Chapter 11 The Name Beneath the Papers

The next morning.

Eira woke early. Gray-blue dawn light filtered through the curtain edges. She lay still for two seconds, then sat up.

Her phone buzzed on the nightstand.

Vanessa: Eira, your resignation process isn’t complete yet. You’ll need to report to the office as usual until your exit review is finalized.

Perfect. She needed a reason to get out of the Hale house. This worked.

Eira: Okay.

She washed up, changed clothes, grabbed her bag. But when she opened the bedroom door, she stopped.

Serena Winthrop stood in the hallway, leaning against the wall. Wearing a robe that didn’t belong to her.

Eira’s robe. The one missing from her closet.

Serena yawned like a cat just waking up, thick golden waves tumbling over her shoulders, green eyes half-lidded with lazy triumph. Like she was the real mistress of this house.

"Morning, Eira."

Eira didn’t answer. She crouched down to tie her shoe.

Serena didn’t rush. She leaned back against the wall, gaze sliding slowly over Eira’s frame, like she was appraising a piece of old furniture about to be tossed out.

"Your job at Sterling Group," Serena said suddenly. "How far along is your resignation?"

"Still processing."

"Processing." Serena let out a soft laugh. "You know my grandfather has ties to the Sterling family, right? Winthrop Pack and Sterling Pack have had business dealings for years. I’ve even met Alpha Killian in person."

She paused, her face softening into something almost generous.

"If you want to stay, I could put in a word for you. Get you transferred to a better position. Maybe a salary bump. That way Sebastian wouldn’t think your work is so... disposable."

Eira looked at her. Two seconds. Then she smiled. Calm. Controlled.

"Sure."

Serena’s eyes flickered.

Eira picked up her bag and walked past her. "I’ll wait for your call."

The door opened. Then closed.

Serena’s smile faded slowly in the empty hallway. Something felt off. Eira had been too calm. Not like a wolfless Omega who’d just been humiliated. But so what. Soon enough, she’d be gone for good, and everything would go back to the way it should be.

--

Eira left Hale territory behind and headed for the block outside Sterling Tower.

She grabbed a taco from one of the trucks lined up for the morning rush. Extra everything. The hottest salsa on the menu. First bite burned longer than she wanted to admit.

That was the wrong moment to look up.

Someone slammed into her at full speed. Like she was sprinting to catch a flight two gates over and losing.

Eira barely rocked back on her heels. The girl who hit her wasn’t so lucky. She stumbled, arms flailing. A stack of papers went flying, right there on the sidewalk in front of the Tower’s revolving doors.

Eira’s hand shot out on instinct. She caught the girl’s arm and steadied her before she hit the ground.

"Whoa. You good?"

Lila Sterling blinked up at her, a little dazed. No-frame glasses. A messy ponytail, the kind that said I have not slept and I do not care. Sharp cheekbones.

Lab rat energy, Lila thought immediately. Big time.

"I’m — oh my God, I’m fine." Lila scrambled up, breathless, chasing runaway papers across the plaza before they hit the revolving doors.

Eira crouched to help and caught one page mid-air. One line of numbers stuck out. The kind of error that made her fingers itch before her brain finished deciding to care. She circled it, jotted the fix in the margin, and slid the page back into the stack.

"You just saved my life," Lila said, clutching the papers to her chest like they were made of gold. "Okay, not my life. My GPA. Same thing, basically."

"No problem."

"I am so late, I gotta run—" Two steps toward the entrance, Lila spun back around. "Wait! What’s your name? I owe you coffee! Like, real coffee, not the truck kind!"

Her smile was so blinding, so completely unguarded, that Eira answered before she’d even decided to.

"Eira."

"Got it! Bye, Eira, you’re a lifesaver, literally, bye!"

And she was gone. Sprinting through the revolving doors like the building was on fire. No idea her professor was about to look wrong.

Not far off, Vanessa watched the whole thing happen, coffee stopped halfway to her mouth.

Okay. So what even is this woman. Marnie pulls a favor to get her hired. Alpha Killian personally freezes her exit paperwork. Now Lila’s handing out coffee dates like candy. This entire family was losing it over one person.

