Alpha, She Is Done With You

Chapter 05

Sora's POV

The will is family only. But when I push the study door open, Lyra's already sitting by the window.

Nobody questions it. Nobody says a word. The whole room tells me, just by staying quiet, that she belongs here more than I do.

Yuki's on her lap, head tipped up, talking, eyes bright.

I cross the room and stop in front of Lyra. I keep my voice as level as I can.

"This is family only. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

The lawyer answers before she can.

"Ms. Lyra Voss is listed as a beneficiary. She's required to be present for the reading."

I swallow it down. I go sit beside Ethan.

That's when his hand comes down on the back of mine.

He doesn't take my hand. He just rests his there. A weight I wasn't expecting, clumsy, like he doesn't quite know how to do it.

I don't move. I let it stay. I don't let myself read anything into it.

The lawyer begins.

Pack assets to the council. Private collections to Ethan. A few pieces of jewelry to the elder Lunas.

Then he reads my name, and I sit up a little.

Grandma left me a personal security fund. The amount isn't small. Something loosens in my chest. All this time, she was quietly setting something aside for me.

Then he reads the condition.

"These funds will be released as her independent personal asset upon the birth of a male Blackwood heir during the marriage. Should the marriage end, or the condition go unmet, the funds return to the pack trust."

Have a son, and the money's mine. Get divorced, and I get nothing.

I sit there and listen to every word of it. Then I look down at the top of Yuki's head and push the heat back behind my eyes.

The lawyer keeps going.

A trust for Lyra. No conditions. Larger than mine. The note attached reads, to compensate Ms. Lyra Voss for the personal loss she suffered due to family matters. The trust covers the living and education of Ms. Voss and her future children.

Future children. Nobody asks who the father is.

Black ink on white paper. Sealed. Permanent.

Then the lawyer turns the page, and before I've come out from under the last one, I hear the name.

Moonridge.

The name of the house.

Seven years ago I saw that place for the first time, out at the edge of pack territory, when I went with Ethan to check the property list. It was falling apart. Nobody lived in it. The roof leaked. Two boards in the floor had rotted through. In winter the mountain wind came straight through the gaps in the walls.

I spent two years on it. Holidays. Hours after my shifts. I drew the plans myself. Picked the materials myself. Turned it, piece by piece, into what it became.

The big south-facing windows, so you could lie on the floor in a winter afternoon and get the sun. The kitchen cabinets, hung at a height I measured myself, exactly right for how tall I am.

Ethan and me and Yuki went up there two weeks every summer. Yuki learned to ride her bike in that yard.

The lawyer finishes reading. The study goes quiet for a second.

Then Ethan speaks.

"Hold on." His hand lifts off mine. His voice has something in it I've never heard from him. Real confusion. "Read that again. That property. To who?"

The lawyer reads it again. Moonridge, the house in the woods, bequeathed to Lyra Voss.

Ethan is quiet a beat. Then, "When was this will signed? You've confirmed it? Not to Sora. To Lyra?"

The lawyer confirms the date. The signature. The notarization. Everything's in order. No ambiguity anywhere.

Nobody in the room says anything. Violet's face gives away nothing. Lyra keeps her head down, that grief measured out to the exact right amount.

I sit with my hands on my knees, pressing my fingertips into the fabric of my dress, letting the pressure hold me still.

I don't make a sound.

The reading ends. Ethan comes over, drops his voice, and there's something off in it he doesn't seem to notice himself.

"That house—" He doesn't finish.

I look up at him and wait.

He's quiet a moment. Then, "You're not doing well today. Get someone to cover your afternoon shift. Don't worry about taking Yuki anywhere. Go rest."

I nod.

I stand at the upstairs window and look down at the driveway.

I think he's the one taking Yuki.

Then Lyra comes out, holding Yuki's hand.

Something in my head snaps.

I'm down the stairs faster than I knew I could move. Out the front door, across the gravel, and I've got the rear car door open before I've thought about it.

"Where are you taking my daughter?" My voice isn't steady. "What gives you the right?"

Lyra does the wide-eyed thing. Soft. "I've never actually been to the house. I wanted to see it. Yuki says she knows it so well, that she grew up there. She offered to show me around."

But I built that house. With my own two hands.

Ethan sees the whole thing and frowns. "Forget it. I'll go with Yuki. Lyra's never been. Grandma left it to her for a reason."

The dead have the last word. So I let it go. I have to.

I watch the three of them drive off like a family. The wind pulls my hair loose across my face. The knuckles on the back of my hand go white.

I don't remember how I got back to the hospital.

I work the afternoon shift anyway. I move through every step like a machine. Every task done, every patient seen. Because stopping is the dangerous part.

Near the end of it, Ian stops me in the hallway. He looks at me, doesn't ask a thing, and steers me into his office.

"That routine panel I ran on you last week. One of the markers came back off. I needed to confirm it with you in person."

He sets a report on the desk. His voice is as level as if he's reading off a blood pressure.

"Sora. You're pregnant."