It felt like people never really had a good sense of timing. They were always interrupting when Raphael was in the middle of something. They always wanted to chat or discuss something "really important." This interruption was particularly frustrating.

The alpha that knocked on the door was only slightly taller than Raphael was. He had a swarthy complexion, curly brown hair that dripped water, and laughing brown eyes that seemed amused at everything. The muscles in his arms rippled beneath his jacket and his chest looked like it was about to bust out of the t-shirt stretched across it. The very sight of him was distracting and that alone annoyed Raphael to no end.

Men, especially alphas, were trouble. He had sworn off dating, flirting, or anything resembling either of those. It wasn't worth the trouble. His life was simple, uncomplicated, and devoid of distractions. He enjoyed his work and he definitely wasn't interested in letting this hunk of man distract him from that.

Despite not being much taller than him, the alpha's presence in the backroom of Pearl's shop suddenly made the room feel cramped. The wide shelves that housed tools, crafting supplies, and various carved shells in various states of finish seemed far too close together now. Raphael's workbench, with the pegboard holding his tools, and the magnifying glass for detail work, took up too much of the wall where it was located.

What had always been a comfortable, if cozy, space to Raphael had become almost claustrophobic.

"Well?" the alpha's voice sounded like the rush of waves against the shore. Abrupt, with a hint of power lying beneath. It was almost intimidating. Raphael would not be intimidated especially not here. This was his space.

"Look, I'm busy. I don't have time to do whatever this is with whoever you are." Raphael frowned and forced himself to turn his back on the alpha. He stalked towards his workbench and picked up the shell he had been carving. It was an abalone shell that had been smoothed and polished until its beautiful iridescent rainbow of color was visible. He was nearly finished with the swirling, lace-like, pattern that he had been cutting into the shell.

"Marcos." The alpha's voice crashed back into Raphael's thoughts and unsettled him once more. "Before you get snippy with me again, I think maybe you should give me a chance."

Marcos, the alpha, didn't seem to be picking up on the fact that Raphael wasn't interested. He didn't think he was being subtle about it either, which meant this guy was thicker than the usual louts that liked to hit on him.

"Let me spell this out for you," said Raphael as he turned slowly back towards Marcos.

The broad-shouldered alpha was much closer than he had been a few moments ago. Their height difference felt enormous now as their eyes met. Raphael's blood rushed in his ears and he suddenly became very aware of the sound of the rain slamming against the pavement outside. He opened his mouth to speak, but his voice caught in his throat and he realized he was out of breath.

"I...I'm not interested. I don't...I don't date...alphas..." Every word was a struggle and he found himself having to wet his lips with his tongue as he shrank back against his workbench. This, all of this, was just hormones. At least that's what he told himself. Having his workshop invaded by a sexy, intimidating, muscular alpha male was more stimulation than he'd had in quite a while.

"Right, so what? You date women then? That can't be very satisfying for such a sumptuous little omega like yourself. You need someone to take you, claim you, make you feel the way only an alpha can." Marcos' voice had taken on a throaty purr that made every word send chills down Raphael's spine.

"I...I don't. I don't date anyone. I'm not interested in a relationship. I don't want to go out with you. I don't want to have sex with you. I just want you to leave and let me finish my work." Raphael's voice grew in confidence with every word. He stomped his foot against the ground for emphasis when he finished, furrowed his brow, and glared up at Marcos with all the ferocity he could muster. He wasn't about to let himself be seduced into some random asshole's bed.

"You've been nothing but hostile towards me since you opened the door. I was just doing a favor for a friend but now I'm thinking he didn't want to make the delivery because he didn't want to deal with you." Marcos withdrew and Raphael breathed an unconscious sigh of relief as the pressure of the alpha's presence immediately relaxed.

"I'm fine with normal people." Raphael shrugged and turned back to his workbench.

"Yes, because you've been such a ray of sunshine with me."

"You're an alpha." Raphael glanced back over his shoulder at the other man. He knew it wasn't really fair to lump all alphas together as sex crazed, hyper-dominant dicks but the assumption paid off more often than not.

