The Alpha's Forbidden Vow novel Chapter 86

POV: Selene

“Zane!”

My scream echoed in the small, dusty cabin, a raw sound of pure terror.

He was on his knees, his body convulsing, his hands clawing at the rough wooden floorboards.

The ancient map, the key to my past, lay forgotten on the table.

None of it mattered now.

I scrambled to his side, my hands hovering over his trembling frame, unsure of what to do. “Zane, what is it? What’s wrong?”

He threw his head back, a guttural roar of agony ripping from his throat. It was not the sound of an Alpha, but of an animal in its death throes.

That’s when I saw them.

Creeping out from under the collar of his shirt, spreading from the healed scar on his shoulder, were thin, black lines.

They looked like twisted, thorny vines, pulsing with a malevolent, dark energy, slithering across his skin like living things.

They were crawling their way down his arm and across his chest, a dark web of poison making its claim on his heart.

“The poison,” I breathed in horror. Elias’s warning, Isabella’s curse—it was all coming true.

His skin was burning hot to the touch, yet a deathly, clammy cold radiated from him. His stormy grey eyes flashed a painful, brilliant gold, the color of his wolf, as his body fought a war against itself.

His bones began to make a sickening, creaking sound, the sound of a forced, unnatural shift.

I placed my hands on his burning forehead, ignoring his pained growl of warning. I closed my eyes and reached for the power inside me, the quiet, calming aura of the Silvermoon.

I focused, pushing it out, a wave of gentle, soothing energy aimed at the storm raging within him.

For a moment, it worked.

His trembling subsided slightly, his breathing evening out. The golden glow in his eyes dimmed.

But then the poison fought back.

The black vines on his skin seemed to pulse with a renewed, vicious energy, and a fresh wave of agony wracked his body, so intense it threw him flat on his back.

He was losing.