“Exactly. Nine employees getting paid who don’t exist. That’s

payroll fraud.”

He whistled under his breath. “If that’s been happening for ten

years-”

“It’s a million–dollar bleed,” I finished. “Someone’s been

syphoning money by inflating the headcount.“‘

He began pacing. “This means someone inside the system-

maybe mid–level or even at the auditing stage–knows how to

manipulate the checks. The list goes through layers, but no one

really verifies every name manually at the top.”

“Which is why it never triggered a red flag until now,” I

murmured. “It’s disguised just enough to look clean, but the

numbers don’t lie.”

“We need to report this to Alpha Alexander,” Gai said

immediately.

I nodded. “Yes. But he’s going to be swamped with the alpha

summit tomorrow.”

Gai rubbed his temple. “Then?”

Chapter 5

“I’ll go to the factory,” I said. “In person. Quietly. If we can

identify who’s behind it before bringing it to Alexander, we’ll

have a stronger case.”

Gai looked at me with something between concern and respect.

“You’re serious.”

answer. I just turned back to the screen

scrolling for more anomalies.

noticed was

from a nearby booth just moments

dangled between his fingers, forgotten, as

behind a glass

with every word he

stumbled upon… wasn’t just a minor payroll error. It was a

worked hard to bury.

were pulling it

Olivia’s POV

than expected.

restaurant, I caught a glimpse of

with a stiff, serious look etched across his

Drunk?” I muttered,

me. “When he tapped his

out just now, he fumbled twice. That man

when he’s been

That didn’t quite match the Alpha’s usual control. But before I could reply, Jess suddenly surged

radiant under the streetlights–heels

and focused. She reached Alexander quickly, her hand slipping through the crook of

done it a hundred

go back to my room,” she said in

wine

Alexander didn’t hesitate. “No.”

was sharp. Final. He pulled his arm free, stepping past

even looking

tried to

was

caught just a bit too long on the

forward. Gai and I were

We both reached out

faster.

in with her arms out, body tilting

I

Chapter 35

in a blur of movement,

and turned toward me

my wrist so tightly that I yelped.

me toward him–and straight into

stumbled forward, crashing

nearly bumped hers, and for a terrifying second,

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