The Alpha's Forbidden Vow novel Chapter 61

POV: Selene

The day of the Mating Betrothal Ceremony was a masterclass in exquisite cruelty.

Before I was even sent out to serve, Seraphina cornered me in the servant’s corridor. She stood before me, a queen of ice, her eyes raking over my plain black uniform with contempt.

“Let us be clear,” she said, her voice a low, cold whisper. “Today, you are invisible. You are a pair of hands to carry a tray. You will not make eye contact with my son. You will not speak unless a guest speaks to you first. You will perform your duties, and then you will disappear. The entire pack is watching. Do not give them a reason to talk about the Alpha King’s charity case. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Seraphina,” I replied, my voice a hollow echo of submission.

The grand ballroom was a dizzying spectacle of power. Visiting Alphas and their Lunas, dressed in jewels and silks, filled the room, their combined auras creating a heavy, electric pressure in the air that made my human side feel dizzy and my wolf side want to crawl away and hide.

My job was to be a ghost, and I performed it perfectly, my face a blank mask, my eyes fixed on the floor.

Then the ceremony began.

I was forced to stand by the wall and watch the single greatest act of my personal torture unfold.

Zane and Isabella stood on the dais before Elder Malachi. He was a king carved from stone, his face handsome and unreadable. Isabella was radiant, her hand possessively on his arm.

“Before the pack and the Moon Goddess,” Elder Malachi’s voice boomed, “you come to pledge your troth, uniting two great bloodlines as one.”

I watched as they exchanged the formal vows, words of alliance and shared future that felt like physical blows.

“I, Isabella of the House of Laurent,” she said, her voice ringing with triumphant pride, “pledge my strength, my loyalty, and my womb to the Alpha of the Volkov pack, for the continuation of his line and the prosperity of our people.”

“I, Zane of the House of Volkov,” he responded, his voice a flat, cold rumble that betrayed nothing, “accept your pledge.”

The words were a death sentence. My heart, which I thought was already dead, somehow managed to break all over again.

POV: Zane

I stood on the dais, a king in a cage, the scent of Isabella’s triumphant perfume cloying in my nostrils. Every word of the vow I spoke was a lie, a betrayal of the bond that was screaming in my soul. My wolf was a raging beast, clawing at the inside of my skin, howling for its true mate, who was standing across the room dressed as a servant.

Pain. It was a physical, crushing thing.

But beneath the pain, there was a sliver of cold, hard hope.

This was a necessary evil. A means to an end.

My eyes narrowed.

It was him. The doctor. Elias.

What in the hell was he doing here?

Then I saw my mother, Seraphina, greet him with a wide, gracious smile, making a public spectacle of welcoming the "brave human doctor." It was a power play, a move to further humiliate Selene, and I hadn't seen it coming.

My fists clenched.

And then, the worst possible thing happened.

Selene’s eyes, which had been empty and dead, lifted and met the doctor’s. And for the first time all day, a flicker of life, of emotion, sparked in their depths.

It was a look of shock. Of connection.

And my carefully constructed plan, my cold resolve, was instantly consumed by a tidal wave of pure, possessive, Alpha rage.