The Witch and Her Four Dangerous Alphas

Chapter 201: Chapter 201: Not A Dream

Lucian’s POV~

When I first saw her in that hall, I thought I had finally gone insane.

Selene.

The name had haunted me like a curse, endless, whispering in every dark corner of my mind.

For the past week, I had built walls of steel around that sound. I told myself she was gone, that she no longer existed in this world. But then...there she was.

So close I could hear the faint tremor in her breath as she greeted everyone.

I had spent the entire dinner convincing myself that it was a trick of the light. That my eyes, hungry for her ghost, were deceiving me. But every time she moved, the air changed. Every time her voice floated softly across the table, it hit me like a blow to the chest.

It was her.

And I...gods help me... I wanted to go to her.

I wanted to drag her out of that cursed hall, pin her against the nearest wall, and demand to know where she had been all these days. I wanted to scream, to hold her, to shake her, to fall apart at her feet.

But I didn’t move.

I sat there, smiling politely like a civilized monster, while every part of me burned alive inside. My claws dug into the underside of the table so hard I could feel the wood splintering beneath my fingertips.

I kept my composure for the sake of appearances. I laughed when I was supposed to laugh. I nodded when spoken to. But every second was a battle.

Because all I could smell was her.

Her scent had changed...fainter, guarded, but still undeniably hers. That maddening scent that had once driven my wolf to the edge of insanity.

He was restless now. Snarling, pacing, clawing at the inside of my skin.

She’s ours. She’s right there. Take her.

I clenched my jaw until my teeth ached.

I couldn’t let the beast out.

But the longer I sat, pretending not to care, the more I realized that pretending was no longer possible.

When the dinner finally ended, I didn’t even remember standing. One moment I was seated among them; the next I was in the corridor...searching for her, guided by instinct more than thought.

And then I saw her.

Alone.

I didn’t think. I just moved.

I grabbed her wrist, maybe too roughly, but she didn’t resist. I dragged her into the shadowed corner of the hall, where the light couldn’t reach. My heart was a drumbeat of fury and disbelief.

Every time, I had imagined this moment. I thought I’d be angry...furious enough to break something, to break her.

trembling eyes lifted to meet mine and full of the same pain that had lived in

was

relief so

what to say. I had dreamed of her

And then...she moved.

uncertain. Before I could understand what was happening,

first touch... gods, it shattered

I’d built to keep

a breath, torn between disbelief and terror, and then everything inside me

before I even

a kiss of greeting...it was an eruption. Years of loneliness, guilt, rage, and unspoken words exploded in that single, searing contact. I pulled her against me, my arms tightening like I was

And maybe I was.

I could feel

wolf roared inside

didn’t understand caution. He didn’t care about logic or consequence. To him, this was simple...our mate was here. We had lost her once. We would

harder, deeper, trying to breathe her back into my soul. Every gasp, every movement, every small

whispered my name... when she

That was it.

I broke completely.

met. My wolf pushed forward, wild and uncontrollable. I could feel the sharp sting at my gums, the instinct

I pressed my mouth

her blood. The heat of her skin. The trust

tangled into

graze her skin...just barely...and that tiny, startled

I froze.

a moment, I didn’t even recognize

had almost marked her without her consent, without

hard it made me dizzy. I jerked back, heart pounding, horror flooding my veins. My

What had I done?

of her blood was

out in

dazed, flushed, her gown undone because

was enough. I couldn’t let her stand there like that...vulnerable because I had lost

threw it around her shoulders, covering her, shielding her from the

eyes searched mine, confused, asking silent questions I couldn’t

her everything—that I had missed her every single day, that her absence had turned

But I couldn’t.

stayed another second, I would lose

to her lips, a promise that this wasn’t over, and forced

"We will meet again."

And then I left.

my resolve

back pressed to the cold stone wall of the corridor, I could still taste her on my lips. The echo of her heartbeat

my trembling hands and saw faint smears

now; the bastard

closed my eyes and breathed in the fading scent

***