Chapter 371

When we got back to the office, Ternen turned with a smile, taking the gift bags from around Alannah’s desk. “I’ll be back at the end of the day.” He kissed her and then left us to finish our day.

I settled into my office and started working on another firewall when Rick came in. “Hey, are you ready for your next challenge?”

I smiled. “What did you have in mind?”

“I want to see how well you know our systems.” I leaned in, excitement on my face. “I’m going to hide again, but this time, it’s going to be deeper.”

“Okay.” I turned my chair to face him. “What’s the catch?”

He smiled. “This is a training exercise for you to recognize the flaws in your own designs.”

I twirled my hands around each other. “What does that even mean?”

He cackled. “It means you can’t trip the firewall. If you do, you have to start over.”

“Are you insane?” I stood hunched over my computer. “How is that even possible?” I pretended to be upset, but inside I was dancing. He was teaching me how to get around the systems.

He shrugged. “It’s how my teacher taught me.”

“Your teacher…from school? We didn’t learn this in school.” I slammed back into my seat.

Rick shook his head. “Not at school. In my old pack. It’s how I got so good with computers.” He laughed and tossed me a paper. “I’ll give you a head start.” He pointed at the paper. “Read that and start. But…” He held up his finger.

“What?”

“During the mornings, I still expect you to pump out the coding I need. You work until the day’s coding is done, and then you practise this.”

I groaned. “How am I supposed to do that?” I rolled my neck. “I will never have time.” Rick just shrugged.

“Then I guess you will never become good at this job and you might as well quit now.” I growled, and he smiled. “Good luck.” He turned and left.

“Wait!” I stood and called after him. He came back and lifted a brow.

“What?”

“Can I work on this at home?”

He shook his head. “Nope. I’m honestly not being spiteful. There is just no way to remote into our system. I created it that way. But if you want, you can bring your laptop in tomorrow and when I have time, I can make a dummy server on it, so you can practice at home.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “I’m not trying to stunt your growth, only push you to be better.” He winked at me and turned to leave again.

“Thank you,” I called after him.

“You’re welcome,” he called back. Then a door opened. “Alpha Vince.” Rick said it loud enough, like he was surprised, but I know it was to alert me he was here.

“Rick, are you busy?” I could hear his tone and I knew he wasn’t asking.

“For you? Of course not. Let me just…” He leaned into my office door. “I’m going to have to put a pause in our training. If my meeting with Alpha Vince goes past the end of the day, just head on home and we can try again tomorrow.”

I gave a thumbs up. “Sounds good.” Then I turned back to my computer and started back coding a firewall.

It must have been longer than I thought when I finished the code, as when I finally pulled my eyes away from the computer, my phone rang, scaring me. I grabbed it from the desk and answered. “Hello?”

“Hey baby,” my mom’s voice rang out. “How’s your day?”

“It’s been pretty great. Is there anything wrong?” I flicked my eyes to my screen as I opened the next coding program he wanted me to work on.

“No.” She chuckled. “You must be distracted.”

“Yeah, I just got finished with a project when you called. Why?” I clicked open the next file and my mom laughed harder.

“Look at the time, baby.”

“Huh?” I glanced at my phone screen and then down at the clock in the corner of my computer. “Holy crap.”

She snorted. “Yeah. You’re late for dinner. Hurry home.” Then she hung up.

I got up and walked out of my office. Alannah was still at her desk, but Ternen was here. “Hey.” I looked at them with a confused look, but Alannah’s eyes cut to Rick’s door. “Everyone is working late tonight.” I chuckled and went to my desk to turn things off.

Nix, tell Mom to call me again and tell me to invite my work friends to dinner. Be quick. She left without looking back. Within a minute, my phone rang again as I shut off my computer. I answered on speaker again with a laugh. “Hey, Mom. I’m shutting down right now.”

“No, I know.” She laughed. “Morgan and Shannon said they were busy with Alpha Vince and Brandon tonight, and I made too much food. Invite your friends from work for dinner.”

“Mom.” I sighed.

But she cut me off. “I want to meet them. Ask.” Then she hung up.