Chapter 127: The Price of Power
Vivian’s POV
I rolled my eyes, but parted my lips anyway. The moment the cake touched my tongue, a surprised moan slipped from my mouth. Rich, decadent, and somehow better cold than warm. My eyes lit up as I bounced lightly in his lap from pure excitement.
"Oh my goddess," I mumbled around the bite, "this is so good."
I didn’t notice until too late that Zaliver had gone completely still beneath me.
"Are you trying to give me blue balls?" he growled through clenched teeth. "Because if you are, congratulations. It’s working."
I froze mid-bounce, laughter bubbling in my throat. I reached for the fork, but he angled it out of my reach, grinning like a predator toying with its prey.
"Nope. I’m feeding you," he said smugly, offering another bite.
I gave in. Honestly, I was too comfortable in his lap to argue, and that cake... It deserved genuine praise.
"This is amazing," I said after another mouthful, leaning back against him. "I think I’m in love with this cake."
I closed my eyes, letting the sweetness linger as I smiled to myself. But when I opened them again, I found Zaliver staring down at me, his gaze intense and unreadable.
He leaned in and brushed his lips softly across the corner of my mouth, then the other, before pressing a tender kiss to my lips. I barely had time to react before he whispered against my skin:
"Only the cake?"
"And what did you say?" Hannah leaned forward, her eyes wide with curiosity.
Courtney and Mila mirrored her exact movement, eagerly waiting for my answer, while Mark just rolled his eyes like this whole conversation was beneath him. Across the room, Luke and Johnson paused mid-card game, both looking over at me expectantly. I guess it wasn’t every day you got to listen in on the awkward love life of someone tied to a godlike supernatural Alpha.
I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear, then pulled my knees up to my chest and hugged them tightly, trying to make myself as small as humanly possible.
"I didn’t say anything," I muttered.
"What?" Hannah nearly screeched in disbelief.
I heard Mark shift beside her, probably preparing for more secondhand embarrassment.
"His question caught me completely off guard," I mumbled, the memory still fresh and painfully mortifying. "I... choked. On the cake in my mouth."
Groans and giggles rippled through the room.
I had practically flung myself off Zaliver’s lap, gasping for air and flailing my arms like some uncoordinated maniac. He’d jumped up too, panicking, and started pounding on my back except, apparently, his version of a supportive "pat" felt like being hit with a solid steel beam. I swore I felt a vertebra crack.
The worst part? He completely forgot about the original romantic question and instead scolded me like a stern father figure about the dangers of not chewing my food thoroughly. I wasn’t sure which was more embarrassing the actual choking or the sudden lecture.
Or maybe he didn’t forget, my wolf murmured quietly in my head. Maybe he just chose not to push for an answer.
Yeah... maybe.
I looked up to find all of them staring at me with mixed expressions some amused, others full of pity. Except for Johnson. He just looked downright disappointed in me.
You and me both, honey, my wolf sighed dramatically.
"Aww, you left the guy hanging," Johnson said with a disappointed shake of his head.
Luke kicked him under the table, shooting him a warning look.
But had I really left him hanging? What did I actually feel for Zaliver?
I knew I liked him more than liked him but how deep did that really go? What even was love? I’d never truly known it. Later that afternoon, after spending another hour chatting with the girls, I’d quietly asked them to drive me to the nearest pharmacy. If something major were going to happen between Zaliver and me during my heat, I wanted to be prepared. Just in case.
That single thought alone told me everything I needed to know.
Maybe I really did trust him enough to want him like that enough to consider sharing myself with him in every possible way. And that terrified me, because it meant I was slowly trusting him with my heart. The weight of that kind of vulnerability made me feel like time was rapidly running out.
"You never really told me what to expect during my transformation," I said casually after lunch.
Zaliver had headed off to his office to handle some pack paperwork, and curiosity eventually got the better of me. I followed him in partly to annoy him, partly because I just wanted to be around his presence. He didn’t seem to mind at all, so I curled up on his absurdly plush black leather couch near the window, pulling a soft cotton blanket over my head until only my eyes peeked out.
Zaliver looked up from his dark desk, setting aside a sleek, expensive pen. He rotated his chair toward me, his face calm and composed.
"Ask whatever you want," he said with a small gesture.
I took a moment to gather my thoughts before asking the one thing that scared me most.
"Will it hurt?"
He didn’t hesitate for even a second. "I’m not going to lie to you. Yes. It will."
His blunt honesty hit harder than I expected.
"Unlike your first shift as a werewolf, where the pain of bone-breaking fades quickly from your memory, this transformation... you’ll feel every second of it."
My throat tightened painfully. "All of it?" I asked softly.
He nodded, his gaze unwavering. "Every second. Every part of your body breaks and reshapes itself from the inside out. Bones crunch and stretch, your skin hardens, fur grows in like tiny needles piercing your flesh. Your ribs crack and reform to accommodate your expanding chest. Your internal organs compress and shift. Your face reshapes into a snout. And the absolute worst part..." He paused, his pale eyes steady on mine. "Your spine snaps and breaks to accommodate the new posture. You’d think your nerve endings would go numb, but it’s the exact opposite."
His words painted a vivid, horrifying picture in my mind. I imagined my body bending and twisting under intense pressure, skin stretching, muscles tearing and rebuilding themselves. My stomach twisted nervously.
I wanted to run away right then. To escape all of this. But where could I go?
Nowhere. Because this was my reality now. And deep down, a part of me still wanted it wanted to be stronger, wanted to stand beside Zaliver not just as his protected mate, but as his true equal.
Even if it meant enduring every ounce of the pain.