Chapter 92 Free and Clear

The Hale Estate.

Eira hadn’t been back in weeks. This place had swallowed years of her pain. Now she was walking out for good.

One breath. Doorbell.

Luna Margaret answered, oddly chipper. No small talk, straight to the study.

Alpha Roger pulled a black folder from his desk.

Four documents inside. Two Registered Mate Bond certificates. Two Mate Bond Dissolution certificates.

Eira’s eyes locked onto them. Her breathing slowed.

She reached out for them.

Alpha Roger’s hand landed on the folder first, holding it shut. His gaze went hard, something low and rough running under his words. "You remember what you promised me?"

"I do." Eira dragged her eyes off the certificates and met his stare head-on. "I won’t go around broadcasting it. Somebody doesn’t know Sebastian and I were together, I’m not bringing it up. Somebody already knows, I won’t be the one telling them we’re done."

Luna Margaret stepped up beside her husband, eyes drilling into Eira. "Swear you won’t wreck my son’s future. Swear you won’t breathe a word about him and Serena to anybody."

Eira said nothing at first. Just looked between the two of them.

"I won’t bring it up first."

But if somebody asked her straight out, that was a different story.

Luna Margaret caught the loophole instantly. "Swear you won’t tell anyone. Period."

Before those certificates showed up, Eira barely flinched at their threats. Now that they were sitting right there in that folder, she cared even less.

"Can’t promise that." Her voice stayed steady. "My mentor’s widow. The woman who raised me at the shelter. The people who actually give a damn about me. They deserve the truth. I’ve got no reason to hide it from them."

Fair point. Luna Margaret had nothing to throw back.

Alpha Roger’s knuckles paled against the folder. "Watch your tone." His voice dropped, carrying that particular weight only an Alpha’s voice could pull off, the kind that made lesser wolves want to bare their throats without thinking. "You forget who you’re talking to."

Eira didn’t flinch. She’d stopped flinching a long time ago.

Alpha Roger exhaled, reeling it back in. "Fine. Tell whoever you want in your own circle. But you don’t tell Sebastian. Not yet. He’s in the middle of the biggest deal of his career. You don’t get to blow that up for him."

"You can’t agree to that, these don’t leave this room."

Alpha Roger’s hand hovered over the folder, ready to lock it back in the drawer.

Eira’s fingers curled slightly. She knew freedom was sitting right in front of her. She just had to play along a little longer.

"Deal."

Alpha Roger paused.

"I won’t tell Sebastian we’re done until the Sovereign Processor bid wraps up." She held out her hand.

Alpha Roger’s face stayed carved from stone. "Out of respect for the years you looked after my son, I’ll trust you on this one."

Eira took her two certificates and stepped back.

She opened the registration certificate first.

Right in the center, both their names.

Registered Mate Bond: Sebastian Hale & Eira Crawford.

Below that, the date, the family name, the bond registry number. She remembered that day clear as anything. Standing in the middle of a crowd, smiling, actually believing she’d belong to this family, this Pack, forever. Her fingers brushed lightly over the photo.

Then she flipped to the next one.

A silver seal caught the light.

Mate Bond Dissolution Certificate.

Cold, flat text underneath.

The mate bond between Sebastian Hale and Eira Crawford has been dissolved.

Two stamps sat beside the photo, the Hale family crest and the official werewolf registry seal, both pressed hard into the paper.

Her lips twitched. She nearly laughed. Caught herself before it showed, tucked it back down, kept her eyes on the paper instead.

To Alpha Roger and Luna Margaret, watching her go quiet like that, it read as her barely holding it together. Putting on a brave face.

Luna Margaret’s laugh came out cold, satisfied.

No Pack behind her now. No Alpha backing her up. Luna Margaret figured she’d find out fast just how little a wolf was worth out there without a Pack.

Best case, some rich old wolf’s second mate down the road. Raising someone else’s pups.

Luna Margaret could already see the whole washed-up future. Didn’t even bother hiding the smugness.

See? Cut loose from the name, cut loose from her son, cut loose from any Pack at all. Eira Crawford was nothing.

"Got what you came for." Luna Margaret’s voice turned gleeful. "Door’s that way."

Eira only took her own copies.

"Don’t forget Sebastian’s set," she said, flat. "He’ll need the dissolution paperwork if he’s marrying Serena."

Alpha Roger’s jaw tightened. "Don’t need you telling us how to run this family. He’ll get them when it’s time."

"Good." She held the papers tight, turned for the door.

Walked out without looking back.

--

Isabella came through the door with her arms full of shopping bags, some influencer-approved boutique haul probably, and froze the second she clocked Eira standing there. Her whole face soured on the spot.

"What the hell are you doing in my house? Snooping around the study, huh? What’d you take?"

Classic. Not the first time she’d tried this garbage.

Back when Eira first married in the family, Isabella tried the same move at Sunday dinner. Stormed in late, dropped into her chair, announced to the table like breaking news, "Somebody’s been using my face cream. Who touched it?"

Eyes locked on Eira the whole time.

Made zero sense. Every suite in that house had its own bathroom, Isabella’s included.

Eira had never once set foot inside Isabella’s room, let alone her bathroom.

But logic never mattered when Isabella wanted a target, and nobody in that house ever bothered calling her out on it.

Years later, Isabella was still slinging accusations around like they cost her nothing.

Eira’s face went stone cold. "Keep running that mouth, I’ll shut it for you."

"You—" Isabella’s eyes went huge.

Eira gave her a small, tight smile. "Don’t worry about it."

Isabella’s face went red as a fire truck, but right before she could really lose it, Alpha Roger and Luna Margaret walked out of the study.

She froze mid-breath.

"Dad? Mom?" Bags hit the couch. "Why is she here?"

"Business." Luna Margaret brushed it off like it was nothing.

Isabella scoffed. "What kind of business could you possibly have with her? She walks in, the whole place smells like a dumpster."

"Funny, I think that every time you’re home." Eira kept her voice flat, bored almost.

Isabella’s face went full tomato.

Luna Margaret grabbed her daughter’s arm, shot Eira a look sharp enough to cut glass. "You’re not welcome here. Get out."

Isabella lifted her chin, feeling brave now that mom had her back. "You heard her. Hit the road."

Eira’s eyes landed on Isabella, and a slow smile spread across her face.

"Isabella. Tomorrow night, ten sharp. Room 9908, The Sterling House. Show up, say you’re sorry, and I’ll let this whole thing go."

The smugness drained right out of Isabella’s face. Her stomach dropped like she’d missed a step going downstairs.

Same time, same place. Is she about to pull that again?

"Dad... Mom..."

Eira was already pulling the door shut behind her when she caught the shake creeping into Isabella’s voice.