Chapter 72

Sarah POV

The authorities wanted to have Zane and me on the crime scene for several more hours. I realized Zane was right and they were trying to be courteous in not dragging us down to the station, but I hated being in the building, and I deeply wanted to go home to my girls.

In the end, I relayed my tale of horrors three times, always skipping over the intimacy Zane and I had shared, before they were satisfied and then only because my lawyer insisted.

“It’s not like you don’t know where they live,” Daryns snapped at the FBI Special Secret Agent in Charge who was overseeing the case. “Or are you suggesting Alpha Zane is a flight risk?”

We left Travis to deal with coordinating the local and federal agencies now involved and took naps in the car on the ride home. This turned out to be fortunate because I had completely forgotten about the golden retriever puppy we’d just added to our household. She would have jumped up on us, but Chloe was holding her leash tightly and told her to calm down.

The little puppy whined, and I set a knee on the floor to rub its ears. I got licked a lot.

“The leash is new,” Zane said, smiling down and hiding how exhausted he had to be.

“Hans helped us order what Gilda needed, and they brought it all here,” Chloe said. Grace nodded.

“Gilda?” Zane asked while I laughed.

“Yes.”

“OK.” He looked at the puppy. “Gilda, welcome to our home.” He reached down to pat her head gently, then straightened and made his way into the kitchen.

“Dinner will be served in just a few minutes,” Hans said. “Unless you’d like to change first.”

“I think we’d both like dinner more than anything else,” Zane said before scooping Grace up into his arms while she giggled. “Except talking to my beautiful girls.”

“He called you beautiful,” Chloe whispered to me, though everyone could hear her easily.

“And you too. I personally think we’re all quite lovely.” I smiled as Zane got a bottle of human white out of the fridge and popped the cork.

As Hans had said, in a few minutes we were sitting in the informal dining room enjoying a light but satisfying dinner. I was grateful there was nothing too heavy for my stomach. I was doing better, but I was still shaky inside.

“Did you give Gilda supper already?” Zane asked.

The girls nodded. “And we took her for a walk,” Grace said without prompting, which made me smile. I was so worried what had happened would set her back on overcoming her almost debilitating shyness, but she seemed content to sit there eating pasta salad and drinking her milk.

“Golden retrievers require regular exercise,” Chloe said. “They need to be brushed daily during their shedding season. They’re loyal and smart, and they need their ears cleaned regularly.”

Zane laughed. “I see you enjoy research as much as your mother.”

Chloe laughed while I tried not to tear up. Zane had never called me Chloe’s mother before, but I didn’t want to call attention to it.

I noticed Grace was looking at Gilda, whose puppy eyes were in full force.

“I must insist that you never feed Gilda table scraps,” I said. “It’s a very bad habit for dogs to beg at the table, and you only have to do it once for them to expect it again. We’ll make sure Gilda has lots of treats, but do not feed her human food, especially things like grapes, nuts, and chocolate.”

Chloe nodded and said with sad eyes, “Gilda can’t have coffee either. You must think that’s terrible.”

I made a face at her, and she giggled.

We finished dinner after that, and Zane and I sat on the sofa in the living room while the girls played with the puppy.

I shook my head. Zane looked at me with a little frown.

“Little girls playing with a puppy,” I said. “So innocent and sweet, and when I think of what we just came from, where that puppy comes from . . .”

“Don’t hold that against Gilda,” he said quietly.

“I don’t.”

The doorbell rang, and soon Hans was ushering Daryns and Travis into the room. Zane excused himself and went into his study with Travis, and Daryns sat with me on the sofa to explain she wanted to talk to me and the girls.

We ended up with Gilda falling asleep in Grace’s lap (I noted with relief that Chloe didn’t seem to mind) while Daryns laid out a few facts.

“You’re both alphas, so although you’re going to be treated as children by the police and the court, your testimony will hold as much weight as any other alpha’s. Do you understand?” she asked calmly.

The girls nodded.

“Good. Tomorrow, some agents are going to come here. They’ll be from the FBI. Do you know what that is?”

Grace and Chloe looked at each other. “Like the police?” Grace asked.

“Close enough. They’re going to ask you a lot of questions, but I’ll be there and so will your goddess-mother. If you don’t like a question or get tired or become uncomfortable at all, you just go ahead and say something. We can take a break whenever you need.”

Daryns paused, then smiled and took a small notebook out of her briefcase. “Now, I want to ask you just a few questions now so I’ll have a better idea of what you’ll be talking about tomorrow and I can protect you better. OK?”

They nodded.

She took them through the time they had waited after I left the suit before they left too and got them to revise their original response of “hours” to “it felt like hours.” They explained about finding the staircase through smell, seeing adults to “weird things,” and then helping Zara out.

To my great relief, the girls revealed nothing about seeing someone be killed. They hadn’t been touched, and it was clear they both saw the whole thing as a fun adventure.

When it was clear that Daryns was done for the evening, I asked the girls if they’d bought Gilda a dog bed. When they said they had, I asked them to take Gilda to it so I could talk with my lawyer in private for a minute. They left willingly enough.

Daryns looked at me expectantly. I bit my lip.

“Do you want me to go over attorney-client privilege?” she asked.

“Does it work the way they say on TV?”

“Yes. I cannot share anything with anyone that you don’t want me to share.”

“When I got hired here, I had to sign a contract that I wouldn’t attempt to seduce Alpha Zane.”

She nodded. “Typical in a human caretaker’s NDA.”

“They drugged me, which I told the police, and I made it clear it was an aphrodisiac. By the time Zane found me, I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

She nodded again and looked like she knew where this was headed. “I’m familiar with the highly illegal substance you were given. I would expect you to be out of your mind.”

I nodded. “Basically. I begged Zane, um, that is—”

She held up a hand and then dipped her chin while looking directly into my eyes. “Did you have actual intercourse?”

“No,” I said definitively while wondering why the hell she was asking me that.

“So, no chance of unprotected sex leading to an STD or pregnancy?”

I almost laughed in relief. “No, none. It was basically heavy petting.”

“Good.” She smiled at me. “Considering everything, even if this should come out in court or something, you have nothing to worry about. However, I don’t see why it should concern anyone.”

“Thank you,” I said.

Zane and Travis returned with Zane looking a little thunderous.

“I’ve got people out looking for Scott,” he said in clipped tones.

I was going to say something encouraging, but then Hans entered the room.

“I’m afraid I need to advise you to check your social media,” he said reluctantly.

“It’s out?” I asked.

“It’s everywhere,” he answered.