Chapter 232

Zane POV

In the end, it took the better part of thirty-six hours to get all the hostages out. Five of the terrorists proved they’d rather die than be captured, but we managed to keep them from killing others. We did have several injuries, but when I thought of what might have happened, of the endless news cycle that would have come out of our people mowing down bodies while wolves and humans both died in the melee, I could only be grateful.

We landed the plane on the private runway and brought everyone to the villa, Travis, Rucker, I coordinated efforts to secure the airport and handle the press. Sarah slept for almost twenty hours, and I got in a good seven myself.

I don’t think Whitfield or Wilson slept at all, spinning the story into a saga of restraint and wisdom that made Sarah and I both seem almost mystical in our actions. I demanded that the others involved got coverage as well, except for the children, of course.

When the last hostage was retrieved, the last fake bomb cleared, and the last terrorist in jail, I stood in front of the cameras and thanked everyone I could think of, Sarah standing by my side. Then she lost the paparazzi on the way home and instead went to the correctional facility where they were holding Dr. Hayes.

Sarah and I didn’t speak much in the car, both of us needing more sleep and both dispirited by the knowledge that we had put the girls’ future in the hands of someone who betrayed us for money.

One of Travis’s people had already traced several million in funds to a Swiss bank and matched the numbers to data on Dr. Hayes’s personal computer. Unfortunately, there was no way to tell just where the money had come from.

The prison holding Dr. Hayes wasn’t well known, though I would call it more discreet than secret. It was a windowless building of gray concrete, and as Ollie pulled into the secure parking area, I found myself wishing for something less generous.

“Damn him,” Sarah muttered as Ollie pulled into a parking spot. “Damn him for every cup of tea he drank, every time the girls gave him a hug, every moment he looked at our family and saw dollar signs.”

I just nodded, and we got out of the car. An alpha guard met us at the door with, “Alpha Zane, Miss Sarah,” and led us down a long corridor. I smelled disinfectant and stale coffee, and the rap of Sarah’s heels echoed around us.

“I know you want to be in the room with us,” I said.

“Damn right.”

I stopped and looked into her eyes bright with rage, the tense set of her shoulders, the hands she had clasped into fists. “I need you not to be there, please.”

“Why?”

I shook my head. “I’ll be thinking about protecting you.” I held up a hand. “I know you don’t need protecting, but I don’t want his eyes on you. I don’t want him breathing your air.”

“I want him to know what I think of him.”

Slowly, I reached out and took her hand. I held it in both of mine and pressed it to my chest. “You will. This won’t be the only time we talk to him, but this time, this first time, I just need to be his Pack Alpha calling him a traitor to his face.”

I could tell she really didn’t want to let me go alone, but she nodded, and when we reached the interrogation room where Hayes waited, she stepped quietly over to the window and took up her vigil.

I met the guard’s eyes, and he nodded. There was already a guard in the room, I could see, but I wanted them both in there with me.

I opened the door, and Hayes was sitting on a folding chair at a metal table to which his wrists were handcuffed. He looked calm. I could smell his fear; I could hear his heart racing.

I took the chair opposite him while the guard stood against the wall facing his colleague. I waited looking at this little wolf with his wire spectacles and kind eyes. He looked back at me at first, then looked down at his hands.

“We found your money,” I said.

“I thought you would.”

We sat another few minutes in silence. “So, who was paying you? Who got you to betray my household?”

Hayes smiled to himself.

“Something funny?”

“Do you think I’m some lackey doing someone’s bidding for a few dollars?” he asked, meeting my gaze now.

“Yes, I do.”

“You needed to be taken down. I didn’t need any more motive than that.”

I kept my tone light. “Have I wronged you in some way, Hayes?”

He shook his head, but it wasn’t a denial. “You’re another one of those wolves who thinks truth and justice involve them, but it doesn’t. They have no business mingling with us, running with us, pretending to be a member of a pack when they don’t even understand what a pack is.”

I did everything I could to hide how stunned I was by his words. “You’re anti-human?”

“Pro-wolf.” He snorted in disgust. “Like you should be, but you’re too weak, too enamored of a human bit of fluff. You betray your race.”

He snarled, leaning forward. “Do you have any idea what it’s been like for me to watch you fawn over her? Your daughters are extraordinary, everything Pack Alpha children should be, and you defer to some human woman when you should be exalting them; you let her determine their fate when you should be consulting the moon.

“I’ve done my best to protect them from her, but you bring her everywhere, like she’s some sort of mate. Do you think I don’t know what happens in your house at night? Do you think I don’t know how she’s whoring herself to—”

He stopped talking when I backhanded him across the face.

“You came into my household and endangered my children. The rogue, that was you, right? Is that your idea of ‘protecting’ Grace?”

He wiped the blood of his lips with a shirt sleeve. “I didn’t realize her potential then. I thought she was holding Chloe back. Turns out, she’s worth more than all of you together.”

“You were supposed to be their educator. What poison have you been pouring into their ears, I wonder?”

“She hired me. Any damage to your children is her fault.”

“The bomb at the Beta Auxiliary League? The wolf who shot at Sarah outside the hospital? The fire in the poppy garden?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know anything about the poppy garden. What the fuck do I care about some plants? I was trying to keep you from ruining the pack.”

“Scott’s death? Was that you as well?”

“Naturally. The wolf had become too unstable. You could thank me for that, by the way.”

Zane ignored the bait. “Are you also going to claim you had nothing to do with the terrorists at the airport?”

“I gave them some money. I didn’t care what they did with it.”

Hayes shifted in his chair. Blood continued to drip from the corner of his mouth.

“You can blame me for whatever you like, call me names, accuse me of anarchy. I didn’t invite an omega to speak in public about the Luna Temple, I didn’t throw us all into chaos, and I didn’t take a human into my bed just down the hall from my pups.”

I leaned back. “We’ll start with the names of your accomplices.”

Hayes managed a casual wave despite his handcuffs. “Bought and paid for, and most of them either killed by you or taken care of.”

His eyes narrowed. “And don’t think using The Voice on me will do any good. I’ve been through enough in life that it doesn’t affect me.”

I nodded. “Yes, an abusive childhood. That tracks.” I felt my own eyes narrow. “Did your father beat you? Do you seek his approval even now?”

I saw that struck a nerve, but then he just smiled, and I found the sight chilling. “Your daughters sought my approval. Perhaps they still do.”

It was all I could do not to rip his head off.