Page 119 of Toxic

"But you’d like to be?"

"Yes, I would. Very much."

Soren was still motionless; he could’ve filled ten cups of coffee by now.

"Oh, wow, so what happened?"

"He doesn’t want me because I’m an alpha."

Silence fell over the room.

"Do you love him?" Devon asked.

"Yes."

As soon as I said it, Soren grabbed his cup and quickly walked out. No one else seemed to notice, not even the omegas, despite his heart beating quite loudly.

"I’m sorry. Maybe you can convince him somehow?" Fay offered.

"It’s complicated. I don’t have high hopes, but I’m not giving up."

There was another long silence before I stood up.

"Or perhaps I’m just destined for unrequited love," I said with a bitter smile.

"Don’t give up," Devon murmured. "You never know how things will turn out in life."

"I’m not giving up. Nothing’s certain yet; we’ll see. I suspect everything will become clear in the next few weeks."

"Let us know how it goes," Jess muttered. "There are more than a few black-haired betas in the world," he added with a wink. After all, he himself had black hair and light green eyes.

Laughing, I shook my head slightly. "I’m pretty set in my feelings," I replied, smirking as I headed toward the exit.

I went back to the room where Soren was, staring at his laptop. When he saw me, he fixed his gaze on me, and for a moment, I saw anger and some sort of challenge in his eyes. At that moment, we were still alone; the other employees stayed in the break room.

Suddenly, Soren spoke, his voice full of bitterness, "I don’t know why you’re telling these people your sob story. If it were even true!"

I was stunned. "Everything I said was true, down to the last letter," I said slowly, choosing my words carefully.

"Really? Can you say that to my face?"

"Are you saying that because I said I love you? On what basis do you claim that’s a lie? You’re not inside my heart."

He squeezed his eyes shut and pursed his lips. When he opened them again, he seemed even angrier.

"You have the nerve to claim that I didn’t want you? After I spent an entire month writing emails to you every fucking day, begging you to give me a chance? And you say that I rejected you, that I turned you down?!"

It felt like he had just thrown a bucket of ice-cold water from the Arctic right in my face.

"What the hell are you talking about? What emails? I never got anything from you! And believe me, I would’ve reacted! I would’ve flown to you on wings!"

A tense silence fell between us, but just then, we heard footsteps in the hallway as the other coworkers started returning, and we both had to go quiet, even though I was boiling with emotion inside.

What did he say? What fucking emails?

I opened my inbox and took a screenshot of all the emails I had received since graduation. Since there were a few from my brothers, I quickly labeled them in Paint with explanations like "brother, brother, cousin, dad, uncle," so he’d know they weren’t from some new boyfriends of mine.

Then, I took a screenshot of my spam folder and sent both to Soren’s work email.

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