Chapter 142

Sarah POV

I rejoined Melissa in her press tour promoting beta and gamma education at Cavendish University, which meant we ended up sharing a dorm room. It was a very nice dorm room, of course, but still, when we decided to order pizza, we had to laugh at the number of options available, from the university’s own food court-style cafeteria to vegan pies across the street.

We could have gotten our own rooms, of course, but we both wanted company, lying on our beds with our food and ignoring our phones for a while.

“How can you like anchovies?” Melissa demanded, looking at my loaded medium-sized pizza.

“They’re salty bits of yum,” I replied. “Besides, you ordered yours with no cheese. It’s not even really a pizza at all.”

“The cheese makes it too greasy,” she said primly then took a monster-sized bite to make me laugh.

“So, you think the videos are a good idea?” I asked.

“I think it’s excellent. You just need a good channel name.”

“You sound like my publicist,” I grumbled.”

“Let’s Talk Lycanthropes?”

I stared at her, then I realized she was joking, as usual. I was getting used to the way she used humor to deal with the constant pressure, but she still got me sometimes. I snorted.

“What About Werewolves?” I said back.

“Luna the Lupine?”

“Listen to Your Goddess-Mother?”

“Sarah Sass?”

“What is it with you and alliterations?” I asked, reaching for my last slice of pizza even though I was already stuffed.

“They always sound desperate to me,” she said, finishing off her own non-pizza. “Astor Acts Alliteratively.”

“Thibodaux Tells Truths.”

She laughed and then shot me a serious look, and I raised my eyebrows back at her.

“Were you told to back off from the Abrigan Mine project?”

“Not directly, but having you take it over makes sense.”

“Why?”

“You’re a prominent alpha, and whomever you end up mating, you’ve got social clout as a werewolf that makes Abrigan a cause, not a protest.”

“They told me something like that,” she muttered.

“You can scold your fellow wolves for dropping the ball without offending people left and right. You can take up the cause of humanity without sounding like you’re trying to start a revolution.”

Melissa shrugged.

“Do you not want to take it on?”

“Of course I do, but why does it have to be just one of us?” She sighed. “Everyone keeps acting like now that I’ve gotten involved everything is going to work out great, but what do I know about mining? Having a couple million followers on Instagram isn’t a superpower.”

I thought about it. “I guess that’s part of what Zane worries about when it comes to the girls, this idea that a pack-level alpha should be able to handle anything. I guess I’m lucky to be human; the expectations for me are so low that just showing up with a smile is enough to get praise.”

“I think it’s a bit more complicated for you than that.” She picked at her pizza box. “I really enjoyed that video, you know.”

“Which one?”

“You telling off that old hag. Those poor students.”

“Do you really not want me to leave the Abrigan Mine issue to you?”

“I don’t. I mean, I really want you to stay on it and work it with me.”

I shrugged. “Then I will.”

She smiled broadly. “Thank you.”

“I get the better part of the deal. You can teach me about being an influencer.”

“And you can teach me about standing up to old hags.”

I laughed. “It’s a deal.”

Not long after that, she left to take a shower in the blessedly attached bathroom. I still didn’t feel like looking at my phone, so I pulled one of Olivia’s journals out of my bag.

Looks like it’s going to Zane Cavendish after all. I’m glad. You couldn’t find a better Pack Alpha. He’s even handsome. I hear he wants lots of children, which is fine.

When I’d tell Mother about wanting lots of children, she’d tell me to stop talking like an omega, which I do think was pretty shitty of her. I can want lots of kids without being some sort of breeding machine. Of course, if I’d ever told her that, she’d probably have raked me and forbidden me from transforming until bedtime.

Somehow, when it’s the male, they can want all the pups they like, and no one has anything negative to say about it. Doesn’t seem fair, if you ask me. Why shouldn’t I look forward to having little versions of me and my mate running around and getting into trouble?

Between the dark and the daylight,

When the night is beginning to lower,

Comes a pause in the day’s occupations,

That is known as the Children’s Hour.

I hear in the chamber above me

The patter of little feet,

The sound of a door that is opened,

And voices soft and sweet.

(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

I really wonder sometimes if Longfellow weren’t a passing omega. He doesn’t write like a beta to me.

Mother used to be so much kinder back when Ella and I were young. Now all she seems to do is snap at us. And she’s got the oddest ideas about the wedding. She wants us to walk through the streets afterward so people can cheer for us. What is this? 1489?

I can’t even get her to talk about the sort of service I’d like without her going off on some tear about propriety and doing whatever my mate’s advisory board wants. I don’t even think Zane has an advisory board.

When I told her that time that as long as my husband and I were good to each other the goddess would be pleased, I thought she’d die of shame. I don’t even know if she cares if I’m happy.

Thank the goddess I’m not Ella, at least. I know she hates standing around making faces in front of the camera in ugly clothes.

I put the journal down, listening to the water run for Melissa’s shower.

Did Zane and Olivia love each other at all? The whole thing was so arranged, so political.

So much like Zane and Melissa.