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.

wet with tears, her breathing shallow and weak, and when the coat slipped further, I noticed angry, red marks crawling up the delicate curve of her neck—grip marks. It was very deep. As if someone had held her like

My hand shook.

My goddamn hand shook.

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

power was supposed to protect my people, not be twisted by those too stupid to understand the

in my mind, and then my

something in

reached further down, inspecting her as gently as I could,

I lifted her thighs,

marks. Welts from brutal force. But

was holding. Relief, bitter and sharp, hit me like a hammer. She

in other ways. I saw it in the way

had forgotten how to breathe properly. Whatever they’d done,

adjusting it carefully, and stood there for a long moment, staring down at her.

her eyes never

of the room without

I couldn’t stay.

I didn’t deserve to.

want to face the things twisting inside me right

wasn’t some soft-hearted fool moved by a broken girl’s tears. No, this was different. This was guilt, born from a place I thought I’d long buried. A promise I made to myself the

never

Never.

one in this pack—no woman—would suffer that kind of

there were other ways. Better ways. Ways that didn’t make me a