"He's an alpha," Andem informed Steven as soon as they returned.
"You lie," Steven replied.
"Eteli said so."
"Really?" Steven said, looking at Rotimi weirdly. "He doesn't behave like one."
"Says the guy who likes to wear skirts. Are you going to try and put someone else in a box, Oga genderfluid?"
"But I checked his things."
"You didn't check well enough."
Living with Rotimi while Andem assumed he was a beta had been right. He was friendly and polite and he liked to cook. Rotimi liked to spend his own money when he went shopping. Rich boy with fancy shoes, expensive joggers, and an unlimited number of headphones that Steven liked to borrow.
Rotimi was the perfect roommate. When he was a beta.
Now that he was an alpha, Andem couldn't help being more guarded around him. Like Chima, he was older than Andem. More talented than Andem. If he was being honest, he'd be able to admit that Rotimi's face was even more… handsome to look at. Beside him, Andem didn't stand a chance. The fact that Rotimi was about to start spending all his work time with Nsemeke was icing on the bitter, ugly cake that the universe was serving Andem.
Who would notice Andem with Rotimi by his side? What little, completely non-existent chance he'd had with Nsemeke, was washed away the moment Rotimi's status as an alpha was mentioned. An alpha and his beta. The perfect duo. They'd train together. Build together. Get employed together. Probably end up falling in love and fucking every chance they got.
"Hey, are you listening?" Chima asked.
Andem blinked, coming back to the present as he remembered they'd been working on an assignment. Just the two of them. There were files around them, and they were sitting on the floor in the gym, each of them with a laptop open beside them.
"The language profile-" Chima said.
"I can speak Igbo," Andem said. His mother was Igbo so he didn't need Chima to handhold him.
"Three, out of the seven targets in the sample are Igbo. There're-"
"Two Efik and two Ibibio people. I know. I can understand those languages and judging by what I've heard from you in public, so can you," Andem said. "Let's move on."
"We have to go by the book."
He groaned, falling back against the floor in frustration. "We've been at this since yesterday night. I want to sleep."
"No," Chima said, crawling across the floor to pull on Andem's leg until Andem sat up. "Fine, we can skip this part and move on to the next, but we will come back to it, eventually."
Andem grabbed the nearest file and flipped to the page behind the language profiles. "Five men, two women." He nodded as he reached for the plate of roasted pears. "Five betas, one omega, and one alph…" his words trailed off as he read it again. "I'm sorry, Is Jimmy sure this file is for us?"
"What? Why?" Chima asked, not sure what Andem meant.
"There's an alpha in this target sample."
"So what?"
He was shocked that he'd have to spell it out.
"We're both alphas, Chima. How are we supposed to seduce another alpha?"
For the first time, Chima laughed. It wasn't a real, fluid laugh. It was more of a deep, scoffing chuckle, as he looked at Andem like he was a child.
"What?" Andem asked.
"You do know you're working at a spy firm, right? That they're going to ask you to do all sorts of weird shit to get the job done."
"Will that include fucking another alpha?"
"There's nothing wrong with fucking another alpha," Chima said.
"It's…" Andem began. "It's against the law. You get fourteen years in prison for that shit. They'll stone you to death in the north."
"I'm so confused." Chima tilted his head. "You're holding a target sample that will require two assassinations, multiple invasions of privacy, multiple acts of adultery, dishonesty, and theft. Yet, the one thing you're not sure you can do, is seduce an alpha?"
"People don't do that if they're also alphas."
"We're not ordinary people. We have jobs to do so we'll do it when the time comes."
"But when we deploy-"
"Deploy?" Chima asked, looking like Andem had two heads. "It's as if you still think you're in a federal firm. Look at me, listen to me Andem. We! Are! Spies! You signed a contract. When you get a job, you'll go out there and do it. Case closed. No one will give a fuck about your morality. My god," he said as he got to his feet. "You're so fucking exhausting."
He walked off, like he had to cool off and he couldn't understand Andem.
Which was just fine because Andem couldn't understand him either. How was this normal? How did any of them think it would be okay to just get intimate with alphas like it was nothing at all? He was still grappling with the fact that he'd have to harm civilians, but he was hoping that they wouldn't be innocent. Maybe Riddim would take jobs where they targeted evil corporations or the like. People, whose wealth was a disadvantage to the state. That way, Andem could understand.
But on what part of the earth would there ever be a reason to attempt to fuck another alpha?
Hearing the sound of heels clumping down the steps behind him, Andem turned to find Steven, in brown leather high-heeled boots, and a pair of green, tiny shorts that, as he moved, Andem was sure his ass cheeks would be visible through. He had on a white net top and a brown jacket.
"Really?" Andem asked. "Every weekend?"
