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 me

through. Who I had to kill. Where I had

to survive and be

crawling out of hell on

hadn’t even been

ceremony that they forgot about me, the

Because who would run?

dare escape when they’d made sure to break me

been a laugh if it hadn’t hurt so damn much.

I had

the idea of

thing about pain. It gives you a strength they’ll never

broken roots and sharp rocks underfoot. The silver dagger I carried dug into my palm with every step, but I held it like

was the only thing that had ever protected me. The only thing I trusted. I’d

I was some harmless thing. I slit his throat before he could say

could stop me from escaping this place. Not

even remember their faces

the sound of their body hitting the ground. Only the

My knees hit frozen dirt. My palms

And I broke.

curled in on myself, pressing my forehead to the cold earth. My breath came in choked sobs, silent

can’t..." I choked. "I can’t

so small.

I heard them inside

Luca’s sneer.

Kael’s cold, clinical voice.

Lucian’s mocking laugh.

of

twisted together into

You’re weak.

You’re pathetic.

You’ll never make it.