The Witch and Her Four Dangerous Alphas

Chapter 48: Chapter 48: Let the Hunt Begin

Aeron’s POV~

For a moment, I didn’t understand the words.

She escaped. how?

Two simple syllables shouldn’t have held the power to shatter everything. But they did.

My heart stopped beating. My breath caught. I felt the suffocation clawing at my mind.

The hall, once thick with tension, now turned shallow. Murmurs rippled like a wave through the nobles, a hundred heads swiveling toward the doors. But I couldn’t hear them. Couldn’t see anything but that warrior, panting and trembling, sweat glistening on his brow.

I took a step forward, my voice hoarse. "What did you just say?"

His eyes darted up, wild and frightened. "Selene...she—she escaped. She’s gone, Alpha. Vanished before the guard rotation. We—we don’t know how—"

The rest of his sentence drowned in the sound of something knocking behind my back.

Luca had risen first, knocking over a ceremonial goblet, his face twisted in a snarl. "Gone? What the fuck do you mean she’s gone?"

Kael looked dazed, blinking as if trying to wake from a bad dream. "That’s not possible," he muttered, voice hollow. "She was collared. She couldn’t have—"

Lucian said nothing. His eyes were wide, lips slightly parted, like the air had been sucked from his lungs. But I could see the twitch in his jaw, the barely suppressed rage simmering just under his skin.

The room was spinning. My hands curled into fists at my sides.

Like we were nothing. Like our rules—our

How dare she?

and disbelief crashing into my chest. My bones ached with the need to shift,

stop it, low and primal. The

us..."

snarled. "I’ll drag her back myself. She doesn’t get

as shocked as I was, and I could see the rage and disbelief burning behind their gaze. My pulse thundered. I turned toward the doors,

this was her

Escape.

of everything we’d built. Everything we claimed to

my voice stern. "Alert every patrol. If she’s beyond the walls, I want the

glowing gold.

bringing her

tearing through his skin. Black fur exploded from his limbs. The pain was welcome as the beast

as his brothers also shifted beside him, each of them trembling with rage

ground. Luca’s roar shook the walls, and

forms of four black wolves radiating fury. The nobles scattered. Priests fell to their knees in fear.

"No!"

silk-clad body lurched forward, arms outstretched as if she could

breath hitched. Her hand dropped uselessly at her side. Her lips trembled. "You can’t

voice was small, shrinking further under

took a shaky step forward. "I am your Luna," she whispered, eyes darting between them. "You swore it. Before the Moon Goddess, before the

brothers. Or worse—we

glance her way. His wolf stood rigid, head raised