Chapter 195 Whose File?

Eira slipped away before either of them could open the door and find her standing there.

So Ryan and Serena hadn’t merely known each other.

They had slept together.

Eira looked down at the folded report still in her hand.

The result did not prove Ryan had an active infection. It did not prove he had transmitted anything to Serena, or that Serena had transmitted anything to Alpha Sebastian.

But Ryan had slept with Serena. Serena had slept with Alpha Sebastian.

Alpha Sebastian had never slept with Eira, but they had kissed—more than once. She had never noticed a sore on his lips or inside his mouth, yet an unseen oral lesion could not be ruled out from memory alone.

The reactive treponemal screen did not prove that Ryan had an active infection, let alone prove who had infected whom.

But Eira wasn’t going to guess about her own health.

She headed for Employee Health. She needed a provider’s order, a blood draw, and actual answers.

--

Eira’s phone buzzed just as the phlebotomist inserted the needle.

Alpha Killian.

She answered.

"Alpha Killian."

A quiet breath came through the line. The phlebotomist glanced up, but Eira was watching the dark red blood fill the first tube.

"Mrs. Jones said you’re at Mercy General," Alpha Killian said. His voice was low, edged with tension. "Are you there to see Alpha Sebastian?"

"No. I’m getting blood work."

"What kind of blood work?"

"Someone I ran into today might have an infection, so I’m getting a full STI panel. I’m fine."

"Eira—"

The phlebotomist withdrew the needle and pressed gauze to her arm.

"They’re wrapping me up now," Eira said. "I’ll call you back."

"Wait—"

She ended the call before he could finish.

The phlebotomist taped the gauze in place.

"Some results may come back later today. The rest could take a day or two."she said.

Eira nodded and held pressure over the puncture site.

Before she could stand, a woman in a white coat came down the hall. Two nurses greeted her as she passed.

"Dr. Vale."

The doctor stopped in front of Eira.

"Ms. Crawford?"

Eira stood. "Hi."

"I’m Dr. Vale. Alpha Killian asked me to check on you." Her eyes flicked to the collection tubes.

"Yes."

"Come wait in my office. Alpha Killian’s on his way up."

Eira’s brows lifted. "He’s coming here?"

"He is."

Dr. Vale led her down the hall, then glanced over."You already know my son, Barry Wood, don’t you?"

Eira stopped.

"Dr. Wood?"

Dr. Vale opened her office door. "Vale’s my maiden name. I kept it for work. Barry took his dad’s last name."

"Barry lives across town with his grandmother. His father and I still work brutal hours, so we don’t see him as much as we’d like."

At the mention of Mrs. Wood, Eira relaxed and followed her inside.

"I’ve been out there twice," she said. "Mrs. Wood and Barry were both really kind to me."

"So I heard." Dr. Vale smiled. "And that herbal hair rinse you use—that’s her recipe, isn’t it?"

"It is."

"My hair’s still dark because of that woman." Dr. Vale nodded toward Eira’s arm. "You can toss the gauze now."

Eira dropped it into the trash and pulled her sleeve over the bandage.

"I’ve got rounds," Dr. Vale said, gathering a folder from her desk. "Wait here for Alpha Killian. I flagged your order as urgent, so we should have some results this afternoon."

She paused at the door.

"You know who owns Mercy General, right?"

Eira’s eyes narrowed. "The Sterlings."

"Bingo."

Dr. Vale left, closing the door behind her.

Eira immediately called Mrs. Jones.

"The hospital Sebastian was brought to—Mercy General. It’s a Sterling facility."

"It is," Mrs. Jones said, unbothered. "If the Hales try anything, we’ll hear about it first."

The conversation drifted to dinner after that—until a knock at the door cut it short.

"I’ll call you back," Eira said.

She ended the call and opened the door.

Alpha Killian stood in the hallway, broad-shouldered and sharply dressed, the cold still clinging to his dark coat.

He filled the doorway.

His gaze dropped straight to the bandage on her arm.

"What happened?"

He was already asking questions before he finished stepping inside.

"What made you run an STI panel?"

Eira told him about the stairwell and handed him the folded report.

His expression tightened as he scanned the page.

"Serena and Ryan Sullivan?"

"They have history. She said it happened before he moved back to California."

Alpha Killian knew Sullivan’s background. His company was small, but its remote patient-monitoring platform turned a real profit, and word was he’d been hiring aggressively for a new diagnostics project.

"They probably crossed paths at work."Alpha Killian said.

His eyes dropped to the report again. His jaw tightened.

Then he folded the page and slid it back across the desk.

"Your results should be back this afternoon. We’ll wait."

"We?"

Alpha Killian pulled out a chair. "I can sit still when it matters."

Despite herself, Eira almost smiled.

She sat across from him.

The wait was quiet. Eira wasn’t worried. She had never slept with Alpha Sebastian, and since Serena resurfaced, she could count the times they’d even been in the same room on one hand.

Alpha Killian, though, was already running the scenarios.

If the panel came back clean, they’d move on.

If it didn’t, he’d handle it.

By late afternoon, Dr. Vale returned with the report.

"Everything’s negative," she said. "The treponemal screen and the RPR are both nonreactive, and the rest of the panel is clear."

Eira’s shoulders eased.

Across from her, Alpha Killian’s fingers slowly unclenched.

She was fine.

That was all that mattered.

After Dr. Vale left, Eira folded the report and tucked it into her bag.

"Mercy General takes patient privacy pretty seriously, doesn’t it?"

Alpha Killian looked at her.

"Very seriously."

He caught the real question underneath it before she said another word.

"Whose file do you want?"