"Eira!" Vanessa jogged over, all smiles. "C’mon, follow me."

"Hey, Vanessa. What’s up? This about my resignation?"

They walked right past the HR elevators. The ones Eira actually knew.

"This isn’t the way to your office," Eira said.

"Nope. Executive floor." Vanessa said it flat, bored, like she’d rehearsed sounding bored in the mirror that morning. "Alpha Killian’s EA is out on leave, and Legal decided exit paperwork this month gets signed off upstairs instead of by us. New policy. Didn’t write it. Don’t love it."

"That’s a lot of hoops for a resignation."

"Tell me about it. You’re the first one I’ve dragged up there. Lucky me." Vanessa rolled her eyes so hard it looked painful.

Her heels clicked down the hall like a countdown to something Eira wasn’t ready for. Not that anyone had bothered to warn her.

Straight up to the executive floor. Then they nearly ran smack into Miles, who looked like he’d pulled an all-nighter. Because he had. Deep-diving Eira’s entire life story.

Miles pushed his glasses up and hit her with a smile way too polished for a random Tuesday.

"Miss Crawford."

Oh good. We’re doing formal now.

Since when? She glanced at the dark circles under his eyes. Whatever he’d been up all night doing, it ended with him knowing her last name before she’d said it.

Miles nodded at the double doors. "Give it a minute. Alpha Killian’s still tied up."

--

Inside the office.

Lila slammed her research data onto her brother’s desk. It was basically a mic drop.

"My professor says my numbers are off. They’re not." She’d been at this since midnight. Her eyes felt like sandpaper. "Check them. Right now. Or I’m not walking at graduation."

Alpha Killian pinched the bridge of his nose. He already regretted letting her in.

He pulled the stack toward him. Flipped through two pages. Tapped a circled section without even really looking. "You marked this yourself."

Lila squinted at the red ink. "I didn’t circle this."

Alpha Killian’s voice went flat. "Then Casper did."

"Oh my God, wait, I remember now!" Lila’s voice shot up an octave. "The woman I ran into downstairs! It had to be her!" She spun toward her brother, eyes huge. "Is she in R&D? Total lab-coat vibes."

"Who?"

Lila kept going, ignoring him. "Eira! Her name’s Eira. Is she in R&D or what?"

The second that name left her mouth, Alpha Killian went stone still.

He grabbed the phone. Miles picked up on the first ring.

"She here yet?"

"Yes, Alpha Killian."

"Send her in."

Miles opened the door. "Miss Crawford. Alpha Killian will see you now."

Eira stepped inside. The door clicked shut behind her. She glanced back once, then turned around.

That’s when she heard a voice she recognized.

"Wait, coffee lady?! I mean, Eira! You’re actually here?"

Eira’s head snapped up.

The girl from downstairs stood beside the desk, still clutching her papers like a lifeline.

A man sat in the chair behind the desk. Black dress shirt. Blood-red tie. The kind of face that made every she-wolf within a fifty-mile radius lose her train of thought mid-sentence and forget she even had one.

And he was staring straight at her.

Mr. Sterling. Recognition hit before her brain even caught up.

The guy from the elevator. The one who’d bought her soup and let her win the fight over the check.

Except he wasn’t just "Mr. Sterling" anymore. Alpha Killian, Miles had said. Same guy. Bigger office. Way worse timing.

Eira gave a small nod. "Guilty as charged."

"Knew it!" Lila beamed. "You just saved my whole thesis. Way more useful than my own brother." She spun back toward the desk, still grinning. Then she froze.

"Wait." The smile dropped off her face. "Eira?" Her head whipped toward Alpha Killian. "Isn’t this the woman you were ask—"

"Lila." One word. That was all it took.

Lila snapped her mouth shut.

Eira didn’t move. Something about that sentence hadn’t finished right.

Ask what?

The question sat there, unanswered, and refused to leave. It wasn’t the first time today someone had looked at her like they already knew something she hadn’t said out loud.