The Witch and Her Four Dangerous Alphas

Chapter 47: Chapter 47: I Escaped

Selene’s POV~

They would be smiling right now.

Somewhere far behind me, deep within the grand stone heart of the pack, the hall would be full of noble people. Maybe someone was offering a toast. Maybe the priestess was still reciting sacred lines as those four brothers knelt like loyal sons. Maybe they were already placing those heavy, hollow crowns on their heads.

Maybe he was smiling.

Just like he smiled when he left me on the cold stone floor last night...

And still, I ran.

The forest greeted me like a beast.

Branches clawed at my arms, thorns tore at my legs, and the earth beneath my bare feet was jagged and cruel. Every root felt like a hand reaching up to drag me back. The gown I wore—thin and damp with sweat—offered no protection. Every step I took through the underbrush left blood in my wake.

But the worst pain wasn’t on my skin.

It was inside me, behind my ribs, in the center of my chest, where something living had curled up and started to die long ago. Every breath was shallow.

But I couldn’t stop. I wouldn’t.

If I stop, I die. Not in body, but in spirit. And I had already died once.

It was the first time they dragged me into the warrior quarter. I remember how my body shook for days. How I screamed for help until my throat tore open. How my voice gave out long before their hands did.

That was death without any mercy. Just the slow, rotting kind. The kind you carry with you, inside your bones.

But not today.

Today, I ran.

Today, I bled and didn’t stop.

the flame inside

had to crawl through. Who I had to kill. Where I

to survive and be

meant crawling out of hell on torn

even been

morning. They had all been so arrogant—so high on their own ceremony that they forgot about me, the slave in their eyes. They forgot that their rooms were unguarded, and

Because who would run?

when they’d made sure to break me in every way

hurt so damn much. Bitter and raw,

I had

so empty that the idea of escape wouldn’t even

thing about pain. It gives you a strength

couldn’t name. My hands were raw from climbing over stone walls. My feet bled from the broken roots and sharp rocks underfoot. The silver dagger I carried

protected me. The only thing I trusted. I’d used it

like I was some harmless thing. I slit his throat before he could say another word. The second one screamed when I drove my dagger into his thigh and

it deeper into his body. No one could stop me from escaping this place. Not

remember their

their body hitting the ground. Only the

I stumbled—hard. My knees hit frozen dirt. My palms scraped open. The dagger slipped and

And I broke.

forehead to the cold earth. My breath came in choked sobs, silent and ragged. I didn’t want to make noise. Noise

choked. "I

so small. So

I heard them

Luca’s sneer.

Kael’s cold, clinical voice.

Lucian’s mocking laugh.

of

twisted together

You’re weak.

You’re pathetic.

You’ll never make it.