Chapter 106

Zane POV

“Daddy?” Grace asked.

“Mommy?” Chloe asked in the same moment.

Sarah and I stepped back from each other—well, leapt back more like, but there was no excusing away that we’d been kissing, and really deeply.

I raked a hand through my hair, and Sarah looked like she was unconsciously straightening her blouse. Damn it. I’m sure we looked guilty as hell.

“Are you getting married?” Chloe asked.

“Will you be Mommy for real?” Grace wanted to know.

“Now,” Sarah said. “Girls. Your father and I—marriage is very complicated.”

“Very,” Zane said.

The girls frowned at us. I realized they were still wearing their backpacks.

“Why are you home early from school?” I asked, fearing the worst.

“They had a half-day,” Grace said. “We told Ollie.”

“Well, you should tell us too when things like that happen,” Sarah said.

“Is that why you were kissing?” Chloe asked. “Because you didn’t think we’d be home?”

She looked at me, and I’m sure I wasn’t successfully hiding that I was enjoying myself.

You jerk, her eyes told me.

“Is this another of those private-not-secret things?” Grace asked.

“Yes!” Sarah said, obviously ready to grasp at anything. But actually, that made sense.

“Yes,” I said. “This is something private for the family right now, and something secret from others. Do you understand?”

I could see they didn’t.

“Your father and I are figuring out a lot of things right now,” Sarah said. “We love you both so much, and we like each other, but we can’t just date like other people. It’s part of how your father is so important.”

“You love me?” Grace asked, her eyes huge and her voice small.

Of course, Sarah practically fell to her knees and threw open her arms. Grace ran into them, which about knocked Sarah over with the added weight of that Japanese backpack. “Of course! I love you very much!”

I looked carefully at Chloe, but she was beaming.

Sarah shot me a look, which softened instantly. She said to Chloe over Grace’s shoulder, “Let me try to explain.”

A knock on the door led to Hans’s entrance. “Excuse me, Alpha Zane.”

“Yes?”

“You’re wanted urgently on the line in your office.”

I felt my eyebrows go up. That was a secured line. I excused myself to Sarah and the girls and went into my study, closed the door, turned on the white noise generator, and picked up the blinking landline.

“Alpha Zane here,” I said.

“The is Foreman Reynolds,” a voice said urgently. I placed the British accent instantly. “Foreman of the coal mines in the Abrigan Mountain Reserve.”

“Gerry?” I asked, mostly to indicate I knew who he was.

“Yes.” The voice sounded relieved, and the next words were more measured. “I’m afraid we’re having trouble here with some of the workers.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“Well, to be frank, sir, they’re making a bit of a riot.”

“‘Making a riot?’”

“Yes, well, all right. Yes. They’re rioting, about a hundred of them, though I supposed it could also just be called an agitated protest.”

“Why are they rioting, Gerry?”

“Well, sir, because they have reason to, and that’s why I’m calling on the secure line. You’re going to hear from your project manager that they’re just acting out or causing trouble because they don’t understand things. But, sir, you need to come down here and see for yourself.”

“I spoke with Marge Tellis just a few days ago,” I said. “She said everything was going well there.”

“Well, she would, sir.”

I heard an alarm go off over the line.

“What’s that?” I demanded.

“I’m sorry, sir. I need to go.”

The line went dead. I replaced the headset.

“Well, shit.”

I got out my cell to call Travis.

“Alpha Zane?”

“What do you know about what’s going on at the Abrigan Coal Mine?”

There was a long minute of silence. “Alpha?”

“Yeah, I thought so. Looks like Tellis has been hiding something. Foreman Reynolds just called me, and there’s some sort of riot/protest going on.”

“I’ll check it out.”

“No. Reynolds is a good man and an excellent beta. If he’s calling me directly, I need to see what’s going on for myself.”

“I’ll go with you then.”

“No. I don’t like this. The rogue, the shooting, all of it. Something very wrong is going on here, and it’s targeting me and my family. I want you to stay and look after Sarah and the girls.”

“Alpha, I don’t—”

“Assign whatever duty you like to me, whoever you think can keep me safe whatever happens, and have them meet me at the helipad ibn one hour. I’m going, and you’re staying here to keep my family safe.”

There was another pause. “Yes, Alpha.”

“Good. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.”

I ended the call and turned to see Hans standing in the doorway. As a gifted beta, he knew when the alphas around him needed him, and I assumed he was especially attuned to me, as he had been to the pack alpha before me.

“I’ll need clothes for a few days,” I said. “Two suits, the rest work clothes. I’m going to the Abrigan Mine.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

Sarah didn’t demand explanations when I said I needed to go away for pack business. I kissed the girls goodbye confident that their goddess-mother would ensure they didn’t go telling all their friends about the “kissing incident.”

I met Danielle and Luke at the helipad, along with the pilot, and we made our way into my Airbus Ach130, Aston Martin Edition (No James Bond jokes, please), which had more than enough room for everyone, including if I needed to bring someone home from the mine. We were in the air quite soon after that.

If the ride had been just a bit farther, it would have been faster in the jet. It was somehow even more shameful that there was a problem like this within helicopter distance.

I pulled up my files on the Abrigan Mine, basic administrative stuff that now looked skimpy, though I knew that was a suspicion bias after Tellis’s phone call. The mine was over two centuries old, founded by then-Pack Alpha Jules Abrigan to meet the growing power needs of the territory and to export for profit.

The mine had been a quick success and had actually had problems from expanding too fast. It ran under miles of land, and the parts that had been abandoned for various reasons had mostly filled with water or just caved in. With a frown, I read about several labor disputes, most of them minor, but nothing at all since Foreman Reynolds had taken over.

I had assumed no complaints from the workers under Reynolds was a good thing. Had I been naive?

I turned to ask Sarah what she thought and found myself looking into Travis’s quizzical face.

Seriously, an hour without her company and I was missing her. I missed my girls too, but it was different. I missed not being there to take care of Grace and Chloe. I missed Sarah because we weren’t together to take care of each other.

So I went back to reading about lawsuits over black lung, local environmental protests, and resent (and not-so-recent) calls for the mine to be shut down.

By the time we set down at the Abrigan Mine landing strip—no helipad, which was concerning—I was supremely irritated at myself. As pack alpha, yes, I had literally hundreds of responsibilities, and the mine was just one of them, but a good look at my records made it clear something was seriously wrong there.