Chapter 47

Sarah POV

“I need your help,” I told Zane in our apartment after I’d put the girls to bed.

He looked at me in mild surprise, probably at the strident note in my voice. His tie was hanging around his neck, and he’d taken his jacket and shoes off before sitting beside me on the sofa.

“Whatever you need, of course,” he said.

I explained briefly about Cynthia, the betas, and the tweets.

“You’ve been dealing with for years,” I finished. “I could just use some guidance.”

“OK.” He got up, went into his bedroom, and came back out with his laptop. He set it up on the coffee table and said, “You have an Instagram account, right? Chloe mentioned it.”

“Yes.” I logged in and saw several notifications. “Oh dear.”

“OK, rule number one for being talked about: just accept that people will talk about anything. Today it’s you; tomorrow it’s someone’s purse dog.”

I nodded and pulled up Insta and found that same photo from the park with me holding up the bracelet while Zane stood smiling beside me.

I’d set up my account only to show off Chloe’s artwork. I think I had about twenty followers from other mothers doing the same. Who identified me?

There were many comments, including hearts, clapping hands, kissy faces, and thumbs up.

I read aloud, “Way 2 go, gurl! And he’s a looker!”

Zane read the next one: “OMG, Zane C! I’m jelly.” He looked at me with a frown.

“Short for ‘jealous.’ I thought you were the expert here.” I looked back and read, “Dead here. I am strangling.”

Zane read, “Oooh, nice zebrawood!”

“Ur lookin at the bracelet???

“She’s pretty. Who is she?”

“What a scene Wish Id been there.”

“The kids were there to, right? Is there some reason commenting online means your grammar must be atrocious?”

I laughed. “Zane C 4 evah.”

“Heart sign. Heart sign. Come here for some Alpha juice!”

“He’s gotta be tapping dat. How charming.” I sat back and sighed. “OK, so that’s more about how they’re showing off their comments than really talking about us.”

“Right. They’re on display for each other like when alphas shout comments at betas.”

“Pretty harmless, really,” I said, and then I sat back up and reached for the keys. “Let’s see what’s on Moonshot.” Since I had no Moonshot account, I intended to type in #ZaneC or something, but it turned out I didn’t need to.

“We’re trending,” Zane noted drily. Neither of us read the comments this time.

The Alpha’s doing a human? GROSS!

Rescue the girls! Chloe was better off kidnapped!! 0

Here’s hoping his d**k falls off

Shit happens, but not usually this bad.

Were the Oracles smoking crack?? This has 2 B illegal.

We don’t know there fucking. Maybe its strikly oral.

Bring back monkey slavery

“OK,” I said, clicking off the site. “We get the point.”

“It’s the same thing, though,” Zane said. “They’re still just showing off to each other, this time to show who can be the most foul.”

“Right.” I took a shaky breath, asked the goddess for strength, and then just Googled our names. I saw headlines about the hunt, but nothing to suggest anything new. Instead, I clicked on a TMZ article, Luna Temple OKs Human Goddess-Mother, and was confronted with my diver’s license photo.

In a stunning move, the Luna Temple not only entertained an interview with Sarah Astor, human nanny to Alpha Zane Cavendish’s two alpha daughters but gave their (provisional) stamp of approval of her status as the children’s goddess-mother. This was all the more surprising, if that’s possible, because Alpha Zane appointed Astor the position without first consulting the temple.

We asked Dr. Jane Bridgewater, an expert on the Luna Temple, whether this violated the temple’s code of conduct.

“Parents do not need the temple’s permission to appoint goddess-mothers or fathers,” she told us, “but given the extraordinary circumstances, he might have considered a consultation first. It’s probably a matter of preferring to ask for forgiveness than permission.”

When asked if she had ever heard of such an appointment for a human before, Bridgewater surprised us by saying there was precedence. “Humans in many territories have been granted such familial titles, though it is particularly rare for alpha families and generally involves a financial arrangement. Obviously, Alpha Zane has no need of financial support from the woman who used to be a maid for his sister-in-law.”

We reached out to Alpha Zane’s PR rep for comment but received no answer.

“You have a PR rep,” I said.

“Yes, you knew that.”

“Do I need one, do you think?”

He looked thoughtful. “That’s a good idea. We’ll get you set up when we get home.”

A thought struck me, and I did a quick search. “There’s nothing online about the shooting.”

“No, we managed to keep a lid on it.”

“And that was something your PR people did? The paid off witnesses and made sure the police didn’t talk to the press about it?”

“Yes.” Zane made stood up and crossed over to the window to look over the view of downtown LA. “I suppose soon enough the girls will be wanting their own phones. They’ll be getting PR reps with them.”

He sighed. “I want them to stay little girls. I just got Chloe back and already I can feel the world pulling her away from me.”

“You’re show them how to navigate the world and stay true to themselves, just like you do. Your public image isn’t a lie, isn’t some façade pulling you away.”

I stood up and walked over to look out the window with him. “You don’t need to give them over to the world, just share them a little.”

He touched my arm and smiled.

I laughed. “I need to start worrying about my public image,” I said, hardly believing my own words. “What happened to my life when I wasn’t looking?”

“Grace and I came into it,” he said. “And we couldn’t be happier about it.”

I had to confess, I couldn’t be happier either.