Chapter 201

Sarah POV

I sat in the circle of Zane’s arms and said nothing.

I wanted to tell him everything would be OK. I wanted to say that Scott was his brother and nothing else really mattered. I wanted to say anything, really, if it could make him feel better.

Travis had told us Scott had been dead for several days when the cleaning service found him. The coroner was still working on the cause of death, but the early verdict was a heart attack.

It was all just so odd. I’ve always hated the word “surreal,” but I understood its appeal now. Scott had been this unwelcome presence in my life for months, a stalker, a thorn in Zane’s side.

And now he was gone. Just like that. I couldn’t make sense of it all.

I confess, as horrible as it was, I was almost unbearably relieved. Scott had frightened me in a way I wasn’t used to being frightened. Had he really arranged for me to be raped and murdered that night? Or was he just some misunderstood man who thought I was his soulmate?

No, “fated mates,” that’s what he kept calling us. What did that even mean?

“He was a millionaire,” Zane said.

That made no sense. “What?”

“Scott’s estate is well over twenty million.”

I wanted to look Zane in the eyes, but it was so pleasant to rest my head on his shoulder. I kind of never wanted to move again.

Then I processed what Zane had said and ended up looking at him anyway.

“Twenty million dollars?”

“Yes.” His face was almost expressionless. It was the most unsettled I had ever seen him.

“From what?”

“Travis is looking into it, but he was the owner of BLI, Inc.”

“The makeup brand?”

He nodded. “You’ve heard of it.”

“Everyone’s heard of it. Ella’s their spokesmodel, isn’t she?”

“Yes.”

I thought that over. Ella had gotten her start as a TikTok influencer hawking BLI products. “So, Scott and Ella were, what? Business partners?”

“I don’t know. None of this makes sense to me.”

“You said he got some money from your father.”

“A few thousand, not millions. I suppose he could have started with that, but frankly, I thought Scott never did a day’s work in his life.” He shook his head. “I didn’t know him at all.”

“That was his choice.”

He raised up a hand and then dropped it back into his lap. “I have Travis looking into Scott’s financials. Oddly enough, he didn’t leave a will.”

“So, Scott was S, and he was rich,” I said. “Could he have been behind everything?”

He touched my hair then brushed his fingertips down my face.

“I have no idea.”

I touched his chin, which I found as ridiculously handsome as the rest of his face. “You’re allowed to be sad, you know. He was your brother.”

“I didn’t know him. He could have been a murderer or a thief or a spy for the CIA. I knew almost nothing about him at all.”

I leaned in and kissed him. “We’ll find out about him together.”

He picked up my hand and kissed my knuckles. “I don’t want to live my life being a mystery to the people I love.”

I nodded. “I understand.”

He half-smiled. “Do you?”

“I think so. I want to watch Grace and Chloe become the wonderful women they’re going to be. I want to watch you being their proud father. I want to be seen by you and them.”

“Yes, that’s it.” He kissed my lips once, then twice. He put his hand on my breast and just let it rest there, and oddly it felt domestic and comfortable.

“I have to have you in my life, Sarah.”

“I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

His blue eyes turned slightly gray as they grew sad. “So, everything is perfect between us, except that we can’t be together.”

“We could elope,” I said. “Run away to Rome and live in a bungalow.”

He laughed. “We could tell everyone you’re a wolf in disguise.”

“An alpha, mind you.”

“Naturally.”

“We could find a genie in a bottle and wish to be together forever on an island somewhere.”

He nodded. “I could find a magic elixir that would make everyone forget about us.”

“Except Grace and Chloe.”

“Of course. Except for them.”

I realized I had his hand in mind and leaned down to kiss one knuckle, then another. “We could find a magic carpet and ride off into the sunset.”

He kissed my forehead. “We could sail away on a cruise and never come home.”

A tear slipped past my eye.

“Sarah?”

“You’re everything I’ve ever wanted, and I can’t have you.”

Zane shook his head. “We’ll figure something out. I don’t know what it will be, but we’ll have to figure it out.”

“You should send me out of your life and marry Melissa.”

“You should send me out of your life and marry a human.”

I shuddered. Then I kissed him.

“Chloe and Grace are going to be famous,” I said. “You realize that, don’t you?”

He nodded slowly. “Tomorrow’s the press conference at school. I’ve never been terrified of anything more in my life.”

I rested my head on his shoulder again, and his warm arms came up around me.

“I’m pretty terrified myself.”

My phone rang. So did Zane’s. We looked at each other and shrugged before Zane answered his and put it on speaker.

“Travis?” he asked.

“The initial results from the autopsy are in. I’m sorry, Zane, but Scott was poisoned.”