Pregnant With Four Alphas' Babies: A Reverse Harem Romance Chapter 272: Rescue

*Trisha*

‘Damon? Thank the Goddess.’

He’s the first one to answer me, but then the other two chime in shortly after. It’s the first time I’ve been able to mind-link with anyone in this kingdom, and I suppose that’s because I’m their mate, though we haven’t had any time to make it official.

Thankfully, the little boy had found the key, and stepping out of the cell had opened up the mind-link. There must have been something on the cell walls preventing it.

They’re still calling me Daphne, but now isn’t the time to explain who I really am. I need to get out of here first and explain later in person.

‘Where are you?’ Braden asks.

‘It’s underground, apparently,’ I say. ‘A dungeon. I don’t see any windows.’

‘It’s okay,’ Damon says. ‘I think we’re close. We’re in a village, and it seems like we can feel you close. Are you alone?’

‘Yes.’ I nod even though no one can see me. ‘They were having the little boy bring me food. He got the key for me. Maybe he’s from that village—little boy, brown hair, thin with tattered clothes.’

‘That describes nearly everyone here,’ Alessandro says.

‘I promised him I’d help out his village,’ I say, wandering around trying to find a door.

‘We’ll take care of that,’ Damon says. ‘We have half our warriors here and logistics forces from our packs. Don’t worry about anything. Just find a way out so we can get you.’

‘I think I see a door.’ Up ahead I see what looks like a blue steel door, but the handle doesn’t budge. I describe it to my Alphas and hope they see the same thing from the outside.

My Alphas—it’s the first time I’ve called them that, even though it’s only in my mind. I never thought I wanted a single mate, but now, I can’t imagine a life without all three of them. I just need to get out of here first so we can be together.

“All right, little lady.”

I startle at the deep voice and whirl around. The man is tall, but he’s thin and doesn’t look very strong. Still, I don’t know what kind of potion they gave me or magic they did to knock me out before, so I know I’m not exactly in peak shape.

“Now, are you gonna make this easy, or are we gonna do it the fun way?” He gave a suggestive smirk that makes bile rise in my throat.

‘Guys, I could really use some help right now,’ I say in the mind-link.

‘We’re coming,’ Alessandro says. ‘There’s a villager here who knows about an old mine shaft that we think could be your dungeon. It’s not far.’

‘Please hurry,’ I say, though I know they’re doing the best they can.

I take a deep breath and look around. Since I turned on the lights when I left the cell, I see that there are some metal shovels nearby I could use as weapons, and I try to figure out how I can trick him into lunging at me in one direction so I can sneak by the other side and grab it.

But then, I remember—I’m twenty-one, and I can shift. I’ve never done it before, and I don’t know if it’ll hurt, or if I’ll be too slow at it, or if this guy who’s after me will have a bigger wolf than me, but I decide pretty quickly that I’m going to do it anyway.

‘How close are you?’ I ask my Alphas.

‘We found it! We’re working on the door,’ Braden tells me.

The guy in front of me suddenly gets a whole new level of creepy in his expression and moves toward me, and I decide I need to do something now. I can’t wait for the Alphas to get through the lock.

‘You might want to back up the black wolf,’ I say, guessing what I’ll probably look like in wolf form before I focus all my attention on shifting. It comes faster and easier than I’d imagined it, completely painless and even liberating. I feel more energy radiating through my veins than I’ve ever felt.

And there’s one more thing I wasn’t expecting—I’m huge. Well, I’m not a giant wolfzilla or anything. That would be silly. But I’m a good enough sized wolf to make the creepy guy's eyes just about bulge out of his head. He doesn’t seem so tall anymore even though he’s still taller than me, but I have no fear in my heart when I lunge at him.

He turns and runs, shifting midway into a scrawny looking grey wolf. I’ve just started running after him when the door behind me bursts open, and a huge white wolf—bigger than me—runs past me and makes a flying leap toward the grey wolf. He takes him down in no time and turns around. I see the silver eyes and know instantly it’s Alessandro.

In this form, the mate bond feels even stronger, and the way he’s looking at me tells me he’s processing it fully himself. I know the Alphas knew I was their mate long before I did, but there’s something about having that final proof that’s very intense.

