Chapter 127

Scott POV

I turned off the news report on some soybean farm that was doing well and put on a little Chopin instead to let my ears heal from the reporter’s grating voice. Why did people with such unpleasant tones go into broadcasting? I’d pay to get the man fired.

I got on my phone to check the latest about Sarah and was rewarded with a dozen new photos of her and a host of comments. One was a photo I hadn’t seen before from the masquerade. Someone had figured out the masked woman in the hot dress was Sarah.

CantGetOutOfIt: Man, if she was only a wolf! A nice little beta?? GROWL!!

KeepAustinWeird45: Well, she’s human. Deal.

Eggs&Bacon69: OMG, think about it human slaves in the building and shes just standin there like whatever. Im deaded

S: I’m thinking about all those wolves who had no idea she was about to bust their asses. She’s magnificent.

I laughed at the last entry and put the phone down. It was fun to think about how many werewolves were about to get arrested. I’d heard the latest count was over two hundred in jail.

An even better count, in my opinion, was the dozen or so of the ring leaders who’d committed suicide. There was something so tidy about criminals who killed themselves. No loose ends to worry with, no true-crime books written a decade later to cash in on notoriety.

Sarah Astor. It was pleasant just to think her name. I now understood why teenage girls wrote their boyfriends’ names down in their journals.

She was perfect, though she, like those unsuspecting human traffickers, had no idea what life truly held in store for her. I couldn’t wait to travel with her. Would she like Paris? Rome?

I couldn’t wait to take her racing across the ice in a Russian sled at midnight. I’d done it once as a child, escaping the tedium of school with a chum who’d been a wonderful asset, his family as rich as Bill Gates but with the philanthropic spirit of a thunder of dragons. I could still feel the sting of the night air on my face and hear the barking of the dogs as their paws slapped out a thrilling rhythm and the starlight dazzled us from above.

I couldn’t help comparing her with the other one, who was getting tiresome with her little tantrums and demands. What did she think she had, anyway, other than the good luck of an attractive face?

I turned my thoughts away from her. I’d get shed of her soon enough.

The biggest obstacle to my and Sarah’s happiness was obviously my half-brother, who’d been lucky enough to be named Pack Alpha and went around wasting his time praising soybean farms. I snorted. How extraordinarily dull.

I reached for my phone again to check my email, but I hadn’t heard anything new from Jerad. I read back over his last message.

M is coming along quite well. She’s got over a million subscribers at this point, and I think very soon we can bring her forward and have contacted Fabelsonni about making her a Goodwill Ambassador. We need to keep her away from the Children’s Hunger Bank or whatever they’re calling themselves now. More soon.

It was an encouraging sign that Jerad wasn’t complaining anymore about how difficult things were. He saw as well as I did that Zane would have to take the finest mate for the pack, so once we brought her out the rest would fall into place easily enough. Sarah wasn’t the type to be some side piece, and after that, it would just be a matter of being there as a shoulder to cry on.

I let myself fantasize for a moment about what it would be like to enter her, preferably from behind while she submitted like a proper mate while I knew my brother would be thinking about us, would be envying me while he set up his household with his perfect alpha spouse. She’d be active in bed, I just knew, and might cry a little when I bit her properly. After that, the world would know she was mine, and I could live the life I was meant to live, omega bitch for a mother or not.

I thought of her breasts filling my hands. I’d hold her firmly, sinking deep and letting her know where she best fit into her life. I’d have her say my name with every thrust, and if she ever messed up and said Zane’s name instead, I’d punish her for both of our enjoyment. She wouldn’t mind choking on me a little, I didn’t think.

Oh dear. I’d gotten a little excited thinking about it. Well, it was easy enough to take care of. One of the benefits of living alone, I thought with a little laugh.

Afterward, I washed my hands and found myself thinking, oddly enough, of Olivia. She’d been easy enough to manipulate at first, so naive and willing to do anything for the pack. But later, after marriage to Zane had given her confidence, no, I hadn’t liked dealing with her then.

Once she’d become pregnant with twins, there was no reasoning with her. Zane had banned me from the house, not that he’d ever welcomed me into it, and in the end I didn’t even get to see the infants before Chloe was taken. If I had, I would have seen how much Olivia had managed to replicate herself in her children.

I was going to have to deal with the girls soon. Of course, they had every right to be Pack Alphas when the time came, but I didn’t need someone with that much power resenting me close by. The world was full of territories.

I thought then of what they’d really done during that night, including their rescue of the human woman, Zara, of whom there’d been no sign since. I supposed she was back with her people, wherever they were.

Thank the goddess Zane had killed Elsvier, though I did wish the whole thing had taught Sarah to be a bit more cautious. Instead, she was running around exposing corruption at the mine and setting up schools. When she was my mate, I’d keep her closer to home.

Oh well, I was drifting into daydreams at this point. The first step in things didn’t actually involve M, thought she would come into the picture, as Jared said, soon.

No, I needed to see just what sort of trust bond there was between Sarah and Zane. I’m sure she thinks he’s treating her well, but I knew as an orphan Sarah couldn’t feel completely comfortable as his goddess-mother. Anyone, let alone a human, would feel doubts about the responsibility of raising two such powerful alpha girls.

I thought of that night I’d seen them all so happy together, bidding on that Labrador puppy and cooing over it after the handler brought it over. I knew they’d named it Selene.

I wouldn’t mind having a dog like that in the house. Maybe after Sarah and I had mated, Zane wouldn’t want Selene around anymore.