Chapter 233

Sarah POV

The second Zane and I were in the car, I raised the partition for some privacy, turned to Zane, and asked the question burning acid in my stomach.

“Do you think he actually hurt the girls?”

Zane shook his head, but his eyes were haunted. “Not physically, but we’ll have to talk to them, see what he may have told them when we weren’t—oh, goddess.”

It was the most broken I had ever seen him, ever heard him. He looked at me pleadingly. “Not in our home, not while we were right there.”

I moved across the seat and into his arms. Holding him tight, feeling the strength and solidness of him, I believed we could undo any damage Hayes might have done, and I told him so as firmly as I could.

“Grace and Chloe watch out for each other. If either suspected anything about Hayes, they would have told us.”

Zane nodded, and for several blocks we just held on to each other.

“I’ll kill him,” Zane said, his voice low and hoarse. “If he’s done anything to them, I’ll kill him.”

“I’ll help, but think about it, Zane. He couldn’t risk his position in the household. He was too well-placed, too trusted to do anything that would clue us in.”

Zane pulled back slightly, nodding. “You’re right. But I still want to kill him.”

I reached up and kissed his eyes, his cheeks, and then his lips. Warmth and desire flooded through me, but also a tenderness I didn’t know I could feel. Zane was Pack Alpha and leader of his people, but right that moment he was a father worried about his daughters.

We got back to the villa to find everyone busy. The new Pack Alpha Orleans had granted clemency to Kanaan and the children, and they were heading back with the Torrins in tow. Ted was searching through everything Hayes-related and finding even more money.

The publicists were plotting world domination, or some such, and Travis, horrified that Hayes had gotten through his vetting process undetected, was running deep background checks on the staff.

We found the girls in their playroom, though these days it was much more a study room. Chloe was sketching out a new piece, and Grace was practicing her scales. They both stopped as we knocked and entered, and soon we had armfuls of love and concern.

“So, Dr. Hayes is a bad guy?” Chloe asked.

Zane and I sat on the floor with the girls, keeping them close.

“We wanted to ask you about that, honey,” Zane said, his voice gentle as rose petals. “Did he ever do anything that made you uncomfortable? Even something small?”

The girls shook their heads, and something very deep inside me unclenched. “He was nice,” Grace said. “I thought he liked us.”

“I think he does like you very much,” I said. “But he doesn’t agree with your father about some things, and so he was here under false pretenses.”

“He was spying on us?” Chloe asked.

“Yes, but from what we can tell, it was little things,” Zane said.

“Did he get the rogue werewolf to attack Grace?” Chloe asked next.

Goddess, but I wanted to lie. I looked at Zane helplessly.

“He said he did,” Zane said, “but then he said he regretted it. He didn’t realize how special you are.”

Grace frowned and thought about it. “That was wicked of him.”

I nodded. “It was. Very wicked.”

“It’s part of being alpha, isn’t it?” Grace asked. “People will do wicked things.”

I felt a tear slide down my cheek. Grace saw and shook her head.

“Don’t cry, Mommy. People will do lovely things too. Like Miss Carmen.”

“She is lovely,” I said, wiping the tear away.

“And Mavis,” Chloe said. She smiled. “She wants me to do another statue, this one for the rose garden.”

“And Hans,” Grace said, surprising me. I didn’t think he interacted that much with the girls.

“The kids at school are nice to us,” Chloe said. “And the teachers.”

“Do you think Dr. Hayes is sorry?” Grace said. “Do you think he wishes he hadn’t done it?”

“Maybe,” Zane said. “But he’ll be in prison from now on, and he’ll have lots of time to think about it.”

“I bet he’s sorry, and I don’t want to think about him being wicked,” Grace said, and again I saw what she would become when she was older, kind and generous but able to protect her heart.

“You two are the best daughters ever,” I said and hugged them tightly.

Later, we all saw off the Torrins with Kanaan and the children. The girls had evidently made friends there, and they all promised to text and Zoom with each other. Shotz said he was headed back to the mine, but we got him to agree to eat dinner with us and spend the night.

Melissa did the same, but Delia said she’d ignored her work long enough, and Ted was off to do some security for a multi-territorial. The others went to their respective homes, with Whitfield and Lainey promising not to annex and recruit anybody at least until tomorrow.

Dinner was lovely, with Selene curled up under the table, the girls trying out their hostess skills, and Shotz and Melissa discussing their future plans now that Hayes was safely locked away.

“Well, obviously, I’ve got to deal with the fallout from the omega-Oracle revelations,” Melissa was saying. She shot me a look. “And I expect help.”

“Of course,” I said. “Do you think the airport incident actually got people talking about other things than omegas and Oracles, or is it just us?”

“I don’t know, which is a problem on its own. I can’t remember the last time I did a proper social media survey.”

I waved a hand. “Frankly, I’ve had enough social media to last me a lifetime.”

“Well, I’ve gotten a report from Vlad Adamik, and along with the usual specs, he says they’ve gotten a request from the Luna Temple to set up an order there.”

“At the mine?” I asked. “That’s, well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

Shotz shrugged. “Guess so. We have more wolves there now working on the thermal plant conversions. They’ll probably appreciate it.”

“Well, none of us is hurting for work,” Melissa said, holding up her glass of white wine for a moment. “To keeping busy.”

The rest of us laughed and took a drink.

“Personally, I’m going to sleep for a day or two,” I said. “Then I have a new task I’ve set for myself.”

“What’s that?” Zane asked.

“The Moon Wolves.”

He frowned. “What about them?”

“It’s time someone went looking for them, don’t you think?” I nodded at their surprised faces. “Why shouldn’t that someone be me?”