Chapter 213

Zane POV

“Alpha Zane,” I heard Ollie say behind me.

I swung around from my glaring at the temple hedge and saw Ollie standing there. At his side was Melissa, and at her sides were Chloe and Grace. They all looked a mix of concerned and terrified.

I turned to the person who didn’t seem to belong to the others. “Melissa?”

“I called, her Alpha,” Ollie said, his voice both careful and breathless, “when you didn’t come back last night.”

“The Luna Temple has conscripted Sarah?” Melissa asked. I noticed she was wearing sturdy clothes of jeans and a leather jacket. So were the girls.

“What?” I asked, and I realized the pent-up adrenaline was threatening to give me the shakes. I forced it back.

“She came to visit the temple two days ago, yes?”

I nodded. Part of me wanted to kneel down and hugs my daughters, but I needed to keep looking at Melissa.

“And now they’re keeping you from her?”

I nodded again. She looked down at the girls and murmured something comforting. Then she walked up to me, which I confess was quite daring of her.

“I’m sorry, Alpha Zane, but I have to ask. Did you see her last night?”

“And did you two make love, even though it wasn’t appropriate?”

I nodded.

“And afterward, did you just fall asleep?”

“What the hell is going on?” I all but shouted it, but she stood her ground bravely.

“One reason Ollie called me is that I’m something of an expert on the Luna Temple, for a layman, anyway.”

I considered strangling her if she didn’t get to the point.

“I believe what’s going on now is called a conscription, a pressing into service of a wolf the Luna Temple feels belongs there.”

“Sarah’s not a wolf.”

“No, but that doesn’t seem to matter to them.” She made as if to touch my arm, then backed up a step, probably at my expression. “Alpha Zane, I believe that you are currently under the influence of the temple. If we’re to get Sarah out of there, I need you to come out of the, well, spell they’ve put you under.”

She stepped forward again. “Do you understand me, Alpha Zane? I need you to come back to yourself, or you will never see Sarah again.”

I didn’t like how close she was.

“Do you understand?” she all but shouted. “To see Sarah again, you need to come out of it!”

Out of what?

“Out of whatever they’ve done to you!” She considered me for a minute. “Sarah isn’t your mate!”

I snarled at her, and she flinched. Good.

“Sarah is going to become a member of the temple!”

I frowned. That was bad.

“OK, I’m going to do something. Please don’t kill me.”

What is that supposed to—

She slapped me. The fucking bitch reared back her hand and—

Wait. Wait. Something isn’t right here.

It was as if half my brain had said that to the other half. I had never been one to hear my own brain speak. I didn’t like it.

She went to slap me again, but I grabbed her arm. However, I didn’t break it.

“Alpha Zane?” she asked.

Yes, that’s my name. What does she want?

“Yes, what do you want?”

She laughed, then quickly sobered. “I’m trying to get through to Pack Alpha Cavendish. Are you in there?”

I realized I was gripping her arm and let go.

“In where?”

“In your head. Are you back to yourself? Have you finished your spirit walk? Are you ready to find the moon?”

I didn’t faint, but it was close. I blinked away the colors and sparks behind my eyelids, and then I was just myself, Zane Cavendish, standing there.

“Grace!” I called, falling to one knee. “Chloe!”

Tears rushed from their eyes as they ran to me, and guilt so deep I felt in my marrow crashed through me as I gathered them in my arms. “My darling girls. I’m so sorry.”

They clung to me and cried. I was dimly aware that Melissa stepped back with a whooshed breath of relief and that Ollie handed her something.

My ears were suddenly full of noise. I heard birds and distant traffic. I heard Ollie laughing the sort of laugh that only comes with the deep alleviation of fear.

I heard, as I was used to, the insects buzzing and burrowing around us. I heard the breaths and heartbeats of my daughters as they hugged me. Far away, I heard a jet airplane.

I heard my own heart beating again. I heard the rush of my blood.

Rage wanted to wash over me, but I was holding my girls, my beautiful daughters to whom I wanted to give the world.

Sarah is in danger, I thought, was the idea was clear now, a simple fact and something I had to deal with. I breathed in the smells of my children in my arms, the grass under the sun, even the traces of automotive oil on Ollie’s clothes. He’d been tinkering with the engines again.

Finally, I could look up at Melissa.

“You’ve been under attack, Alpha Zane,” she said. “Under siege like a castle. Are you back to yourself now?”

“Yes.” I kissed Grace and then Chloe on the forehead. “But why did you bring my daughters here?”

“Because the temple cannot deny them entrance. Sarah is their goddess-mother.”

I nodded. Yes, that made sense. So little had lately that I grabbed it like a handrail to keep from slipping back down the stairs to wherever I had been.

I stood, unsettling aware of how much I had sweated and done other things in the past twenty-four hours. The morning sun was growing warm, and Sarah was still in there.

“What do we do first?” I asked Melissa.

“We go to the temple and demand entrance in the name of your daughters,” she said.

“I see.” I turned to Ollie. I didn’t know I had ever felt so grateful to a beta before, but then I thought that was an unworthy assessment. I was grateful to a fellow wolf.

“Thank you, Ollie.”

“I was pleased to be of help,” Ollie said, and I felt the sincerity of his words like aloe on a burn.

I nodded and turned, and out little group made our way to the front door of the temple.

We stood there for several minutes, but eventually an Oracle, covered from head to toe in white, answered the door.

“Grace and Chloe demand to see their goddess-mother,” I said.

The Oracle stood there motionless, then there was a nod, and then the door closed.

“What if they don’t give us Mommy?” Chloe asked.

“A surface-to-air missile might do the trick,” I muttered.

The door opened again, and Sarah was all but thrown at us. I caught her near-limp form, and she looked up at me in relief.

“Zane, please, get me out of here.”

“Of course,” I said, lifting her into my arms.

“This way to the car,” Ollie said, and it occurred to me he might make an excellent lieutenant.

We turned the way Ollie had indicated, back to the supply gate, and had made it perhaps twenty yards when the door opened. We turned back as one.

An omega was standing there, one with almost white-blond hair. She sneered at us.

“We don’t want her anyway! She can’t possibly be the one prophesized!”

I shrugged and turned away. What a nut job.

“She’s a Luna Wolf!” the omega said, and at that I did have to look back.

“That’s right!” the woman said. “She could have given the Luna Temple a millennia of power! Instead, she’s crawling back into your bed to nurse your two little girls!

“The goddess curses her! The goddess curses you! The Luna Wolf curses her!”

I turned back to the path and met Melissa’s eyes.

“What a nut job,” she said.