SOREN

My head was pounding, and Liam stared at me with those light cappuccino eyes of his.

"He's not going to give up, Soren."

I stayed silent. My mind was blank, except for the pain filling it to the brim.

"Aren't you going to say anything? No comment?"

I sighed in frustration. "What do you expect from me, Liam? I didn't hire him. I don't know why he's here. Maybe you know, since you talked to him," I snapped irritably.

Liam closed his eyes, trying hard to stay calm.

"He didn't give me an answer. At least, he didn't say what his plans were. He only said he wanted to see you at least one more time."

And there it was again, that stabbing pain. My head felt like it was splitting in two, and my body felt sick. What the hell was happening?

"Maybe he just got a job here. His brother works here; perhaps it's just a coincidence. A lot of people from our class wanted to intern at DevApp," I muttered, trying to sound a bit more civil.

Of course, what I just said was all bullshit, but I wanted to calm him down.

Liam had truly put up with my moods for the past two months with saint-like patience. He hadn't raised his voice or lost his temper, not even once. It seemed almost impossible for anyone to be that understanding. I admired him for his persistence, for not giving up on the idea that there could be a chance for us.

But deep down, at the core, I already knew there wasn't a chance. I kept up this illusion that I could be with Liam, feeling obligated to try, but I knew I was ultimately destined for loneliness. My sexual orientation was directed one way: to alphas. And strongly, for that matter. I had never been attracted to betas or omegas, not even a little. I couldn't change that about myself, no matter how much I wanted to, no matter how much easier it would make things.

But still, I was leading Liam on, keeping him close, giving him false hope for the future. It wasn't fair. In moments like these, when those thoughts ran through my mind, I hated myself even more than usual. I was just a self-serving jerk.

"What do you all want from me?" I whispered in a defeated voice. "I'm a nasty person. I don't have any special virtues or—"

I fell silent, hesitating.

Liam tilted his head. "Some things are hard to explain. Sometimes, you just like someone, and you can't put it into words. But if you're wondering what that alpha sees in you, it's only your physical beauty," he said in a bitter tone, shooting a quick, sharp glance at Skye, who was still sitting at his table, head hanging over his tray, looking gloomy.

"It's so subjective—"

"Your looks attract that alpha to you, but that's not what draws me. I'm drawn to all of you. I've known you since we were twelve; I've seen your soul inside and out, and its beauty pulls me to you."

The beauty of my soul? No, there was only ugliness and selfishness.

Liam's gaze, so sweet on me… There it was again—that terrible feeling of being trapped by obligation. I couldn't see a way out of the situation, or at least a scenario that wouldn't hurt one of us. Someone was bound to suffer, and there's no getting out of it.

"Please, Liam." I closed my eyes and lowered my head over my tray. But he kept staring at me. "Don't say it."

"What are you going to do, Soren? About that damn alpha?"

I knew Liam really needed an answer to that question; his face looked deeply focused. He wasn't going to let the subject go.

"I don't know. Skye hasn't spoken to me or approached me. And he's been here for a week. So what should I do? What do you suggest?"

"You could kick him off your team, transfer him somewhere else so you don't have to deal with him."

"That wouldn't be a smart move, especially a day after getting this position. My boss is his brother."

"So what? You're the team leader now. You can make interdepartmental transfers."

"But I've only been here for two months. They just offered me the team leader position. Should I start being picky right off the bat and removing people from my team just because I don't like them—without a valid reason?"

I was surprised at how logically it all sounded, how smoothly the lies flowed when I spoke. The truth, of course, was that there were valid reasons, but I didn't want to remove Skye from the team. Period. And of course… I didn't tell Liam that Director Nolan had given me the option to transfer Skye to another team. I could have just accepted that, but… no, wait! I couldn't. I already knew I couldn't.

Ultimately, Liam needed to hear some kind of explanation, and this one sounded believable enough.

A little while later, we left the cafeteria and returned to our respective rooms. I spent the rest of the day in a fog. The only thing I could focus on was those long lines of code.

At the end of the day, someone from IT came by and told me they'd be moving my computer to a new office—Room 311. I just nodded and got up, gathering my stuff.

Tomorrow, I will start in a new office, with a new team, and a new challenge.

Liam was waiting for me by the elevator, and we rode down in silence, then headed to the car. Not a word passed between us—not now, and we barely spoke during dinner.

When I lay down in bed, Liam hesitantly moved closer, and I felt his small hand on my arm. He tried to pull me toward him, but I stayed stiff as a board. So he just rested his head on my shoulder, and that's how we fell asleep.

***

The next day greeted me with a fresh wave of stress. This was the start of a new chapter in my life. Stuck in a room with Skye and my new team members—I couldn't quite picture how this would go. The only thing that helped was focusing on the technical details. Rather quickly I figured out how I would coordinate the team's work, deciding to appoint a second-in-command, even though in small teams like ours, this wasn't common practice. We were going to be six people in total, but having an assistant manager would help delegate tasks like distributing assignments. This person could speak directly to Skye and pass on my instructions. The hope that this might work gave me a sense of optimism.

When I walked into the building, I felt a bit more upbeat—maybe there was a reasonable way to navigate this situation? But it didn't mean that I was calm. No way in hell.

