Johnson

Fourteen

He paused from his position at the bottom of the stairwell and looked at her.

"Is everything alright, Bev?"

Their relationship didn't go beyond the occasional conversation whenever she came up to fill up the coffee machine or transfer documents, but she looked so worried that Jack felt obliged to figure out what was wrong. The lady was hardly ever seen without a large smile on her face.

She stared at him sadly, hand lifting up to hover over the phone. "I'm sorry, Jack." She told him. "Callum asked me to alert him when you come in. You might want to prepare yourself. He's very angry."

Dread seeped into Jack and he wiped away the sweat that had started to trickle down his face.

He coughed shortly into his hand. "Do you know what the problem is?" He asked.

He knew.

There was no other explanation.

Callum knew.

Jack still had to ask though.

Perhaps it was something else. Perhaps Jack had messed up on one of the financial documents or forgotten to do something before he left the office.

Fruitless hoping.

Bev shook her head and picked up the phone, pressing a button before lifting it to her ear.

"The whole office knows, Jack. I'm so sorry." The line connected and she addressed Callum, frown still prominent on her face. "He's coming up."

Jack pulled at the rim of his shirt again before turning around and walking up the stairs.

About hallway up to the top, the scent of Callum's fierce wrath hit him. Among that, there were about a dozen other scents of his co-workers, including Eliot, their scents ranging from aggravation to distress depending on their dynamic. They were all reacting to the dominant scent coming off of their boss.

Jack felt himself react too, the alpha inside him squirming in frustration. The burning shame was there. Embarrassment as well.

They all knew.

His biceps tensed like he was getting ready for a fight as he stepped up over the final stair.

Every eye turned to look at him.

He caught Eliot's gaze, the man's face hard and unreadable, but that was all he saw before his attention snapped to the man who was storming towards him, snarling like he was out for blood.

Callum swore at him, word a mangled mess behind the fangs that had grown and obstructed the movement of his tongue.

Jack clamped his jaw tightly, biting down until it ached. He could smell the aggression coming off of his boss, the desire to swing and act out violently.

He could see the vision of it in his head, Callum swinging his right fist around, smashing it against Jack's face until blood spurted from his nose. He could imagine the fury Callum had felt when he'd come into the office in the morning, simmering with hate for Jack, unable to contain it inside until the man himself arrived.

Jack wondered what he had told his workers, which words he had used to describe the alpha who had knotted his innocent daughter.

He could feel the stares from his co-workers pinning him in place. Most of them were betas, men unused to the chemistry between alphas and omegas. They would never understand the impulses that drove an omega to seek out an alpha to satisfy their heat, or the carnal drive for alphas to knot and breed.