The Witch and Her Four Dangerous Alphas

Chapter 23: Chapter 23: A place no woman ever wanted to go

"No...!" I rasped, trying to pull away. But his grip only tightened.

Laughter thundered through the room filled with mockery. A crowd of hyenas drunk on blood.

"Can’t even control a little bitch like her?" someone hooted. "What kind of dominant are you, Alex?!"

His name is Alex. The brute who now had his hand buried in my hair, yanking me harder as the others goaded him on.

My breath hitched, heart slamming in my chest as pain tore across my scalp and neck. Alex growled and pushed harder, my face hitting Lucien’s thigh with a thud that made me groan. I could barely think, could barely breathe.

Suddenly, his crushing hand was gone... gently pried away.

I gasped, the air burning my throat. My cheek still rested against Lucien’s leg. His scent — wine and smoke and cold steel filled my senses. But I couldn’t even process it before I heard his voice.

"Don’t be so rough with my little slave, Alex."

His tone was soft almost playful but it dripped with mockery. Mockery that wasn’t meant for Alex. It was meant for me.

To the casual observer, it may have seemed that Lucien was being merciful. His voice soft, his grip firm yet measured as he pulled Alex’s brutal hand away from Selene’s fragile neck.

But to the men in the hall, the ones who had lived through the fires her father lit. Lucien’s words were laced with cruelty of a different kind.

He wasn’t protecting Selene.

He was prolonging the spectacle. And the room knew it.

Kael’s voice came next, sharp and disgusted like a blade unsheathed.

"Brother, why bother training her yourself? Just throw her in the Warrior’s quarters. I bet she’ll be properly trained in a single night."

A hush settled in the air, the kind that stretches before the explosion. Then the dam broke.

"Yes!"

"She belongs there anyway!"

"Throw her in the quarters, let the warriors teach her submission!"

"She’s the tyrant’s daughter, the most beautiful bitch in the werewolf domain. Let’s all have a taste!"

Their voices were jagged, echoing off stone walls like the cries of wounded beasts finally let loose.

Because for them, Selene wasn’t some fragile flower fallen from grace.

She was his daughter.

And they remembered her clearly.

used to stare from behind her father’s throne — unmoved, untouchable, wrapped in silk

never flinched when warriors were dragged in chains before her. Never blinked when sobbing girls were pulled away, screaming for mercy. She’d walk by the cages without turning her head. She dined

stepping forward, voice shaking with fury. "She watched while my sister was dragged by

for help. Her guard spat

"She’s filthy whore who knows how to gain sympathy

every word. In their eyes, Selene wasn’t a helpless girl caught in the tide of war. She was the war. Her name was sewn into the memories of their destruction, her face carved into the silence of every night they’d held loved ones as they

among their pain with her chin lifted and her

the reason our brothers died!" one man roared, fist slamming into the table. "The reason our mothers were

what her

scream like our families

doesn’t deserve pity. She deserves what

bloodlust. It was grief sharpened by years of silence.

monsters — not because they want to

how her eyes still held the dim flame

That infuriated them.

one of them spat. "Still thinks

crawling, begging to be

should know what it’s like to have everything

the quarters!" another voice

fists pounding tables, mouths twisted

drum, her breath shallow. But none

the child of the man

that she was young. They didn’t care that she was

blade that cut them... and now, they wanted

stop. To let their ghosts finally

at the cost of her

rage, the heat of it suffocating. The wolves who once obeyed quietly now rose as one, bound by the shared torment her bloodline had caused them. It was no longer just vengeance — it had become judgment.

She couldn’t breathe.

louder, overlapping with vicious intent. Her throat felt tight, but her legs

hand. She clutched it without thinking, gripping

Her heart screamed. Please...

soul. She hoped that he would deny them. That he’d pull her behind him, tell them she belonged to him and

But then...

rose and his voice

truth," he said coldly. "They have all suffered because of this bitch... and her father. It is only right they take her to teach

Selene’s world shattered.

the tears she’d held back finally broke free. A

can’t do this to me! Please I’m innocent! I’ve done

But it didn’t matter.

just another sound in the room. One that none of

that pit. She knew exactly what would

up. Even as a noble, she knew. And now, stripped of her name and title,

scrub floors... be nothing... live invisible...