The Witch and Her Four Dangerous Alphas

Chapter 42: Chapter 42: The Moon Goddess Forgot to Take Pity on Me

Selene’s POV

I had promised myself I wouldn’t cry.

I swore it right here in this same room when Kael had dragged me here with the collar locked around my neck and stripped the last pieces of my name and freedom. I had stared at the stone walls then, numb but proud, and told myself I wouldn’t give them anything more. Especially not my tears.

But now they wouldn’t stop.

My body convulsed with each sob, my chest tightening as if ropes had wrapped around it. The cold tile beneath me was soaked through, muffling the gasps I tried so hard to hide. I pressed my face deeper into them, biting hard on my arm just to keep myself from screaming. But even that small act of control was slipping away.

The pain wasn’t just in my throat or chest.

It was everywhere. In the raw sting across my hips. In the tremble of my legs. In the places his hands had gripped too hard. There were bruises already...rising like angry flowers across my skin.

I dragged a shaking breath in, my fingers curling into my gown like claws. My arms had gone numb from how long I’d held myself there, bent forward, trying to disappear into the ground.

How could he do this?

The same man who used to chase me through moonlit halls as a boy. The same boy who once gave me a polished pebble and swore it was from the stars. He had shattered that version of himself tonight...smashed it like glass and made me bleed with the pieces.

nothing gentle left

lingering: the pressure of his grip around my arms,

crying on

than the sobs. Louder than my own breathing. And God help me—I believed them in that moment. I had believed I was nothing. Because I couldn’t

around my thighs, torn along one side, the delicate fabric stained and wrinkled. It didn’t cover much anymore. It

hand. My skin felt too raw as a hiss left my lips. I wasn’t just ashamed. I felt

way that dirt and sweat could fix. But in the soul-rotting way that made you want to scrape yourself raw and still not feel

And the worst part?

was because of

goes quiet and your body stops listening. When

nails broke skin. I needed that pain. I needed to feel something I

of the condition I was sprawled in on the floor. My limbs were twisted awkwardly, my

suddenly found strength. No, I didn’t feel strong at all. But some part of me

hand to move first, pressing my palm against the floor. The cold tile bit into my skin. My other arm followed, trembling under the weight of my body and everything else

lifting a mountain. My body ached, my ribs

bare feet to the floor. The coldness shot through me like a jolt of reality. And then,

But still I stood.

One step.

Then another.