90 Days to Run - Tricking the Alpha

4. A Chance To Apologize

Beta Soren Hale stood at the bar counter with a glass of whiskey. Likely his fifth. He was rarely sober past noon.

Of course he was here.

Onyx’s Beta had always been more muscle than sense. Broad shoulders, thick arms, and stupid enough to bark on command if Onyx desired. He looked from Harlow to me. “Planning to drag Alpha Onyx’s name through border gossip now?”

Harlow started to stand. I grabbed her arm. “Sit.”

She sat with a huff. Harlow never did anything happily when murder seemed a more efficient option.

Soren stepped closer. “I heard enough.”

I kept both hands around my coffee. “No, you heard what you wanted.”

Soren lifted the glass. “I heard you accusing Lady Mona of carrying another man’s child.”

I set my cup down. “I stated a medical fact.”

“You are jealous because Alpha Onyx protected her.” He looked at my cheek, then away. “Now you want to punish them both.”

I picked my coffee back up before I grabbed the nearest knife and made Harlow proud. “Careful, Soren. Repeating it makes you complicit.”

He went still. “You were allowed too much freedom in this pack. That ends now.”

He set money on the counter and walked out before I could answer.

Harlow watched the door close behind him. “He is going straight to Onyx.”

I nodded. “Yes.”

She tapped the table. “And he will make it worse.”

Another nod.

She leaned closer. “Then we leave now.”

I shook my head. “No. I resign first.”

She reached for my hand. I pulled back because I didn't want her to feel just how much I was shaking. “If I disappear without filing anything, Onyx calls it abandonment. Joanna calls it theft. Soren calls it betrayal. I need the record clean.”

Harlow cursed, but didn’t push.

Twenty minutes later, the bar door opened again.

Soren walked in first. Two giant pack warriors followed him. Onyx entered with Mona at his side. Selena trailed behind them with her phone in hand. Several wolves from the morning patrol drifted in behind them, pretending coincidence had brought half of Cedar Moon into one room.

Convenient little pack of liars.

Harlow stood. I stayed seated.

Onyx stopped at the edge of our booth. He had changed clothes since morning. Black coat. Clean shirt. No sign of rain, shame, or the wife he had tried to force back into place only hours earlier.

Mona kept close to him.

“She deserves an apology.”

I fought the urge to snort. It would only make this worse. “For what?”

Soren stepped up. “For spreading lies. Lady Mona is not pregnant.”

For one second, the room went quiet and tilted.

I had seen the glow. I had felt the rhythm beneath the crystal. Mona was pregnant, and Soren had just made himself useful without understanding how or why.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The truth did not matter here. Not in this bar. Not with Onyx standing beside her and deciding what reality everyone else had to swallow.

Mona looked at the floor as she whimpered. Her shoulders drew in just enough to make her look fragile. Every person in the room had already arranged themselves around her performance. And Onyx’s anger.

His eyes flashed bright amber. I felt the command before he said it. “Apologize, Ember. I am done letting you turn yourself into a public problem.”

Harlow covered her mouth with the back of her hand before the sound could escape.

I slid out of the booth and stood. “Okay, sir.”

Mona smiled before she could stop herself.

I turned toward her with the same fake smile. “I apologize.”

The entire bar went still. No one wanted to miss what I was about to say.

I kept my breathing even enough to say each word clearly. “I apologize for believing seven years of marriage made me something more than a convenient arrangement. I apologize for taking up time my husband should have spent with the woman Cedar Moon clearly prepared for him. I apologize for failing to understand that when Mona arrived in my clinic after strenuous activity, I should have ignored procedure, ignored the scan, and stepped aside before any miscarriage-risk treatment became my responsibility.”

Mona stopped pretending to tremble. Selena lowered her phone. Soren looked confused, which was an improvement over righteous. Barely.

I picked up my coat. “Thank you for giving me a chance to apologize.”

Amber flashed through Onyx’s eyes, bright enough to warn every wolf near him. I did not give him time to turn it into another command. I walked past before he could decide whether to order me back. “We are done here.”

Outside, cold air hit my face and made the swelling ache again. I was starting to welcome the sting.

I had made it three steps before the bar door slammed, and Onyx caught up. “Playing hard to get now?”

I kept walking.

He matched my pace. “You make a mockery of my pack, Ember? The pack that took you in? This is how you repay us?”

I stopped near the bar’s side wall, where the alley kept us out of the crowd’s direct view. “You brought an audience.”

He gritted his teeth to suppress the growl. “You earned one.”

I scoffed. “No. You needed one.”

His wolf pushed against the bond, not as hard as last night, but enough to make my skin prickle with warning. “Do not test me today, Ember.”

I kept my hands at my sides. “I stopped testing you.”

He leaned closer. “Then stop acting like a rejected mate desperate for attention.”

I dug my nails into my palms until it started to sting. “I am not desperate for your attention.”

He pointed toward the bar. “You followed us into a public place.”

I bit back the scoff building in my throat. “I was there before you.”

“Soren was there, and you sat there with your little friend spreading filth about Mona.”

I turned back to him. “She created it herself when she refused blood work.”

His hand closed around my upper arm. “Enough. If you keep misbehaving, I will send you to the border clinic until you remember how to function.”

The border clinic was not a punishment on paper. It treated the wolves that Onyx preferred to keep out of sight. It was three hours from the main house.

He meant exile and isolation.

I looked at his fingers on my arm until he growled and released me.

“Then I made the right choice. I bless you both.” I walked away before he noticed the tears in my eyes.

The clinic smelled different when I returned. Della looked up from the nurses’ station and froze. “Doctor Dray?”

I went to my office and pulled out a blank resignation form.

Effective immediately. Reason for departure: Personal relocation.

That was polite. Almost comical. I had survived forced secrecy, medical theft, public humiliation, and an Alpha who thought my body was evidence against me. The form gave me one little line to explain it.

I signed my name without including Voss.

Della stood in the doorway when I finished. “You are leaving?”

I capped the pen. “Yes.”

Della gripped the doorframe. “Where will you go?”

I slid the form into a folder. “Somewhere I can work without being punished for doing it.”

Della looked close to crying. I looked away before loyalty made me doubt. I placed the resignation on Mara's old desk and packed the last of my personal items. My Spiritwalker books and binders were not on the shelf.

I had moved the oldest books there after Mara’s last seizure because I needed them close when I treated her memories.

I couldn't walk away without those. Which meant one more trip through the house Mona had tried to enter before I had even left it.

I didn’t make it ten feet from the clinic door before the bond stirred hard like a warning. He was back on pack land, and he was angry. Maybe he was finally starting to realize just how serious I was.