Sauter (Ironside Academy, #3)(99)

“Not a chance,” Mikel muttered, reaching past her to knock briskly on the door. “You’re never going to be alone with him again.”

His body was close behind hers, but as soon as the door handle turned, he melted a few steps away, standing slightly off to the side.

“Isobel?” Braun Carter filled the doorway, a look of annoyance in his face as he became momentarily distracted by his phone.

“You’ve got it, Stan!” he thundered enthusiastically. “I’ll have Bellamy email you right now and we’ll get this little mess all cleared up, eh? Great.” He hung up the phone, the annoyance in his face creasing deeper. “What are you doing here?” He only seemed to notice Mikel, then, and most of the annoyance filtered out of his expression. “Professor Easton. What a pleasure.” He flung the door open, motioning them inside. “What brings you both here? Shouldn’t you be in class right now, Isobel?”

“This is more important,” she managed to get out, the giant ball of anxiety in her throat making it difficult to speak. “There’s something I need to ask you.”

“By all means.” He rocked back on his heels, folding his meaty arms and setting his jaw in a warning flex. “I’m at your disposal.”

He wasn’t even trying to hide his sarcasm in front of Mikel … but then again, he probably expected Mikel to share his disdain.

“I need to know what happened to Mom.”

Her father’s thick brows drew down, heavy over his eyes. “That’s a conversation for private family time, Isobel. Come back at the time we have scheduled. No guests—no offence, Professor Easton, but it’s just so rare that I get alone time with my daughter, her being so famous now.” His attention flicked up to Mikel for a moment, seeming a little confused over the other man’s continued silence.

“No.” Isobel forced her eyes up to her father’s, flinching at the wave of his rage as it swept over her, threatening to send her to her knees. “I’m free now. We can meet now.”

He stared at her for a moment. Calculating. And then he fell back another step, motioning for them both to take a seat on one of the couches facing the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked over the front of the academy. His assistant walked in from the other room, holding a tablet in one hand and a phone in the other. She paused when she spotted Mikel, her eyes going wide before she quickly turned and left the room again, closing the door quietly behind her.

“Your mother had a heart attack,” Braun announced, rounding the couches to stand by the window and look down on Isobel. Mikel had stayed behind the couch, right behind Isobel, and Braun glanced to the other Alpha, his stare growing hard, with a hint of curiosity peeking through. “Is there something I can help you with, Professor?”

“Yes, actually.” Mikel spoke formally, his tone detached. “But my issue can wait. Please continue.” The hint of Alpha command in his voice had Isobel almost turning around in surprise, but she managed to keep her focus on her father.

“What was she doing?” Isobel pressed. “Where was she? Were you with her?”

“I was there,” Braun confirmed, easing down into an armchair, the same grief Isobel had felt the day he had told her about her mother edging past the rage he was pushing out at her. She resisted the urge to pull down her walls and take it all from him, the way she had been taught.

“I deserve to know what happened.” She tried to sound unyielding and unafraid, but she was pretty sure it had come out sounding more like a question.

“I know you think it’s my fault.” Braun turned away from her, looking out the window, his jaw tensing again. “You were always so much weaker than Caran. She could handle me. She didn’t die because she was levelling me out. She died because she weakened herself. She stopped taking her medication.”

“What medication?” Isobel frowned, unsure how to react to her father actually talking to her instead of dismissing her completely.

He stood and walked to where his soft leather briefcase was sitting on the hall table. He pulled a small white bottle from inside and brought it over to his chair, sinking down again as he smacked the bottle onto the coffee table before him.

“The surrogate pills,” he said. “They were keeping her alive. Along with me.”

“S-Surrogate?” Isobel stuttered.

“God, you really can be stupid, Isobel.” He pinched his nose, annoyance now overtaking his tendrils of grief.

Behind her, Mikel let out a low sound of warning, but Braun didn’t seem to hear it. It was almost as though he had forgotten the presence of the other Alpha altogether.

“Mom wasn’t your mate?” Isobel asked, something like fear choking up the back of her throat.

“Her mate was my brother. He was her Anchor.” Braun levelled Isobel with a tired look. “He died, and I offered to help. I’d heard about the pills, but they weren’t available in the settlements—hell, the people in the settlements still don’t know about them. I pretended she was my mate, otherwise, they never would have issued the pills to me. It was simple enough, since we have a similar eye colour. They issued the pills on the basis that I would be travelling most of the year for work and she would be home alone. Between me and the pills, she survived.”

Isobel’s mind was spinning, her eyes fixed to the little white bottle. “What are they?”