painful, both from the sudden shifting back to my human form and the last-minute save from being able to unfold my wings. I keep my hand on the tree as I walk around it, suddenly faced with three Alpha centaurs, all looking panicked.

“I’m...” My voice is rough, croaking. “I’m okay.”

Three guns are trained on me in a flash and I hold up my hands.

“Spence!” Liam lowers his gun and is next to me in just a few steps. Then he shifts back and takes me in his arms. “Oh, fucking hell. I’m so glad to see you alive. Owen saw you fall from the sky. We thought that something might have happened.”

I slowly nod. “My griffin suddenly pulled back, making me shift back. I was able to get my wings out at the last minute.”

“Hell...” Liam sighs and he sounds so much older, so much more weary. “When I said that you might do something bad. I wasn’t talking about this...”

“I know.” Then panic flashes through me. “Does Cyra know what happened?”

“No.” Liam lets me go, looking back to the other two centaurs. “Owen saw you and came to get me. As far as I know, Cyra has no clue.”

“Don’t tell her.” I don’t want to put even more on her. She doesn’t need to know what just happened, if I can help it.

She’s got enough to worry about, she’s got enough pain of her own, she doesn’t need to worry about me too.

4

Cyra

I have no idea what’s going on. One moment, Spence and Liam were sitting in the doorway, then Spence was gone and suddenly Owen rushed over and Liam left with him in a hurry. I wanted to get up, but if it was something I needed to worry about, Liam would have told me.

Maybe Spence caught some animal that he couldn’t drag here on his own. Or Owen found something that he needed Liam’s help with. That has happened before.

But when Owen and Harper walk around the corner of Maeve’s house, in their centaur forms, flanking Spence and Liam, who are both in their human forms and naked, my heart starts racing and my head spins for a moment. No. Something bad happened. The look on Spence’s face, that haunted look he’s been having in the last week, it’s worse than before.

I stand up, smiling at everyone, before I rush over to the four Alphas. “Spence?” I wrap my arms around my mate, pulling him against me as closely as I can. “What’s going on?”

He clings to me, his grip a little too tight, but he feels desperate, his breathing hard, his body like it’s made from stone, his muscles tense under my hands.

“Spence?”

“I love you.” His words almost disappear into my neck. His words are sweet, but the tone of his voice is off.

“I love you too. I love you so much.” I try to soothe him with my voice and by running my hands over his shoulders, over his back. Something is wrong, something is really wrong. “What’s going on? What happened?”

“I think it’s better if we go inside, not out in the open.” Liam’s hand on my back is steady, but there’s also a tension in his body and I let him guide us to the house, and then into the bedroom, where he closes the door.

“Liam?” I look at my other Alpha. “What’s going on?”

Liam looks at me and then at Spence, his eyes sad, pained. “We need to do something, this can’t keep going for much longer.”

“What can’t?” I look from my one Alpha to the other.

“Spence’s griffin pulled back while he was in the air. He almost fell to his death.” Liam’s voice is calm but Spence moves in my arms like he’s stung by a bee and breaks from my embrace, turning to Liam and stalking over to him threateningly.

My heart feels like it misses a beat and I feel faint. He almost fell to his death?

“You said you weren’t going to tell her.” My skin crawls at the tone in Spence’s voice, threatening, ready to kill.

“No!” I jump up, getting between my two Alphas. Though, the moment I do, I feel faint again and the next moment, Spence and Liam are helping me to the floor carefully. “Don’t fight, please.”

“Let’s get you to bed.” Liam starts carrying me, but I don’t let go of Spence, so he can’t suddenly leave, like he seems to want to.

What happened? What happened to my beautiful Alphas? It must be bad for them to act like that. They’re acting scared, really scared.

As Spence turns to grab some pillows, I spot the red marks on his back. They’ve nearly faded, but are still visible, just like the way his muscles on his back are much too tense.

I reach up, running my fingers over the quickly fading red marks, they’re warm, slightly raised and I realise what they are. It’s where Spence’s wings come from when he pulls them out. I carefully sit up and focus on my hands, trying to warm them up slightly as I put them over his back, trying to soothe the tense muscles. Hell, what did he do? His muscles are so tense that they almost feel like beams of steel.

At first, he leans into my touch, then he slowly moves away and turns around, taking my hands in his. “Thank you.” He kisses my hands, before pulling on some blankets and pillows. “It’s not something you need to worry about. Let’s just... Let’s just stay here for a while.”

