Page 4 of The Heart of Winter

"Oh, come on, Sariel. You're always so touchy and moody. Nothing new." He shrugged like I was an annoying bug and went back to his tablet.

Gosh, so infuriating! I clenched my teeth. Why did I always tolerate his arrogance? Perhaps because deep down I knew he was right in the end. That dig about cowardice? That hit home. When I graduated in June and got my degree, my father wanted me to work at his company.

DevApp was a software firm that was always hiring, so obviously, they’d find a spot for the boss’s golden boy. Though, I wasn’t really that golden. More like a knockoff.

The idea of working there terrified me, they only hired betas and omegas.Only.Not a single alpha in the entire company. My father wasn’t exactly a fan of alphas in a corporate environment, and the upper management strongly backed him on that.

And yet he insisted that I could work for him if I wanted to. Blood is blood, after all. But there was a problem. Well, more than one…

A voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Still stuck in your loopy ruminations, huh?" Blue shot me another judgmental look.

"And you’re still buried in your boring reports, charts, and analyses," I muttered.

Right then, a tiny LED on the edge of Blue’s glasses blinked. He lifted a finger to tap the earpiece in his ear.

"Ah, Detective Arnold. Nice to hear from you."

Silence. I knew Blue was listening to whatever the detective was saying. I could hear it, but I didn’t want to focus on that, so I turned away, looking back at the pool.

Should I go swimming? The deck where I was dancing was partially shaded by trees, but the light was fully hitting the surface of the pool. With my pale skin, I wasn’t about to risk the sunburn, so I just curled my legs up and grabbed my bottle of mineral water.

The moment I closed my eyes, trying to relax, I saw… him.

My perfect other half.

My fated mate. My True Mate.

If I focused hard enough, I could make out his silhouette. He was walking toward me. His face was shrouded in mist, just barely visible, not clear enough to grasp the details. He reached out his arms. I knew he was searching for me too. That he felt the same absence in his life. The same emptiness, pushing through the dull, grinding monotony of reality. And he missed me, needed me.

Waiting… Somewhere… Far away.

Would I ever find him?

Damn it.

Blue’s voice cut through my vision. I sighed and glanced at him.

He was still deep in conversation with the detective. I had a good idea of what it was about. A few days ago, there was an incident. It happened when he was visiting one of his business partners, a matchmaking agency he had signed a contract with to provide compatibility tests for potential couples.

But his enemies took the opportunity to plant a bomb, killing three people. Blue had survived by sheer luck.

After a few minutes, my uncle finally spoke. "I’m really glad to hear that, Detective. At least some progress has been made. But I’ll remain cautiously optimistic. They’re like a hydra. You never know where the next head will grow back."

When the call ended, he turned to me.

"I have to say, I’m pleasantly surprised. This new detective actually seems to have no clue about what he’s just gotten himself into, poor guy!"

"Arnold? I thought you said he was finally making real progress. That he had some solid leads?"

"Oh, yes, he did! Turns out he’s surprisingly effective. Yesterday, they raided Anzo Ferro’s main headquarters!"

My eyes widened.

Ferro was the head of a powerful crime family in this city. He was also a rare case, a beta leading a mafia clan. Not to mention, he was a well-known and very vocal opponent of the Beta Activation Program. He had publicly opposed the government’s efforts to induce reproductive abilities in betas multiple times.

"What? Did they actually arrest him?"

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