The Witch and Her Four Dangerous Alphas

Chapter 83: Chapter 83: Hate Greater Than Love

Selene’s POV ~

I felt dread creeping along my spine, no... I would never allow this, he could not know it was me. I had to do something, anything, my mind kept chanting the same desperate words like a broken mantra: I have to get out, I have to leave, I cannot let him see through me.

But the man in front of me was hell-bent on keeping me in place, his grip so tight around me that I could not move even an inch, it was like he was terrified that if he loosened his hold, even for a breath, I would vanish into thin air.

And perhaps he was right, because that was all I wanted, to escape his iron grasp, to slip free, to vanish from here and be rid of these cursed chains that bound not only my body but my very power.

I was planning, thinking of ways, searching for a chance to get out from here, when suddenly a jolt ran down my spine, and I froze.

His warm and trembling breath was against me, brushing so close along my bare neck that it made my skin burn. His entire face was pressed into the crook of my neck as if he wanted to disappear inside me.

But that was not what shook me.

It was the tears.

His tears.

Hot drops sliding down onto my shoulder, falling silently, breaking against my skin. My heart lurched, and my breath caught. Was he... crying? Why?

The question slammed into me and sent a tumbling ache to the very core of my heart. I wanted to be a statue; I wanted to be cold, unshaken, untouchable.

of person who could laugh in the face of his tears, the kind who would never break under the weight of

despair bled into me, his agony carved itself into my bones, and his fear and his hope—yes, even that fragile,

stop it, could not shut it out, it was inside me, clawing

echoed louder than

himself had built around his heart? Why did he have to break here, in front

some pitiful attempt at atonement for everything they had done to me?

ever been Alpha Eirik’s daughter, nothing more? Would they have shed a single tear for me? Would they have felt even an ounce of

cruel and

No.

been crashing through the mate bond—I blocked them out, slammed the door shut, because I dared not accept

would not. I refused to take in a love that was built on conditions, a love that existed only because of a

found love in this broken world, I wanted

wanted it to be

for who I am, not for what I am. Not for my status, not for

Alpha he was supposed to be, nothing

brushed against my neck as though clinging to the last warmth he could find. "Please... please come back

trembling now, desperate, as if his body alone could chain me to him. "I know we were wrong. I know we hurt you. But give us a chance...just

kind of pleading that made even my bones ache to hear. I felt his chest

leave me like this. I cannot bear it. I can’t..." His voice broke entirely,