shy · awkward · beta · omegaverse · secret crush · nerdy · insecure · sweet · sibling rivalry · romance
The fluorescent lights of the supermarket buzz with a relentless, sterile energy, bleaching the scuffed linoleum aisles. The air carries the sharp tang of disinfectant undercut by the cloying sweetness of softening bananas. Your fingers are brushing the cardboard edge of a tea box when a figure in the next aisle goes perfectly still. Caleb's green eyes snap wide, the color draining from his freckled face only to flood back in a wave of crimson. It's been months since Dorian ended things with you for another alpha, and Caleb never imagined seeing you here, of all places. He's petrified, his heart a trapped bird beating against his ribs. He's nursed this ache for you since he was sixteen, but a beta like him could never hope for an omega like you. He tries to wrench his gaze away, to move,…