Sarah POV
Reeling from a second criminal accusation in one day and shocked by the sight of Zane Cavendish laying his hands on my daughter, I just stood there for a second as the werewolf all but shoved Chloe and Grace toward the beta chauffeur.
“Take them to safety while I take Ms. Astor to the police station,” he told him. Then he turned to me in fury. “I’ll see you in jail for what you’ve done here.”
I could only wonder, could it be true? Was Chloe somehow Cavendish’s daughter? Had someone stolen her from him only to leave her on my doorstep?
How?
Why?
“Daddy, no!” Grace yelled. “Don’t hurt her!”
Meanwhile, the beta had put his hands on Chloe’s shoulders, and she was struggling to get away, screaming they couldn’t take me. The sight snapped me out of my daze.
“Let go of my child!” I shouted at the beta even as the alpha reached down to Grace and shushed her.
“I’m not going to hurt her,” he said much more softly. “But she needs to be punished for taking your sister.” Then he rounded on Chloe. “I am your father, and this woman is a disgraceful thief who kept you away from me for five whole years!”
“Don’t you touch my mommy!” Chloe shouted back at him. “You’re my daddy! You’re supposed to be nice to her! I hate you!”
Cavendish pulled back in surprise, but then he scowled harder than ever, and told his beta to take the girls back to his place. He then swung around on me with a growl to grab my other wrist and drag me back into his car.
All the ruckus had brought my neighbor outside, where she was blinking in confusion. Her hair was covered in a red bandana, and underneath curlers peaked out.
“Mrs. Thaller!” Chloe cried to her even as I was pulled back toward the street. “Help us! Don’t let him take Mommy!”
“Get in,” he told me grimly as he shoved me into the passenger seat. There was something about his voice that made me sit, and before I could shake it off he was behind the wheel. In a moment, we were speeding down the street.
I stared at the shops and apartment buildings, dazed again as the world felt less real with every second. Why did I just get into the car like that, leaving my daughter behind?
“I didn’t take—” I started to explain.
“Tell it to the cops,” he snarled.
“I found Chloe in a basket on my doorstep five years ago,” I said, noticing bruises on both my wrists from where he had grabbed them. They hurt, and I rubbed them. “There was a note with her name on it and a small blanket, and that was it!”
“A basket on your doorstep?” he scoffed, not taking his eyes off the road. Considering how fast he was going, I was grateful for that. “Next you’ll say she fell from the sky.”
“I went to the authorities,” I insisted. “I had her placed in an orphanage! There are records. No one would take her, and the human children weren’t treating her well. I had to take her in!”
The car sped up even further. “You put my daughter in a human orphanage?”
“I didn’t have the money for a wolf facility.”
“You disgust me.”
“It was a legal adoption! Everything was sanctioned! I didn’t take her from you!”
“You’re lying, and I’ll prove it.”
“You’re being irrational! If she’s really your daughter, all this can be legally resolved!”
He said nothing, the overbearing and tyrannical alpha who obviously thought a human couldn’t be trusted. And to think I had regarded him as my savior less than an hour ago!
“Why would I want to steal and raise a werewolf child?”
“For the money, of course.”
“What money? I thought she was an orphan! I had to give up my job to care for her. I’ve worked two jobs babysitting and cleaning for her!”
He snorted. “Then you should be happy I’m here to take her off your hands.”
“She’s my child! I love her. I would do anything for her.”
“Is that why you took her from me?”
“I didn’t take her!”
He stomped on the brakes and turned right into the parking lot of the district’s police station. He turned to me, blue eyes hard as diamonds. “If you’re so sure the truth will exonerate you, you should want to go inside.”
“Not like this,” I pleaded. “Not as a human being accused by an alpha werewolf! They’ll take your word without a second thought, and I’ll never see my daughter again.”
My words angered him again, and he all but shoved me out of the car to march me inside the station. It was dim after the sunlight, but still, at a glance, I could see the werewolves behind the counter and two humans in cuffs waiting in chairs. The place smelled like stale French fries and floor cleaner.
“Please,” I whispered to him. “At least let me see Chloe before you do this. I may never see her again.”
He frowned at me as the door flew open behind us. A small, swiftly moving shadow attacked Mr. Cavendish before either of us could blink.
I looked down to see Chloe. She was pummeling his thigh with her fists, panting and screaming, “Let go of Mommy! Don’t hurt her!” over and over.
Her short hair was plastered with sweat, and her clothes were tattered. She had clearly run there behind the car. How had she kept up? How had she known where I was?
I tried to reach down to get her, but the alpha shaved me back in what seemed an instinctive move and picked her up himself, being careful to avoid her blows.
The door burst open again, this time to admit the beta chauffeur. I looked behind him for Grace, who came in looking terrified.
“Let go of Mommy!” Chloe shouted again, angry and clawing at the air.
Suddenly subdued, he let go of me and put Chloe down. She leapt at me, and I gathered her up in my arms, smelling her anger and sweat.
“It’s all right, baby,” I soothed as best I could. “I’m here. Mommy’s here.”
Grace started crying. “Don’t hurt Sarah, Daddy. Please.”
Mr. Cavendish looked at me, then at the little alpha I held in my arms who glared back at him. He signed, closed his eyes, and then opened them again and stopped down to pick up his daughter.
Without a word, he turned and walked back out the door. I noticed the police said nothing either. No werewolf would challenge him, I thought with despair.
My whole life and that of my daughter were in his hands.
We walked silently back to the car parked in a VIP space: him holding Grace, me holding Chloe, and the beta following us until we neared the car. Then he quickly went to the front passenger door and opened it for his boss. I took Chloe with me into the backseat as Cavendish settled himself with his daughter.
He held up a hand when the beta got ready to start the car. We all sat in silence for a moment.
“All right,” he said, looking back at me. “Tell me everything.”
