The Alpha's Forbidden Vow novel Chapter 48

POV: Zane

My mind was a maelstrom.

Isabella’s pregnancy, the elders’ expectations, my mother’s triumphant planning—it was all a cage, and the bars were closing in.

But my only thought, my only desperate, driving need, was to see Selene.

I had to explain. I had to make her understand.

Though what I was supposed to make her understand, I had no idea.

I found her in her small room. She was on the floor, helping Leo build a tower of colorful blocks.

The scene was so painfully domestic, so peaceful, it felt like a dagger in my gut.

She looked up as I entered, her face devoid of all expression.

The empty, hollow look in her eyes was a hundred times more painful than her anger would have been.

“Selene…” My voice sounded rough, desperate.

She rose slowly, a chilling grace in her movements. “Alpha,” she said, her voice cool and formal. She had not called me that since her return.

Leo, sensing the tension, scrambled behind her, peeking out at me with wide, fearful eyes.

“I need to talk to you,” I said, taking a step into the room.

“I believe my duties for the day are complete,” she replied, her voice flat. “Leo and I were about to read a story.”

“This can’t wait,” I insisted, my control slipping. “About Isabella… I did not know. It was a mistake. A single, drunken mistake.”

My wolf, my Alpha, my very soul, could not allow it.

I moved, blocking her path. “We are not finished.”

She finally looked up at me, her gaze so cold it could have frozen fire.

“Oh, but we are,” she whispered. “We finished five years ago.”

She looked at me, the man who had broken her heart twice, and dismissed me with a final, devastating calm.

“Now, if you will excuse us, Alpha. My son is waiting.”

She brushed past me, her shoulder barely grazing my arm, and walked out of the room without a backward glance, leaving me standing alone in a sea of childish toys, my world shattered.