CHAPTER 213: CHAPTER 213: I WILL PROTECT YOU

Aeron’s POV~

The moment Selene finished speaking, something inside me snapped.

I had expected the Council to be behind some of her suffering. I had suspected it for days. But hearing the truth directly from her lips... hearing how she almost died because of those men... hearing how the witch mother had dared to lay her filthy hands on her identity...

My blood boiled.

I wasn’t just angry.

I was seething.

My wolf wanted to tear through walls, hunt down every single one of those alphas, and strangle them with my bare hands. But I forced myself to stay still because I knew this wasn’t something we could solve in one night.

The Council wasn’t one man. They were a community. Rooted deep inside every corner of the werewolf world. Killing one alpha would only pull a hundred more to their side.

We needed a plan.

We needed time.

But my calm didn’t come from strategy.

It came from looking at her.

Selene stood there with a cold expression, eyes filled with hatred far too deep for someone her age. She was barely ninety, a young girl by our standards...yet she looked like someone who had lived ten lifetimes of pain.

My chest tightened painfully.

Never once in her life had she known peace.

Never once had she been safe.

Even as our mate, we had failed her. Over and over again. We couldn’t protect her from the witches. We couldn’t protect her from the Council. And the thought that someone had actually changed her face... forced a new identity onto her... almost erased her entire existence...

A fresh wave of rage slammed into me, but this time, it twisted into something else.

It hurt.

Because no one, absolutely no one, should look that lonely while standing in front of their mates.

Before I even realized what I was doing, my knees bent.

I dropped to the floor in front of her and gently took her hand in mine.

Her skin in my palm felt cold, stiff, and guarded. But her eyes... gods, her eyes looked exhausted. Tired of running. Tired of fighting. Tired of surviving.

"How could a young girl carry so much hatred?" I whispered in my mind.

"How much more was she hiding from us?"

She wasn’t telling us everything.

I could feel it.

There was deep hatred hidden in her eyes, and it is not just about the recent attack. She was hiding something that happened in the past.

But I wouldn’t force her.

I would wait.

I lifted my eyes to hers. "Before anything else," I murmured softly, "can I hug you?"

The words felt almost strange coming from me. I wasn’t like Luca or Kael, who threw themselves at any moment. I wasn’t shameless like Lucian. I didn’t want to overwhelm her. I didn’t want to take anything she wasn’t ready to give.

Selene’s eyes softened. Just a little.

The killing intent faded around the edges.

Her lips trembled.

Before she could answer, she nodded.

Or maybe she didn’t even mean to.

Maybe her body just moved on its own.

But the moment she nodded, something inside her broke.

She stepped forward and crashed into my chest.

I didn’t hesitate. My arms wrapped around her small frame instantly. I held her tightly and pressed her head into the hollow of my neck. She smelled like smoke, pain, and something soft and fragile she rarely showed.

I felt her shaking.

And then, very faintly, a muffled sob.

My heart nearly shattered.

She had held herself together all this time. She had survived death, betrayal, manipulation, and loneliness. She had walked through fire alone. And no one...not witches, not wolves, not even us had given her the comfort she deserved.

I lifted her easily and sat her on my lap, cradling her like she was made of both steel and glass. My chest became her shelter. My arms are her shield. She didn’t resist. She didn’t pull away. She simply curled into me, trembling like a child who had finally found a place to rest.

My brothers watched silently.

None of them mocked.

None of them teased.

Their eyes held the same pain that burned in mine.

They wanted to hold her too; I knew that. But they didn’t want to scare her. This was a fragile moment. One wrong move and she might shut down again. So they stayed back and let me be the one to comfort her.

I placed my hand on the back of her head and kept patting her gently, slowly, and consistently. "Don’t worry," I whispered into her hair. "We’re all with you. Always. Don’t resist us, Selene. Let us carry some of this. You don’t have to fight alone anymore."

Her fingers curled into my shirt.

Her breathing hitched.

And she broke.

Tears soaked through my chest.

Her body trembled violently.

I felt everything—her fear, her grief, her exhaustion, her loneliness.

She had stood alone all her life.

She had survived because she forced herself to.

She had even thought of ending her life once... I felt that truth in her shaking breath.

But she hadn’t done it.

Because she wanted something to do...

My grip tightened protectively.

I wasn’t letting her walk that road alone ever again.

Just when her sobs were beginning to soften, a sudden loud pounding slammed against the door. The sharp noise cracked through the room like lightning.

Selene jolted, her head snapping up, panic flashing across her eyes.

I immediately pressed her face back against my chest, covering her ears. "Don’t look," I whispered firmly. "It’s alright."

My eyes flicked to Luca.

He understood instantly and headed to the door.

Kael and Lucian stood up at the same time, shoulders tense, eyes sharp.

"You take her inside," Kael murmured quietly.

"We’ll handle whoever is outside."

I nodded without hesitation.

Without letting Selene see anything, without letting her face even brush the open air, I stood up with her still in my arms. Her legs wrapped weakly around my waist, her face buried against my throat. She wasn’t crying anymore, but she was soft, fragile, and vulnerable.

I carried her quickly but gently toward the inner room.

Behind me, the pounding continued... louder, more impatient, and more threatening.

We didn’t know who had come in the dead of night.

But the danger was real.

And we could not let anyone discover her here.

Not even for a second.

The last thing I saw before stepping inside was my brothers’ faces hardening into the expressions they wore on the battlefield... the faces of killers.

Whatever was behind that door...they should be ready to face the consequences if they dared to knock like this one at their door.

And I was ready to protect the girl trembling in my arms.