God, I hate him.
That was the first thought that came to mind when Jack Johnson saw the dimwit alpha attached to Summer's arm.
He was trying not to look like a creep, peeking over his desk and through the window of his office, staring at the couple as they stood chatting to his boss, Callum. Despite his best attempts, he knew he was desperately failing, simply unable to tear his eyes away from the area.
Just looking at her made him feel self-conscious.
It was the fact that she was so petite and vibrant and omegan, blonde tresses dusting the tops of her slim shoulders- the same shoulders that shook lightly as she laughed at something her father said. Legs that teased him, taunted him as they moved around in that skirt of hers- and why was it so damn short? She was bursting with beauty: the way that she smiled, gloss covered lips gleaming in the sunlight, the way that she moved, built like a ballerina, her small breasts, her dainty hips, her-
Gosh, his sanity was holding on by a thread.
"Grab that file out of the printer for me?" His office partner Eliot said, inciting Jack to groan in annoyance.
That would mean he'd have to be in the same room as her.
Exactly what he was trying to avoid.
"Problem, Jack?" Eliot asked, spinning around in his chair.
Jack turned to glare at the older man. Pushing thirty five, just like Jack, and Eliot was still the biggest bully he had ever met. It was safe to say he didn't like Eliot and Eliot didn't like him. It wasn't like Eliot was anything special. Really, the man was balding, beer bellied and stank of cheap deodorant. He was mated though.
He'd seen Eliot's mate exactly one time in the eight years he'd been working at the firm. She was a red-head, had a sweet disposition, and was tall, taller than Eliot's five nine. She looked at her mate like he was the hottest thing since sliced bread and the way she kissed him as she left had left the office feeling scandalised.
Eliot had walked around like a peacock all day after that, gloating as if to say that he had a hot omega waiting for him at home and Jack didn't.
"No problem." Jack said.
Not giving the other alpha the benefit of having something more to hold against him, he stood up from his desk and pushed his way out of the office.
Now that he was in the same room as Summer, all he could smell was her lusty omega pheromones. They pretty much saturated the whole room, which would have otherwise smelt like printer paper and off-brand air fresheners.
God, he wanted her.
Jack rubbed a hand through his short brown hair and down his face, suddenly very aware that he was a bit too pudgy to be considered fit, in the heavily muscled sense anyway, he was prematurely greying and he'd been told that he was slightly too tame for an alpha. He'd also recently had to up his glasses prescription and was feeling particularly annoyed about that fact.
He had been wearing glasses since the moment he had learned to read, despising every time the little numbers assigned to his eyes increased with every opticians visit. It was unusual for alphas to have such bad eyesight but he was the exception to the rule about alphas being physically superior to the other dynamics.
He had never been exactly like the others.
He didn't know what his parents were thinking, giving him a name like Jack Johnson, but it had set the tone for the rest of his life. He'd grown up as a sort of John Doe, in the background, often overlooked. When he had started his first rut before the other boys in his year, coming into school with the matured scent of someone who had popped their first knot, people could hardly believe it. Most assumed he would be one of those defective alphas who couldn't pop a knot if it hit them in the face.
The only alpha thing about him was that he was freakishly tall and did smell of one despite his doubts on the matter.
When the other alphas rough housed and chased after sweet smelling omegas in the halls, scent drunk and in a daze, he had kept to himself, been absurdly easy to push over and uninterested in rutting omegas against his locker during free periods.
He preferred to hang out with betas, his own gender being too baffled by him, too confused by why he would let the lesser dynamics boss him around and why he didn't care much for the girls who occasionally paid him attention.
Sadly, the only reason he had lost his virginity had been because by the time he had reached university, he was tired of people constantly questioning him about it. He figured it was better to just do the sex thing to get people off his back. It had been one of his biggest regrets and he told himself that he'd not have sex again until he found his mate.
It had been fifteen long years and he had started to doubt if he'd made the right choice. He had long stopped feeling the shame of being pressured and the betrayal of waking up alone, the omega he had knotted gone without a trace- the reason he had vowed abstinence to himself in the first place.
Three years ago a bigger problem had reared its ugly head.
He physically felt the moment Summer turned to look at him and cringed, quickening his pace as he hurried over to the printer as fast as he could.
"Jack."
He heard her call out from across the room, and reluctantly turned around, plastering a smile on his face.
She walked over to him, dimwit alpha boyfriend in tow, gliding like she was walking on air.
Jack fought to stay still.
He hoped his smile didn't look pained.
"How have you been recently? Is Packie still in hospital?" She was in front of him, rubbing a hand down his arm as she spoke, concern marring her features.
He laughed nervously, flinching as the contact scorched him.
He thought about the fact that her cocoa and whipped cream scent was going to be on his shirt sleeve for the rest of the day and cursed his luck. He wasn't going to be able to concentrate at all.
"I've been fine. No, she got out last week, resting at home."
He was surprised that she remembered his mother had been in the hospital. He had mentioned it to Callum a few months ago when he'd been around at their house for dinner.
Summer's presence there had been unexpected - she'd traveled back home from university, only for a couple days, Jack only finding out once the front door had opened to her smiling face. If he'd known she would have been there, he would have found a way to politely decline his bosses offer that night. The dinner had been torturous.
She was so tactile.
Spring break had started last week and Summer had taken to hanging out at the office more than usual.
Jack had managed to avoid her for the most part, always finding an excuse to be somewhere else- away from her.
Unfortunately for him, it seemed as though his luck had run out.
"Oh that's great news, Jack." She beamed up at him, removing her hand.
He'd have thought he'd have some time to recollect himself after her touch, but her smile left him breathless once again.
"How have you been?" He managed to say, remembering his manners.
Her smile got wider. "I'm so glad to be home for a couple months," she said. "I missed this."
He didn't have a chance to ask what this was because the bonehead alpha, who had just swung an arm around her shoulder, opened his big mouth. "This?" He snorted, "what, the boring-as-hell countryside?"
She turned to him and smiled, "yes, the country. My family. All of it."
She tapped a playful finger on his nose, causing Jack to grimace in distaste. He wanted to strangle the little alpha dweeb for the split second before he mentally pulled himself together.
This was good, he told himself instead. Hopefully she would mate the boy and Jack could finally get rid of his attraction to her.
Summer turned back to him and reached out her hand as if she was going to touch him again, when thankfully, his boss came to the rescue.
"Alright, Summer. Let Jack get on with his work. Can't you see the poor man is busy?"
Summer's smile dropped and she winced. "Sorry Jack," she said, dropping her hand before it made contact. "I'll see you around?"
"Absolutely." Jack found himself saying.
As she walked away, he prayed to God that he didn't.