Page 47 of Alphas Never Hide

Avending machine with pop, candy, and chips sat in one corner, and a large metal statue sat in another.Thestatue was unexpected, butIdidn’t stop to study it becauseIdidn’t want to lose track ofHayden.Hepassed a windowed door that led to the left, which, based on the sounds of machinery and clanking metal, must lead to the bays where they worked on vehicles.Healso marched by the door marked with a washroom sign and didn’t stop until he got to the unmarked door behind the desk.

Ifollowed.Becauseapparently that’s whatIdid now.

Hayden’soffice was a mess.Itwas dusty and grimy and covered with all kinds of administrative clutter.Butthe most horrifying thing was the desktop computer perched on one end of the paper-strewn desk.Itbelonged in a museum or, even better, in my collection of electronics.Ihad every piece of electronicsI’dever owned since leaving the herd, butIdidn’t have something like this.I’dlove to pull it apart and study it.Whenhad he bought that thing?Hadthere still been glaciers covering the continent?Hegrabbed a couple of coins from his top drawer and looked at me.

“Whatdo you want from the vending machine?”

“Gingerale?”

Henodded, then disappeared through the door again.Iheard the clunk of the vending machine spitting out a can.Hereturned and thrust my drink at me.

“Ineed to check on the guys,” he said. “I’llbe right back.Havea seat.”

Thechair behind the desk looked like it’d been manufactured in the 70s, and another newer one, which was covered in boxes, sat on this side of the desk.Bynewer,Imeant it was from the 90s.Neitherchair was in great condition.Theyboth had holes in the seats and grime caked into the crevices.

Imoved the boxes off the chair in front of the desk and set them on the floor.Idropped my backpack beside them and sat down.Nowwhat?Mygaze strayed to the desk and all those papers.Clientinvoices, supplier invoices, order forms, andMagiconly knew what else was all mixed up together.Iitched to go back there and straighten shit, but people got pissy when you re-organized their space.

Instead,Idug into my backpack and found my phone.Ofcourse the phone was dead, soIwent hunting for my charger.Afterthat was sorted,Ipulled out my laptop and plugged it in too.Justhaving it in my hands again sent a wave of joy through me.I’dthoughtI’dlost it forever.Sure,Ibacked up everything on the cloud, but it always took so long to set up a new computer, organize my apps, get the screensavers right, adjust short cuts, and everything else.Anduntil that was all done, it always felt likeIwas wearing someone else’s shoes.

Ilooked down.

Actually,Iwas still wearing someone else’s shoes, literally.Ishould change those.Butfirst,Ineeded to get into my files and make sure everything was okay.

Mylaptop fired up like usual.Sofar, so good.Atleast it didn’t appear to have suffered any damage.Ibit my tongue asItyped in my password and scanned my fingerprint.Assoon as the familiar home screen came up,Ireviewed all my security protections.Everythinglooked normal; there’d been no activity since the last timeI’dlogged in.

ThankMagic.Tensionebbed from my body.

Myprojects didn’t deal with classified information that needed to be protected under layers of encryption, nor didIhave heaps of money to steal.Butcyber security was important.Itkept people out of places they didn’t belong.

And, yes, my paranoia came from living in a herd for so long.Thosebastards were snoopy, constantly sticking their hooves into everyone else’s business. “What’syours is ours” was one of their favorite mottos.Sometimes, even after all these years,Istill missed a few things about livingwith the herd—my brother especially—but herd mentality definitely wasn’t one of them.

Isigned into my socials next.Myfriendship circleIRLwas pretty much non-existent, butIhad a few online groupsIloved.Ifound a fewDMswishing me a good holiday, soIguessed someone may have missed me ifI’dnever returned.

Mywork email was next.Afew calls for proposals had come and gone, but the rest of my emails were pertaining to simple maintenance work on websites for existing clients.Thosetook no time to deal with at all.

Bythe timeHaydenreturned,Iwas finishing the last change.

Righton his heels wasVan.

“Youthink because you’re the alpha that you getVIPtreatment?Makingme come to you?”Despitehis words, the hellhound didn’t sound angry, more annoyed than anything.

“I’mnot the alpha,”Haydensaid.

Assoon as the words left his mouth, a strange look passed over his face, like he wasn’t sure if he believed what he was saying.Herubbed his chest, right over the spotI’dalways been told our magic lived inside us.

Van’sgaze snapped toHayden. “Hayden?”

“Notnow,Van.”Haydenshook his head. “You’rehere to talk toRyley.Canwe go over what we found in those tunnels?UnlessDillondiscovered something from those wallets or phones.”

Vanlooked like he wanted to argue, to press the issue.Instead, he said, “I’mhere if you want to talk.Youknow that, right?”

“Yeah.Sure,”Haydensaid, but he didn’t meetVan’seyes. “Aboutthose wallets?”

“We’restill following up.”

Haydenfrowned, but there wasn’t much he could do. “I’llgo grab another chair.Unlessyou want to talk alone?Ican always go help the guys in the back.”

“Canhe stay?”IaskedVanasIclosed out of whatIwas doing and secured my laptop.