The Witch and Her Four Dangerous Alphas

Chapter 82: Chapter 82: It Has Always Been You

Selene’s POV ~

The second I heard him, it felt like something snapped inside me.

My mate.

My lungs forgot how to breathe.

My heart, the traitorous, cursed thing, slammed so violently against my ribs, I swore it would tear itself free and confess everything. I stood completely still, but inside, everything shook.

He was looking for me. He didn’t know. But he was looking.

And I—gods—was standing right in front of him.

A thousand thoughts collided in my head, none of them staying long enough for me to grab onto. I could feel the blood draining from my face, the edges of my vision flickering.

But I forced my expression to stay neutral. I’d had a year to prepare for this moment. And yet, I felt as though I were standing at the edge of that damn cliff again.

My voice—when it came—was barely a whisper, but it didn’t shake. I wouldn’t let it.

"What happened to her?" I asked, trying to be as emotionless as possible.

He didn’t answer at first.

His gaze had dropped, the cold mask on his face softening just enough to reveal something raw underneath.

"She fell," he said finally, his voice quieter than before. "From the cliff near our pack border."

My breath caught. That place. That memory. His scent in the air, the wind screaming around me, the bond tearing at me as I leapt to my death.

Or at least, that’s what they thought.

"We searched for days," he continued, his jaw tightening. "But we couldn’t find her. Not even her body. There was no trace left of her."

his eyes now. But I had never seen Aeron like this, definitely not in the past, and how much change in a

hard, trying to push the storm inside me back

my own limits, "What if she did

A moment of silence.

why she

a heartbeat, everything

Then he snapped.

"No."

nor a shout, but it

alive," he said, like he was declaring law. "I

me. It felt more like he was speaking to himself, like a chant. A truth he had clung to for too

And I—I couldn’t breathe.

very thing he

was the ghost he refused

was the mate

crack, watching his pain slip past the mask he wore so carefully—I didn’t know what to do with

part of me ache to

he never stopped searching make something warm

I told myself viciously. Don’t

me. Because they would have torn me apart for what I

I couldn’t think.

trembling rivers. Gods, I was suffocating, and it wasn’t from heat. It was from the weight of him. From the way

barely parting my lips as I prepared to say something

But then—

Boom.

sound exploded from the floor below us. I couldn’t

the previous one, until the whole

slammed

doorframe like a serpent made of fog. One by one, like rhythmic death, bombs began to erupt through the building. I could hear the chaos rising. And I knew he had

And then—

Crash!