I stare at him for a long moment, wanting to tell him that he needs to explain himself already, but the exhaustion in his voice stops me and I slip under the blankets, Liam at my back and Spence at my front, facing me. He looks at me, his gaze filled with many conflicting emotions, and holds my hands between us, his grip tight, tense.

Did he really nearly fall to his death? Is that why he’s looking like that? No. He’s been having that haunted look in his eyes for days now, but something is still different. I’m not sure I want to know, but I have to know, I have to find out.

He’s my Alpha, my mate, and I can’t lose him. Ever.

It’s late, the stars overhead are bright, and I’m sitting at the edge of the little centaur town with Spence and Liam. The town is quiet, it’s around dinner time, but it seemed to be the only time that we’re able to sneak away today.

Spence is sitting behind me and I’m leaning back against him, as Liam is sprawled out on the moss in front of us. It’s nice, we’re here in our own little bubble, while we can still hear the others in the town, part of them, but also our own little world for a while.

I tighten my hands on Spence’s arms and he tenses behind me. “What did Liam mean when he said you nearly fell to your death?” I force the words out. I need to know, I really need to know, even if the answer is painful.

Spence tries to escape from my grip, but with the suppressants having left my body and me coming back into my shifter side, I’m much stronger now. So it’s not as easy for him to get away anymore. Though, he’d still be able to, if he really wanted it, if he really meant it.

He stops struggling and puts his head on my shoulder, taking a slow breath. “As I was flying, I imagined what it would be like to just escape. Fly away. Escape from all the mess we’re in. My griffin liked the idea for a moment. Until he suddenly imagined that that life should still include you, and Max too. The thought of losing you and never seeing Max again, living without you...” He swallows hard, his breath coming out choppy until he has himself back under control. “My griffin didn’t like that, it frightened him. So, he pulled back, pained, scared.”

I nod slightly, loosening my grip as I know that fear all too well. It’s why I don’t sleep at night. It’s what my mind keeps coming up with in my dreams, losing my Alphas, losing any of them, or all of them, turning dreams into nightmares. The fear of never seeing Zack or Max again, of somehow losing Spence and Liam. My throat tightens, but I try to put it from my mind. This is about Spence, not about me. “So, you shifted back?”

“Like you did when we fled from the apartment. Sometimes, we can’t control when we shift.” His voice is soft, careful. “I was able to pull out my wings at the last moment and break my fall that way. I didn’t crash, I landed.”

“That’s why your back is so tense...” Hell, I can’t imagine what it feels like to suddenly have that much air under your wings, I’m surprised it didn’t do more damage to his back than just some over-stretched muscles.

Liam turns to his back, looking up at the sky. He looks almost ethereal like this, if it wasn’t for the tense look on his face. “Owen saw Spence fly away and then fall down. He hadn’t seen that Spence had been able to break his fall at the last moment. That’s why we went looking for him.” Then Liam turns to us, his eyes harder. “We need to do something to make this pain less intense, for both of you. This can’t keep going like this for much longer without something going seriously wrong.”

“But we still have no idea where Zack and Max are...” My heart hurts and tears threaten to spill from my eyes. “How are we going to find them when we still have no idea where they might be?”

“I wasn’t...” Liam sits up as Spence’s arms tighten around me, I feel the tension run through his body.

“No.” Spence’s voice is just a whisper, but the pain in it is intense, making me hurt on the inside too.

“We have to. You know that we have to.” Liam pulls a face. “We might have to resort to medication or something like that. To make this easier on you two until we’ve found them again.”

“No.” My heart races. “No! I’m not letting you break my bond with Zack and Max. We’ll find them. We’ll find them on time. You can’t break it. Please...” Now tears really are sliding down my cheeks and I feel a sob well up in me.

“It’s not to break the bond, just something to lessen the pain you’re feeling right now.” Liam comes closer, his hands on my shoulders, gripping me, but not tightly. “I can’t watch you be in pain constantly. It’s like you’re withering away, like I’m losing you more every day. I can’t...” His voice breaks. “I can’t watch you be in pain like that.”

I shake my head. No. No matter how much pain I’m in right now. I can’t do that. What if things go wrong and it does break my bond with them. Then what? No. I can’t risk it. I can’t. There has to be another way.