The Alpha's Forbidden Vow novel Chapter 83

POV: Zane

The silence in my bedroom that night was a heavy, suffocating thing.

The confrontation in the library had ended in a tense, unspoken truce. Ryker had left, a look of cool, calculating amusement in his eyes, having achieved exactly what he’d set out to do: drive a wedge between us.

And he had succeeded.

Selene stood by the window, her arms crossed, her back to me.

Her scent was a confusing mix of her natural chamomile and a new, sharp note of defiant anger.

My wolf was pacing restlessly, torn between the urge to go to her, to soothe her, to reaffirm our bond, and the raging, possessive anger at what I had witnessed.

“He was holding your hand,” I finally said, my voice a low, rough growl. I couldn't keep the accusation out of it.

She turned to face me, and her eyes were not soft or forgiving. They were blazing with a fire I had never seen before.

“He was explaining a passage in a book,” she retorted, her voice sharp. “A book about my family, my history. Something I know nothing about, thanks to yours.”

The blow landed, sharp and true. My father’s pack had destroyed hers. It was an unassailable truth.

“He is a snake, Selene,” I said, my voice tight with frustration. “He is using you. He is using your power as a means to his own ends.”

“And you’re not?” she shot back, taking a step toward me. “Is that not what you’ve been doing? Training me, honing my power, so that I can be a useful asset in your war against the council?”

“I am trying to protect you!” I roared, my control finally snapping. My Alpha power flared, a desperate attempt to reassert the dominance I felt slipping away.

“You forbid me?” she whispered, her voice dangerously calm. “You have no right to forbid me anything.”

She walked toward me until she was standing directly in front of me, her head tilted back to meet my gaze.

“You are not just afraid that he will hurt me, Zane,” she said, her voice a devastatingly accurate blade that pierced straight through my soul.

“You are afraid that I might actually listen to him. You are afraid of losing control of me.”

The new rift between us was no longer a crack. It was a chasm.

She had seen the truth of me, the possessive, controlling beast beneath the guise of the protector.

And I knew, with a certainty that felt like I was bleeding internally, that by trying to hold onto her so tightly, I was once again pushing her away.