The Alpha's Forbidden Vow novel Chapter 17

POV: Zane

My control shattered.

It did not crack; it exploded.

When the maids reported her room was empty, a cold dread had wrapped itself around my heart.

When I found the note on her pillow, two simple words—I’m gone—that cold dread ignited into a white-hot rage that consumed all reason.

I roared, a sound that was more beast than man, and swept the entire contents of her pathetic little desk to the floor.

My Alpha power, untethered by my conscious mind, flooded the room, making the air crackle and the floorboards vibrate.

The maids whimpered and fled.

My wolf was a savage storm inside me, clawing at my ribs, howling in agony and fury.

MATE IS GONE! OUR MATE! FIND HER!

She had dared to leave me.

She had taken what was mine and vanished.

My frantic eyes scanned the room, desperate for any clue, any sign.

They landed on the small wastebasket by her bed.

And I saw it.

A small, white plastic stick with a tell-tale pink cap.

My blood ran cold.

I reached in, my hand trembling for the first time in my adult life, and pulled it out.

Two lines.

Two stark, crimson lines.

Pregnant.

The world dissolved into a silent, roaring vortex.

The rage, the panic, the betrayal—it was all consumed by a tidal wave of new, warring emotions.

There was the shocking, primal joy of my wolf, a savage ecstasy at the confirmation of a pup. Our pup! An heir!

And then there was the soul-crushing agony of the man.

She was pregnant with my child.

My heir.

“The alliance will happen on my terms,” I roared back, seizing on the excuse, using my rage as a shield to hide my true, desperate motive. “I will not be dictated to by Isabella’s father, and I will not be rushed into a mating when I deem there are security risks within our own territory!”

The lie was believable. It was an Alpha’s power play. It was the only thing that could protect my secret.

They were stunned into silence by my uncharacteristic defiance.

“This is my pack, my future,” I said, my voice dropping but losing none of its menace. “And my decision is final.”

I turned my back on them, a clear dismissal.

They left, seething but subdued by my display of dominance.

The moment the door clicked shut, the mask of the Alpha fell away.

I sank to my knees, my body shaking with a violent tremor.

I slowly uncurled my fist and stared at the pregnancy test.

The proof of my greatest joy and my most profound failure.

I will find you, Selene, I vowed to the empty room, to the ghost of her that still lingered.

I don’t care where you run or where you hide.

I will tear this world apart to find you and our child.