The Alpha's Forbidden Vow novel Chapter 69

POV: Selene

My eyes were squeezed shut, my body tensed, awaiting the cold, searing plunge of the poisoned blade.

The scent of silver and the strange, chemical tang of the unknown poison filled my nostrils, a potent cocktail of death.

My heart hammered against my ribs. This was it. The end.

Then, a blur of motion.

A roar that shook the very foundations of the manor, filled with more raw Alpha power than I had ever felt from Zane before.

It was the sound of pure, unadulterated rage, a furious, protective snarl that tore through the air.

My eyes snapped open.

Zane.

He was there.

I hadn’t even heard him approach. He had burst into the room, his form a whirlwind of speed and power.

I felt a spike of his terror and rage through our bond just a second before he appeared.

Marcus, mid-lunge, his dagger aimed directly at my heart, hesitated for a split second, startled by the sudden, terrifying arrival of the Alpha.

It was all the time Zane needed.

He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t try to block.

With a single, primal roar, Zane threw himself directly in front of me, placing his body, broad and powerful, as a living shield between me and the lethal blade.

The dagger, still arcing downward with Marcus’s full force, plunged deep into Zane’s left shoulder.

A sickening thud.

A gasp, sharp and painful, ripped from Zane’s lips.

The blade, laced with the strange, greenish poison, buried itself past the hilt, disappearing into the thick muscle of his shoulder.

Blood, dark and vibrant, instantly bloomed on his pure white shirt, spreading in a horrifying crimson stain.

The silver sizzled against his shifter skin, a visible, agonizing reaction.

He was dying. For me.

“Zane!” I screamed, finally finding my voice, a raw, desperate sound.

I scrambled to him, my hands trembling as I tried to help, to somehow stop the bleeding, to ease the agony I could smell rolling off him.

But the silver was doing its work. The wound was sizzling, burning. The poison was fast.

His eyes, once so vibrant and full of a tormented fire, were starting to glaze over.

His body swayed, the strength draining from him at an alarming rate.

He looked at me one last time, a faint, possessive tenderness in his fading gaze.

Then, with a heavy, broken sigh, he collapsed into my arms, his strong body going limp and still.

He was unconscious.

And I knew, with horrifying certainty, that he was dying.