Chapter 226

Sarah POV

Dinner continued, and everyone at the table told Grace she had been amazing.

“Did Chloe help you pick out that aria?” Melissa asked. “Very well selected.”

“Yes,” Chloe said proudly. “And the dress.”

“I picked out Chloe’s dress,” Grace said just as proudly.

We all expressed our admiration for Chloe’s outfit, which matched Grace with a similar shimmer and silhouette but in a lavender hue. I made a mental note to thank Alpha Colette for her thoughtfulness.

When everyone had worked on their plates for a bit, Shotz leaned over to me again. “This is the tastiest fish I’ve ever had, but it’s almost, I don’t know, too tasty.”

I nodded. “Wolves consider human food incredibly bland. You get used to it after a while, except for the hot stuff. I’ve eaten stuff that gave me dragon breath.”

He chuckled. I gave it a few beats and then leaned over to Zane.

“As sad as it makes me that the people here would never accept me as your mate, I feel so happy right now that it seems selfish to want more.”

He met my eyes and nodded. “I’m selfish too. But remember, you have every right to the place you have in my household and every right to be in our lives.”

“Just as long as no one really knows what that means.”

Zane looked ready to object, then nodded. “I can name three alphas within about four tables of us that would challenge me if they suspected.”

The thought threatened to ruin my fish, so I pushed it away as hard as I could and watched Grace and Chloe eat their fish.

“You didn’t get to enjoy the first course,” I noted.

Grace shrugged. “Alpha Colette said everyone would enjoy my song more if they had some food first.”

That made the table laugh.

As I predicted, we had several more courses and a lot more wine. Many voices were raised, but it all seemed to be part of the way Pack Alphas communicated, and thank the goddess people seemed to remember there were children present.

I began to suspect something was up when the dessert course didn’t end with the lights being brought up so people could leave. I had been leaving the wine alone, and I realized I had been mimicking Zane, who seemed also to be growing uneasy.

I met his gaze, and he nodded. The musicians switched to more heraldic music, and then Alpha Colette was standing in front of her table again.

“As delightful as it was to listen to Grace Cavendish,” she said, “I must tell you I have another surprise for everyone.”

While perked up in anticipation, I noticed most turned with some weariness to the front of the room and seemed to be waiting with apathy.

“We’ve managed to come to several agreements today, including the need to continue meeting to monitor the situation as the Luna Temple returns to its more appropriate role in wolf society, and to that end, I offer you all this.”

The door Grace had come through earlier opened again, and Matthew Kro walked through in handcuffs and flanked by two beta guards.

“Yes!” a male voice boomed out.

“What the hell is this?” another called out.

There was a general roar of anger and disbelief that did battle with an equally loud cheering and applause.

“Zane,” I said, looking at his furious expression. Then I looked at the girls, who were watching their father. “Girls.”

Melissa was suddenly at my side. “Don’t.”

“But they don’t need—”

“They do need, and you need to let them.”

“What’s going on?” Shotz asked in bewilderment.

Zane strode to the front of the room and backhanded one of the beta guards. The other backed away, and then Zane reached down and grabbed Matthew’s handcuffs to snap the chain linking them in two.

“You will stand down, Alpha Zane!” Alpha Colette shouted.

“How dare you?” Zane demanded. “I have acknowledged this omega as my guest!”

“Well, he’s my guest now,” Colette sneered.

Matthew swayed slightly, and it was obvious he had been drugged. “Where’s Sergi, your guard?” Zane asked him. Matthew just looked back at him vaguely.

“I have arrested this radical in the name of peace,” Colette said next. She turned to her audience, many of whom looked stupefied by all food and drink. Many others, however, looked ready to take action, though without knowing what action to take.

“You could only have gotten Kro by invading my territory!” Zane accused next. “This is nothing less than an act of war!”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Colette snapped. “He’s just some filthy omega!”

Zane stood there a moment and then ripped off his tuxedo jacket. In a preternaturally calm but quite audible voice, he said, “Sarah, please see Matthew Kro to a seat.”

I scurried up and took Matthew by the arm and led him to the nearest empty seat, which I pulled far away from its table before setting the omega down. He looked at me and grabbed my hand.

Zane took off his tie next and then toed off his shoes.

“You cannot challenge me here!” Colette said.

“Like hell. I do challenge you.”

“I call for a champion,” she said next.

Zane snorted. “Of course you do, you pathetic coward.”

“I call Alpha Orman!”

Everyone looked around until the alpha male who’d first cheered at the sight of Matthew in cuffs. My stomach turned. Zane was an alpha in his prime, but this wolf was a mountain. I wondered if Colette hadn’t arranged for his championship ahead of time.

Alpha Orman walked over to Zane while several people pulled the tables and chairs back and away from the area in front of the dais, efficiently marking out a fighting area. Meanwhile, Alicia and Travis joined me in protecting Matthew’s chair. After a beat, Shotz joined us.

I tore my eyes away from where Zane and Orman were continuing to undress to look into his worried eyes.

“You don’t have to do this,” I whispered.

“I may be a human, but I’m still, well, a human,” he said.

I reminded myself he wasn’t used to wolf-proof alcohol and may not have sipped as slowly as he should have. Then I chastised myself for thinking that. Had I been out of human company so long I didn’t recognize courage when I saw it?

“Thank you,” I said and then turned back to the wolves who were preparing to fight. For Zane, that probably meant until he was dead. That meant the girls and I would then be fair game, but I found it difficult to care about much more than that Zane should survive this.

Zane was naked now, fierce and strong and perfect, and Orman was down to his socks, which he pulled off with machine-like efficiency and threw to the floor. His muscles seemed to have muscles, and those in his thighs bulged as he bounced slightly, warming up. A beta female ran into the fighting area and gathered up his clothes.

“Shotz,” I said, “go get Zane’s suit.”