CHAPTER 47: CHAPTER 47: I ESCAPED

Selene’s POV~

They would be smiling right now.

Somewhere far behind me, deep within the grand stone heart of the pack, the hall would be full of noble people. Maybe someone was offering a toast. Maybe the priestess was still reciting sacred lines as those four brothers knelt like loyal sons. Maybe they were already placing those heavy, hollow crowns on their heads.

Maybe he was smiling.

Just like he smiled when he left me on the cold stone floor last night...

And still, I ran.

The forest greeted me like a beast.

Branches clawed at my arms, thorns tore at my legs, and the earth beneath my bare feet was jagged and cruel. Every root felt like a hand reaching up to drag me back. The gown I wore—thin and damp with sweat—offered no protection. Every step I took through the underbrush left blood in my wake.

But the worst pain wasn’t on my skin.

It was inside me, behind my ribs, in the center of my chest, where something living had curled up and started to die long ago. Every breath was shallow.

But I couldn’t stop. I wouldn’t.

If I stop, I die. Not in body, but in spirit. And I had already died once.

It was the first time they dragged me into the warrior quarter. I remember how my body shook for days. How I screamed for help until my throat tore open. How my voice gave out long before their hands did.

That was death without any mercy. Just the slow, rotting kind. The kind you carry with you, inside your bones.

But not today.

Today, I ran.

Today, I bled and didn’t stop.

Today, the flame inside me roared to life...

I didn’t care what I had to crawl through. Who I had to kill. Where I had to go.

I was going to survive and be far away from this cursed place.

Even if it meant crawling out of hell on torn knees.

It hadn’t even been that hard.

The Alpha Wing was quiet this morning. They had all been so arrogant—so high on their own ceremony that they forgot about me, the slave in their eyes. They forgot that their rooms were unguarded, and they left me alone, too busy with their crowning ceremony.

Because who would run?

Who would dare escape when they’d made sure to break me in every way they knew?

I let out a breath that might’ve been a laugh if it hadn’t hurt so damn much. Bitter and raw, it caught in my throat like a piece of glass.

They thought I had nothing left.

They thought I was so empty that the idea of escape wouldn’t even exist in my head.

But that’s the thing about pain. It gives you a strength they’ll never understand.

My body ached in places I couldn’t name. My hands were raw from climbing over stone walls. My feet bled from the broken roots and sharp rocks underfoot. The silver dagger I carried dug into my palm with every step, but I held it like a lifeline.

It was the only thing that had ever protected me. The only thing I trusted. I’d used it only an hour ago.

The first guard had been laughing—reaching for me like I was some harmless thing. I slit his throat before he could say another word. The second one screamed when I drove my dagger into his thigh and twisted the blade.

I didn’t flinch as I buried it deeper into his body. No one could stop me from escaping this place. Not the guards. Not the Alphas. Not even the Moon Goddess.

I don’t even remember their faces now.

Only the sound of their body hitting the ground. Only the silence that followed.

A branch cracked under my foot, and I stumbled—hard. My knees hit frozen dirt. My palms scraped open. The dagger slipped and landed beside me.

And I broke.

Just for a moment, I curled in on myself, pressing my forehead to the cold earth. My breath came in choked sobs, silent and ragged. I didn’t want to make noise. Noise could bring them closer. But it came anyway.

"I can’t..." I choked. "I can’t do this..."

My voice was so small. So defeated.

And still, I heard them inside my head.

Luca’s sneer.

Kael’s cold, clinical voice.

Lucian’s mocking laugh.

And worst of all... Aeron’s silence.

Their voices twisted together into one poisoned chorus.

You’re weak.

You’re pathetic.

You’ll never make it.

My fingers clenched into the dirt. My jaw locked.

I’d heard those words before—from them, from others, and from myself.

But then—slowly—I lifted my head.

My cheeks were streaked with dirt and tears. My breath still shook. But I wasn’t done. "I’ve done worse," I whispered. "I’ve survived worse."

I picked up the dagger—and still, I ran. I couldn’t afford to cry. If I got caught, these tears would be useless.

Memories stuck to me like thorns.

Luca’s hand in my hair, yanking me back when I tried to crawl away.

Kael’s voice explaining how they’d "train" me.

Lucian, always watching, always smiling at my pain.

And Aeron...

Gods, Aeron.

He hadn’t touched me like the others. He hadn’t mocked me. Hadn’t even looked at me with cruelty.

No. He just... looked at me, like I was some kind of pest.

And then he walked away. He saw what they were doing. He heard Kael. He saw the collar. And he left. He chose to leave me there.

And I don’t know why that’s the one that still stings.

Maybe because—once—I thought he might be different. That maybe he’d stop them. But he didn’t. And I hate him for that.

Not just for what he did. Not just for walking away. But for letting me believe, even for a second, that he might care.

As my head was buzzing with countless memories, a howl split the night air behind me, filled with murderous intent.

I froze. They found out.

Of course they did. I’d killed two of their guards.