Chapter 23: Chapter 23

SELENE

The waiting was the worst part.

Every minute that passed felt heavier, thick with anticipation. My body still ached, my skin too tight, like it didn’t quite belong to me anymore. My wolf stirred somewhere deep inside me, restless, pacing, but she wouldn’t surface.

Something was wrong.

I knew it.

And so did he.

Alpha Theron hadn’t left my side. He sat on the edge of my cot, one foot planted firmly on the floor, the other leg bent, his elbow resting on his knee. His posture was deceptively relaxed, but I could see the tension in him. The way his fingers curled into the sheets beside me, the way his head tilted just slightly, listening, always listening.

He was waiting, too.

I swallowed, shifting slightly under the blanket. “Are you sure about this?”

His head turned toward me, those storm-cloud eyes unreadable. “I don’t take risks with what’s mine.”

A shiver crawled down my spine at the possessiveness in his tone. But this wasn’t just about me. This was about whatever had been buried inside me all these years. Whatever had locked my wolf away, keeping me weak, keeping me caged.

And now, even after shifting, something was still keeping her from fully waking.

“I just—” I hesitated, fingers twisting into the blanket. “What if they find something we don’t want to know?”

The man exhaled, slow and measured. Then he reached out, tracing his fingers along my wrist, his touch firm. “Then we face it.”

Before I could respond, the door creaked open.

The witch the alpha had requested had arrived.

The air changed instantly, thickening like a storm rolling in. The scent of burning sage drifted into the room, undercut by something earthier—something older. A figure stepped through the doorway, wrapped in layers of deep crimson and black, their robes woven with intricate symbols that shimmered in the dim light.

Their face was obscured by a low hood, but their presence alone commanded attention.

Lillian entered behind them, her expression carefully schooled into neutrality. “Alpha,” she said, bowing her head slightly. “This is Madame Verda.”

He didn’t respond immediately. He merely turned his head toward the witch, listening. Assessing.

Then he stood, his presence filling the space between us and her like an unspoken barrier. “Tell me what you need.”

Madame Verda moved closer, her footsteps eerily silent. When she finally spoke, her voice was soft but sharp, like the edge of a blade hidden beneath silk.

“I need to see her wolf.”

A strange chill ran through me.

The alpha’s stance remained unmoving, but I felt the subtle shift in his energy. He didn’t like that request. I wasn’t sure I did either.

Madame Verda lifted a hand, her fingers adorned with rings that caught the flickering lantern light. “There is something binding her,” she murmured, more to herself than to us. “Something that has been in place for a very long time.”

I clenched my fists. “I shifted.”

“You did,” the witch acknowledged. “But you are not free.”

Alpha Theron inhaled sharply through his nose. “What do you need to do?”

Madame Verda tilted her head slightly. “A deeper pull. I need to reach inside her. To see the ties that still hold.”

I swallowed hard. “Will it hurt?”

“Yes.”

The man growled low under his breath, but I placed a hand on his arm, gripping lightly. I had been running from this long enough. If I wanted to survive—if I wanted to be whole—I had to face it.

I met the witch’s gaze, forcing steel into my voice. “Then do it.”

She nodded once before stepping forward, lifting both hands over me. The air shifted, thick with something unseen, something ancient. Her fingers moved slowly, tracing patterns in the air, and then—she touched me.

A sharp, ice-cold shock shot through my veins, and I gasped, my body jerking against the cot. My vision blurred, the edges of the room smearing like wet paint, and then—

I was somewhere else.

Dark corridors. Shadows twisting. A feeling of drowning in something thick and suffocating.

And then—I saw her.

My wolf.

She was pacing in a cage of gold, her body sleek and powerful, her eyes burning with untamed fire. She snarled when she saw me, not in rage, but in frustration.

I took a step forward, but something stopped me.

Chains.

They wrapped around my wrists, my ankles, invisible but impossibly heavy. I yanked against them, panic rising, but they wouldn’t break.

Madame Verda’s voice echoed through the space, distant yet clear. “She is bound. Not by nature, but by force.”

A chill skated down my spine. “What does that mean?” I asked abruptly, worried.

The witch exhaled slowly, her fingers twitching as she turned her attention to the man beside me, her expression unreadable. “She was cursed.”

He went rigid. “Explain.”

Madame Verda shifted slightly, her gaze moving between us both before settling on me, her voice laced with something that felt too much like pity. “I need to go deeper.” She hesitated. “It may not be painless.”

I swallowed hard, ignoring the faint tremor in my fingers. “Do it.”

