I squinted at the words, my brain working overtime bto /bunderstand. I slept off twice in that state. And after what bI /bbelieved to be only a second, I woke up again and grabbed bmy /bphone without opening my eyes fully.

Of course, I began typing with muscle memory. I’ll be there, bb–/bbo- /b

bS/b–S.

But my exhausted brain and fingers betrayed me and I hit the wrong keys. I typed ‘a‘ instead of ‘o, the double ‘s‘ became ‘b‘ and ‘y‘

Me: Of course, baby.

I pressed send without reading what I typed. The phone slipped from my fingers and my eyes began to droop again, luring me into a deep, deep sleep.

*Author*

Back at Alexander’s estate, Mike moved through the kitchen preparing the Alpha’s usual breakfast of steak, oats and orange

juice.

bMike’s /bears twitched bat /bthe sound of the bgrandfather /bclock ticking. His eyes drifted to the antique bfurniture /bbas /bbhe /btook in

the time. 7:00 am. By now, he should have heard the bsound /bof

Alexander’s morning run. After that he would usually bhave /b

breakfast and get started on work.

Instead, the Alpha was nowhere to be found.

At seven–thirty, Gai arrived as scheduled. “Where is he?” he

asked, looking around with as much confusion as Mike.

Mike shrugged. “Haven’t heard a peep from upstairs. Usually,

he’s already finished his workout by now!‘

They exchanged nces. Alexander wasn’t one to break his

routine, and now they couldn’t help but wonder what had

happened.

Eight o’clock came and went. Then eight–fifteen. The breakfast

grew cold on the warming tray as they waited.

“What do you think is going on?” Gai asked.

“Hell if I know. Perhaps it’s the injury. The doctor did say he

needed more rest!””

Gai’s lips quirked up in a mischievous grin. “Or maybe our

Alpha decided to paint the town redst night. Hit up some of

the clubs.”

“Not with that wound on his lower–back.”

Finally at eight–thirty, Alexander descended from the staircase.

Both Mike and Gai turned, taking in his tired face and the dark

circles in his eyes. It seemed the Alpha had barely slept. Gai

briefly wondered if his theory was the most urate.

“Good morning,” Alexander greeted with a surprising

cheerfulness in his voice.

Mike and Gai exchanged looks, and mumbled a quick, “Morning,

Alpha.”

Alexander wasted no time and settled down at the head of the

dining table to have his breakfast. He dived into the food

immediately, moaning in satisfaction.

“This orange juice, it’s exceptional this morning, Mike. Did you

change brands?”

Mike blinked. “No, sir. Same as always!”

“Remarkable,” Alexander murmured as he took another sip.

But before Mike could say anything, Gai’s phone started ringing.

He pulled out the device and answered, “Morning, Olivia.

What’s up?”

“Ohi, /ihi, Gai. I’m so sorry to bother you, but I need to report to the office today and I’mpletely lost. I don’t have an ess card,

and honestly, I’m not even sure where the building is exactly.

Would you be able to help me out? Maybe give me a ride?”

“Tell you what, why don’t you juste straight here to

Alexander’s ce? We can grab some breakfast together, and

then I’ll drive you to the office. No sense in you waiting around.”

Olivia however, didn’t agree. “Oh, that’s really sweet of you, Gai,

but I couldn’t. That would bepletely inappropriate. I don’t

want to impose on… on anyone’s personal space. I’ll just wait for

you downstairs at the office building. That way I won’t be a

bother.”

Gai turned to look at his Alpha, and sure enough he had been

listening. In fact, from the look on his face, Gai could tell that

Alexander had heard the entire conversation, word for word,

and he wasn’t pleased.

Mike noted the way his Alpha’s fingers tightened around his

ss cup. Before either of them could blink, Alexander brought

it down hard on the table, causing juice to spill over the rim.

“Gai, please inform Olivia that she can handle this matter

herself. She’s a capable adult who can contact HR directly to

resolve her ess card issue. There’s no need for you to

chauffeur her around the city. She shouldn’t be bothering you.”

Both Mike and Gai jumped at the ice in his voice.

On the other end, Olivia had also heard her boss clearly, band /b

now, she was exasperated. “Gai, could you just give me the HR

department’s contact information? I’ll handle everything

myself.”

Gai quickly rattled off the numbers before his boss could stop

him from doing that too.

“Thanks, I’ll see you at the office,” Olivia muttered and then

ended the call. She sank onto her couch, waiting for the

number. She unlocked her phone and opened WhatsApp, expecting ito /isee a message from Gai. But instead, she found Alexander’s name at the top of her chat list.