Chapter 153

Zane POV

After Travis and Wetmore left, I wanted to demand to see all of Scott’s emails, though I didn’t. They were Sarah’s property.

Fortunately, I didn’t even have to ask. She retrieved her laptop and showed them to me. I noticed right away she hadn’t answered a single one of them.

Reading the words made my stomach turn, but I just nodded and observed, “He’s making a true effort.”

“But for what?” Sarah asked. “I’m not going to mate him, whatever he wants to say. He sets my teeth on edge.”

I disguised a sigh of relief as a small laugh, though I doubt it fooled her. Frankly, if I were to be sent to hell upon my death, Sarah would be mated to Scott.

“I’ve never seen him act this way,” I told her. “I have no idea what he might be after.”

“Other than me, you mean,” she said.

That brought me up short, but then I saw her eyes were sparkling. I didn’t bother to hide my sigh of relief this time.

“Other than you.”

She smirked at me then grew serious. “He’s playing some sort of long con, which means I need something from you.”

“Anything.”

“In future, he’ll probably come to you with some sort of claim, like, ‘Oh, Sarah and I decided this was true.’” She dropped her voice in imitation, and I chuckled a bit. “Or something like that.”

She looked at me intensely. “You have to never, ever believe something Scott says to you before you talk to me. I don’t care what it is.

“He tells you he’d seen me naked and knows about the mole on my knee, he’s been in my bedroom and knows where I keep my lipstick, he’s been with me and the girls and heard how Chloe wants to start carving marble instead of hardwood: I don’t care. Don’t believe him.”

I frowned. “You have a mole on your knee?”

“Don’t downplay this,” she demanded, then ruined the act by laughing. Then she looked around the room, empty of all but the two of us, and murmured, “You kissed it once.”

I nodded. “I did.”

Then I thought about everything we’d said over the last couple hours and told her, “I need to go see Scott.”

She shrugged. “Whatever you think is best.” Then she sent me an odd look.

“That’s not a passive-aggressive statement. I mean it.”

I nodded. “I know.”

I knew that Scott was in his apartment and had been, minus a few outings, for several days. I presented myself without warning to the doorman.

“Uh, yes, sir, uh,” the doorman, a gamma, told me.

“It’s fine for you call up,” I said with a smile.

She did, and soon I was going up the elevator to Scott’s penthouse apartment.

It was difficult to deal with just how much I didn’t want to be voluntarily walking into Scott’s space. I reminded myself of my daughters’ safety, of how much I cared for Sarah, of how much I owed to the pack. Nothing really helped.

“Zane!” he said, greeting me as the elevator’s doors slid open. He was dressed in a blue Polo and khakis with brown deck shoes, and it felt like such a costume I almost cussed him out.

I looked at this man who wanted Sarah, who, unlike me, could have Sara if she said yes, and I acknowledged to myself I had never hated someone more.

“It’s all right?” I asked. “My just showing up like this?”

“Always!” He motioned for me to enter his tastefully decorated, completely generic apartment. Chastising myself, I looked around purposefully for personal touches, but my initial impression was correct. There were no family or personal photos, no weird little pieces from traveling and finding something, nothing out of place and nothing betraying a hint of individual taste.

I got the feeling I was walking onto a movie set for Bachelor Pad #12, not into an apartment where someone lived.

“To watch do I owe the pleasure?” he asked while walking over to a little drinks cart. “Whiskey? That is your preference, yes?

“Not right now,” I said, though it would have been more politic to have taken a drink. I didn’t actually think he would poison me, after all, but I still didn’t want to take a drink from his hand.

“May I sit?” I asked next, looking around the front room, which boasted a sofa and a few chairs.

“Of course,” he said.

I sat in a green leather armchair that made me feel like I swimming in olives.

“I’m concerned about your emails to Sarah,” I said.

He nodded. “Of course you are.”

“She is the goddess-mother to my children,” I said, “and she’s my friend. May I ask, what’s going on with you and these emails?”

Scott considered what I said, rotating his glass in his hand so the ice made clicking noises against the crystal.

“I like Sarah,” he finally said.

“I do too. I showed the world I liked her by making her the goddess-mother of—”

“Goddess-mother, goddess-mother,” he interrupted. “Like that was supposed to be some great honor.”

“The Luna Temple—”

“Who gives a shit about the Luna Temple? Seriously, a bunch of old, worn-out hags?”

“Scott!”

“What?”

“Just when I think I might need to take you seriously, you call them that?”

Scott rolled his eyes, looking just like when he was fourteen and first meeting me, an adult wolf about to take up his household and yet still waiting for me or someone else to set him up with wealth and privilege.

I thought then of what Sarah would say.

“Did you think you were about to be set up, that first time we met?” I asked, knowing it was completely different from any question I’d asked Scott before. “Had people told you that you were going to be the rich half-brother of the Pack Alpha?”

“What’s this new note I’m hearing?” Scott said. “Are you trying to talk to me like I’m an actual person?”

“Oh, really, Scott. Are you a tween now?”

“That’s more like it.”

“Scott, how did you see the pattern—”

“Aha!” he said with glee. “I knew watching everything would pay off. Did she like it?”

“I think she was more than a little suspicious.”

He nodded. “Of course, but I was obviously helpful, considering that you’re here.” He looked quite self-congratulatory and bounced slightly on his feet.

“Scott,” I said, meaning to say a great deal more.

“Zane,” he said, “surely you can see how much more I can offer her than you can. You love her, and I understand that, but what? ‘Hey, Sarah, come and be my mistress?’ That’s pretty much it, isn’t it?”

“I don’t want to discuss this with you.”

He smirked. “You don’t want to discuss this with anyone, but here I am, here anyone but some Pack Alpha will be. Do you think I’m unique? Can’t you see that any wolf worth their canines will want her?”

I scowled at him.

“Don’t you understand?” he asked. “She’s far too much to settle for someone’s side piece, and that’s all you can ever offer her. I may not be enough for her, but at least I can offer her that: all of me, and all of someone who’s less than the best option on the shelf is a better option than just a small part of what’s left.”

He had a point, and I wanted to strike him for it. But he had a point.