Chapter 117 Everyone Was Watching

The Sterling Manor.

The TV had been on for an hour and nobody was really watching it. Luna Seraphina had her feet up with a glass of wine. Lila was on the couch with her phone in one hand and a bowl of chips balanced on her knee.

Alpha Julian had come through twice, said he had calls, and both times ended up standing behind the couch instead.

Alpha Killian came up on screen.

Alpha Julian didn’t say anything. He just uncrossed his arms.

Luna Seraphina glanced back at him and let it go.

"He looks tired," she said.

"He’s fine."

"I’m just saying he looks tired."

Even Lila, who fought with her brother recreationally, had to give him this one.

"Okay. He’s kind of a badass. I’m saying it once and I’ll deny it."

Then the camera cut to the other side of the table.

Lila’s chips went everywhere.

"WAIT."

"Lila, the rug."

"MOM. That’s Eira."

"Who?"

"Eira. Eira." She was up off the couch and about two feet from the screen. "That’s Killian’s assistant. That’s the girl. Dad, tell her."

Alpha Julian had seen a photo of her months back, right after Alpha Killian moved her into that job, because he’d wanted to know who his son had suddenly parked ten feet from his desk.

"That’s her," he said.

Luna Seraphina put her wine down.

Lila had both hands in her hair. "I have been trying to find out who runs that project for two years. Two years. I sat next to her at the Ashford thing. I asked her. I said, do you have any idea who’s actually leading it, and she said—"

"What did she say?"

"She said she’d ask around."

Luna Seraphina laughed so hard she had to put a hand over her mouth.

"That’s not funny."

"It’s a little funny, honey."

On screen the two of them turned toward the cameras and the shutters went off in a wall of white.

Alpha Julian whistled through his teeth.

"The Hales had her in the house for four years and never bothered to find out what she did for a living."

"And now she’s on our side of the table," Luna Seraphina said.

"Now she’s on our side of the table."

"That’s not the same as her being on his side of anything." She picked her wine back up. "Twenty bucks he blows it inside a month."

Lila spun around. "You’re betting against your own kid?"

"I’m being realistic." Luna Seraphina didn’t look away from the screen.

"No, I’m in. I want in." Lila climbed back over the arm of the couch. "Fifty. He’s going to say something insane to her and not understand why it landed wrong."

Alpha Julian looked at his wife. "You’re his mother."

"I’ve met him."

"He came out of you."

"And he still doesn’t call me back." Luna Seraphina didn’t even look over.

Lila pointed the remote at her father. "Face it, Dad. Killian’s got two settings. Three words, or scorched earth."

"A man in love finds the words," Alpha Julian said. "It takes the edge off him."

The room went quiet.

Lila looked at her mother. Her mother looked back.

"Did he just say that out loud?"

"He says things like that."

"Where does he even get them?"

"That one’s how he got me," Luna Seraphina said, and drank her wine.

--

The Hale Estate

Alpha Roger had been in the chair since morning. He hadn’t eaten. He hadn’t taken a single call.

Luna Margaret and Isabella were having a great day.

They’d done face masks after breakfast. By lunch they’d moved on to which salon could fit them in and what they were wearing tonight.

If Alpha Sebastian brought home the federal contract, the Carters would throw the dinner, and everybody worth knowing would be there. You didn’t show up to that in whatever was hanging in the closet.

Twenty minutes before the broadcast, Alpha Roger looked over at them.

"Sit down."

"We’re coming, we’re coming."

Luna Margaret crossed the room and dropped onto the couch. Isabella came down next to her and leaned into her shoulder.

"So did he get it? He got it, right? Serena’s on the team."

"Of course he got it." Luna Margaret patted her knee. "Serena’s on the team, her grandfather’s behind him, and your brother is very good at what he does. We’ll be at that dinner tonight. You watch."

Alpha Roger’s jaw moved. He let it go. There was no version of that conversation that ended before three in the morning.

"Yes."

Isabella’s eyes lit up.

The last industry thing she’d gone to had been a waste of a dress. Engineers. A lot of men in their fifties talking about supply chains.

She had met Felix Shaw there. They’d traded numbers, and then he’d never texted her again. She’d tried twice. He answered both times, said almost nothing, and that was that. She stopped. There’s nothing sadder than a girl who keeps reaching.

And honestly, Felix wasn’t even that big a deal. His grandfather was famous if you cared about federal research programs, which nobody she knew did.

The Carters were something else.

Finn Carter would be there tonight. One year older than her. And Alpha Sebastian was practically family to them at this point, which put her about as close to the front of the line as a person could get.

If she handled it right.

"What are you smiling about?"

"Nothing." Isabella grinned. "Good things."

"It’s on," Alpha Roger said.

All three of them turned toward the screen.

"Today the Sovereign Processor Initiative held its contract award at the Federal Convention Center in Hall 22. The winning bidder is Sterling Group."

Nobody moved.

Luna Margaret’s smile stayed on her face about two seconds longer than it should have, then came off.

"Wait." Isabella sat up. "Sterling? No. It was supposed to be Alpha Sebastian."

"It was supposed to be us." Luna Margaret’s voice climbed. "Serena was in that building. Her grandfather was in that building. What happened?"

Alpha Roger didn’t answer.

He’d spent all day bracing for a win he’d have to spend the next year defending. Losing hadn’t been on the list.

The feed cut to the hall. Reps filing in, cameras along the wall, the seal on the front of the table.

No Serena. No Dr. Winthrop. Nobody from Hale Group at all.

Alpha Roger’s stomach went cold.

Then the moderator again.

"And now, please welcome the lead engineer of the Sovereign Processor Initiative, Dr. Eira Crawford."

Alpha Roger came forward in the chair.

Luna Margaret turned to look at what he was looking at.

Eira walked out from the left side of the stage in a dark suit, shook the director’s hand, and sat down at the head of the table. Somebody slid a folder in front of her. She opened it, checked something, and said a few words to the man on her right without looking up.

Nobody was helping her. Everyone else was waiting on her.

Luna Margaret’s mouth opened.

"That’s Eira." Isabella’s voice came out wrong. "That’s Eira?"

Luna Margaret grabbed the remote and turned the volume up, like the sound would fix it.

"She’s a clerk," Isabella said. "She files things. She told me she works in a lab."

"Doing what?"

"I don’t know." Isabella looked at her mother. "Nobody ever asked her."

Alpha Roger said nothing.

Four years that girl had come to this house every other Sunday.

Four years of Luna Margaret sending her into the kitchen and Isabella asking her what she did all day and never once waiting for the answer.