The Alpha's Forbidden Vow novel Chapter 72

POV: Zane

The world snapped back into a horrifying, awkward reality.

My heart hammered against my ribs, a new kind of panic seizing me.

Zane froze above me, his body rigid with a tension that had nothing to do with desire.

I scrambled, pulling my shirt closed, yanking my jeans back up over my hips, my face burning with a shame so hot it felt like a physical fever.

Leo just stood there, his big, grey eyes, so much like his father’s, taking in the scene with a child’s unfiltered curiosity.

“Mama, what are you doing?” he asked, his voice still thick with sleep.

“I… I was just…” my mind was a complete blank.

“Your mother was checking my wound, Leo,” Zane’s deep voice rumbled from beside me. It was weak, but it held a new, calm authority.

He pushed himself up slowly, wincing as the movement pulled at the stitches in his shoulder.

I shot him a grateful look.

Leo’s gaze shifted to his father, his expression a mixture of awe and uncertainty. This was the longest he had ever heard him speak.

“Your boo-boo?” Leo asked, taking a hesitant step into the room.

“Yes,” Zane said, managing a small, pained smile. “A very big boo-boo. Your mother is a very good doctor.”

Leo seemed to accept this. He padded over to the bed, his eyes fixed on the thick white bandage on Zane’s shoulder. “Does it hurt?”

“Yes,” Zane admitted, his voice soft. “But it’s getting better. Because my brave son and my brave mate are here to protect me.”

The word ‘mate’ hung in the air, a quiet, profound declaration.

The immediate crisis was averted, but the charged intimacy of the moment was shattered, replaced by the reality of our shared parenthood.

Later that week, once Zane was strong enough to walk the halls again, Kael returned.

He looked weary from his journey, but his eyes burned with a triumphant light.

He carried a small, lead-lined box.

Inside, nestled on a bed of damp moss, was a single, faintly glowing vine.

Heartvine.

My wolf, now healing and regaining its strength, recognized the sacred herb’s pure, ancient magic.

It was time.

My recovery was swift, my Alpha healing, bolstered by Selene’s constant presence, knitting my body back together.

The poison still lingered, a cold whisper in my blood that Elias had warned me about, but my strength had returned.

And with it, my resolve.

I would not wait another day.

“How dare you!” she shrieked. “After what you did to me in that hotel! You would deny your own child?”

“I would deny a lie designed to trap me and usurp the true heir of this pack,” I countered, gesturing to Leo, who was now standing protectively by Selene’s side.

I opened the box. The Heartvine pulsed with a soft, golden light.

“We will perform the Rite of the Heartvine,” I declared. “Here. Now. The Moon Goddess will reveal the truth.”

The elders murmured their agreement. It was an ancient, sacred rite. Its results were absolute.

Isabella’s eyes widened in pure, animal panic.

Her game was up.

She knew it.

As the guards began to escort her toward the center of the hall, she made her final, desperate move.

As she passed Leo, she let out a theatrical cry of pain, her hands flying to her stomach.

She stumbled, her movements calculated, and threw herself down the short flight of three marble steps that led from the corridor to the main hall.

She landed in a heap at the bottom, a pained, moaning wreck.

And from beneath the folds of her dress, a dark, viscous liquid began to pool on the pristine white marble.

Blood.