The Alpha's Forbidden Vow novel Chapter 93

POV: Selene

The night before the full moon was the worst yet.

A storm raged outside the cave, the wind howling like a grieving wolf, the rain lashing against the stone.

It was a perfect mirror for the storm that was raging inside Zane.

He was awake, but his eyes were not his own.

They were wild, feral, the stormy grey almost completely consumed by the blazing gold of his wolf.

He was burning with a fever so intense I could feel the heat radiating from him from across the cave.

“Zane?” I whispered, approaching him cautiously where he sat, his back against the cave wall, his powerful body trembling with a violent, contained energy.

He looked at me, and for a moment, a flicker of the man I loved, of my Zane, broke through the feral haze.

A look of pure, absolute terror.

He reached out, his hand grabbing mine, his grip surprisingly strong, almost painful.

“Selene,” he gasped, his voice a raw, broken thing. “It’s getting worse. The poison… it’s a living thing inside me.”

“I know,” I said softly, my other hand coming to rest on his fevered brow. “But Cora will have the final ingredient tomorrow night. You just have to hold on for one more day.”

“No,” he shook his head, his eyes wide with a desperate urgency. “You don’t understand. It’s not just the poison. It’s… it’s the wolf.”

His whole body went rigid, a wave of pain so intense it made him cry out, his knuckles white where he was gripping my hand.

“The beast,” he panted, his breath coming in ragged gasps. “It’s fighting. The poison… it’s breaking the cage. It’s tearing down the walls inside my mind. I can’t… I can’t hold it back for much longer.”

“Promise me you will get as far away from this cave as you can, and you won't look back,” he begged, his voice cracking.

Tears streamed down my face, hot and silent.

I looked at the man I loved, the father of my child, as he fought a battle for his own soul.

I brought my other hand to his face, my thumb stroking his cheek.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I whispered, my voice thick with a resolve that was absolute and unbreakable.

“I will not leave you, Zane. Never again.”

He closed his eyes, a single tear escaping, a testament to his love and his terror.

“Then the Goddess save us all,” he breathed, before another wave of agony claimed him, and his eyes glazed over, the man disappearing once more behind the golden haze of the beast.