The Witch and Her Four Dangerous Alphas

Chapter 25: Chapter 25: I Swore I Wouldn’t Become Him

Kael’s Pov

I didn’t remember moving. One second I was in that gods-damned room, surrounded by laughter and cruelty, and the next—I was kneeling on the floor with her in my arms, wrapping my coat tightly around her trembling frame.

She didn’t speak. She didn’t even flinch.

Just... silence.

Like something inside her had finally died.

Maybe it was instinct. Something deeper than thought or command had taken over, driving me to her, pulling me toward the place where her body had crumpled like a discarded thing.

My limbs worked on their own, because my mind... my mind was somewhere else entirely. Caught in that one, frozen image—her knees buckling, her shoulders curling inward, and no one doing a damn thing.

I carried her through the halls without a word, without even noticing the horrified looks of those who caught a glimpse. I didn’t care. Let them see. Let them wonder what the fuck happened.

Let them feel the shame they should’ve felt earlier, when they stood by and did nothing. Just like I did.

Her body was so light and limp in my arms like a broken thing, barely breathing. I took her straight to her room in the omega wing—the only space that was hers. I kicked the door open and stepped inside, the cold hitting me like a slap across the face.

I laid her gently on the thin bed and peeled the coat back from her shoulders, just enough to check on her.

"Selene," I called her name, my voice low, trying not to startle her. "Selene, can you hear me?"

Nothing.

I noticed angry, red marks crawling up the delicate curve of her neck—grip marks. It was

My hand shook.

My goddamn hand shook.

given orders that left people broken. But this felt different. This was not justice. This was cruelty for cruelty’s

people, not be twisted by those too stupid to understand the weight of what

mind, and then my wolf, Riven let out

something in

clenched my teeth and reached further down, inspecting her as gently as I could, afraid of

her thighs,

But no deeper damage,

shaky breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. Relief, bitter and sharp, hit me

ways. I saw it in the way her hands had curled in on themselves, fingers twitching like they didn’t know whether to

mouth—parted slightly, as if her body had forgotten how to breathe properly. Whatever they’d done, they’d stolen something from her. Maybe not her body, but something even

a long moment, staring down at her. Her skin was pale, almost translucent. Her lashes were wet. Her

her eyes

of the room

I couldn’t stay.

I didn’t deserve to.

sure as hell didn’t want to face

This was guilt, born from a place I thought I’d long buried. A promise I made to myself the night my mother died in silence, wearing the same hollow-eyed expression I’d seen on Selene just

never allow that

Never.

woman—would suffer that kind of fate while I still

were other ways. Better ways. Ways that didn’t make me a fucking tyrant. Because that’s what he