Pregnant With Four Alphas' Babies: A Reverse Harem Romance Chapter 271: The Hidden Sorceress

*Ethan*

Chaos is the only word to describe it as we arrive at the marketplace. It’s normally a happy place, set up with vendors on both sides of the street with families coming to buy goods and produce, and there are usually quite a few food trucks there making street tacos and things like that.

But right now, it’s a mess, worse than a regular battlefield because there are women and children here, innocent people who are just trying to have a normal day. Dad’s Beta already has the battalion here, but since the rogues are so disorganized, the warriors are chasing them around everywhere picking them off one by one.

Rylee steps out of the car before it rolls to a stop, and I’m right behind her.

“I’ll get these women out of here,” she says.

I don’t even have time to kiss her or say a word before she’s gone, scooping up a little girl and running with her mother toward cover. I’ve never been so worried and impressed at the same time. I don’t want her anywhere near the rogues, but there she is in the thick of it. And she’s running up to women and guiding them off to safety without hesitating.

I have no idea how to process these feelings, but I don’t have time to right now anyway because I catch sight of a pair of rogues leaping toward a fruit stand. With my focus on Rylee and our lovemaking for the past twenty-four hours, I haven’t had time to even shift for the first time. But that doesn’t seem to matter to my wolf because the minute I see those people in danger, I feel myself shift mid-air as I run over to them, my jaw landing right on one of the wolves’ necks. I make short work of him, and the other one’s eyes go wide as he tries to run away, but one of Dad’s soldiers takes care of him when he runs right in his path.

I finally have a moment to see Matthew, and I can’t believe the size difference between his wolf and the rest of our warriors. He’s huge. I guess there’s some truth to that born on the full moon bit.

It doesn’t take long before all the rogues are either killed or arrested and loaded into prisoner vans. I shift back surprisingly easily and one of the support troops hands me a pair of sweats right away.

“Well, that was different,” Matthew says as he walks up to me. “You were huge, man.”

I laugh. “So were you. I think that brown wolf just about pissed himself when he saw you coming.”

“I guess I don’t need to worry about you boys,” Dad says, coming up behind us. “Good work.”

I nod and look around. The place really is a mess, and I wish these people hadn’t had to take the brunt of the attacks before we got there. A lot of them are injured, and our medical crew is on the scene patching up those they can here and loading up others to take to the healers.

Rylee walks out of a nearby building. “I have all the women and children together in one place,” she says. “The healers are already there, but I think all this is a lot of emotional shock for these people.”

I nod. “We’ll get all of them some help, and I’ll be sure to get the ones who are vendors compensated for the goods they lost.”

Rylee looks around, rubbing her hands together. “Well, we’d better get to work cleaning all this up.” Without another word, she walks off and starts picking up the broken tables and tents.

I shrug, smile, and join her.

* * *

*Braden*

I’m about to go out of my mind. It’s been two days, and we haven’t found Daphne, or whatever her name is. I can’t believe I don’t even know the name of my mate. I have to find her before I lose what’s left of my sanity.

Since my pack is closest to Northside, I’ve been able to mind-link with some of my pack mates and got a message to Daniel, my Beta, to bring every warrior we’ve got. He’s sent messengers along to Alessandro’s and Damon’s packs giving their Betas the same orders.

Now, people are pouring into Northside, something none of our packs have ever done before. We’re in the closest thing to a city here, which is more of a small town where a few people have been trying to get by on very few supplies for what must have been a long time judging by how run-down the place is. It’s not easy to talk to any of these people since most of them are here because they ran away from one of our packs for one reason or another, usually because they’ve done something illegal, though a few of them just seem to be ordinary people who like being away from it all, I guess.

But finally, Alessandro has gotten a group of people to open up about a village over to the east of this place.

“It’s a witch living there, that’s f’sure,” one woman says. “Does some weird stuff up there. Have some kinda special herbs or something. I don’t know. I’m sure not plannin’ on goin’ there myself.”

The mention of the witch has me intrigued. The way Daphne had disappeared so quickly without a trace of her scent had to mean that some magic was behind it. “Could you give us directions to it, please? “

“Oh, you don’t wanna go there,” she said.