The alpha tensed, but he said nothing. I knew he hated this. Hated that I was in this position at all. Hated that he didn’t have control over it.

The witch reached forward, her fingers pressing lightly against my temples. The second she touched me, another wave of ice shot through my veins and images flashed through my mind.

And then, a whisper, curling through my mind like smoke.

“~He did this.~ ~He locked me away~.”

The words weren’t mine. They came from the wolf. From the part of me that had been caged for so long.

And I knew.

I knew who she meant.

I gasped as I was yanked back into my body, my eyes flying open, the witch’s hands retreating from my skin like she’d been burned.

My mate was already there, his hands on my shoulders, his grip firm but careful. His jaw was tight, his breathing controlled, but I could feel the storm raging beneath his skin.

I turned to Madame Verda, my voice shaking.

“Who did this to me?”

The witch’s lips pressed into a thin line. “The alpha’s father.”

The air in the room thickened—heavy, suffocating. The scent of burning sage was drowned out by the sharp tang of something darker, something violent curling at the edges of the silence.

I blinked. The alpha’s father?

The thought barely had time to form before I felt it—Lux going still, the slow, measured rise and fall of his breath shifting, turning razor-sharp. His fingers flexed around my shoulders, not painful, not restraining—just there. Grounding. His body was wound tight, every muscle drawn taut like a bowstring ready to snap.

I turned to Madame Verda, my throat tightening. “You mean his father…?”

She didn’t answer.

Because she wasn’t looking at me.

She was looking at him.

Something cold scraped down my spine, the truth settling in before she even spoke.

“He did not want you to find her,” the witch murmured, voice careful, quiet. “The rituals he made you perform weren’t meant to guide you to your mate, Alpha. They were meant to sever the bond before it could ever take hold.”

My stomach dropped.

His breath shuddered through him, slow and sharp, like he was forcing himself to breathe through the weight of the revelation.

He had spent his whole life believing.

Believing that he would find me. Believing that he could.

But instead, his father had been pulling the threads apart before they could ever weave together.

“I thought…” His voice was raw, low, almost hoarse. “I thought it was to bring her closer.”

Madame Verda shook her head, her expression unreadable beneath her hood. “No,” she murmured. “It was to ensure you would never find her.”

Silence crashed into the room.

He released me, pushing to his feet, his movements controlled but lethal. His hands clenched into fists at his sides, his jaw tight enough that I swore I could hear his teeth grind together. His entire body vibrated with barely restrained rage, but it wasn’t wild. It wasn’t reckless.

It was cold.

It was the kind of rage that could end everything.

I pushed up on my elbows, ignoring the ache still running through me. “Luxury—”

His name coming from my mouth felt wrong, and I noticed the way it affected him as he inhaled sharply, nostrils flaring, but he didn’t speak. Didn’t move.

“He took you from me.” His voice was low, but it crackled with something deadly. His throat bobbed with a thick swallow, and I saw his hands tremble—only for a second—before he forced himself back under control. “He took you from me before I ever had the chance to choose you.”

I exhaled, my heart hammering. “We still found each other.”

His expression flickered—something pained, something exhausted beneath all that fury. “Not because of me.”

I swallowed hard. He was right. It had been me. My instincts. My stubborn refusal to accept that I would never shift, that I would never be more than a mortal in a pack that saw me as nothing.

I had forced the bond to break through.

He had been waiting for a pull that had been severed.

And his father had been the one holding the knife.

Luxury’s breath came heavier, rougher. “I need to know what else he did.”

Madame Verda inclined her head slightly. “The severance was not complete. If it had been, she would never have found her wolf at all. That is why you felt something was off when she shifted. The connection was trying to mend itself, but there are scars.” Her gaze flickered to me. “And scars do not heal overnight.”

Luxury flexed his hands, then turned to her fully. “What do I have to do?”

Madame Verda tilted her head. “You have to reclaim what was taken.”

My pulse jumped. “What does that mean?”

The witch’s gaze flickered to me. “It means he must call for you.”

My mouth went dry.

Luxury stiffened beside me, his head tilting slightly as if he were listening to something just beyond the walls of this room.

Then he exhaled. “A ritual.”

Madame Verda nodded. “A real one. Not the ones your father twisted. A call to the bond itself.” She met his gaze. “A call to her.”

I inhaled sharply.

Luxury turned toward me, and I felt his power pressing into me, measuring, assessing. His expression was unreadable, but his voice was absolute.

“We do it.”

Madame Verda’s lips curved ever so slightly. “Then be prepared, Alpha.”

Her gaze flickered to me. “Because this time, you will answer.”