Chapter 91

Sarah POV

Later that day, the girls were prepping for the PPE with Dr. Hayes, though they both said they wanted to be there when we talked about the lawsuit. We promised instead to tell them everything important at dinner.

I got to meet Zane’s personal attorney, Dale Landowski, an alpha with a calming voice, lovely caramel skin, and a tidy mustache. He looked to be in his early fifties and wore his gray suit like a second skin. Hans brought coffee into the study for us, and we made a few minutes of small talk—a tradition when two alphas were about to do business—before the lawyer opened his sleek black briefcase and took out the lawsuit papers, which I saw he had heavily marked up.

“The first thing to do is realize this is a serious suit,” he said. “We’ll beat it because there is no precedent for the removal of a pack alpha’s children, but that’s not the issue.”

“If it actually goes to court, the pack will suffer,” Zane said.

“Indeed. You’ll certainly be challenged repeatedly and will in all likelihood be killed somewhere around the fourth challenge, if not sooner, if your opponent gets lucky.”

I wanted to object but kept my mouth shut. Zane just nodded.

“After your death, the will be challenges for the girls and for Sarah.”

“I can take sanctuary in the Luna Temple,” I said, making both of them look at me in surprise. “Having been accepted as the children’s goddess-mother by them means I can make use of them for such purposes. But that’s not the important thing here.”

“No offense, Miss Astor, but no, it’s not,” Mr. Landowski said with an apologetic glance.

“Now, I’ve been on the phone with their local counsel, a beta named Francis Barton, and we’ve managed to get rid of some of the legalese in the documents.

“The gist of their argument is clear: the girls are in danger under your care, and the steps you’re having to take to protect them will prevent their development into future pack alphas. The group, which calls itself Family Justice United, insists the girls be raised in their care so they may be ‘fully matured’ into pack leaders, preventing damage to werewolf society at large.”

“Just who is this Family Justice United?” Zane asked.

“Their membership is several thousand with members from over a dozen territories. I have to admit, looking them over it’s clear they’ve done some good work in the past.”

“Such as?” I wanted to know.

He pulled out a file from his briefcase and opened it. “They’ve primarily served as inter-territorial advocates for children’s welfare working with CPS—which you’re going to be visited by tomorrow, by the way.”

Zane growled. I wanted to growl.

He shook his head. “Can’t be helped. In fact, you need to make every show of welcoming them into the home to show the girls are flourishing here.”

“We’ll set out cookies,” Zane muttered.

“No bribery,” Mr. Landowski said absently while looking back at the file. “They’ve gotten abused children and spouses to safety and set them up with new identities in other territories. They’ve done fundraising for a variety of family-oriented organizations, including housing for homeless families, food for hungry kids—”

“Any ties to the Children’s Hunger Bank?” Zane asked.

“No, not that anyone wants to admit to ties with them right now.” He handed a printout to Zane and me. “The most interesting thing we’ve discovered so far is that after some several decades of low-key service, they’ve recently gotten much more aggressive, thanks in part to their new CEO, Charlotte Cho, a beta who’s made a name for herself promoting the role of betas in society and advocating for betas to be eligible as pack leaders.”

“Without a challenge, I assume?” Zane asked, scanning the print-out, as I was. It showed that within the last six months the group had been filing many more lawsuits and had made several attempts to recruit powerful betas to lobby for social change under organizations like the Beta Leadership Foundation and United Wolves.

“Quite. She’s been urging wolves to adopt human-like legislation of democratic voting.”

“She does realize she can run in human elections?” I asked. “No one is stopping her, and many majority human communities have wolf leaders.

The attorney nodded. “She held a position herself for a time.” He consulted his file. “She was Mayor of Clament City in Alpha Johanne’s territory. Managed to set up an impressive educational advocacy group.”

“She’ll all for advocacy,” Zane muttered.

“Quite. Well, that’s all we have for now, but we’ve only just gotten started.” He shoved his papers back in his briefcase and then looked at us both. “We’re going to throw everything we’ve got at this. Try not to worry too much.”

“Thank you,” Zane said as he stood up and shook his attorney’s hand. I shook it next and got a nod of approval.

Alone, Zane and I sat there, still trying to come to terms with it all.

“Not worry too much,” Zane said finally. “How much is too much?”

“Do all pack alphas carry such a target on their back?” I wanted to know.

“Grace and Chloe don’t deserve this. If I’d known what was in that envelope, I’d never have had you open it in front of them.”

“They shouldn’t be kept in the dark. They’ll only be more frightened. They need to know we’re fighting for them, that we’ll do all we can to keep them safe.”

“I’d love to tell them this is all just some bad prank, but they’d never buy it.” He shook his head. “For the first time since they were born, I wish they weren’t so smart.”

“Zane,” I said slowly. “I know that you and I, well, I don’t.” I ran out of words.

“You and I are important,” he said, looking at me with an intensity both dark and dazzling that robbed me of breath. “Vital. But this is urgent.”

“First, we get this lawsuit thrown out,” I said with a nod. “Then—”

“Then we’ll talk.” He smiled at me, a smile full of promise. “We have a lot to talk about.”

I nodded, telling myself I shouldn’t think about how talking was hardly the first thing I wanted the two of us to do.