Page 4 of Heat Me

We sat in silence for a minute.

"There’s one thing that keeps bugging me," I said finally. "He specifically asked Ragu to give me his surname—Lowen. You know,thatLowen family. The famous one. Why would he do that? It was completely unnecessary. We don’t usually get the last names of our clients."

Nathaniel rubbed his chin. "Was it related to the scenario?"

"Nope! Ragu gave me the name after! And only then asked about the heat assistance. Think about it: if I had agreed to do it with him just for the money, if I’d taken the bait and demonstrated that money was my priority, what would that say about me? It looks like he’s testing if I’m all about the gold."

Nathaniel nodded, narrowing his eyes. "Lowen family, huh? They’re fucking huge! I’d expect him to hide that, definitely not ask Ragu to tell you. These rich people protect their privacy. It kinda looks like some kind of test."

The silence between us stretched as I stood up and walked to the window. I looked out at the yard—still empty.

My dad used to fill his garden with vegetables, flowers, every kind of plant you could imagine. But this place just felt lifeless, like me. Living here alone was a constant reminder of everything I’d lost—my court case, my divorce, getting kicked out of Fate’s Choice. It all kept piling up. And now this Damien situation—I had no idea how to handle it without making things worse.

Nathaniel broke the silence. "Are the renovations over?"

"Sort of," I muttered. "There are still some rooms that need more furniture. And, well, maybe an omega’s touch." I felt a little embarrassed admitting that.

He raised an eyebrow. "You… miss that? Having someone special in your life?"

I looked at him like he’d just asked the dumbest question ever. "Don’t you?"

Nate froze for a second. "You know I’ve never had a boyfriend, so… can’t really say."

The silence between us turned awkward and heavy. I knew why Nathaniel stayed away from omegas—he’d tried in the past and was brutally rejected. His looks scared people off. He’d told me once that, back in college, he had a beta fuckbuddy who hooked up with him out of pity. Other than that, he’d never had an actual relationship.

Finally, Nathaniel cleared his throat, probably desperate to change the subject. "When does his heat start?"

With a sigh, I answered, "According to Ragu, in a few days. So I don’t have much time to decide what to do."

Nathaniel leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his auburn hair. "You better decide fast. If you don’t, he’ll find a replacement. No omega wants to go through heat alone. And since you turned him down, he’s got a choice to make."

His words made me flinch slightly. Nate was right. Damien could go to someone else—and plenty of alphas would jump at the chance. No-strings-attached sex with a cute omega? Hell, some guys would be lining up. Even if Damien wasn’t conventionally attractive, just the wordheatcould make young alphas lose their minds. And that’s not even factoring in his damn last name.

Nathaniel watched me closely, his gaze steady. "When’s your meeting with Ragu? It’s only 10 am. You know, there are probably loads of students on campus right now, classes in fullswing…" His tone was casual, but he was watching me like he was waiting for something.

Flustered, I scratched my chin. "He’s probably furious with me anyway…"

"Maybe not? You didn’t want his money—that’s gotta count for something, right? If he’s looking for someone who doesn’t care about that."

We were both silent for a while.

"There’s one more thing, a bit funny. It’s almost like Fate wanted me to take Damien’s commission. No matter what I did, that commission stubbornly stayed in the system. I couldn’t take another one. Nobody else wanted it either. It was… strange."

Nathaniel stayed quiet for a moment before saying, his tone a bit sour, "Please don’t say you’re treating it as a magical sign from Fate."

I closed my eyes for a second. "Do you have to be such a fucking doubter in everything?"

"Just… let me check your commission system. I want to see if my suspicion is right." He smirked.

"Fine!" I said, shrugging.

We went over to my laptop, and I logged in to show Nathaniel the system I used to check new commissions. He opened some kind of console and started typing and checking logs. Since I wasn’t a programmer—or a hacker!—I had no clue what he was doing.

After about twenty minutes, when I was getting restless, he straightened up, looking pleased. "This system isn’t publicly available—it’s a log-in app. I can see the status of all commissions, including your last one. Here’s the interesting part: it’s set so that only you can see it."

"Well, yeah," I said. "I already accepted it, so the icon is gray now instead of green. That’s normal."

"No, you’re missing the point. Look at this: when I click on another employee’s name, I can see a list of their assignments. They’re gray, and I can’t access the details, but they’re still visible. Damien’s case isn’t even listed!"

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