Chapter 228:

🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙

He didn’t speak. He just stared at me, his gaze so intense it felt like he was trying to peel back my skin and see into my soul.

The pressure was suffocating. I took an involuntary step back.

That small movement seemed to trigger him. His hand shot out, his fingers wrapping around my wrist like a steel manacle.

The strength was shocking. It felt like he could crush the bones.

W𝗲 𝗎𝗽𝘥𝖺𝘁𝘦 𝗲𝘷𝗲𝗿𝗒 𝘸𝗲е𝗄 𝗼ո 𝘨𝘢𝘭𝗻o𝘷𝗲l𝘴.𝖼оm

“Pre-set ending?” he snarled, the words ground out between clenched teeth. His voice was the chill of a winter wind. “In your mind, that is the only ending for us?”

I met his furious gaze, refusing to look away, refusing to let the pain in my wrist show.

“Yes,” I answered, my voice clear and steady.

I expected him to explode, to throw me across the room, to hurt me. Instead, he let go.

The fierce emotion vanished from his face, replaced by a terrifying calm.

He leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. “I need to be alone,” he said, his voice weary.

It was a dismissal.

I looked at his pale profile, his tightly pressed lips. My confession today might have just destroyed the fragile trust we had built.

My heart felt like a block of ice as I turned and left the study. But I didn’t regret it. Only by laying out the worst-case scenario could we ever hope to find a new path forward.

Or, perhaps, part ways for good.

Haven Kramer POV:

I paced the corridor outside the study, my mind a tangled mess. One minute, ten minutes, an hour — I lost all track of time. Part of me wanted him to call me back in; another part was terrified he would.

Finally, the door opened. Demetri wheeled himself out.

He looked up at me. His face was still pale, but his eyes were unnervingly calm and clear.

“Haven,” he said, his voice quiet but resonant, each syllable landing like a stone in the silent hallway. “Come here.”

I obeyed, walking until I stood before his wheelchair. He tilted his head back to look at me, his expression more serious than I had ever seen it.

“You’re right,” he began slowly. “In this world, power is everything. A strong Alpha can have anything he wants. Including women.”

My heart sank. This was it. He was accepting my terms.

But his next words stopped my breath in my lungs.

“But, Haven,” he said, his hand closing over mine. His skin was cold, but his grip was unshakeable. “I, Demetri Contreras, hereby make a vow to you, my Luna, my wife. The most sacred vow of a werewolf.”

I stared at him, stunned. A werewolf’s vow, once given, was witnessed by the Moon Goddess herself. To break it was to invite an eternal curse upon one’s soul, a fate worse than any mortal law.

He held my gaze, his voice ringing with solemn clarity. “My loyalty will never wither. My body will never betray. My life will never be separate from yours. From the past, to this moment, until the end of all things, you, Haven Kramer, are my only one.”

.

.

.