"So what, you're just going to jump to conclusions based on something that I have literally no control over?" Marcos was getting angry now. The laughter in his brown eyes had been replaced with something unreadable.

"Go ahead and get angry if you want, it's not my problem. I asked you to leave. If you don't I'm going to call the cops." Raphael pulled his cell phone from his pocket and held it up.

"Fine, just fine. Just remember this next time you're stranded at sea and need rescuing," Marcos spat as he marched towards the back door. Without a second's hesitation he marched out into the rain and slammed the door behind him. The shells and tools rattled on their shelves from the vibration.

Raphael felt himself relax and exhale a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He hated dealing with alphas. They were such prima donnas and so high maintenance. In a way he felt like he'd managed to dodge a bullet. He hadn't even had to use his taser this time.

The number of eager suitors had increased over the last several years. It was almost like alphas could sense that he was an omega without a partner at the height of the most fertile years of his life. Despite the fact that he avoided people and public interaction as much as possible they were somehow always able to sniff him out.

He looked down at the abalone shell and growled in frustration. There was no way he was going to be able to finish it now. The intrusion had thrown him off and interrupted his workflow. Raphael rubbed his neck vigorously and tried to decide what to do.

There hadn't been any visitors to the shop all day. Pearl and the rest of the staff had already gone home. There was only like an hour left until normal closing time anyway. With these thoughts in mind, Raphael began putting away his tools. He returned the abalone shell to one of the shelves and glanced towards the bags sitting by the heater on the far side of the room. Something white caught his attention.

As he drew closer, Raphael realized it was a piece of wet paper plastered to the outside of one of the sacks. It looked like it had been torn in half. He gingerly peeled the sopping paper off and flipped it over. It looked like the lower half of some sort of log. There were numbers, weights it looked like, in one column, lengths in another, and times followed by what looked like coordinates of some sort. It was all gibberish to Raphael, but he assumed it must've belonged to Marcos and gotten stuck to the sack accidentally.

For a brief moment he considered throwing it away. Finally he groaned and set the paper on the floor by the heater. It would just be more trouble if he came back looking for it and it was gone. This way at least Raphael could hand it over and chase him off again.

It only took him a few minutes to lock up the shop and close the large metal shutter that covered the front windows when the store was closed. The rain pelted him from all sides as he snapped the padlocks shut on the shutter. It almost made his jacket useless. There were only a few things that Raphael hated more than this time of year. One of them was Alphas.

The storm season brought with it hurricanes, floods, destruction, and death. Every year it seemed like at least a few people fell victim to the storm's ferocity. Now they were saying that the hurricane heading towards them was the worst they had seen in the last twenty-five years. The very thought of it sent a small bubble of panic through Raphael.

He hadn't been born when that hurricane terrorized the island, but he'd heard stories about it. They'd studied it in school and every time a hurricane or tropical storm threatened, people would talk in hushed tones about what they'd gone through back then. It was more than enough to give him nightmares.

Raphael retrieved his bicycle from where it had been parked under the eaves of the building. The entire thing was wet. He muttered to himself as he tried to brush away the majority of the water on the seat. He could either walk home and push the bike or ride it and get his butt wet.

One glance at the stormy sky overhead and he made his decision. Throwing a leg over the bicycle he began pedaling down Main Street as quickly as possible. The lack of foot traffic let him pick up speed fast and soon he was flying down the road towards home. The wind of his speed blew back the hood of his jacket. Rain pattered against his face as wind blew through his hair.

He deftly swerved to avoid the largest of the puddles in the road. Thankfully the streets were in good repair which meant large potholes and massive lake sized puddles were minimal.

Raphael didn't hesitate as he picked his path through town. His route home was automatic now, he almost didn't even have to think about it. Which was good because it gave him a chance to try and shake off some of the remaining aggravation Marcos had caused him. He thought he was used to the way alphas acted when they wanted something, but this had caught him off guard. Maybe it was because he wasn't used to being bothered at work, or maybe it was because it had just been so damn long that his natural defenses were beginning to weaken.

Whatever the reason, he didn't like it. Feeling betrayed by his own body wasn't a pleasant feeling. And that's what it was.

