Page 1 of Knotty Nights

ONE

Atlas

Error logs flickered across my monitors, the flashing red text making my head pound. AlphaNet’s chat feature kept crashing without a warning, and I needed it working seamlessly in twenty-four hours.

I rolled my shoulders, cracked my knuckles, and tried to isolate the bug before my supervisor noticed the issue and started nagging me about it. Jasper was a nice guy, sure, but he also had a voice that was distinctly un-blessed by gods. Talking to him was a practice in patience. Lucky for him, I would do anything to keep my job, including work overtime to fix any issues before launch day.

I rewrote the code, trying to isolate the issue, and found myself conducting several trials to make sure the glitch was gone.

If only real-life problems be fixed just as easily.

I leaned back in the plush leather chair, taking in the burst of reds and pinks across the shared office floor. Someone had taken it upon themselves to dress the space up for Valentine’s day. I wished I could say it was tasteful, but the truth was otherwise. Paper hearts had been taped to the glass partitions, curling atthe edges where the adhesive was already wearing off. With each blast of cool air from the AC, the paper rattled, creating a constant stream of noise my headphones couldn’t quite block.

Heart-shaped balloons floated near the ceiling, their strings dangling over desks and monitors. In the middle of the office, a small table had been set up with candy bowls filled with chocolate and sugary hearts that said ‘Miss you’ or ‘Love you’ or some other cringey sentiment.

A poster by the printer declaredHappy Valentine’s Day!in bubbly red font. Against the neutral office palette—dark carpet, white desks, glowing monitors—the pinks and reds looked more than a little out of place.

Or, maybe,Iwas the one unused to big displays of love and affection.

Somewhere between my introduction to AlphaNet and my instant promotion to ‘Chief Coder’, my love life had just… timed out.

It had been a few good months since I’d… Oh, who was I kidding? The last person who’d looked my way was Fyona Garrett, and that was in grad school—a full year ago.

If I didn’t take care of my little forced celibacy issue in the immediate future, I’d probably start shooting dust when I actually found a nice omega.

For the past few months, my focus had solely been on this job, and the months before, I’d been trying not to starve in the shitty hiring market.

I reached into my desk drawer for a boxed protein drink, giving it a good shake before unscrewing the top. The perks of working at a start-up were endless—free drinks, full medical and dental, discounted gym membership—all of which I’d put to good use over the last few months. Without anyone waiting for me back at my flatshare, the gym had become my constant late-night companion.

I was in the best shape of my life… physically. Emotionally, however, it was hard to get my Alpha to stop whining whenever a sweet omega walked by.

The constant yearning had become a nuisance. It was as though she was trying to push me into the arms ofanyavailable omega, and not someone who was compatible. At twenty-eight, I wasn’t in the market for quick, easy sex—not anymore. I wanted someone to settle down with and do fun things on the weekends.

But first, I had to pluck up the courage to actually talk to an omega. I knew what they saw when they looked at me—a shy, stammering, bespectacled nerd. Over the years, I’d learned to control my speech impediment, but it still reared its ugly head in stressful situations.

I sighed, chugging down the chocolate-flavored protein drink as the code continued to run.

“Atlas!Atlas!”

My supervisor’s shrill voice rose above the whirr of the computer.

I almost choked on the thick drink as I peered over my cubicle, watching Jasper hurry across the office with his wrists limp in the air. A pesky ribbon from a hanging balloon got caught in my curls and I fought with it for a moment before setting it free again.

Jasper was muttering under his breath, and I barely caught a few words before he stood in front of me, panting and wiping sweat from his forehead.

“Atlas—I need a favor.”

I glanced at the clock. It was almost the end of the workday—which, for us, was 8PM.

I pointed at my computer screen as the code continued to run.

“I’m still in the middle of the last favor you asked me to do,” I said. “My hands are tied until this one’s over.”

Jasper waved his hands in the air animatedly.

“No, no, it’s nothing to do with this techy stuff,” he said, pushing his damp fringe away from his forehead. “I just got out of a meeting with the ops team and…”

He licked his lips, looking more nervous by the second. This didn’t bode well for me. Jasper’s forgetfulness usually meant more work for the team.