The scent of apples and strawberries multiplies exponentially, and I discover that Damon and Braden’s wolves are right beside me. I have the same moment with them, and we all feel like we’re frozen in time for a moment while we feel the intensity of the bond.

Braden breaks the silence in the mind-link. ‘Is there anyone else down here that we need to take care of?’

I shake my head, too stunned to even speak in my mind. I’m sure the woman and the man who spoke before are long gone.

He chuckles, which is always a strange thing to experience in a mind-link. ‘Do you know that even your wolf has curly hair?’

I look down at my paw and notice a little curl on my legs, and I turn around to look at what I can see of my body. He’s right. It’s nowhere near as curly as my human hair, but it definitely has a wave to it. It’s deep black and kind of pretty, actually.

‘Your clothes are history, but we have some upstairs,’ Damon says. ‘Let’s just get out of here and we’ll worry about the mate stuff later.’

I nod, and we head out the door and up the stairs where I find myself in the middle of the forest. A female warrior, who apparently belongs to one of the Alpha’s packs, runs up to me and takes some clothes out of a backpack and guides me behind a tree where I easily shift back for the first time and get dressed.

It’s a bit of an adjustment going from a strong, big wolf to a human female, even though I am in good shape. It takes me a minute to get a hold of my center of gravity again, then the woman leads me back to my Alphas.

I wrap my arms around Alessandro first since he’s closest to me. I don’t want to let go, but I’m drawn to the other two as well, so I take turns holding all of them. I have a strong urge to kiss them all—and probably do a lot more than that with them—but we’re standing in the middle of the forest with several support warriors standing by staring at us.

Yeah, not exactly a private moment.

“I’m so glad you’re safe,” Braden says. “Did they hurt you?”

I shrug. “Not really, though they knocked me out or drugged me with something at first. I don’t know what that was.”

“It’s probably these damn plants,” Damon says with a low growl. “Which reminds me. We need to get the hell out of here and back to my father before he actually starts fighting the Dark Forest kingdom.”

“What?” I ask.

“Come on,” Alessandro says. “We’ll explain on the way.”

We start heading out and come across a clearing with several buildings that are so dilapidated they can barely be called houses, and I see a familiar face.

“Aryx!” I holler. He turns around and sees me but looks terribly frightened of all the Alphas surrounding me. “Give me a second, okay, guys?” I ask.

They nod and stay back while I walk up to the boy slowly. I kneel to be closer to his height. “You did such a wonderful job saving me,” I say. “We’re going to take care of you and your village, and we’ll do what we can to find your parents, okay? I promise, you won’t have to worry about eating or having a safe place to sleep ever again.”

He nods, and I give him a very gentle hug. When I pull back, he’s actually smiling. A female warrior walks up.

“I can take it from here,” she says. “I promise, he’ll be fine.”

“Did you hear that?” I say to the boy. “This lady will help you. I have to leave now, but I’ll be back, I promise.”

Aryx nods, and I give him another quick hug before leaving him with the woman.

“She’s a healer from my pack,” Damon explains. “We’ve instructed everyone here to relocate these people to somewhere safe and comfortable and give them everything they need.”

“Thank you,” I say.

We all get into an SUV where my bag, the one I’d originally brought to Green Mountain, is sitting on the seat. It sparks a memory, and I pick it up, digging through it to find the one item I’d brought with me that had seemed frivolous at the time.

“There was a woman there in the dungeon,” I explain to my Alphas. “She sounded so evil. For some reason, she and a man she was talking to mentioned my wolf statue here.” I pull it out to show them. “Do you have any idea why?”

They all shake their heads. “No idea,” Alessandro says. “But I’m sure once we get back to Damon’s castle, they’ll be some scholars that could take a look at it and let you know if they recognize it.”

With Damon in the driver’s seat, we head out of Northside while the Alphas explain to me what had happened to his father. Apparently, a witch disguised as a healer has been drugging him with some sort of tea for decades, one that she got from Aryx’s rundown village, and it left him under her full control.

And he’s about to attack Dark Forest.

“Guys, I guess it’s time to tell you something,” I say.

Alessandro and Braden turn to look at me, and Damon glances up into the rearview mirror.

“My real name is Trisha Forrest-Stone, princess of Dark Forest.”