Chapter 2

The second I got back to my desk, I saw the neon pink sticky note pressed dead center on my monitor, and whoever had written SLUT in thick black marker had pushed hard enough to leave grooves in the paper.

My fingers shook while I peeled it off, and the office around me went weirdly quiet for half a second before the whispering started again from three different directions.

Ashley leaned toward Nicole with her coffee still in hand. “I’m sorry, but if somebody sends underwear pictures to the whole company and tags the future Alpha in it, what exactly are we supposed to think?”

Nicole glanced toward me, then immediately looked away. “She keeps saying she got hacked, but nobody’s hacking a work account just to make somebody look thirsty.”

A laugh came from the row behind them. “Maybe she thought Tyler would finally notice her if she gave him a preview.”

Another woman lowered her voice, although my hearing caught every word anyway. “Madison is going to make sure she never gets within ten feet of him again, especially when she becomes Luna.”

Ashley snorted. “As she should, because imagine being some random low-ranking wolf and thinking you can throw yourself at the Redwood successor like that.”

My nails bent the sticky note in half.

“Make them shut up, or I’ll tear hese bitches tear us apart.”

My wolf’s voice came sharp inside my head, and I closed my eyes for one second while forcing my shoulders to stay loose.

“Please don’t push me right now, a lot is happening and I can’t deal with you too.”

She gave an irritated growl inside me, but she backed off enough for me to breathe without feeling like I might shift in the middle of the office.

Ashley noticed the sticky note crumpled in my hand, and she gave me a look that somehow managed to be smug and disgusted at the same time. “You should probably just throw that away, because making a scene over it is only going to make people talk more.”

I stared at her. “You’re already talking.”

Her brows lifted as if I had insulted her. “People are allowed to have opinions when you drag the entire office into something like this.”

“I didn’t send those pictures. I wished I had proof of it.”

Ashley folded her arms. “So you are trying to say that your account developed a mind of its own and sent it?”

My lips parted, but nothing came out fast enough.

Nicole looked between us. “Ashley, leave it.”

“No, because now everybody has to pretend this isn’t uncomfortable.” She turned back to me. “You had a crush on Tyler,everybody knew it, and then pictures of you changing show up with some thirsty message about him, so maybe you can understand why nobody is buying the innocent act.”

The shame crushed me so hard that I had to look down at my desk.

The women near her laughed under their breath, and I sat down before my legs gave them one more thing to whisper about.

My screen was still open to the company chat, and the pictures were gone now, but the messages underneath them remained.

“This is disgusting.”

“Somebody wanted attention.”

“Guess Tyler has fans now.”

My hand hovered over the mouse, and I closed the chat before I could read another line.

“They are enjoying this way too much.”

My wolf sounded disgusted now, and I pressed my tongue against the back of my teeth before answering her silently.

“I know, but I can’t do anything about it yet.”

“You could stop begging people who have already decided we are beneath them.”

That one hurt because she was right, but knowing something and surviving it were two different things.

A private notification popped up at the bottom of my screen.

Tyler Brooks.

For one stupid second, hope made me click it.

His message filled the window.

“If you’re job hunting after today, there are places downtown that pay women for showing that much skin, and at least next time you’ll know exactly who you’re performing for.”

My fingers went cold on the mouse.

I read it twice because some part of me wanted the words to change.

They didn’t. The guy I had spent months quietly liking had just compared me to a stripper.

Worse, he had done it after seeing what the entire office was doing to me.

My wolf nearly went feral.

“I told you he knew more than he was pretending, and now he is showing you exactly what kind of man he is.”

I looked across the office.

I had always known his rank, but I had spent months pretending it didn’t matter because he had smiled with me.

Apparently, I had been stupid enough to confuse basic attention with interest.

My phone buzzed with a message from Brian’s assistant.

“Mr. Keller needs you in his office again.”

The words made my palms sweat.

Ashley noticed me stand, and she looked toward Nicole with a grin that she didn’t bother hiding.

“Round two must be serious, because I’d be clearing my desk if I were her.”

Nicole covered her mouth, but the laugh still came through.

I grabbed my phone and walked away before my wolf gave me enough courage to do something that would get security called early.

Brian was already holding a sheet of paper when I entered his office, and he pointed toward the chair without looking up.

“Two clients contacted us this afternoon after somebody forwarded them the photographs, and this situation has now moved beyond an internal HR issue.”

I sat carefully. “Please tell me you’re still investigating.”

His mouth flattened. “We’re past that point.”

My hands locked together in my lap. “Sir, please give me another day, because IT has to be able to find something if they actually look.”

“They already looked.”

“Then let somebody else check, because whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing.”

