Chapter 137

Sarah POV

Zane, Melissa, and I met in Zane’s study with Travis and Buddy.

It occurred to me as we were all getting settled that I was glad there was another woman in the room. For werewolves, the rank of alpha, beta, and so on was much more important than male or female, but not for humans. It was probably the main way we ordered ourselves: boys on this side, girls on that side.

So it was nice to have her there for her gender as well as our shared experience in the safe room. It was odd, I realized, how much I liked her, considering she might well end up with Zane.

No, I couldn’t think about that. I was living with the “Zane Thing” moment to moment. I was here in this room to discuss the bomb, the whole bomb, and nothing but the bomb.

“You were right,” Travis told Melissa. “The bomb was rigged with a dead man’s switch. Cutting contact to a radio signal triggered the bomb.”

“Could that mean the bomb was just some sort of distraction and the people behind it didn’t want to kill anyone?” I asked.

“I’m not surprised you would want to think that,” Buddy said. “But there are too many things that could have gone wrong. We’ve tested the strength of the explosive inside the container, and if it hadn’t been detected or if some stray signal from a cell phone or HAM radio had interrupted the signal, it would have gone off.”

“Chandeliers,” Melissa muttered.

“What?” Zane asked.

“Sarah talked about the chandeliers, all that glass if the bomb had gone off.”

“Exactly,” Buddy said. “This wasn’t just some attention-seeking bomb scare. It could have been quite deadly.”

“Which reminds me,” Melissa said, turning to me. “Thibodaux Territory is extending you its greatest appreciation for your actions at the meeting and wants to award you the Friendship Medal.”

“That’s very nice, but I was saving my own bacon too,” I said.

She laughed, and I was again struck by how lovely she looked doing it. My newfound affection for her did a short battle with my envy and won.

“You’ll still get the medal.”

“I’m sure I’m honored,” I said, and she twinkled at me.

“Have you been able to link this bomb to the group that took a shot at Sarah outside the hospital?” Zane asked Travis, raising my hopes there would finally be a link between some of the things that had been happening to me and my family.

“Well, tangentially,” Travis said. “I mean, there was some online chatter about human infringement that was showing up in having a human speaker at the Beta Auxiliary League.”

“I wasn’t the target,” I said. They all looked at me.

“The bomb was much closer to Melissa than to me, and I never saw either of the disguised alphas serving the people on the speaker’s platform.”

“Who would have a problem with Miss Melissa?” Buddy asked. I knew he wouldn’t usually volunteer an opinion or ask a question, but he was here to brainstorm, not to stand over me with a menacing look on his face.

“A strengthened alliance between the Cavendish and Thibodaux Territories wouldn’t be welcomed by a number of factions,” Travis said.

“If so, they’ll be all the more angry by how well Miss Sarah handled it,” Buddy said.

I sighed a little. The news was playing a video clip of me getting up with my empty glass, making my way over to the cart, peering down the other side, and then walking up to the Beta Auxiliary League President Alcon Skillman. His little trick with the phone was clearly a response to what I said, and then there was all this impressive coverage of the hotel’s evacuation.

“It’s clear we’ll need to be even more vigilant with both Miss Sarah and Miss Melissa,” Travis said. “And you both need to stay away from the press, at least right now.”

“Why?” Melissa demanded.

Travis looked over to Buddy, who crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

“Miss Melissa, do you think it’s fair that so many people were endangered just so you could speak about the necessity of training people’s online skills?”

Clearly catching on to the mock interview, she smiled. “Developing employable skills can make all the difference in people’s lives. Education is about giving people the means to make their lives better. Are you suggesting we don’t educate people because there are extremist groups out there who don’t want to see other people succeed in life?”

“I’m just wondering if you understand the consequences for those around you when you decide you need to boost your social media ratings,” Buddy said next.

“Ah, so, promoting education at a luncheon that was not, by the way, livestreamed, but was only for the Beta Auxiliary League, with their long history of promoting education and making life better for everyone—that was only something to do to boost my ratings?”

She rolled her eyes but managed to make the gesture polite. I thought about how I would kill to be able to do that.

“The last time I did something to boost my ratings I wore a bikini,” she said next, and I had to smother a chuckle. “And the time before that I ate a live cricket to promote alternative food sources, a decision I regret to this day. Turns out, humans can eat the things, but not wolves.”

I confess, I laughed this time.

“There’s quite a bit of talk about how the bomb was just a publicity stunt,” Buddy said next, and I could tell he didn’t want to say it. “I mean, the Beta Auxiliary League has certainly gotten a lot of free publicity out of it.”

“But the wrong kind of publicity,” Melissa said. “The BAL’s main mission is to promote the various ways betas contribute to society. Stories that feature the league’s vulnerability to a bomb scare do the opposite of what they want.”

Buddy looked at me, an apology in his determined eyes. “And you, Miss Sarah? If this does turn out to be some stunt against the BAL, how do you feel about being caught up in it?”

“Everyone who speaks out for social justice is united in their cause,” I said, the words just coming out of nowhere. “There is nothing the BAL does that I don’t support, or I wouldn’t have been there in the first place. They were targeted in this most appalling manner of which I can conceive, and the fact that I was there to help in my own small way makes me happy.”

“Hardly a ‘small way.’ You foiled the entire plot.”

“I signaled there was something wrong. After that, the hotel and its agents did an outstanding job seeing to the safety of the guests, and Melissa and I could not have been better attended. I’m proud to be a member of a group of people who averted the loss of life.”

“But if Melissa Thibodaux hadn’t been in the territory, the crisis wouldn’t have happened.”

“For all anyone knows, if a butterfly didn’t flap its wings this morning, there wouldn’t be a typhoon over Japan.”

“You’re resorting to chaos theory?”

“I’m resorting to reality. Anyone who stands up to point out a social injustice will inevitably provoke someone who likes that injustice. That social injustice warrior may well seek to harm others, but what does that have to do with working toward social justice?

“There will always be haters, always be those who seek to benefit themselves by destroying others. What do we have in our arsenal other than people who will say, ‘This is wrong”? The BAL is just a group of betas looking to help other betas. Melissa’s visit here is just to promote peace and mutual enhancement. I applaud her.”

Buddy broke out into a smile, looking very much as though he couldn’t help it.

“With that passion, Miss Sarah, are you sure you’re not a werewolf?”

I laughed hard. “Humans are passionate too, Buddy.”

“Back off, Buddy,” Zane growled, and everyone laughed, including Zane.

Yes, that described my chances with Zane: laughable.