The Witch and Her Four Dangerous Alphas

Chapter 49: Chapter 49: I didn’t Shift..

Selene’s POV~~

The howl cut through the forest like a blade. It was deep, fierce, and laced with something that made the hairs rise along my arms. It was filled with rage and madness. And something colder... something that sank beneath my skin like ice water.

I knew that howl.

I didn’t know how...didn’t know how my body seemed to react, how my pulse jumped at the sound, or how my lungs forgot to breathe, but I knew.

It was him, Aeron.

I could feel it in the marrow of my bones. That sound came from his throat. I staggered back a step, my legs trembling beneath me. Why was he so angry when he could not bear to look at me for even a second?

Then came the second howl. It was even sharper and wounded with fury, Luca.

A moment later, a third one rang out, like something uncoiling in the dark. That was Kael. I remembered that sound from the times I’d been locked in the moving wagon and heard it drifting in on cold air.

Then came the last.

The one that made my skin crawl and my stomach twist. Lucian.

His was the cruelest, playful, almost. Like he was enjoying this. The hunt—I could already imagine his hunting smile.

My breath came fast. With each howl my chest heaved, but I couldn’t get air. I knew these howls were not normal; they were warning me. The trees around me seemed to grow taller and darker, their shadows reaching for me like claws. I turned to run—

But my legs wouldn’t move.

They refused.

They shook beneath me, boneless and hollow. My knees buckled, and I collapsed to the ground, scraping my side against the bark of a fallen branch. My hands scrambled in the dirt, searching blindly for the dagger again. I found it and clutched it to my chest like a child might a blanket.

No, I thought. No, no, no—

I couldn’t run anymore.

Not like this. Soon they will find me. And they were coming. They were close.

just been warning calls. They were tracking

across the underbrush, every root and stone a new punishment. I could taste blood in my mouth from how hard I bit down on my lip to stay

Please... Please, not yet...

tilted my head toward the

moon was almost full—round and high above the trees. The stars glittered faintly around it, uncaring,

stared at it like

Tonight.

be seventeen. Just a few minutes. Maybe less. Then I would shift. Then I

wolf inside me finally woke, I’d be fast. I’d be strong. I wouldn’t have to fear the snapping of twigs or the shaking of my legs.

had abandoned me, to whatever force might still listen. "Let me make it. Just

I was still weak, a human whose feet refused to obey, even when my will remained alive. And the monsters who made me this way... were closing

longer, I told myself. A

night for days. Eighteen. The day every werewolf came into their own. The day their wolf rose,

only hope... My wolf. The one I’d waited

inch, silver light bathing the forest in a

And nothing happened.

my eyes. There was no voice whispering in my head.

the storm to rise beneath my skin... but nothing

my throat. "No," I whispered. My hands began to shake. "No, not now..."

up—half delirious—clutching my ribs as if that might wake something buried

I

teeth clenched, willing it. Screaming for it

there was only the

the cold. Only

a knife pushed inch by inch into my gut. I wasn’t going to shift. I was

thing I’d held onto all this time—this fantasy

suddenly, I

slamming into the earth, breath

face from me. And if she had abandoned me, then I would

it meant running on torn feet

bit into my skin. My legs screamed

that could barely be called such. My breath tore through my lungs. My vision blurred. My heart thundered with a rhythm that didn’t feel like it belonged to

Still—it wasn’t enough.