The Witch and Her Four Dangerous Alphas

Chapter 1: Chapter 01: I am Selene Moonveil, The War Criminal

Mate.

My hand stilled midair, the dagger hovering inches from my chest, my grip slackening as if the air had been pulled from my lungs. I blinked once. Twice. But the monster looming above me didn’t disappear.

Neither did the word, Mate.

I’d never heard anything sound more terrifying.

But the same word repeated in my head, like confirming that it was all real. Like a secret my body had known long before my mind could name it.

His muzzle brushed against my neck—slowly, deliberately—and I went still. The dagger trembled in my grip, caught between instinct and something else I didn’t want to name.

He inhaled, a long, dragging breath, like he was trying to memorize the pieces of me I no longer knew how to hold together.

Then he growled. He said it again like he was savoring the taste of the word on his tongue.

And still... all I felt was dread.

This wasn’t a fairy tale. This wasn’t fate wrapped in warmth and comfort.

I tightened my grip on the dagger, but he was too focused on my scent that he did not even notice the dagger clutched in my hand.

"Get off me," I said with my shaking voice.

He didn’t move. So I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"Get OFF ME! YOU Bastard!"

"I hate you," I said, my voice shaking with each breath. "I hate all of you. You ruined me."

I lifted the dagger and turned it—not toward him, but toward myself. Pressed the tip to the soft skin of my throat.

His eyes went wide. He growled with warning at my face... I could feel the shock and hurt behind his eyes.

So when he stepped closer, hand reaching for mine with pleading eyes, I didn’t flinch.

Instead, I drove the dagger forward—straight into his chest, just inches away from the frantic beat of his heart.

His mouth fell open in shock, a strangled sound leaving his throat like he could not believe what I did to him.

I met his gaze with a cold voice. "I told you, you don’t get to have me."

Soon, I was surrounded by three more towering wolves, who shouted in unison, Mate.

only

rage, "and I swear on the graves of every girl you’ve broken, I will twist this

****

One week earlier...

Selene’s POV

wind smelled like

smoke and ruin drifting through the air like a cruel memory that refused

led toward the gates. Every step sent another jolt of pain through my swollen ankles. My legs trembled beneath me, barely holding me upright, my skin raw and streaked with grime, blood, and dried tears. The filth had long

tightly around my waist, binding me to the others behind me. There were only five of us now, five noble daughters who had survived the fall of our pack. Warriors, elders, ranked wolves... all of them were gone. Slaughtered in a single

women and children remained. And of those, only the lowest omegas had been left untouched. Because they were worthless,

But not me.

the

brought an entire rival pack to its knees in war.

taste of iron still fresh in my mouth. I could barely see through my right eye; the skin around it was

seventeen. I hadn’t even awakened my

territory, chained and marked

loomed larger, my chest tightened. My steps slowed, even when I was yanked forward. I could feel it in my bones

A war criminal.

in my head, twisting around my thoughts until I couldn’t tell

I didn’t kill anyone.

even fight that

I was barely thirteen.

They think I did.

can’t I

They stabbed at me from the inside, louder than the guards’ insults, heavier than the chains around

back to the present. I stumbled and nearly fell. He spat at my

throat was too dry. My tongue was thick and heavy in my mouth, and I tasted blood every time I tried to swallow. The other girls, noble daughters like me...kept their eyes

them were treated like

They weren’t beaten.

I was.

the tall black gates groaned open before us. The sound made my skin crawl. What lay beyond

the Silver Dawn Pack, but for me...my

perfect stone, the walls tall

behind shuttered windows. Even pups peeked out from behind the legs of stronger

whispers, soft and cutting like blades

"That’s her."

"The alpha’s brat."

one who slit our people’s throats."

isn’t she