Chapter 58

Sarah POV

The dancer, breathing heavily, brought her hand down. One of the knife throwers came over with a towel and wrapped it around the wound.

“And a blood sacrifice gives final praise to the gods!” Rob roared, smiling as if to indicate it was all part of an act, and the applause was instantaneous and enthusiastic. The dancer bowed slightly and was then led away by the knife throwers.

Then Zane was standing beside me, leaning over to murmur in my ear, “What the hell was that?”

“Inappropriate for children, if you ask me,” Joyce muttered, and I nodded. We all looked over to see Rob swarmed by enthusiastic partygoers.

“Is the lady OK, Mommy?” Chloe asked.

“The blood was fake, honey,” I said, touching her cheek and only half-sure I was right.

Rob left the ballroom still surrounded by people, and two auction attendants took the stage to announce that it was very late and time for the party to end.

“Our host is offering accommodations for those who wish not to make a long drive home tonight,” one of the attendants said. “A special request is extended to Alpha Zane and his family to stay the night.”

Zane looked a little uncomfortable, but nodded and said thank you. Several others took up the offer as well, though none of them, I noticed, were parents, who instead were gathering their sleepy pups and saying goodnight to their friends.

“Are blood shows usually part of belly dancing?” Joyce asked me.

“Not that I’ve ever heard of,” I said. “Perhaps it was just Rob’s idea of being dramatic.”

I wanted to ask Zane if we really needed to stay in a place I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with, but a look down at the girls’ sleepy faces dissuaded me.

“Alpha Zane,” yet another attendant said as she stepped up to us. “We have some sleep clothes for you, your daughters, and your family’s goddess-mother in the guest suite.”

“I’ll have someone bring a change of clothes for the morning,” Zane said. He turned to the woman standing next to me. “Always a pleasure to see you, Joyce.”

“You as well, Zane, and congratulations on having your daughter returned to you.” She looked down then, took off her mask to reveal a kind face, and smiled first at Chloe and then at Grace.

“I must get home before I turn into a pumpkin.” She turned to me and put a warm hand on my upper arm. “I hope we get to meet again soon, dear.”

“So do I.”

She smiled at us collectively and walked toward the grand exit doors. The attendant nodded and gestured she would show us the way to our rooms.

I picked up Chloe, who was yawning openly now, as Zane took Grace, and we followed the woman out of the room, down a corridor to a set of elevators with gold-tinted doors. Inside, the attendant gave us a little history of the Rotary Club and its location, which had evidently just been an ordinary hotel before it was taken over by the club and renovated.

I made some appropriate noises about how attractive the building looked but felt beyond grateful when the walk from the elevator to the guest suite was blessedly short.

The suite was lovely, of course, with a main room and two bedrooms. I took Chloe and Grace into the larger room at Zane’s insistence and helped them find the pajamas and toiletries that had been left for us. While they brushed their teeth, I went back into the main room.

Zane was standing at the window, looking out into the night, and when he turned to look at me, my hand went to the bite mark without my permission. It was still warm to my cold fingertips, and as he saw what I was doing, his face grew somber.

I closed the bedroom door behind me and walked over to one of the two plush white sofas to sit and look at the fresh-cut flowers on the coffee table. After a moment, he joined me, sitting a full cushion away.

“Everything is going to be all right,” he said. “I know the auction and the party were unsettling, and although I have no idea why, I will be finding out if there’s anything untoward going on here.”

“I’m sure,” I said faintly.

“That bit with the knife and the blood, in particular . . .” He shook his head, and then he looked at me oddly. “How much are you familiar with, shall we say, adult issues when it comes to werewolves?”

I knew he would only bring up such a topic if he had a good reason and resolved to deal with the conversation as seriously as possible. “I know about biting, about how there are different types of bites for different relationships. A parent may lightly bite a child to show they are protected. Lovers may bite much more seriously, and mates bite deeply for permanent scarring when they bond.”

“And other forms of blood play?”

“Not so much about that, though I know it exists among humans but is much more common with werewolves.”

He nodded. “To some watching tonight, the sight of that dancer catching the knife and bleeding would be highly sexual.”

“So, the blood, it was real?”

“It was human blood, and it was fresh. I suppose the actual wound could have been faked, but I don’t think so.”

“Catching the blade like that, if that were really sharp, was incredibly dangerous.”

He nodded.

“May I ask, if whether, that is—”

“If I’m a fan of blood play myself?” he asked with a small smile. “Not particularly. I recognize why others find it arousing, but to me, bites are signs of affection.”

“You and your wife performed a mating bite,” I said, thinking it was odd I hadn’t seen it on him. It must have been on his chest.”

He shook his head as though understanding my thoughts. “That sort of bite disappears when a mate dies. The only mark I’m currently sporting is from you.”

My face grew hot. “I really shouldn’t have—”

He waved it off casually. “It’s not a problem.”

I gathered my courage. “I have to confess that I feel a connection between us, though perhaps it’s just an illusion on my part.”

“It’s not, but.” He shrugged.

“I should tell you, I mean, I hate to bring him up, but Scott was saying things about how you and he both are drawn to me, but that he could do something about it.”

Zane’s eyes narrowed and his lips thinned. I held up a hand. “I assure you, I have no interest in your half-brother, but, well, I suppose the best I can say is that if you were human, I would, well, throw myself at you.”

“But I’m not human.”

“No. You’re not.”

We sat there for a moment, and I thought about that contract I had signed to work for Zane and the girls. I thought about those boys at the party and the rumors people were eager to spread about me. Whatever hopes I couldn’t help feeling were misguided and would only bring me pain.

Zane was an alpha to his pack, and I was a human woman caught up in his orbit, and that was all the two of us could ever be to each other.