Page 25 of The Heart of Winter

It was Manager Lorens.

***

The rest of the first day at the company passed without any more drama. Compared to my conversation with the mighty director, nothing could even come close. I felt strangely numb and detached, like someone recovering from a trauma. I nodded, said ‘hi’, shook hands, introduced myself, though it felt pointless, since everyone already knew exactly who I was.

Manager Lorens turned out to be a pretty decent guy. One of those easygoing, nurturing types of supervisors. He walked me through everything I needed to know, handed over all the system passwords, and filled me in on all the information I was expected to have as an employee. Then he started explaining the projects the team was working on, and that’s when something caught me off guard, his department was in charge of designing the graphics for the registration system of… the Beta Activation Program.

Small world. Blue would be surprised.

This government initiative had its own website and app, allowing participants to register easily. DevApp was responsible for its development, and they were currently working on some upgrades, which meant they needed additional graphics.

In practice, that meant sifting through stock photo sites or sitting around generating AI images for the program’s help and information sections. The pictures had to show smiling betas, absolutely thrilled about the opportunity to transform into alphas or omegas. Yeah, right. I had to hold back a snicker as I generated one cheerful scene after another, carefully choosing the right color schemes so everything would look just perfect.

Mind-numbing work. But in some industries, there were jobs like that—dead ends, positions that always had to be filled by someone.

There were four other graphic designers in my department. Like me, they all reported to Manager Lorens, who in turn reported to Winter. Two of my coworkers were omegas, the other two betas.

Since Lorens had introduced me to the team, they’d occasionally glance at me throughout the day, subtle looks that were hard to interpret.

Were they irritated that the CEO’s son had been dumped into their department, forever changing the mood in the room?

No more gossip about the CEO, and I knew there were some colorful ways he was secretly described—"He's got a stick up his ass",or"The human embodiment of a clenched sphincter",or"The guy with an authority kink without the fun part."

Not anymore! I was the ultimate buzzkiller.

But maybe their glances were just… curiosity? About how an alpha would handle a job that typically wasn’t meant for alphas?

Both omegas were married, and both betas were in relationships, which was honestly a relief. Alphas were always suspected of bringing a certain kind of energy into the workplace, so at least here, I wouldn’t have to deal with any of that.

The day dragged on, uneventful and tedious, except for the occasional unwelcome flashbacks of my peachy encounter with Winter. Other than that, nothing happened.

At lunchtime, most of the employees headed to the cafeteria, but I wasn’t really in the mood to join them. These types of social interactions had always been kind of tricky for me. I was that emo loner in high school, then a commuting student who didn’t live on campus, always a bit on the outside. Maybe it was time to change that? Be more social?

…Yeah, no. That just wasn’t me.

So after a moment of thought, I gave up on the idea. I’d brought my own breakfast anyway, so I stayed behind and ate in silence while everyone else filed out, enjoying a rare moment of peace.

The rest of the day—more of the same.

As I finally walked out of the building, I pulled out my phone right away and called Blue.

From the start, I complained about Winter’s behavior, expecting sympathy.

Instead, Blue surprised me by taking his side, at least a little.

"You know," he said, "if Mr. Malden had a son, and that son came to work for me and snickered during our first conversation? I’d also take it as him trying to challenge my authority. Like he was marking his territory—‘boss’s kid’ style. Sending a message about who’s really in charge."

I sighed. I hadn’t seen it that way. I hadn’t been trying to challenge him at all. But I guess everyone interprets things differently. Hearing what he thought about it, I decided to leave out the fainting incident. Too embarrassing.

Then, just for fun, I mentioned something else I’d noticed about Winter: his lips. How, for a second, I’d imagined leaning in and kissing him.

Blue, of course, had the most Blue response possible.

"Very funny," he muttered. "But I strongly advise against it. Kissing is disgusting. You know you exchange bacteria every time you do it, right? With every new person you kiss, you absorb their oral microbiome. People with multiple partners end up with insanely diverse bacteria colonies. Some of them can be aggressive, even cause diseases. So maybe don’t go around kissing just anyone."

I made a noise of pure disgust.

"Can you not?" I groaned. "Do you have to analyze everything like that?"

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