The Alpha's Forbidden Vow novel Chapter 62

POV: Selene

The formal part of the ceremony ended, and the ballroom dissolved into a sea of polite conversation. I was supposed to be refilling champagne flutes, but my feet felt rooted to the floor. Elias was here. The one person who represented a life of kindness, of safety, was now in the heart of my personal hell.

His presence was both a comfort and a terror.

I could feel Zane’s gaze from across the room. It was no longer the conflicted, pained look from before. It was a hard, burning glare of pure jealousy. He had seen our silent exchange, and his tormented mind had already twisted it into a story of betrayal.

I kept my head down, my hands trembling so much that the crystal glasses on my tray chimed a frantic, nervous rhythm.

“Selene.”

The voice was quiet, close, and blessedly kind. Elias had made his way to my side, cornering me near a curtained alcove.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered, my voice frantic with a fear that was entirely for him. “You shouldn't have come. This place is not safe for you.”

“Lyra contacted me,” he explained in a low murmur. “She was worried about you. She said Seraphina invited me, that it was likely a trap. I had to see for myself if you were okay.”

His gaze swept over my uniform, and the pain in his eyes was so genuine it made my throat tighten. “You are not okay, Selene. This is barbaric. They’re treating you like a slave.”

“I’m managing,” I lied, the word tasting like ash.

Zane was staring directly at us. His conversation with the other Alphas had ended. His face was a mask of stone, but his stormy grey eyes were blazing with a fire that promised retribution. His hand was clenched so tightly around Isabella’s arm that her smile had become a strained, pained grimace. She was whispering something to him, likely fanning the flames of his jealousy.

He had seen it all. The whispered conversation. The look of concern on Elias’s face. The brief moment of warmth and connection between us.

In his mind, he was not seeing an act of kindness.

He was seeing a clandestine meeting between his faithless mate and her human lover, plotting treason at his own sacred ceremony.

And I knew, with a certainty that made my blood run cold, that I would be the one to pay the price.