He slid the paper across the desk. “We’re offering you the opportunity to resign voluntarily with two weeks of severance and a neutral reference.”

I stared at the page without touching it. “You’re firing me.”

“I’m giving you a choice that protects your employment history.”

Tears blurred the first line before I could even read it. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Your account distributed explicit material to the company, and now clients have seen it.”

“They’re pictures of me changing, Sir, so how am I the person being punished here?”

He exhaled through his nose. “We have already discussed this.”

“Please, I’m asking you not to do this.”

His eyes finally lifted to mine. “Hailey, the company cannot keep absorbing the fallout from your personal situation.”

“It isn’t personal when somebody used your system to humiliate me.”

“You keep saying that, but you still have no proof identifying another person.”

I gripped the edge of the chair. “I got an anonymous message afterward, and the person literally admitted they did it.”

“Anonymous messages are easy to fabricate.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “You think I sent that to myself too?”

“I’m saying we have to work with what we can verify.”

My wolf growled so hard in my head that I could almost feel the vibration in my chest.

“He wants you gone because you are easier to sacrifice than Tyler is to question.”

I looked at Brian more carefully.

He still wouldn’t say Tyler’s name unless he had to.

That wasn’t an accident.

“Is this because Tyler is involved?”

Brian’s expression changed, but only slightly. “Nobody has accused Mr. Brooks of anything.”

“I’m not accusing him, but the message named him and he’s been mocking me since this started.”

“That is not relevant to the decision in front of you.”

“He is a successor, and you know nobody here wants to touch anything connected to him.”

Brian’s jaw set. “Be very careful with what you’re implying.”

My voice dropped because I suddenly felt too tired to keep pushing. “I’m not trying to start pack drama, but I just need somebody to care that I didn’t do this.”

His face remained flat.

That answer hurt more than anything he could have said.

Brian tapped the resignation paper with one finger. “If you refuse, the alternative is termination for misconduct.”

I wiped under one eye before the tear could fall. “Please don’t put that on my record.”

“Then resign.”

My mouth trembled, and I looked away because I hated that he could watch me break so calmly.

Three years of overtime, missed weekends, impossible deadlines, and staying late to fix campaigns that weren’t even mine had somehow become worth less than one morning of gossip.

“I need this job.”

“I understand.”

“No, you don’t, because you’d be fighting harder if it were yours.”

Brian leaned back. “You have until the end of the day.”

I stared at the paper again then picked up the resignation papers and left his office.

Tyler was standing across the room when I stepped out, and Madison was right beside him.

Wolves from Redwood Pack kept a respectful distance around him without even thinking about it, but Madison stood close enough that her shoulder nearly touched his arm.

Her eyes met mine then she smiled devilishly.

I went back to my desk and opened a blank document.

The statement took me twenty minutes because my hands kept shaking, but I wrote everything down anyway.

I wrote that the photographs had been taken without my consent while I was changing.

I documented the anonymous threat.

I stated that my account had been accessed without permission.

I included every request I had made for a proper investigation.

Then I ended with one sentence making it clear that Mooncrest Media had chosen disciplinary action without establishing who had actually taken or distributed the photographs.

I printed the letter, stapled it to the resignation papers, and walked back to Brian’s office before I could lose my nerve.

He read the first paragraph and immediately looked annoyed. “This wasn’t part of the resignation agreement.”

“I know, but I’m not signing something that makes it look like I admitted doing this.”

“You understand this attachment could affect your severance package.”

My eyes burned again, but I forced myself to look at him. “Then keep the money, because I already lost enough today.”

For the first time since morning, Brian looked surprised.

I almost felt brave.

Then he pressed the intercom button.

“Mike, I need you to escort Ms. Monroe out once she’s collected her belongings.”

Whatever tiny piece of courage I had found disappeared immediately.

Mike Dawson arrived five minutes later with his security badge clipped to his belt, and he avoided looking directly at me while I packed my mug, charger, notebook, and framed photo into a cardboard box.

Ashley watched without even pretending to work.

Nicole whispered something beside her, and both women laughed under their breath.

Nobody told me they believed me.

When I lifted the box, Tyler’s eyes followed me across the office, but he never moved.

My wolf stirred again.

“Remember every face in that room, because one day they will remember yours.”

The glass doors opened.

Cold air hit my face when I stepped outside, and the tears I had been fighting all day finally spilled over while I tightened both arms around the box.

I had no job.

My reputation was wrecked.

Half the office thought I had thrown myself at a future Alpha, and the other half thought I deserved everything that happened because of it.

Worst of all, I still didn’t know how I was supposed to fight people with more status, more power, and more protection than I had ever had.

“You do not know how yet, but this is not where we end.”

I lowered my head and kept walking while the office doors closed behind me.