CH 5

Josh knocked on the office door and opened it as he greeted, “Hello, Rose.”

Rose, who was filing her nails while sitting behind her desk, flinched. She soon beamed and said, “Hello, Josh. As dashing as always.”

Josh answered her usual flattery with a smile and let the subject pass. He had left Pete while he was still sleeping, so he was feeling a little down.

‘Pete will cry a fair bit when he wakes up and sees that I’m not there,’ Josh thought. This happened every day, but it still felt bitter. He wished he could stay with the child until he was a little bit older, but life stopped him from it. Moreover, today was the babysitter’s day off. Josh had left Pete under the care of Mrs. Robert—their neighbor—before the child was even awake. This made him feel even more guilty.

Mrs. Robert, whose only source of income was her pension, adored Pete in place of her own grandson whom she couldn’t see often. Although Mrs. Robert bought him toys and baked him cookies from time to time, Josh couldn’t leave the child with the old lady for long. He had to finish his business and go back quickly.

When Josh glanced toward Mark’s office door, Rose stood up from her seat. Her cheeks flushed ever so slightly as she said, “Boss isn’t in yet. You’re here pretty early, aren’t you? Would you like some coffee?”

Josh smiled to hide his disappointment. “Thank you.”

“Give me a second,” Rose said as she excitedly retreated into the break room.

Sitting alone on the office sofa in silence made Josh somewhat anxious. He looked around meaninglessly before shifting his gaze onto the newspaper that was placed on the table. 

As he blankly stared at the face of the man who had taken over the cover page, Rose stepped out of the break room. “He’s the prosecuting attorney for the Davis Incident. Isn’t he so good-looking?”

She was talking about the murder incident that had happened in New York. The suspect was a wealthy alpha who, unfortunately, did not have a very good reputation. Those with money and power often became the public’s target—even more so when the suspect was an arrogant alpha and the victim a powerless omega.

However, what excited people the most was none other than the prosecuting attorney.

Rose sighed in awe and placed a cup of coffee in front of him. Josh muttered a brief statement of gratitude and took the cup to his mouth.

Rose, still unable to peel her eyes off the photo, murmured, “I wonder if this man is an alpha or an omega.”

“Who knows…”

Not transitioned betas, but alphas and omegas who manifested properly during their early teenage years were known to be very beautiful. There were some cases where this didn’t apply, but 99 out of 100 times, they were recognizably handsome or pretty. People could tell that they were an alpha or at least an omega just by looking at them without smelling their pheromones.

Even among them, a man this good-looking was rare. Even Josh had his attention stolen for a moment when he first laid his eyes on him. If he looked this good in the low-resolution newspaper photo, just how good-looking could he be in person?

When Josh reached this line of thought, he fell into a brief contemplation. This man was too pretty to be called handsome and too beautiful to be called pretty. In any case, one thing for sure was that the man was a charmer—enough to surprise people just from his photo alone.

“He couldn’t be a beta, right? Well, I suppose it’s not entirely impossible…” Rose, who had turned to glance at Josh, trailed off unconfidently. Josh must not have been the only one who didn’t have a clue.

In very rare cases, some betas were exceptionally good-looking. Thanks to this, Josh could somehow manage to hide his identity. Josh smiled as vaguely as always. Rose fixed her restless gaze onto Josh and quickly sat down beside him.

“I was really surprised when I heard that a good-looking man like you was a beta. I was so sure that you were an alpha,” she said, with a demeanor bordering disappointment.

Josh had heard remarks such as hers countless times in his life. Things like “I can immediately tell that you’re an alpha,” or “I can’t believe a beta as good-looking as you exists.” Unfortunately, both of those statements were wrong.

Josh was an omega—one whose ear was imprinted at that.

He had no particular reason why he should hide the fact that he was an omega save for his job. Regrettably, however, nobody hired omegas as bodyguards. Hence, ever since Josh started this line of work, he had pretended to be a beta.

It wasn’t difficult to hide the fact that he was an omega. First and foremost, people always just assumed that he was an alpha whenever they saw him. On top of that, his pheromones had a faint scent. He had no choice but to take meds during his heat since it made the scent stronger, but ever since he was imprinted, even that became much weaker.

He was confident that nobody would ever find out.

Josh almost subconsciously fiddled with his ears, but he faked it and brushed it off. He would be in big trouble if anyone found out about the imprint. He could pretend that he was an alpha, but making up a sloppy lie would force him to lie once more about why he had pretended to be a beta all this time. In the end, everyone would figure out that he was an omega.

His only remaining option was to do everything in his power to hide it. This was why he sometimes wore his bodyguard earpiece even when he wasn’t working or went through the trouble of covering his ears in one way or another.

‘I could very well be fired,’ Josh thought to himself. He felt chills run down his spine and avoided Rose’s eyes, pretending to drink his coffee.

Rose, who had no idea about any of his internal turmoil, gazed sympathetically at him. “How old is Pete again? Isn’t it difficult raising a child on your own?”

“It’s not so bad, really.”