The Alpha's Forbidden Vow novel Chapter 100

POV: Selene

I woke up slowly, drifting up from a deep, black, and dreamless void.

My first sensation was warmth.

I was cocooned in a mountain of soft, warm furs, the gentle, flickering light of a fire dancing against my closed eyelids.

My second sensation was a dull, throbbing ache in my neck.

I slowly lifted my hand, my fingers tracing the source of the pain.

It was a mark, two small, perfectly healed puncture wounds surrounded by a pattern of raised, sensitive skin.

The Mating Mark.

It was real. It had happened.

My eyes fluttered open.

I was in the cave, in the nest of furs Zane had built.

The air was calm, smelling of woodsmoke, healing herbs, and the familiar, peaceful scent of my mate.

My mate.

I turned my head.

Zane lay beside me, deeply asleep.

He was not unconscious. This sleep was different—deep, peaceful, and healing.

The feral, red-eyed beast was gone.

The tortured, feverish man was gone.

In their place was just… Zane.

His face was calm in the firelight, the hard lines of stress and agony erased.

The angry black vines of the poison on his shoulder had visibly receded, now just faint, grey shadows under his skin.

His breathing was deep and even.

“He is stable.”

I jumped, startled by the voice.

Cora sat on a rock near the fire, her face pale with exhaustion, but her eyes clear and calm.

She was grinding the shimmering Moonpetal into a paste.

It had been a brutal, painful, but ultimately cleansing, fusion of our souls.

I knew his heart now, as surely as I knew my own.

I watched him sleep, my heart a confusing mix of lingering fear for what had happened, and a deep, growing certainty about our future.

Cora finished grinding the herbs and stood up, stretching her tired muscles.

She glanced at Zane, her witch’s senses probing his aura.

A small frown touched her lips.

“He is beginning to stir,” she said, her voice suddenly crisp and strategic. “The final stage of the purification is about to begin. The magical energies will be volatile as his body expels the last of the poison. It is better if you are not here for this part.”

I looked at her, confused. “What? I’m not leaving him.”

“It’s for the best,” she insisted, her gaze becoming intense. “I need fresh water from the spring we passed, and more of the Sunstone Moss from the cliff face. The energy of the rising sun is crucial. It must be fresh. Go now, Selene. It is a necessary part of the healing.”

I hesitated, my protective instincts screaming at me not to leave his side.

But she was the healer. She was the one who knew the magic.

Reluctantly, I nodded. “I’ll be quick.”

I gave Zane’s sleeping form one last, worried glance, then slipped out of the cave into the cool, pre-dawn air, leaving him alone with the witch.