Upon realizing where the scent came from, Chester rose from his seat, slamming the table in front of him. “Caleb! What’s the meaning of this?” he screamed in fury; glares darted to the café owner. His scream startled the other customers, but Chester didn’t care. He pointed at the poor waiter.

“You’re so keen on ruining my business, eh?” Caleb made a curt reply, his back was on them while his focus was on the coffee machine.

Chester was infuriated. “Why is someone like him here?” he stuttered as emotions surged in him. He was being dramatic, true, but he felt betrayed. Blue Rose had only Beta waiters and cooks working there—a fresh and friendly environment where he could breathe freely. But now, his safe haven was tainted by the presence of an Alpha—the type he hated the most.

Not to mention Chester felt something awakened in him.

Caleb finally turned his head, finding the frantic Omega pointing accusingly to the clueless Alpha. Though, instead of the furious customer, his attention was on the waiter. “Oh, sorry for that, Sebby,” he said, pointing a finger at Chester. “This guy has every bad experience with Alpha.”

Chester’s mouth gaped, trying to let out a coherent sentence, irritated that Caleb didn’t answer him.

“Ah, is that so,” the Alpha nodded instead, though still awkward. He scratched the back of his neck nervously. “My apologize,” he said to Chester, smiling to seem friendly. “Don’t blame Caleb, though. My sister forced him to hire me part-time.”

“Yeah,” Caleb agreed. He leaned on the countertop, watching the two natural enemies. “My bad, I didn’t know you’d be this angry. He’s my sister-in-law’s little brother, Sebastian.”

Chester tried to reason himself. He didn’t need to be that furious, he knew. After all, Blue Rose was Caleb’s own café—it was up to him who he’d hire. It did come as a surprise, but he was too rude to the unsuspecting part-timer.

Chester massaged his temple, guilt surging in him. He flopped himself back onto the chair, leaning his back and sighing. Finally, he glanced at the Alpha, feeling his heartbeat rapidly. “I’m sorry,” he said to the part-timer. He felt his cheeks flushed—which was uncomfortable and unsettling. “I’m going to assume you’re trustworthy, since you’re Caleb’s relative.”

Sebastian’s face lightened up like a dog, smiling ear to ear. “I’ll prove to you that I’m trustworthy,” he claimed excitedly.

Chester felt defeated. He was rude to an employee that had done nothing wrong—except being an Alpha, sure—yet the guy was smiling like a little kid.

Chester watched as Sebastian left to go back to the kitchen—where Chester finally spotted Ray, making another customer’s order. He flitted his eyes to another customer, giving a little apologetic nod. The customer replied with an awkward nod and went back to their own food. He shouldn’t be an arse here. So, he swallowed all his uneasiness and sipped his coffee latte. Tasted a little sweeter than usual, but Chester liked the extra sugary feeling of it.

He felt a little too stupid and ashamed.

Chester dreaded going back to the office. If he ever had another choice, he would run away immediately. Alas, he didn’t. Though his current workplace accepted an unmarked Omega like him—which was already hard enough as it was—and provided him with decent paycheck, Chester’s workplace was one flooded with Alphas. The type of people he detested the most.

Not that he loathed being an Omega; but being looked down for the sole reason of his sex was tiring. He had to work twice as hard as those Alphas, yet still achieved less.

Well, he had to remove those thoughts from his head now. Chester stretched his arms and back. He put on his glasses before going back to his own work. Not that Chester had bad eyesight—but working on computer nonstop caused him headache. At least, those anti-radiation glasses helped him endured the pain. Deadlines were coming and he had several works needed to finish today. Overtime, it seemed to him.

Chester sighed, slouching his back as he leaned a little closer to the screen. He put one elbow on the table—palm supporting his head—while another hand hovered the mouse indifferently. Looking at his own work was boring. He was tired with all the abundance of work, especially since he couldn’t enjoy his lunch break. He thought his day couldn’t get any worse—but he was wrong, indeed.

“You alright?” a man tapped a chilled canned drink on Chester’s cheek, surprising the brown-haired man. Chester tilted his head up, finding it was Prescott.

He accepted the can. “Thanks,” he muttered, reading the label on the can. It was coffee—ugh, again—but he could use some more caffeine. He opened the can, mounted down one big gulp of caffeine, and let out a satisfied sigh. “Yeah, things kinda suck.”

Prescott sipped on his own canned coffee, watching the Omega ruffled his hair in frustration. He glanced at his subordinate’s screen. “Is it about that George dude?” he asked carefully.

Chester clicked his tongue, immediately leaning on the back of the chair with his arms crossed. “I’m really tempted to resign,” he hissed, though his eyes scanned his own work.

Prescott leaned closer to Chester, pulling his chin to meet each other’s gazes. “But I’ll be lonely if you’re not here,” he said, as pitiful as he could.

Chester brushed his hand away. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Move, you Alphas reek too much,” he grumbled, continuing his work.

Prescott didn’t take offense on Chester’s remark. Although an Alpha, Prescott was just a recessive. His pheromone wasn’t enough to entice Chester. He was closer to a Beta—which might also be why Chester could tolerate his clinginess.

“Well, look who’s here?” another voice—which Chester disliked even more—came and the two of them instinctively turned their faces. Of course, it was Jackson. One more of those Alphas—to make it worse, a dominant one.

Defensive yet politely, Chester glared at his superior. “Chief,” he greeted with a curt nod.

Grinning smugly, Jackson made his way to his two subordinates, emitting his pheromones as though to assert dominance. Chester shuddered, though more of disgust than desire. After all, he knew that the pheromone showcase wasn’t for him—which, for one, made him grateful. Prescott, though, shrank under the chief’s pheromone.

Jackson twined his arm around the brown-haired subordinate’s shoulder, grinning ear to ear. “I believe you can finish this for today, no?” he said excitedly, putting down a document that Chester needed to look at.

Chester clicked his tongue. He picked up the document and skimmed the content. “Do I even have any choice?” he said sarcastically.

Jackson maintained his grin, ruffling Chester’s messy hair. “That’s the good boy,” he petted. Then, he released the poor worker and proceeded to target the man next to him. “Then, I’m taking this guy with me,” the chief announced, pulling Prescott by his shoulder.

Chester waved his hand curtly, not even looking at the two men. He leaned to the back of his seat; his nose scrunched. While skimming at the document Jackson had given him, he rubbed his nose. The lingering scent of a dominant Alpha made him nauseous.

His finger stopped as realization clicked in his mind. Now that he thought of it, Jackson’s pheromone affected Chester because he purposefully emitted his. Even with such proximity and such a dominant gene, Chester could still handle it. On the other hand, Sebastian didn’t emit his own pheromone—yet, Chester felt himself enticed by the younger man. Even now, the scent still lingered on him. He felt his cheek flushed, dreamily recalling the man’s smile.

He shook his head. Well, unfortunately, it wasn’t the time to daydream about some random Alpha man.