Chapter 86 Why Should I?

"Miss." Alpha Sebastian called out again.

Rachel took a breath and turned around, cool as she could manage.

"Me?"

"Yeah." Alpha Sebastian walked over, smooth as ever, playing the perfect husband. "Sorry to bother you, but could you run this in to my wife? She’s stuck in the restroom."

He held out a black plastic bag. Rachel clocked the drugstore logo instantly. Pads.

Good. He still had no clue.

She snatched the bag and went back inside.

"Hey, your husband wanted me to give you this." Rachel said it loud enough for Alpha Sebastian to catch through the door.

Eira’s hand appeared under the stall. "Thanks."

She ripped the wrapper open on purpose, used one, then walked out swinging the empty bag.

"Eira." Alpha Sebastian’s face lit up like a kid on Christmas. He practically jogged over.

Roses. A whole bunch of them.

Last time he’d handed her flowers was their wedding day.

Eira clocked the hope written all over his face and took them anyway.

"No purse?" He eyed the plastic bag. She shook her head. He took it off her hands and grabbed the other one instead.

"C’mon, let’s grab lunch."

"Sure." She let him steer her toward a restaurant a few doors down. Not that she wanted to be there. She just went along for the ride.

Food hadn’t even hit the table yet when Alpha Sebastian sucked in a breath and finally manned up about Sterling House.

"Eira, can you just let go of what Isabella did?"

Eira’s glass stopped halfway to her mouth. Her voice came out flat.

"So you finally know it was her."

"Yeah." He nodded. "I dropped the ball keeping her in check. My bad. I’m sorry."

"And I’m sorry I made you go home and grovel to her that day."

He looked sincere enough. Didn’t matter anymore. Bottom line, he knew his sister pulled something messed up, and he was still riding for her. His wife could take a back seat.

"You didn’t do anything." Eira kept her voice level. "So why are you the one apologizing?"

Sebastian didn’t answer right away.

"Funny." A small, humorless smile touched her lips. "Last I checked, she’s got a mouth of her own."

"I’m apologizing on her behalf." His brow creased. "And to you. Can we just drop it already?"

Hearing that on repeat felt like getting jabbed with the same needle, over and over.

"Why should I?" Her voice sharpened.

"If you forgive her, my parents will notice. She’ll notice. It’ll go a long way." Same old song. "Keeps the family from falling apart. The Pack could use the stability right now."

Eira looked down and drained her water. Ice cold going down.

"So all those years I hunted down the most renowned pack doctors in the region, tracked down rare herbs deep in contested territory, all just to ease the ache from your father’s old battle wounds, that counted for nothing."

"Your mother almost lost her inheritance to a rogue posing as a Pack broker. I dug through his background for weeks, traced his real Pack ties, and got the Pack Council to shut him down. Also nothing."

"Isabella picked a fight with a Beta from a rival Pack and it nearly started a border dispute. I was the one who smoothed it over with their Alpha, sat through three tense mediations, and made sure nobody’s territory got torched over her temper. None of that counted."

"She drugged me. Almost got me assaulted. But if I forgive that, suddenly your family remembers I’m not so bad?"

Alpha Sebastian’s eyes shrank. He had nothing.

"That’s not," he started, wanting to say that’s not what I meant. Except every word out of her mouth checked out.

He shut up. Something ugly twisted in his chest.

Eira barely noticed anymore. Every time she butted heads with his family, he either told her to cave first or said absolutely nothing. The only time he actually kept quiet was when the Hales crossed a real line, and even then, knowing full well they were wrong, he never once had her back.

Staying neutral when the field wasn’t level? That was just picking a side without the guts to say so.

Eira stared at him without blinking.

Alpha Sebastian couldn’t meet her eyes.

Their food showed up, her grilled chicken and his steak. He picked up his fork, cut off a piece of steak, and set it on the edge of her plate before he said anything else.

"You must be hungry. Eat something."

Old Eira would’ve backed off right here. She used to hate seeing Alpha Sebastian stuck in the middle, hated watching him look sad or torn up inside.

Not today. She ignored the guilt on his face and kept pushing.

"Actually, I don’t think Isabella had the guts to pull this off alone."

Alpha Sebastian’s head snapped up. "What do you mean?"

"Isabella only picks on people weaker than her. She’s a coward. That’s why she kept switching dorm rooms every time someone actually stood up to her. You know what that drug even is? The one she used on me?"

His eyes shrank again.

"That’s a federally controlled substance, Sebastian. Schedule I. You can’t grab that at a pharmacy, and you can’t order it online without leaving a trail a mile long. Isabella’s whole skill set is competing with other girls for attention. She barely knows how to run a coffee maker. You think she’s got some dealer on speed dial?"

Serena, though? Serena had spent years overseas. Totally different story.

Eira looked at him closely. "Has this ever crossed your mind? Isabella walked out of that police station clean. No charges. Not enough evidence, they said. That includes zero record of her buying anything, anywhere. Tracking’s crazy good these days. If she searched for it, ordered it, there’d be a paper trail somewhere. So why is there nothing?"

Alpha Sebastian’s whole body locked up.

Because none of what Eira just said was wrong.

"You always used to say someone talked Isabella into it. That she got played into doing something stupid. Honestly? I agreed with you. Isabella’s easy to manipulate."

"You didn’t build what you built by drinking your way through business dinners, Sebastian. You’re smart. Use your head. Think it through."

Eira went back to her food, calm as ever.

Alpha Sebastian kept chewing, barely tasting anything. His mind kept circling back to that day at the hotel.

The only people involved besides Isabella were...

Serena.

No. No way.

Serena had always been sweet. She never once talked trash about Eira in front of him. That day at the hotel, she’d been the one calming him down, telling him maybe Isabella got confused, telling him not to lose it.

"I’m done," Eira said.

"Okay." Alpha Sebastian snapped out of it and asked, gentle, "You want more water?"

"I got it." Eira took a sip, grabbed a napkin, wiped her mouth. "I need to head back for the afternoon session. Don’t want to be late."

Alpha Sebastian stood up. He hesitated, then asked, "Can you forgive us?"

Forgiveness. All he wanted was to feel less guilty.

Eira didn’t answer that straight. Instead she said, "If you want me to drop the complaint, Isabella apologizes to me herself. Face to face."

"That’s it? Just an apology?"

"Yeah." Alpha Sebastian jumped on that fast. "I’ll have her come apologize tomorrow."

"Tomorrow doesn’t work." Eira shut that down. "As for when, Isabella can wait until I let her know."

Alpha Sebastian frowned. "Why?"

"Isabella made me wait when she stole my package," Eira said, flat.

His frown deepened. "Eira, can’t you just take the high road here? Does everything have to be tit for tat?"