The Alpha's Forbidden Vow novel Chapter 111

POV: Zane

Rage.

It was a black, hot, and completely irrational tide, and it had consumed me.

I dragged her through the garden, my grip on her arm bruising, my wolf snarling in the back of my mind.

She was mine.

The flower was from him.

He had touched what was mine.

That was the only logic, the only thought that my broken mind could process.

I hauled her through the silent halls of the manor, ignoring the shocked and terrified looks from the servants we passed.

I took her to my wing, to my bedroom, and shoved her inside.

The heavy oak door slammed shut, the sound echoing in the vast, opulent room.

She stumbled back, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear and a defiant anger that only seemed to fan the flames of my own fury.

“What is wrong with you?” she cried, her voice trembling.

“What is wrong with *me*?” I snarled, advancing on her. “What is wrong with *you*? You are my mate! Your body is marked by my claim! And you stand there, in my home, accepting gifts from a rival Alpha as if you were his whore?”

The words were venomous, ugly, but I couldn't stop them.

The beast inside me was roaring. It saw a threat, a violation of its territory, and it wanted to eliminate it.

“It was a flower, Zane!” she shot back, her fear giving way to her own rage. “He was being kind!”

“There is no kindness between Alphas,” I growled, backing her toward the bed. “There is only power, and the claiming of what one desires. And he desires you.”

I saw the truth of my words in her eyes. She knew it too.

“I belong to you,” I continued, my voice a low, possessive whisper. “And you belong to me. That is the law of our bond. A law you seem to have forgotten.”

I didn't know what to do with this emotion, with this strange, aching pain.

So I did the only thing I could.

I ran from it.

“Do not see him again,” I commanded, my voice the cold, hard authority of the Alpha, a shield for the confused man within.

“You are to remain in this room until I decide otherwise.”

Without another word, without another look at her defiant, wounded face, I turned and strode out of the bedroom.

I slammed the door behind me and engaged the heavy, silver-inlaid lock.

I stood in the silent hallway, my heart pounding with an unknown emotion, my mind a chaotic storm.

I had won the confrontation. I had asserted my dominance.

So why did I feel like I had just lost everything?