The Alpha's Forbidden Vow novel Chapter 91

POV: Selene

The days and nights in the Silvermoon cave bled into one another, a blur of exhaustion, fear, and a fragile, burgeoning hope.

My entire world was reduced to the space of this hidden sanctuary, to the rhythm of Zane’s ragged breaths.

I became his anchor, his sole connection to the world as the Shadowthorn poison waged its war on his body and mind.

Cora was a silent, efficient presence, leaving at dawn to search for the rare herbs she needed and returning at dusk with pouches of roots and leaves.

But the long hours in between, it was just me and him.

I cared for him with a devotion that surprised even myself.

I cleaned the still-healing wound on his shoulder, the angry black vines of the poison a terrifying map of his internal battle. I would gently trace the edges, my own Silvermoon aura instinctively trying to soothe the dark magic, to push it back.

I trickled water past his pale, cracked lips, my fingers brushing against his stubbled jaw.

I wiped the fever-sweat from his brow with cool, damp cloths I soaked in a hidden spring at the back of the cave.

The anger, the years of pain he had caused me, it all seemed to fade, irrelevant in the face of his utter, complete vulnerability.

He was in a constant state of delirium, a feverish haze of past and present.

He would murmur my name in his sleep, his voice thick with a longing that made my heart ache. "Selene... don't run..."

Sometimes, he would cry out for Leo, his brows furrowed in pain, a father calling for a son he barely knew. "My son... have to protect... my son..."

But there were moments of clarity.

Brief, precious windows where the fog of the poison would lift, and his stormy grey eyes would focus on my face with a look of pure, unadulterated love.

In their place was just Zane.

My Zane.

And in the quiet, firelit intimacy of that ancient cave, tending to his wounds, feeling the absolute trust he had placed in me, I felt the last of my own defenses crumble.

The walls I had built around my heart, the ice I had used as a shield, it all melted away under the heat of his fever and his unconditional, vulnerable love.

I was no longer his prisoner, no longer his nanny.

I was his mate.

And I would fight the darkness alongside him, no matter the cost.