The Alpha's Forbidden Vow novel Chapter 81

POV: Selene

Zane was called away by Kael to deal with the political firestorm his defiance at the ceremony had created.

Elder Malachi was demanding a formal hearing.

The Laurent pack was demanding blood.

He left reluctantly, his stormy eyes filled with a silent promise to return.

I was left alone in the vast, ancient library, the silence a heavy blanket.

I turned back to the brittle, leather-bound book about the Silvermoon pack, my mind still reeling from the discovery of my own lineage.

I was not a nobody.

I was the last of a lost Alpha line.

The thought was both terrifying and exhilarating.

A cold, unfamiliar draft suddenly snaked through the library, carrying a scent of winter frost and cold, calculating ambition.

It was a scent that did not belong to the Volkov manor.

My inner wolf, which had been resting peacefully, shot to its feet with a low, warning growl.

I was not alone.

I stood up slowly, my heart beginning to hammer against my ribs.

A figure emerged from the deep shadows between two towering bookshelves.

Ryker Laurent.

He moved with a silent, fluid grace that was utterly predatory, yet his smile was disarmingly charming.

He had somehow bypassed the entire manor’s security, a feat that spoke of his cunning and power.

“Lady Selene,” he said, his voice a smooth, cultured baritone. “Forgive the intrusion. I find that the most important conversations are best had without an audience.”

“What do you want?” I asked, my voice steady despite the frantic beating of my heart. I took a small step back.

“To offer you a gift of sincerity,” he said, producing a thin, leather-bound book from inside his coat. He placed it on the table between us.

The cover was embossed with the snarling panther of the Laurent pack.

“My family’s private chronicles contain sections on the Silvermoon that were… edited out of the public record,” he explained. “I thought you might find them illuminating.”

My eyes were drawn to the book. It was a priceless piece of my own lost history. A trap, most likely, but an irresistible one.

But I wasn’t fully listening.

A cold dread was washing over me, a primal, possessive alarm that had nothing to do with pack politics.

The mate bond.

It was screaming.

A rival.

A powerful, unknown Alpha scent, coiling around my mate.

She was in the library.

And she was not alone.

I cut the connection with the elder mid-sentence.

“Kael!” I roared, my voice a thunderous Alpha command that shook the walls. “To the library! Now!”

I was already moving, a blur of motion, my wolf clawing its way to the surface, driven by a single, murderous imperative.

Protect what is mine.