The Witch and Her Four Dangerous Alphas

Chapter 83: Chapter 83: Hate Greater Than Love

Selene’s POV ~

| felt dread creeping along my spine, no... | would never allow this, he could not know it was me. | had to do

something, anything, my mind kept chanting the sdesperate words like a broken mantra: | have to get out, |

have to leave, | cannot let him see through me.

But the man in front ofwas hell-bent on keepingin place, his grip so tight aroundthat I could not

move even an inch, it was like he was terrified that if he loosened his hold, even for a breath, | would vanish into

thin air.

And perhaps he was right, because that was all | 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.

| was planning, thinking of ways, searching for a chance to get out from here, when suddenly a jolt ran down my

spine, and | 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 intoand sent a tumbling ache to the very core of my heart. | wanted to be a statue; |

wanted to be cold, unshaken, untouchable.

| wanted to be the kind of person who could laugh in the face of his tears, the kind who would never break under

the weight of a bond | never asked for. But the truth... the truth was unbearable.

| felt him. Every single piece of him. His despair bled into me, his agony carved itself into my bones, and his fear

and his hope—yes, even that fragile, desperate hope—all of it crashed overlike a tidal wave.

| could not stop it, could not shut it out, it was inside me, clawing at me, as if | were living his despair as my own.

And still, one question echoed louder than everything else. Why?

Why now? Why this pain, this despair, this sudden crumbling of walls he himself had built around his heart? Why

did he have to break here, in front of me, when | was barely holding together my own shattered pieces?

Was it because the mate bond finally showed him the truth? Was it guilt, was it regret, or was it spitiful

attempt at atonement for everything they had done to me? Did he finally realize just how wrong they had been?

But the truth was even crueler...what if | had never been their mate? What if | had only 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 this

so-called despair if | had not belonged to them?

The answer was cruel and crystal clear.

No.

And the clarity hardened something inside me. My mind, my heart, all the chaotic emotions that had been

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

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

of a bond neither of us chose.

If I ever found love in this broken world, | wanted it to be real.

| wanted it to be mine.

Love for who | am, not for what | am. Not for my status, not for my bloodline, not because fate tiedto

someone's soul.

"Selene..." His voice cracked, broken, nothing like the powerful Alpha he was supposed to be, nothing like the

man who once madetremble with fear.

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

back to us. Don’t shutout, don’t do this... | beg you."

His grip tightened, trembling now, desperate, as if his body alone could chainto him. "I know we were wrong.

I know we hurt you. But give us a chance...just one chance, and | will make it right. I will fix everything. | swear |

will. Please... don’t turn away from me."

His words spilled against my skin like a fever, frantic and restless, the kind of pleading that made even my bones

ache to hear. | felt his chest heaving against mine and felt the way his breath hitched each the forced out

another vow.

"Selene... don’t leave. Don’t leavelike this. | cannot bear it. | can’t..." His voice broke entirely, shattering into

a choked sound that could only be called grief.

And yet... | stood there like stone.

I let his tears fall.

| let his desperate pleas sink into the silence.

| gave him nothing.

My body was there, trapped in his arms, but my soul was far away, unreachable. | heard everything, every

broken syllable, but I did not respond. | was a statue carved of ice, staring into the void, refusing to give him

even the mercy of a word.

The silence cut him deeper than any rejection. | could feel it—how his desperation twisted tighter, how his fear

bled through the bond.

He shookslightly, as though trying to joltinto responding, into saying something. His voice cracked

again, louder this tand more frantic.

"Say something! Please—anything! Even if you curse me, even if you hate me... just don’t stay silent. Selene,

please... | can’t take this silence. Tell me... tellyou feel it too, this bond, this pull, this..."

Finally, | turned my head slowly. My voice when it cwas steady and merciless, each word sharp enough to

dig a wound that would never heal.

"Don’t pushto hate you more than | already do, Aeron."

His breath caught like | had driven a blade through his chest. His hands faltered, shaking, as if my words had

ripped the ground out from under him.

"I would rather burn alone in the ashes of my own heart than let my love be built on your guilt."