“We don’t, but we have to,” Damon said. “We need you to give us directions. You’ll be rewarded for your cooperation.”

“Can’t think o’anything I would want.” She looks around at the others, who obviously need quite a lot. “Well, I s’pose we could use some shipments of food here and there.”

“Done,” Damon said. “Now, please tell us where to find this village.”

It takes some time, far longer than I have patience for, for the woman and her friends to give us coherent directions for how to get to this village with the witch. It seems like the best lead we have—the only lead—so we alert our Betas and take off in one of the new cars they’ve brought.

That gets us most of the way there, but as the women have warned us, all semblance of a road tapers off long before we reach the village, and we have to abandon the car and trudge into the forest.

We arrange our backpacks with clothes in a way that our wolves can easily carry them then shift, flying through the forest as quickly as we can. My paws barely touch the forest floor, I’m running so fast. I don’t have any proof, but something in my soul tells me I’m close to her.

Finally, we reach what must be the village, but it’s truly the most dilapidated group of houses I’ve ever seen in my life. Most don’t even have roofs anymore, just moss-covered sticks with huge gaps, many sunken down so low that the occupants must have to duck to walk around the dwelling.

We shift back and get dressed on the edge of the forest, though we know we’ve already been spotted. People who were standing around outside the buildings scurry like mice inside, not that the houses provide much protection from intruders. As we approach, Damon is the first to speak.

“Whoever is in charge here, get out here and talk to us now.” He uses his Alpha voice, which is particularly strong since he’s next in line for the Alpha King throne.

It works, apparently, because an old, skinny man in tattered clothes comes out of the closest building. “I am Gabriel. I am in charge here. And you speak with the voice of the Alpha King.”

“I do,” Damon says. “I’m Alpha King Heir Damon Barlowe.”

Gabriel gives the sign of respect, at least as well as he can manage to do so in his frail state. Frankly, I’m surprised he can stand. “How can our modest village help the heir to the throne?”

“We’re looking for a woman who was kidnapped,” I say, not bothering to introduce myself but in too much of a hurry to care. “She has long, curly black hair and blue eyes. Have you seen her?”

Gabriel neither confirms nor denies seeing Daphne, though a few of the people who are brave enough to walk up to us react as though they know who I’m talking about.

“So, you know her,” I say. “Where is she?”

“That is the sorceress Coraline to tell, not us,” a small older woman says.

Damon looks at the woman. “Coraline?”

“Do you know who that is?” I ask.

He doesn’t answer me but instead asks the woman, “What does she look like?”

“Violet hair, grey eyes,” she says.

I still don’t know what’s going on, but Damon’s eyes go wide. He starts to say something but then stops when another woman walks by with a basket full of herbs. He runs up to her and sniffs it. “What is this?” he demands.

The woman looks frightened, but the first woman walks over. “That’s birdswood. It grows in this forest, and we collect it for the sorceress. In return, she brings food for the village.”

“What does it do?”

I don’t know why he’s asking that when we need to hurry up and find Daphne.

Gabriel steps toward Damon. “It’s very powerful. When consumed, it makes the person very easy to control, and they start to lose their wits. After a while, all they want is the herb, and they only speak gibberish.”

Damon looks like he’s ready to rip off someone’s head, and the villagers wisely take a step back.

“Damon, what’s going on?” Alessandro asks before I get a chance to say anything.

“This so-called sorceress has been seeing my father, saying she’s a healer, for decades,” he growls. “All this time she’s been poisoning him. No wonder he acts that way.” He looks at Gabriel. “Is there an antidote?”

“Yes, there’s another herb called rosewind, and we collect that too, though the sorceress never wants much of that.”

“We need all you have,” I say.

Finally, everything makes sense. Damon’s father never used to be as crazy as he is now. I remember him taking time to play catch with us when we were kids, and he seemed level-headed and kind back then.

This is valuable information, but we still haven’t found Daphne, and I’m afraid we’re running out of time.

Suddenly, Alessandro, Damon, and I all freeze. I can tell by their faces that they’re both hearing the same voice in their heads as I am.

‘Guys, are you there?’