THE STAND IN BRIDE

The main screen flashed green.

SUCCESS

For one stunned second, the clean room went silent.

Then the lab exploded.

"We got it!"

Cheers broke out across the room. Someone slapped Eira on the shoulder as Professor Davies pushed through the crowd and pulled her into a quick hug.

"Eira, look at those numbers. This is huge. We just changed the game."

A researcher behind him let out a low whistle. "National pride, military contracts, and enough money to make half the country lose its mind. Not bad for one night, Dr. Crawford."

Davies leaned closer so she could hear him over the noise.

"Your husband is Alpha Sebastian Hale, right?"

Eira nodded.

"This could give Hale Pack a serious edge," he said. "If they get access before the other Packs, they'll leave everyone else in the dust."

His words hit harder than she expected.

She pictured Sebastian opening the certification report. His face would go still first. Then his eyes would sharpen. Maybe, just maybe, he would look at her with something close to respect.

She had wanted that look for four years.

"I'll tell him tonight," Eira said.

Davies grinned. "Good. Let him see what you've been up to."

Eira smiled, but her fingers tightened around the folder.

[No, ]she thought.

[I'm giving him the biggest advantage of his life because I'm his wife.]

She cleared three security checkpoints, changed out of her clean-room suit, and collected the final certification documents.

Her name was printed across the first page.

Dr. Eira Crawford.

She ran her thumb over the title.

This time, no one could call her useless. No one could brush her off as a wolfless omega. No one could say she had nothing to offer an Alpha.

She had built something powerful enough to make entire Packs fight for access.

And tonight, she was going to put it in Sebastian Hale's hands.

--

The VIP elevator took her straight to the top floor of Hale Tower an hour later. Alpha Sebastian used the private suite for late business meetings, and sometimes he slept there when he claimed Hale Group's work ran too late. Eira had brought him dinner there more times than she could count.

This time she brought him a future.

She stepped out of the elevator with the folder held against her chest. The hallway was quiet, thick with expensive carpet and soft yellow wall lights. She was twenty feet from his office when her steps slowed.

Her nose knew before her mind did.

Cedar. Sharp, familiar, warm in the way only Alpha Sebastian's scent could be. It was the scent she had fallen asleep beside for four years, even when his side of the bed stayed cold too long.

But under it was something else.

Sweet. Floral. Not hers.

Eira stopped.

The office door was not fully closed. A thin line of light spilled through the gap, and with it came the mixed scents of two people standing too close.

Then Alpha Sebastian spoke.

"Serena, you know I've always loved you. She means nothing."

The folder slipped slightly in Eira's grip. She caught it before it fell.

Serena's voice came next, soft and wet around the edges, but there was a thin blade of amusement underneath. "If you love me, why did you let that Omega orphan become your Luna? Why didn't you come after me when I left?"

Alpha Sebastian gave a low laugh. Eira knew that laugh. He used it when he wanted someone to feel foolish for doubting him. "You're jealous?"

"Shouldn't I be?" Serena asked.