90 Days to Run - Tricking the Alpha

6. The Reason

I went to Mara with my cheek swollen from the other two Voss women an hour later.

The Elder House sat behind the old courtyard. I kept my bag on my shoulder and my resignation copy folded inside my coat.

Halfway across the courtyard, Joanna’s voice stopped me before I reached the side door. “You should have handled it before it became public.”

I stepped behind the stone arch and stayed there. Onyx stood near the fountain with his back to me. Joanna faced him. Neither of them noticed me.

Onyx shifted toward her. “Handled what?”

“The clinic leak. The bar. The posts.” Joanna shoved the phone toward him. “Someone gave the right pieces to the right people. Not Ember, clearly. She is too controlled for sloppy gossip.”

I bit my lip. Joanna knew. Not everything, maybe. Not the whole truth. But enough.

Onyx took the phone and looked at the screen. “Find who did it.”

Joanna stepped closer. “The leak still benefits us if we steer it properly. Mona looks attacked. Ember looks bitter. But you need to keep your wife quiet until this passes.”

His wife. She remembered the word only when she needed me contained.

Onyx handed the phone back. “Ember will not cause trouble anyway.”

Joanna studied him. “You are sure?”

He glanced toward the house. “She never causes trouble.”

I bit my lip harder until I tasted blood.

For seven years, I called it patience. I called it loyalty. I called it choosing peace because someone needed to stay mature, steady, useful, and quiet. I believed endurance proved I loved well.

To him, it only proved I was easy to use. Never causing trouble was not a virtue in Cedar Moon. It was a leash I held for them.

I stepped out from behind the arch. Joanna saw me first. Onyx followed her attention and turned. For a second, neither of them spoke.

Good. I walked between them without stopping.

Joanna tried to change her tone. “Ember.”

I opened the Elder House door. “Mara is waiting.”

Onyx did not block me. Maybe he still believed quiet women stayed quiet forever. Men built entire kingdoms on worse guesses.

Mara’s cottage smelled like old cedar. She sat near the window with a blanket over her knees and a platinum ring turning between her fingers. Her hair was pinned back, neat despite the tremor in her hands.

She looked at my cheek before she looked anywhere else. “Child.”

I set my bag beside the chair. “I came back for the books from the study.”

“I did not call you for books.”

“No.” I took the chair across from her. “But I was not leaving them behind.”

“I heard what happened.”

“Which part?” I tried not to make eye contact.

Mara looked down. “Too much of it.”

I opened my medical case. “Let me check you before you ask me to forgive anyone.”

She smiled. “Always a doctor first.”

“Doctors need facts.” I wrapped the pressure cuff around her arm. “Families seem to survive on avoiding them.”

The old woman let me work. Her pulse was weak but steady. Her breathing sounded better than it did last week, though the spirit-tear near her oldest memory still pulled at the link like a loose thread.

I did not enter it. Not today. Not with my head full of Onyx, Joanna, Mona, and the sound of my usefulness being discussed like a household tool.

Mara watched me pack the cuff away. “I want you to reconsider the divorce.”

I knew that was coming. I closed the case before I looked up at her. “No.”

“Not forever.” She sat up in the chair and let the blanket fall to the ground. “Temporarily. Keep it quiet until Leo stabilizes. Mona’s position is already shaking. If Leo wakes clear enough, she may return to him on her own. That would spare the pack more blood.”

I stared at the woman who saved my life and placed me in Onyx’s path in the same breath. “You want me to protect the family from the truth again.”

“I just want time, Emme.”

“So did I.” I looked toward the courtyard window where Onyx was near the fountain. He had the envelope from my room in his hand.

Mara did the same. We watched as Onyx slid one finger beneath the flap. He almost looked like he sighed. Before he pulled the papers free, a messenger crossed the courtyard to him. The young wolf bowed and pointed toward the drive.

I knew it was Mona before Onyx did anything. He dropped the envelope onto the stone bench and walked away without reading a single line.

I laughed. What else could I do?

Mara just closed her eyes.

“He did not read it seven years ago either.” I kept my eyes on the forgotten envelope. “He thought it was a standard secrecy agreement. He missed the clause. He signed away his right to hold the bond and never cared enough to know.”

Mara whispered as she turned her face away from the window. “I know.”

That hurt worse than I wanted it to.

I stood and picked up my bag. “I will keep the divorce quiet until Leo stabilizes. Not because Onyx deserves it. Not because Joanna asked. Because you once pulled me back when no one else could. You alone are the reason.”

Mara reached toward me. I let her touch my wrist for just a second before I pulled away. The Spiritwalker thread would pull at me too hard if I didn’t. “And if Onyx decides to make this harder?”

Mara shifted the blanket back onto her knees. “Then I will handle him.”

I almost laughed. “You have had seven years to handle him.”

For one second, the frail woman in the chair disappeared beneath the Elder Alpha who had once dragged me back from death. “If he tries to force you back, shame you, or make you suffer, I will threaten him with my own life.”

“Mara.”

She sat up straighter. “He still fears losing me. If that is the only language he understands, then I will speak it.”

I stared at her and hated that part of me believed her. “When the 90 days are over, I am gone.”

She did not argue.