Alpha Damien's Trouble Maker (by Ruby Anne) novel Chapter 163

Chapter 163

Selene

For a person to keep growing until they reach their full potential they have to push themselves beyond the limits others try to place on them. That had always been the ideology I lived by.lent alone meant nothing if it was not sharpened through pain, discipline, and relentless effort.

If I wanted to reach the peak of my power, then I had to carve my way there with my own hands.

In my past lives, I endured training that would have broken ordinary warriors. I fought opponents who were stronger, older, and far more experienced than I was at the time. Many of them looked at me and saw nothing but weakness. They did not respect my name, nor the blood that ran through my veins. To them, I was something fragile, something easy to crush, and test their blades against for amusement.

They searched for ways to humiliate me, to injure me, to prove that I did not belong among them.

But I never gave up.

No matter how many times I was knocked to the ground, I picked my sword back up. No matter how many cuts covered my body, no matter how much blood soaked into my clothes, I ignored the pain and kept fighting. To those people, I was like a pig waiting to be slaughtered. No one believed in me. They whispered that I was weak, that I would never amount to anything beyond a decorative figure.

And for a time, in all of those lives, I believed them.

That is the dangerous thing about the human mind. It desperately wants something to hold on to, and believe in.

If you do not believe in yourself, it will start believing in whatever voices surround you the most. If enough people call you weak, your mind begins to accept it as truth. You begin to shrink yourself to fit their expectations.

You begin to see yourself as small.

When I looked at Chloe, I saw pieces of who I used to be. She was like the purest version of my former self. A girl who only wanted to be acknowledged. A girl who wanted someone to tell her that she was enough. A girl who tried her best, even when the world treated her efforts as insignificant.

Maybe that was why I grew attached to her so quickly.

There were many things I could tolerate in this world. I could tolerate Sienna’s shrill voice and her endless schemes. I could tolerate my brothers acting foolish and reckless. I could even tolerate Adrian’s presence, because none of them truly mattered to me.

But there was one thing I would never tolerate.

I would never allow anyone to harm the people I considered mine.

Harming them was the same as harming me. And those who dared to lay a hand on what belonged to me in this lifetime would not walk away unscathed. I would make sure their regret followed them like a shadow. It would become the worst mistake of their lives.

My gaze shifted to Prince Caspian.

Outwardly, my expression remained calm, but beneath the surface, I could feel something simmering in every vein of my body. The crowd around us had fallen into stunned silence as they stared at the scene before them.

I had stopped his whip with my bare hand.

The whip itself was no ordinary weapon, and neither was the man who wielded it. It carried force, precision, and killing intent. To most warriors, blocking it empty-handed would have meant shredded flesh and broken bones.

But I was Selene Bloodrose.

I had lived ten lives and died ten deaths. Compared to the trials had endured, this whip was not an impossible obstacle. It was merely another test.

Caspian’s usual bored and lazy expression had vanished. The indifference he wore like a crown was gone, replaced by surprise and suspicion. His eyes studied me carefully, as though rying to peel back layers I had not intended to reveal.

For a brief moment, he said nothing, then his lips curled upward but there was no warmth in that smile, or even amusement. It was the kind of smile a predator gives when it realizes the prey might have teeth.

He slowly dragged the whip back from my grasp and tilted his had at me, examining me with open curiosity now.

From the stands, someone gasped loudly.

“Impossible,” a voice muttered in disbelief. “Did that boy just block Prince Caspian’s whip with his bare hands, or am I seeing things?”

“You are not seeing wrong,” someone else in the crowd whispered hoarsely, and I could hear the fear laced through his voi even from the center of the arena. “gods… that weak boy who hid behind a protective spell on the first day just blocked something like that as if it were nothing. Who the hell is he? How is he that strong?”

The murmurs spread through the crowd, but I did not take

If he wanted a real fight, then I would give him one.

my eyes off him.

Behind me, movement caught my attention. Miles had rushed into the arena, followed by the same men who had bullied Chloe at the entrance the other day. His expression was no longer playful or childish. It was sharp, and commanding.

“Quick,” he ordered, his voice cold and steady. “Take her to the pack doctor.”

The men immediately bowed their heads.

Boss.

boss.”

Interesting.

They moved carefully, lifting Chloe as though she were something fragile and precious, and carried her out of the arena with surprising gentleness. My jaw tightened slightly as I watched her unconscious form disappear beyond the crowd.

Caspian’s gaze shifted in their direction, but I stepped to the side deliberately blocking his line of sight.

“That is enough,” I said calmly.

The silence was heavy, and suffocating.

I lifted the sword slightly and looked at him, my voice dropping

“When a child does something wrong, you discipline them properly. Do not worry.”

I pointed the blade toward him.

“This elder will discipline you right now.”

I took a step forward, fully prepared to move, when suddenly two figures appeared beside me in a blur of motion.

I paused, the tip of the sword still angled toward Caspian’s throat and slowly turned my head to the side.

Yara stood there with a calm, almost pleasant smile on her face, as though we were not in the middle of a battlefield but at some quiet gathering. Her dagger was steady, the edge hovering lose enough to my skin. There was no hostility in her expression, yet there was no hesitation either. She would strike if necessary.

On my other side, Kauis looked entirely different. His eyes gleamed with unconcealed excitement, his lips curled upward as though he had just discovered a new toy. The energy gathering around his raised fist pulsed faintly, restrained but eager. It was obvious he wanted to fight me. Not out of loyalty to Caspian not out of anger, but out of curiosity. He wanted to measure me, to test how far my strength truly went, but he was holding himself back.

For a brief moment, the four of us stood in a stalemate, the tension thick enough to suffocate the air, then a familiar female voice drifted across the arena.

“Oh, that is enough for today.”

I lifted my gaze toward the stands.

The host stood there, her posture elegant, her expression carrying a mixture of disappointment and amusement, as though she had just watched a performance that ended too soon. Her eyes lingered on me.

“Contestant Noah,” she said smoothly, her voice carrying effortlessly across the silent arena, “you have broken an important rule of the battle.”

The crowd stirred at her words.

“No other contestant is permitted to interfere in someone else’s fight,” she continued, tilting her head slightly. “But you not only entered the arena uninvited, you interrupted an ongoing match between two participants.”

Her lips curved into a small smile.

“For your interference in the battle, you are henceforth disqualified from the Crimson Warrior Rite.”

The words echoed.

Disqualified.