Clenching my fists and tightening my jaw, I stepped into Room 311. It was 8:45, and I wanted to arrive a little early. But someone else had the same idea. My desk was on the left side of the room, slightly recessed and not too far from the window. Right next to me, on my left, were the desks of the other employees, and at the one closest to mine, I saw an open laptop. From behind the screen, a face rose up—Skye's face.

Damn, he'd chosen the desk closest to mine. I swore under my breath, but I couldn't just go up to him and say, ‘Move; I don't want you here!'. That would be insane and would immediately make me look bad as a manager, especially since I wanted to limit verbal skirmishes with Skye to the absolute minimum. Ideally, I didn't want to interact with him at all, but now, in a room where it was just the two of us, that seemed impossible.

His turquoise eyes tracked my every move as I walked to my desk.

Then he grunted, "Hey."

"Hey," I grunted back, matching his quiet, seemingly meaningless tone—that was the extent of our conversation. I sat down, trying to steady my trembling hands. Damn it, how was I supposed to normalize this situation? How would the workday pass? The only consolation was that maybe, over time, I could numb myself to it.

Swallowing hard, I opened my laptop. An idea came to me. A safe topic.

"Have you been briefed on the ByteBites project yet?" I asked in a dry, bureaucratic tone.

"Not yet. I'd appreciate it if you could send me some materials to help me get familiar with it," Skye replied, mirroring my official tone. Just a standard exchange between a manager and his subordinate—nothing remarkable, nothing surprising, nothing suspicious.

Just another day in my private hell.

"Of course, I'll find the initial materials we received when the project started and forward them to you. The programming work is already quite advanced, and the other team members have their tasks assigned, but there are a few areas where you could help once you've gone through the materials. I'll give you parts of the work that you could handle efficiently without needing to dive into the entire codebase." The words flowed smoothly from my mouth. Everything went surprisingly well.

A little while later, the other team members started to arrive, taking their seats at the empty desks. There were two betas and two omegas. I could see them throwing curious glances at Skye, which irritated me slightly, though I didn't really know why. It was probably natural; alphas were rarely hired in programming companies, and they were more often found in managerial positions, in advertising and sales.

The fact that Skye was here as a regular programmer was probably surprising to some. As far as I knew, apart from him, there were no other alphas in the company at all—just hundreds of betas and omegas.

I realized some kind of introduction would be necessary, so once everyone had gathered, I stood up and leaned slightly against my desk.

"Good morning, everyone. This situation is probably just as surprising for you as it is for me, but Director Nolan explained that it was necessary to separate the ByteBites project from other company initiatives, which led to his decision to form our team. Strategically, this project has been upgraded to high-priority status within DevApp, and it needs to be overseen by a single unit managing the entire workflow. You all already know each other, but we have a new member—Skye."

I made a stiff gesture in his direction.

Skye's brightly colored eyes stayed fixed on my face. He seemed calm, giving the rest of the team a polite, friendly smile—in a typical welcoming manner.

"Skye graduated in the same field as I did and has experience in programming with Python, C++, and JavaScript. He'll be assisting us, but he's still in the onboarding phase for this project, so he'll start with simpler tasks to get up to speed before I assign him more advanced work."

There was a brief silence before I cleared my throat and added, "Skye, let me introduce you to the rest of the team. This is Devon, Fay, Jess, and Randy."

Skye stood up and went around, shaking hands with each team member.

I shared a few words about what each person did, how long they had been with the company, and their role in the project. All of these employees had been here for a shorter time than me—usually less than a year—which was somewhat reassuring. After all, I had some seniority at DevApp, even if I had been working remotely.

Once the introductions were over, I went around to each employee, leaving Skye for last. I chatted briefly about progress and the plans for the upcoming week. I could almost palpably feel Skye's focus on me. He watched me the whole time, never breaking his gaze for even a second. It was an odd feeling, like I could physically feel his eyes moving over my body. I was wearing tight jeans and a black long-sleeve shirt, and I knew, on some level, he was undressing me with his stares that felt almost blatantly erotic—his face remained calm, his eyes glued to me.

Before I approached him, I emailed him the materials explaining his tasks, then slowly walked over to his desk. He was still staring at me, this time directly into my eyes.

"I sent you something. Can you open it? I'll explain what you'll be working on today."

He did as I asked, and I began to lay out his assignment. Meanwhile, he opened his compiler and pasted a snippet of code. I kept talking, and at one point, I noticed that below the last line of code, he hit enter twice and then typed one sentence:

I've missed you.

I tried hard not to react, but I stopped mid-sentence, my eyes fixating on the screen. My heart started pounding, and I was sure he could hear it; after all, he was an alpha. Devon, one of the omegas sitting next to Skye, looked up at me, slightly surprised. He was probably puzzled by the wild beating of my heart.

I cleared my throat. "Spider, I have arachnophobia," I explained quietly, so only Devon and Skye could hear.

But he didn't stop there. The next line appeared on the screen below:

You still smell so good.

I forced myself to continue walking him through his part of the assignment. The entire time, these sentences hung on the screen, making my whole body feel hot.

These lines—they were, in a way, a window into what he was thinking. I realized that even if he hadn't told Liam why he had come here, I knew exactly why—he wanted to get me back.

The question was, would I let him?