Keld
Keld stared at his spreadsheet, wondering if he could get away with setting the whole desktop on fire.
“Thinking about arson again?” Zasia, a female Alpha in his department, had her pale blue-green arms propped on Keld’s cubicle wall.
“What gave it away?”
“You have an ‘arson’ face.”
Keld ground the heels of his palms into his eyes. “There’s something wrong in this damn spreadsheet and it’s fucking up all the calculations and I can’tfindit.”
“Move.” Zasia shooed him away from the desk and leaned down to inspect his work. “Go stare at a tree outside for like five minutes. Your eyes are going to fall out of your skull.”
Keld stood and stretched. He had to maintain his terrestrial form at work because humans were weird about wearing clothes, but it had a tendency to make his spine ache.
“You’re a lifesaver Zas. I’ll be right back.”
She just flapped a hand at him.
Keld wound his way through the maze of cubicles, beelining for the main doors of Ikatere Desalination. The financedepartment had plenty of windows and humidifiers, but it was no match for real sea air. Puffy clouds passed overhead, blocking the sun at random intervals, and coasting on cool, spring air. Keld willed his eyes to focus on a bulbousfihostree whose deep purple leaves shivered in the wind.
“Keld?” A slender Alpha with bright red hair and vibrant scales was heading his way.
“Loriun.” Keld flared his facial fins at his boss in greeting. His brassy scales and bronzed-hued fins always felt a little dull in comparison to Loriun’s scarlet and teal. “How’s Beau feeling?”
Loriun Kolhn was the CEO of the desalination plant, and had been his boss for the past five years. He’d been matched with an Omega the year prior, then promptly got him pregnant. Keld had a sneaking suspicion it wasn’t planned, but he couldn’t exactly ask his boss about it.
Loriun sighed. “Every time I try to ask him that question, he simply responds with ‘large’.”
Keld huffed a laugh. “He’s due this month, isn’t he? What are you doing here?”
“Yes, this month.” Loriun’s jaw tightened. “I will only be here for a short time. I was needed to deal with a client issue in person.”
“Ah. I heard about that.” An irate human governor who didn’t seem to understand how science worked. “Good luck.”
The other Alpha grimaced. “It appears I will need it.”
“You might want to…” Keld motioned at his own ear fins. “You know. I heard that guy isn’t a huge fan of the Mer.”
“Noivux’asi iaka,”Loriun muttered in Loaish. The crimson fins that splayed from his ears began to shrink down toward his head. The larger, colorful scales on his arms drew together, shifting the way they caught the light. By the time he was done,he could nearly pass as a human, albeit an obscenely tall, vaguely sparkly human. “I appreciate the tip.”
When his boss had vanished through the doors, Keld resumed his intense staring contest with thefihostree. Just two more hours of work, then he could shed the day’s annoyances. A text rattled his phone, announcing Zasia had fixed that damn spreadsheet. Keld took one last gulp of ocean breeze, and pushed back through the glass doors.
“You swapped two numbers.” Zasia was still lounging in his chair. “You’re welcome.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled. “Thanks. Can I have my chair back?”
“You going to Siren after work?” she asked, ignoring his request entirely.
Siren’s Rest—Keld’s favorite place on the island. “Yep. You?
“Thinking about it.” Zasia eyed him. “But if you’re going, I’ll have competition.”
Keld snorted. “You’re a female Alpha. The people coming after you are totally different from the ones flocking to me.”
“True.” Zasia stood, stretching toned arms skyward. Her white blouse rose just enough to show off the silvery skin of her stomach.
Keld had met Zasia at Siren’s Rest. She was one of the few Mer that regularly made an appearance at the club. They’d made a big show trying to out-Alpha each other, and had been friends ever since. The humans and Omegas ate that shit up.