His entire body had wanted to surrender to the muscular, curly haired, alpha's embrace. He'd wanted to strip out of his clothes right there and let himself be taken on the floor, or bent over the workbench. Part of him was even toying with the idea of how much he'd like to show the alpha who was actually in control of the situation. The very thought made his cheeks flush bright red.

As the road began to curl upward through the forest and into the hills that bisected the island, Raphael was forced to dedicate more energy to bicycling. The climb wasn't difficult now. He'd been making it nearly every day for the last several years. It was still far from easy though and the water on the road made it even more difficult.

Sweat was pouring down Raphael's face by the time he reached the point where the hill leveled out. His skin felt hot and sticky and he panted with effort as he paused to catch his breath.

He glanced back the way he had come. It was one of the steepest roads on the island and led to the most secluded, and highest, neighborhood in La Bonita. It wasn't really a neighborhood. The ten houses that lined the street were all of different makes and styles. Some embraced a more American style while others were more in line with the Spanish colonial style buildings that dotted the town. Unlike those buildings, however, these were all newer construction.

The developers had bought the entire hillside for next to nothing and planned to fill it with a similar collection of houses. The housing situation on Catalejo had always been a bit of a problem. There just wasn't a lot of room for suburban sprawl but there weren't a lot of places to build apartments either. At least not without tearing up large sections of the town. The hope had been that people would love a bird's eye view of the town and the ocean.

Unfortunately for those developers, the residents of La Bonita didn't like how far removed from everything these houses were. Cars were a rarity on the island and the slog up that hill was something none of them enjoyed making even with the help of bicycles. So the project was abandoned. Most of the other residents of the hilltop neighborhood were actually foreigners that had immigrated to the island and enjoyed the seclusion.

Raphael liked it for different reasons. The houses here were the furthest ones he could find from the ocean and never in the entire history of the island had flood waters ever climbed that high.

He let out a little sigh of relief as he approached the white, single story, house that sat at the end of the row. This was his place in the world. His sanctuary. The bicycle was quickly stored in the small wooden shed in the front yard, that stood almost empty, and Raphael darted towards the shelter of his house.

The interior was a cluttered mess though Raphael preferred to call it "comfy." There were movie posters hanging on the walls haphazardly. Clothes, both clean and dirty, littered the floor. Blankets and pillows were piled up on the couch. This was home and here he was completely safe from anyone and anything that might try to harm him. No other human being had been allowed to set foot inside and he intended to keep it that way.

As he began peeling out of his wet clothing, he noticed there was a message on his phone. A voice mail. Looks like he missed a call from Pearl. She hated texting with a passion. She came from an era when phone calls were a social experience and wasn't about to give that up easily.

Raphael checked the message.

"Hey Raf, sweetie, just wanted to let you know that I'm inviting you and Claire and Henry and Maria to come stay at my place during the hurricane. We should be above the flood waters here and I just hate the thought of you all sitting at home alone during the storm. I already told the others to bring their families, always room for more, if you have anyone you'd like to bring then please feel free. You can give me your answer tomorrow at work. That's all for now. Bye."

As the message ended, Raphael groaned and tossed his phone onto the sofa. Pearl knew full well that there wasn't anyone Raphael would want to bring. His entire social circle included her and his three coworkers. Maybe she was hinting that he should try contacting his father? The thought left a bad taste in his mouth. No, there was no way that was going to happen.

He made his way back towards the bathroom as he processed Pearl's message over again in his mind. Spending the day around a bunch of people he didn't know wasn't exactly how he wanted to ride out the storm. Sure, it might get his mind off the fact that there was a storm and the town was flooding, but it was more likely to just leave him feeling even more stressed.

Raphael turned on the shower and watched as the water ran down the drain. He'd put in quite a lot of effort to rip the tub out of the bathroom and replace it with a large standing shower. The drain was the largest he could find and ensured that there was never any standing water.

Stepping beneath the stream of steamy water, he allowed his thoughts to drift. The heat chased away the chill of the rain and began to melt the ice from his joints. It was soothing and he couldn't help the smile that spread across his lips as he began to lather up. Just as he was really getting into washing away the grime one thought stuck in his head. The shower really was more than big enough for two.