The Witch and Her Four Dangerous Alphas

Chapter 154: Chapter 154: The Lycan’s Promise l

Maximus’s POV~

Where are you, my love...

The words slipped out of me before I could stop them. My chest felt heavy, and I let out a long, tired sigh as I leaned back in the chair. My eyes closed, but it wasn’t sleep that came... it was memories of her. My mate. My heart. My everything.

Her name still tasted sweet in my mind... Elara. Even now, after all these years, it felt like saying her name could steady me, could bring me back to life.

I remembered the first time I saw her. The world had been cruel and loud that day, yet the moment she appeared, everything else fell silent.

She stood in the clearing bathed in soft light, her hair catching the sun like threads of gold, her smile shy but enough to steal the breath from my chest.

She was so beautiful, so ethereal, I had thought for a moment she wasn’t real. But when her eyes lifted and locked with mine, I knew. The bond roared alive in me.

"You’re staring," she had said back then, her lips curving in that playful way that always teased me.

"And I will never stop," I had answered honestly, because how could I?

I could still feel that moment, the way she stepped closer to me as though she had always belonged there. I had touched her hand for the first time, nervous that she would pull away, but she didn’t. Instead, she held on tighter, as if she, too, had been waiting all her life for this.

I remembered how she loved the little things—flowers braided into her hair, quiet

tilted her head

her hair. "No," I told her. "The stars burn only

she hit my chest

her face, pressing my forehead against hers. "Because I love you, Elara. More

soft sigh, the way she whispered back,

memory burned brightest

it. The ache of her absence. The ache of all the promises I still carried, even when she was

are you, my

years. Twenty long years since the curse fell upon

to stand before you, to stare into your eyes, to hold you as if those twenty years had never stolen you from me. The worst days of my life are over... all I want now is

as those words circled in my chest like a prayer. They had been my yearning,

dazzling, the strongest, the proudest. The whole world spoke of me as if I were untouchable. And it would be a lie to say I was not arrogant. My royal blood, my unmatched strength—they filled me with pride. I thought

I was like every young alpha in his prime—wild, reckless, drunk

made me colder, harder. My heart had no room for softness, and I believed love was nothing but a

other

told me I was to be betrothed to the eldest