Page 18 of The Heart of Winter

My phone pinged. A text.

I pulled it out of my pocket and saw the name: Finn, a guy I had met on campus.

Come to think of it, I actually liked him. We had sat together in the cafeteria a few times. He was studying genetics, so he wasn’t in my major. But he had struck up a conversation with me, and I thought I saw something in his eyes, a little spark of interest.

"You on campus right now?"

The text caught me off guard. I had given him my number once, he had asked for it under the excuse that he was having trouble logging into the online gradebook. I’d had the same issue and figured he wanted a quick way to ask me if it happened again. Clever, honestly.

"Nah, I’m home for the weekend."

"Ah, too bad. When are you coming back? I was thinking maybe we could catch a movie Sunday evening? They’re showingOur Alien Genesis Part 4. I heard it’s good."

It was unexpected. I hesitated for a second. Finn was nice. And really good-looking. Plus, he was a beta, just like me.

A beta…

I had never really been into them.

My eyes had always wandered to alphas, sometimes even omegas. But maybe this was the way to go? The best option for me? I had never had a boyfriend before, but I didn’t want to be a virgin forever. Should I give betas a shot?

Finn wouldn’t get everything I had to deal with, being such a looker… but still. A beta! Close enough to have a starting point.

My fingers barely trembled as I typed my reply.

"Sounds good. I’ll be back Sunday around five. Maybe we can catch a showing."

"Awesome! I’m excited about it! There’s a 7 pm show!"

He was really looking forward to it… Was this the start of something more?

I stared out the window for a moment. My younger brothers were running around in the yard. Skye was chasing Storm, while tiny, almost two-year-old Sun tried to keep up on his chubby little legs, his golden locks flowing around his cute face.

That wasn’t in the cards for me. A family of my own, kids laughing, their love, their… chaos. My future was to be different.

But maybe I could still have a partner’s love? I’d always secretly wanted to fall for someone, to have a person I could truly adore, someone who would adore me back, despite the way I looked. I read about love in books and watched movies about it… It seemed fun. Of course, I didn’t know if Finn was the right guy for that. But I wouldn’t know unless I tried.

My phone pinged again and I sighed. Another text.This time, a row of excited, bouncing emojis.

Well… maybe there was a spark waiting to happen. Hopefully.

WINTER

PRESENT DAY

I cracked my eyes open because the sun had somehow found the tiniest gap in my blinds and decided to shoot a beam of light straight into my face. I squeezed my eyes shut again, then slowly turned over, trying to escape the piercing brightness.

My gaze landed on Finn, lying next to me. He was asleep, his lips slightly parted, his eyelids twitching like he was dreaming. I stared at him for a moment, feeling… well. Nothing at all.

Moving carefully, I got up and left the room.

There was this weird irritation buzzing under my skin. Today was definitely not going to be a good day. For the first time since DevApp started, we were about to hire alphas. Not just one, two of them.

One of them was my own brother, Skye.

I’d always been strongly against hiring alphas in the tech industry. They caused chaos in the workplace, their strong pheromones stirring up omegas, distracting everyone with mating games instead of, you know, actual work.

And I knew everything there was to know about alphas. I had six alpha brothers. I was the only beta in the family.

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