"I'll stay home if you're willing to surrender your alpha dick to me."
"Oh," Andem said, feigning heartbreak. "I would but the contract forbids us from fucking teammates."
"Then shush."
Steven got down to the base of the steps and…. Yep, Andem could see his ass.
"Aren't you worried about Eteli?"
"If he didn't want us fucking other people, it would have been in the contract."
"But we're supposed to keep a low profile."
"No one cares who we are, boo." Steven smiled. "Calm down."
When he turned, he looked around and frowned.
"I thought you and Chima were working on a target sample," Steven asked.
"We have had a difference of opinion."
Steven leaned back with a proud look on his face. "Look at you standing up to the big alpha."
"Go away."
Laughing as he clicked and clacked while he headed for the doors, Steven walked off into the dimming evening.
Andem resented him a little. Twenty years on planet earth and he'd never had sex with anyone. Never even had a blow job. Never been lucky enough to have someone touch his dick in a way that felt good.
And yet, he was too much of a coward to do anything about it. Steven was right. There were no rules against dating outside the team. Andem could go out and find someone. He wasn't as worldly as Steven. He didn't know his way around hook-up culture. Andem was more of a hide-in-the-box-room-and-jerk-off kinda of guy. While that had worked for him, he was starting to wonder if it wasn't time for him to start trying to date.
He was out on his own, now. And he had someone he liked. He couldn't help wondering if it was time for him to start trying to date… to have sex… or maybe fall in love.
-*-
When Andem went to the garage, Jimmy wasn't there that night. Nsemeke was the only one available, shutting down systems, turning off lights, and packing up for the night.
"Hi," Andem said, waving but Nsemeke just nodded brusquely before walking past him.
Andem decided to follow after he waited for Nsemeke to lock up.
Nsemeke didn't notice, mind, or acknowledge his presence as they walked down the alley and into the street but that was okay because Andem's tongue felt heavy anyway. When Nsemeke turned into Oron Road, Andem followed. Nsemeke stopped.
"What are you doing?" Nsemeke asked.
"I'm going home."
"Your dorm is that way," Nsemeke pointed in the opposite direction.
"I…" He hadn't thought this through at all. "I was walking you home."
"Why?" Nsemeke eyed him sideways.
"I just wanted to make sure you got home safe."
"Because?"
"Someone like you shouldn't be walking on his own at night."
"Someone like me," Nsemeke asked, sounding a little defensive. "What does that mean?"
Where could he start? From the soft, beguiling looks that Nsemeke had with his boyish features, his cartoonish wide eyes, and long lashes, he was practically bait, this time of the night. And he didn't work out like the rest of them. He was an easy treat just waiting to be picked on by any of the boys in the area.
But he didn't dare say that to Nsemeke.
"Can't I just walk you till you get a keke?"
He stared at Andem like he was crazy. When he started down the road again, Andem ran behind him.
Waiting and watching as Nsemeke held out his hand for city buses or kekes, Andem was a little heartbroken when a keke finally stopped.
"I'll see you tomorrow, then?" Andem said hopefully after Nsemeke had finished pricing.
"Goodnight, Andem," Nsemeke said as he climbed into the tiny vehicle with one other passenger already on board.
It wasn't much. It was almost nothing, but it was something to Andem. He had just walked the nice, pretty beta to his doorstep and been a complete gentleman about it. Progress.
He spent almost an hour on the road back to his dorm –a trip that would have been twenty minutes- but he didn't mind. He didn't even notice it until he was climbing up the steps to their own home. As he put his hand to the door, it opened out, forcing him to step back so as not to get hit by the door as an angry Chima emerged from the dorm muttering something like "Stupid betas."
Andem didn't pay much mind to it because Chima was always angry with one person or the other. If it wasn't with Rotimi for his loud singing, it was with Steven for his… everything about Steven pissed Chima off. Up until earlier in the evening when they'd argued about alpha relationships, Chima never seemed to have any problem with Andem, at all. Andem assumed that after borrowing a rut-buddy from someone, you couldn't be superior to the person from then on out.
As he entered the dorm, the gym was empty and all he could hear was Rotimi's loud singing coming from the kitchen as plates and utensils clanged around him.
Going upstairs, Andem hummed along with Rotimi's song, opening the door to their room as a tiny squeal sounded and Andem was met with a man's naked, black ass in the air, covering a confused and whimpering Steven beneath him.
"God of mercy," Andem said, retracing his steps as he shut the door.
Now he understood why Chima was pissed and why Rotimi had his ears blocked in the kitchen.
And yet, because Andem was so preoccupied with his tiny talk with Nsemeke, he had completely failed to sense –or hear- that Steven had been having loud penetrative sex in the room that they all shared.