Chapter 10

In the atmosphere of alternating self-loathing and futility, a woman doing arm exercises with dumbbells spoke with an indifferent expression.

"I guess the great Miller family made some enormous donation. How could we stop that? We're dealing with the Millers."

"Damn it, goddammit!"

Another man roughly spat out curses. Though everyone was in a foul mood over this unreasonable situation, as she said, there was nothing they could do about it. Except for venting their frustration by lifting equipment faster than usual or spewing out curses.

"Looking at it another way, since they must have received something in return, there should be some benefit for us too. Like improved facilities or new equipment."

At another woman's consoling words, everyone muttered small curses with disgruntled expressions.

"The conclusion is the same anyway. The situation is pretty shitty right now."

Everyone agreed with someone's clear conclusion. Then another colleague offered an opinion.

"Since it's come to this, how about we give him a passionate welcome?"

For a moment, they looked at each other. Their expressions were bewildered at first. But soon their faces took on strange smiles as they realized what 'passionate welcome' meant. Of course, it was completely different from the 'fun welcome party' the chief had mentioned.

Maybe it could be even more fun.

Supporting comments began to emerge one by one.

"Oh, right. We can't just let someone from the great Miller family slide by."

"Let's welcome him warmly, with burning hearts."

"He must be an extreme Alpha, right? Being from the Miller family."

"We should check out what those precious pheromones of his are like."

Their eyes burned with hostility toward the yet-unseen Miller as they made ominous chuckling sounds. We won't let you off easy, Miller!

Thanks to this, they were enthusiastically working out their muscles everywhere when suddenly someone turned their head and asked.

"By the way, where's Dane?"

"Huh?"

As the members belatedly realized their colleague's absence and looked around with puzzled faces, Ezra answered.

"He said he's at the police station, said he'll be late."

The surprised colleagues repeated his words with wide eyes.

"Police station?"

"Police station? Why?"

When such an unexpected word appeared, everyone's eyes grew round and questions poured out all at once from everywhere. As colleagues made the same expressions and asked the same questions, Ezra answered with a bewildered face.

"Well..."

***

"Dane Striker, sign here."

Dane scrawled his signature in the blank space on the document the police officer handed over with an expressionless face. The officer who immediately retrieved the paper continued speaking indifferently.

"You'll be contacted as the investigation proceeds. Until then, you absolutely must not seek out the victim. Remember that."

He recited several precautions, but Dane clearly showed his bored expression and yawned as if he had no interest despite it being his own matter. Seeing the police officer's temple veins bulging at his delinquent attitude, the lawyer hurriedly smiled and placated him.

"Don't worry, I'll manage him well. Thank you for your hard work, then we'll be..."

After making a perfunctory greeting, he quickly pushed Dane's back and left the police station. The lawyer who followed Dane out finally let out a sigh of relief and complained.

"Everything else is fine, but please stop sleeping with married women."

While it was the fire station's legal counsel's role to resolve legal issues for firefighters, he felt fulfilled when solving problems that arose during work, not when dealing with adultery cases like this.

"I told you she said she was single."

But Dane continued to complain irritably while asserting his innocence.

"I hate getting into trouble too. Who knew her husband would suddenly come home? He wouldn't listen to me and went berserk, so I just hit him once to calm him down."

"That's exactly why - why did you hit him? Actually, from his perspective, Dane was the intruder!"

As Dane looked down at the lawyer who pressed him again in a somewhat excited tone, he clenched his fist.

"Because he was noisy."

At the cynical response, the lawyer flinched and closed his mouth for the first time. As Dane lowered his hand and looked forward again, the lawyer walked beside him watching his mood. Though he seemed to be waiting for the right timing to speak, the wait wasn't long.

"I know one-night stands with women you meet at bars are everyday occurrences for you. But why did you go to her house? Didn't you say you never stay overnight? What about Darling?"

This bastard, how does he know so much about me?

As if reading Dane's mind as he frowned down at him, the lawyer continued.

"The chief specifically instructed me that if anything happens to Dane Striker, I need to get him out as quickly as possible. He even said your cat is blind and deaf? And old too. If something happens to you it won't be easy to put her up for adoption, so it's very troublesome when you cause accidents like this. Have some more responsibility!"

"Haa."

Of course he had more than enough of that. He was already feeling tremendous guilt about Darling who must be waiting alone after he unexpectedly stayed out overnight.

"Fine, I'll restrain myself for a while."

As he ran his fingers through his hair with a sigh, the lawyer finally nodded.

"I'll trust you. Then I'll handle this matter. Are you going to work now?"

"No, I need to stop by home first. Have to feed Darling..."

As Dane briefly checked his wristwatch and roughly calculated the time, the lawyer opened his car door first and said.

"Get in, I'll drive you."

Dane readily opened the passenger door and got in the car. The lawyer watched with a dumbfounded expression as Dane sat down before him without a word, then suppressed his rising anger and silently took the driver's seat.

"Ah, by the way, did you hear? They say the Miller family's second son is coming to the station today."

"What?"

Dane frowned and briefly asked back at the lawyer's words as he started the car. The lawyer answered halfheartedly while focusing on driving.

"I heard he's going to work as a firefighter. For one year. They say he's starting this afternoon."

"...Huh."

Dane still didn't say much. He just let out an exasperated sigh as if dumbfounded.

* * *

This is ominous.

The fire chief felt chills running down his back as he looked at the neat face of the man sitting across the desk.

As expected of Ashley Miller's child, his beauty was extraordinary. While it was well known that extreme Alphas had outstanding looks, seeing it in person was enough to make one lose their senses momentarily. Especially those purple eyes were so mysterious that one could get lost in them endlessly. As if looking into the universe itself. Combined with the sweet pheromone scent floating faintly, it felt completely unreal, like being in a dream. Because of this, even when Greyson Miller greeted him and offered a handshake, the chief just stared blankly at his face for several seconds.

Though he arrived 15 minutes earlier than the appointed time, Greyson sat in the waiting room chair without any complaints until the time came. Even after finally entering the office and meeting face to face, the man still delivered formulaic greetings with a smiling face. As if such minor waiting was nothing.

His attitude so far had been impeccable. He was extremely polite and didn't speak unnecessarily. Above all, his appearance was too excellent. The chief clearly saw his secretary also unable to take her eyes off him as if enchanted. At this rate, even though he had used underhanded methods to get here, there was even hope that with some time he would integrate to some degree, and the hostile atmosphere would subside.

Despite being well aware of the employees' resistance.