Chapter 123

Sarah POV

I really wanted to stay with Grace and Chloe, and Zane and I needed to go back to the Abrigan Mine to celebrate the opening of a new school in the area for training people to work in geothermal energy. It had been thrown up in record time and was staffed with people I knew had been schooling children unofficially before that, so we had to go, and we took the children with us, including Jordan, after we’d called his parents.

The helicopter set down in the middle of the mine, whose tiers now climbed up to the sky all around us. To my surprise, the rotors were blowing away little stacks of wildflowers that had been tied in bundles, and when we disembarked, I saw more bundles and little groupings of candles that had been burning but were now out.

“They’re for you,” Zane told me as I stood over three candles tied together with a bit of ribbon.

I reached into my purse, hoping for some stray matchbook even though I was pretty sure I didn’t have one.

“Here, Miss Sarah,” one of my bodyguards, Jackson, said, surreptitiously handing me a lighter. I knew he wasn’t supposed to be interacting with me like that and took it without looking at my hand. Then I stooped down to the candles and re-lit them.

“It’s good to see you,” Shotz said as he walked toward us. He smiled as I nodded and went to another group of candles to re-light them too.

“And to see you,” I said. “I can’t believe you’ve gotten a school together so quickly.”

I stood and saw more people were working with the candles. I put the lighter in my purse with a mental note to return it to Jackson later. When I looked up, Shotz had been joined by about a dozen other miners, all of whom were smiling at me.

“It’s wonderful to return here and know there’s been such an improvement in working conditions,” I said, well aware two of the miners were aiming their phones at me. Grace, Chloe, and Jordan got out of the helicopter and joined me, as did Zane after a moment. “The Abrigan Mine is now an example of just what can happen when humans and wolves work together to benefit everyone.”

“It’s just a few trailers we’ve thrown together,” Shotz said modestly.

I was about to make a comment about underplaying their work when Jordan said, “It’s not the buildings that make a school. It’s the people and their commitment to education.”

I nodded.

Jordan continued, “My territory includes Madrid, which hosts some of the best schools and, of course, the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, which is one of the finest universities in the world. I know from my own experience that the best teachers are those who care, and the best students are those who are eager to learn. I’m sure both are the case here, with students eager to learn about geothermal energy and teachers who want to lead us into a new age of sustainable energy.”

People nodded and took photos. I was sure Jordan’s little speech would be all over the internet in a few minutes. And Ella thought she was going to take this kid out with a phantom glucose intolerance? My Aunt Fanny.

Agent Travis came up to us then, looking like a miner himself in dusty overalls. “We’ve got a place set up for the family,” he said, which I noticed made all the children smile.

I looked down at them, all too aware of the number of social media posts this was going to lead to. “We’ll bring Selene with us next time, if we can,” I said, and they looked excited.

Zane nodded at me over the children’s heads, and we made our way through the crowd to a large tent and then inside to see beds and tables and chairs, obviously set out for the pack alpha and his family. The tent itself was olive green, but there were swaths of blue and green fabric that made it feel quite festive, and there was a scent of jasmine in the air. Someone had also plopped down a half-dozen large floor pillows in wildly colorful designs.

“That was a great speech,” Chloe was telling Jordan. “How did you know to say all that?”

Jordan quietly started to explain, and I very much wanted to hear his answer, but then there was a miner I didn’t know in front of me giving me about a hundred envelopes.

“From the people who live here, Miss Sarah,” he said before spinning sharply on his heel and exiting the tent.

I looked down at my armful of letters before finding a seat and opening one, which told me I was a gift to the territory. The next was a letter telling me I was wonderful and that my goddess-children were blessed in their goddess-mother.

The next note was full of flowers and hearts on the outside and in the inside told me someone was going to kill me, rape my daughters, and slit Zane’s throat.

I looked up and found Travis, who was standing next to Zane’s desk and nodding about something. He came over, and I wordlessly handed him the letter and its envelope, which only read my name.

As much as I disliked the letter, I disliked even more the unsurprised look on Travis’ face as he read it.

“How many like this have you gotten?” I asked him.

Travis looked at me seriously and said, “A few.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me?”

“And achieve what? You’re a public figure, and public figures get hate mail. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

“No?”

“No, but we watch for things that tell us it’s a letter from someone who may have sent a letter before, or if they have some sort of insider knowledge, or if there’s any reason to think it’s not just some jackass who has nothing better to do.”

I wanted to say something clever then, but instead I felt a wave of aggression pass over me. Whoever had written that letter had a grudge against my family, and I realized I wanted to make them pay, make them suffer for saying something so vile. In fact, I wanted to rip out their throat and piss on their grave.

Instead, I just gave Travis a bit of a smile and asked if he thought we should send Jordan home for his own safety.

“I think Jordan’s parents are the ones to ask,” Travis said, looking over to Zane, who had heard what we were taking about and walked toward us.

In a few minutes, we had Jordan’s parents on Zoom, and though it was quite late for them they looked immaculately dressed and highly concerned. Moreover, looking at them, I realized the mother, Zane’s sister-in-law, was human.

That was fine, of course, but I was surprised I hadn’t been able to tell that about Jordan. Then I chided myself not to believe stereotypes. Jordan was an alpha. That was all that mattered about him, and only because it was such a large part of his social interactions.

But still, it was odd. A human mother of an alpha? I didn’t think I’d ever heard of that before.