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

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 while others were whipped

fury. "She watched while my sister was dragged by her father’s enforcers. Didn’t say

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

"She’s filthy whore who knows how to

in the tide of war. She was the war. Her name was sewn into

among their pain with her chin lifted and her

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

her feel what her

her scream like

deserve pity. She

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

shapes men into monsters — not because

to bend completely, how her eyes still held the dim flame of defiance. Even after all this, she still carried

That infuriated them.

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

crawling, begging

what it’s like to

serve in the quarters!" another voice rang out. "Let her

of warriors standing — fists pounding tables, mouths twisted in rage,

her breath shallow. But none of them

man who had destroyed their

she was young. They didn’t care that

saw her as the blade that cut

out of cruelty. But to make the pain stop. To let their ghosts finally rest. To say — for once — we

if it came at the cost of

with 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.

She couldn’t breathe.

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

blindly, and they found his hand.

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 not to their wrath. That he’d protect her, even mockingly, just to keep her from being thrown to them

But then...

and his voice shattered everything she

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

Selene’s world shattered.

she’d held back finally broke free. A

this to me! Please I’m innocent!

But it didn’t matter.

voice was just another sound in the room. One that none

be thrown into that pit. She knew

And now, stripped of her name and title, she’d become the kind of prey she once watched

floors... be nothing...