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.

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

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

growled now, stepping forward, voice shaking with fury. "She watched while my sister was

from the back, "My mate begged her for help. Her guard spat in

someone hissed. "She’s filthy whore who knows how

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

walked among their pain with her chin lifted and her heart

"The reason our

feel what her father made

like our

She deserves

sharpened by years of silence. Vengeance born from too many funerals and

— not because they want to be, but because

her back refused to bend completely, how her eyes still held the

That infuriated them.

proud," one of them spat. "Still thinks she’s above

crawling,

know what it’s

another voice rang out. "Let her atone with her

of warriors standing — fists pounding tables, mouths twisted in rage, voices hoarse from years of buried

beat like a war drum, her breath shallow.

man who had

young.

as the blade that cut them... and now, they wanted to

to make the pain stop. To let their ghosts finally rest. To

if it came at the cost

who once obeyed quietly now rose as one, bound by the shared torment her

She couldn’t breathe.

with vicious intent. Her throat felt tight, but her legs moved before thought could stop them. Instinct took over

and they found his hand. She clutched it without

Her heart screamed. Please...

behind him, tell them she belonged to him and not to their wrath. That he’d protect her, even mockingly, just to keep

But then...

rose and his voice shattered

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

Selene’s world shattered.

breath caught in her chest, and the tears she’d held back finally broke free. A sharp, guttural sob burst from her

to

But it didn’t matter.

was just another sound in the room. One that none of them

this. She didn’t want to be thrown into that pit. She knew exactly what would happen in the

up. Even as a noble, she knew. And now, stripped of her name and title, she’d become the kind

be