The Alpha's Forbidden Vow novel Chapter 50

POV: Zane

I felt like I was walking to my own execution.

I entered the grand salon, the weight of the council’s ultimatum crushing my soul.

Isabella was on the sofa, a picture of serene motherhood, discussing nursery colors with my beaming mother.

They were planning a future that felt like a prison sentence to me.

And Selene was there.

She stood by the tea cart, her posture rigid, her face a pale, beautiful mask of indifference. She was forced to serve them, to be a silent, invisible witness to the construction of the life that was replacing hers.

Seeing her so broken, so empty, because of me… it was an agony beyond words.

Just then, Elder Malachi and two other elders entered the salon. Their timing was, of course, perfect. They had come for my public surrender.

Every eye in the room turned to me.

Isabella’s, shining with victory.

My mother’s, filled with expectation.

The elders’, heavy with the unyielding weight of tradition.

My gaze moved past them all, seeking out the only person in the universe who mattered.

Selene.

Our eyes met across the vast, silent room.

I tried to pour all my pain, my regret, my trapped desperation into that one look. I’m sorry. Forgive me. I have no choice.

She saw it. I know she did. For a fraction of a second, I saw a flicker of her own pain reflected in her eyes. Then it was gone, replaced by that same, soul-deep emptiness.

“Zane,” Malachi’s voice boomed, shattering the silence. “We await your decision.”

I felt like a wolf with its leg caught in a steel trap, chewing it off to escape, even knowing the escape would lead to a slower death.

I closed my eyes. The image of Selene smiling in the park flashed in my mind.

Then the image of the blood on the sheets.

My duty. My failure. My son.

The physical pain was a distant, insignificant thing compared to the absolute death of my soul.

I didn’t flinch. I didn’t cry out.

I just stared at him.

I watched him choose his duty.

I watched him choose his pure-blooded heir.

I watched him choose her, forever.

He was still looking at me, his face a mask of pure, agonizing torment.

He looked like a man being torn in two.

But it didn’t matter. His pain couldn’t un-break my heart. His regret couldn't un-shatter my world.

I held his gaze, and I let him watch as the last tiny flicker of light, of hope, of love for him that had stubbornly survived inside me, finally, completely, went out.

And there was nothing left but the dark.