Chapter 177

Sarah POV

I just stared at him for a bit, and then the most I could manage was, “What?”

“One or two of these things I could just accept as coincidence, but all this? And my dream? And the way the Luna Temple accepted you? There must be wolf in your genes.”

“But that’s just it. I had my DNA tested as a child, or rather, the social workers did. They had no idea who my parents were, so they tested for everything. I’m 100 percent human.”

“They must have missed something.”

“I don’t see how.”

Zane frowned. “Don’t you want me to be right?”

“Of course I do, but I’d also like to fly!” I closed my eyes for a minute and took a breath. “Sorry.”

“For what?”

I opened my eyes up again. “I feel like screaming at you for suggesting something I want so much is possible when we both know it’s not possible.”

“But if you’re even part wolf—”

“I’m not! I am completely and totally human. It’s one of the few things I know about my heritage. I even did one of those DNA tests when I got to be old enough, and I’m from Cavendish Territory, human mother and father, with nobody close enough to be a distant cousin.”

He frowned yet again. “You don’t have DNA close enough to someone to potentially be a cousin?”

“Yes. I am fully human and fully an orphan.”

“That seems odd.” His head tilted as he looked at me. “You make no sense, Sarah Astor.”

“Is that a compliment or an insult?”

“A statement of fact. You dream wolf dreams. You are accepted by the Luna Temple. An alpha singing in The Voice sends you into a trance.

“Do you not realize that Alpha Marin should have been completely indifferent to you? Why in the world did she feel the need to scare you off? You’re my children’s goddess-mother, a member of my household, not some challenger for Pack Alpha. Why did she bother?”

“Now I feel special,” I growled, just to have something to say.

“You are special. That’s my point. You cannot be just some human.”

“Hey!”

“Some ordinary human. You can’t even be some ordinary wolf. Think about it, please.”

At the pleading note in his voice, I tried to clear my thoughts. “OK, I’m thinking.”

“Kim, your former foster sibling, brings my daughter to your doorstep, and I’m thinking it’s because he knew you would take care of her. He knew the caliber of your character, so for whatever reason he went to your door.”

“To save her? Is that what you’re thinking?”

“Yes, I am.”

I tried to think through that. “Kim was co-species.”

“And?” But the question was cautious, not demanding.

I threw up my hands. “And I don’t know.” I took another breath, and then another.

“You know an alpha, beta, or gamma just by looking at them.”

“And an omega too, I’m thinking, but you wouldn’t mention that,” I pointed out.

He refused to be distracted. “You raise an alpha daughter on your own, and she’s wonderful, and I know I’m biased, but I would also be the first to notice if she weren’t as wonderful as she could be. You made that beta cower in the park; I know I dared you to, but you did it

“You earn respect everywhere you go from human and wolf alike. You dream wolf dreams. You respond to wolf song. Don’t you see what this means?”

“You have to realize I’d do, give, bribe, promise, swear just about anything to find out I’m part, even just a little part werewolf. I’m just not.”

“But you’ll agree to be retested?”

I winced at the hope in his voice, and then I shrugged. “Sure. But it won’t change anything.”

A small knock on the door proved to be a worried-looking Chloe and Grace, who told us dinner was ready. Zane and I ate quietly, savoring the chatter from the girls about their day. We watched a movie after that, which would have been fine except it was Disney’s version of The Little Mermaid, and the girls, who had picked the movie out, still spent it comparing it unfavorably with the original.

“They should have just taken the story and called it something else,” Chloe declared at the end, as though she hadn’t said that before, several times. Grace nodded.

Then it was pajamas and tooth brushing and, of course, story time.

“Is everyone ready?” I asked, looking over not only at the girls but also at Zane, who was curled up in Chloe’s bed this time like a sleepy boy.

I cleared my throat.

“No, he must not die! So she swam about among the beams and planks which strewed the surface of the sea, forgetting that they could crush her to pieces. Diving deep under the dark waters, rising and falling with the waves, she at length managed to reach the young prince, who was fast losing the power to swim in that stormy sea.

“His limbs were failing him, his beautiful eyes were closed, and he would have died had not the little mermaid come to his assistance. She held his head above the water and let the waves carry them where they would.

“In the morning the storm had ceased, but of the ship not a single fragment could be seen. The sun came up red and shining out of the water, and its beams brought back the hue of health to the prince's cheeks, but his eyes remained closed. The mermaid kissed his high, smooth forehead and stroked back his wet hair. He seemed to her like the marble statue in her little garden, so she kissed him again and wished that he might live.

“Presently they came in sight of land, and she saw lofty blue mountains on which the white snow rested as if a flock of swans were lying upon them. Beautiful green forests were near the shore, and close by stood a large building, whether a church or a convent she could not tell. Orange and citron trees grew in the garden, and before the door stood lofty palms.”

I stopped and put the book down, and Zane was looking at me oddly. We crept from the room, and then in the hall, he pointed a finger at me and nodded.

“What?” I asked quietly.

“Seriously? Have you not noticed how ridiculously quickly the girls go to sleep when you read to them? You’re using some form of The Voice. There must be werewolf in your blood.”

I wanted to scream at him, slap him, and weep all at the same time.

“Goodnight, Zane,” was all I said.