Over My Dead Body (The Streamverse #4)

Chapter 1

The tip of the digital pencil dragged across the tablet screen as I made yet another stroke I wasn't happy with.

I was already at the coloring stage, but this single line was bothering me.

The curve refused to lay the way I wanted.

And no matter how many times I erased and tried again, I just couldn’t seem to get it right—whether because it was actually wonky or I was being overly precious about it was difficult to say.

Music blared through my headphones and into my ears, loud enough that it drowned out just about everything else, a habit I'd picked up when I moved in with Indigo and the rest of their pack.

My pack, really. But… I wasn’t ready to think about that too hard yet.

It didn’t matter to me if we were already living together; it wasn’t a commitment to Indi that I was worried about.

I knew I loved them, that I saw myself with them for the rest of my life.

But a bond was something else entirely, and I didn’t know if or when I’d ever be ready to give myself to someone like that again.

Maybe tomorrow I’d wake up, catch that stupid little smile they got on their face when they were having a particularly lovely dream, and sink my teeth into them then and there.

And maybe I’d never be ready. Indi would be my partner, and I’d be a part of his pack, just without the pressure of a bond forcing us to stay together even if our feelings changed.

Besides, it was a lot to adapt to—living in a house with three alphas. I was still learning my place. How I was supposed to contribute beyond awkward attempts at trying to get along with Marcus or being used like an occasional sex toy by Cameo.

Okay, that part I liked. Maybe a little too much. At first, it’d been a lot, but now… I looked forward to the times when he’d appear with that half-feral look in his eye, as if he didn’t have me this instant, the world would end.

It was flattering as hell.

More than that, it was fucking hot.

Since I’d moved in, things had gotten even better with Indi, too.

Sharing a space was doing wonders for helping us build our emotional connection into something that felt strong…

comfortable. Like a home I never knew I was looking for, but now that I had it—I’d do anything to protect it. To keep us safe.

Even if that meant trading away a bit of my independence.

I loved solitude, and it was in short supply in this house. It was hard to feel truly alone with everyone on mismatched schedules, the sounds of other people a fixture 24/7. But, like this, bundled up in my nest with my music on, I could almost pretend that I was the only one around.

This new L-OV album was really good, with the right amount of bright pop melodies and deep bass to keep me engaged.

I just wish it were longer. The trend of releases that were basically long EPs was kind of annoying.

Like you’d been given the most delicious slice of pumpkin pie in your life without whipped cream.

Unfinished, in a way.

Kinda bullshit.

Didn't anyone want to make twenty-two-track albums anymore?

I zoomed out, the piece becoming clearer with the shift in perspective.

It was different than my usual work, mostly because of the subject matter.

I tended to gravitate towards the inanimate, like landscapes or still lifes, instead of portraits, but this time I'd decided to mix things up.

After a couple of hours, the overly exaggerated zoom in of a woman's face with the real image, a couple kissing where one of the two was a skeletal skull, reflected in her pair of heart-shaped glasses, had taken form out of what felt like thin air.

Honestly, I couldn't tell if I liked it or if I thought it was total garbage.

But I wasn’t too worried about it. This was pretty typical for my process, especially when I was doing something new. Sometimes you just needed to play around with a project for a while to figure out if there was anything worth salvaging or if it was destined for the digital trash bin.

My phone vibrated on the cushion next to me, and I picked it up with a swipe of my thumb over the glass to unlock it.

WYA DIVAAAAA?! Settled in at the Haunted Mansion?

Tara

I grinned. Though I'd only seen Tara briefly at the Omega's Lust Halloween Trick or Treat Packtacular a few weeks ago, we’d hit it off right away.

And, luckily for both of us, Indi took it on themselves to introduce us more formally the next week when her beta, Jesse, brought the omega along to hang out with them.

Tara was the kind of friend that you always hoped for.

Not only was she gorgeous, but she was also funny as hell.

Plus, it was nice to have another omega to talk to with all of the changes that'd been going on in my life lately. In only a few weeks, she’d become a sort of unofficial big sister, and thank god for that.

I really couldn't imagine talking to my brother Mason about the trials and tribulations of living with three alphas.

Being an alpha himself, and worse, fastidiously tidy to the point of being obsessive—actually, maybe Mason would understand more about this pack than I was giving him credit for. Or, at the very least, he’d understand a fair bit about Cameo.

Of all the complaints that I could have, tidiness wasn’t an issue.

I couldn't imagine if I'd ended up with the type of pack that'd leave overflowing trash bins around, or worse, hair in the sink.

There was nothing in this life that was grosser to me than pulling a glob of sopping wet strands out of the drain.

Nothing.

drawing! i think i hate it fr.

vamp castle is all good

not sure where everyone is.

NOOOO!!!!

don't say that!! i’m sure it's cute! happy ur finding some alone time tho! pretty sure Jesse and Charlie would die if they weren't up my ass 24/7 lol.

Tara

I chuckled, rolling my eyes. We'd managed to find a few times to hang out just the two of us, but she did have a point. There was definitely more time that Tara spent with at least one of her pack than without them. If I didn't know better, I’d almost think it made me jealous.

Pressing the two buttons on my tablet, I took a screenshot of my progress to forward over to her.

see? mayb it’s the color or smth?

uhhhh??? i see how SLAY it is, i want that one when you're done, the purple will look perfect with my setup!!

just gotta find some room on the wall…

Tara

I flushed. Tara was probably just trying to hype me up—she was a master hype woman. The kind of girl who always found something nice to say about somebody else.

It made me feel good that she liked it, even if I wasn't entirely confident in the piece myself. But… the idea of her hanging one of my drawings in her room, especially if it would be in view of one of the half a dozen cameras she used for her streaming setup, made me feel a little shy.

Okay, fuck that, majorly shy.

i’ll think abt it.

wyd?

boreeddd

wanna go out this week?

i don't rly have a plan yet, but i need to drink and shake some ass!! tired of being a housecat lmao

Tara

I actually laughed out loud at her message, picturing the dark-haired omega’s big personality stuffed inside the body of a tiny, fluffy four-legged feline—then I laughed again, because I’d just flawlessly described Tara’s kitty companion, Inky.

Leave Inky out of this! i’d love to, i’m pretty free this week, msg me, and we can work it out when you're ready?

At her thumbs-up react, I tossed my phone back onto the cushions, zooming back into my piece to continue coloring. I was second-guessing how much purple I used, but since she liked it so much, I pressed on, leaning into the artpop style like some kind of modern Warhol.

Well, if Warhol still struggled with not making hands look fucked, at least.

In the silence between songs as the album looped, Indi’s raised voice penetrated my space, muffled by the noise-cancelling of my headphones and the floor between us.

I pulled one of my earbuds out, curiosity winning out over my desire to pretend I was home alone.

Indigo wasn’t exactly the type to yell, goofy and unserious in a way that was charming as much as it was disarming.

It was part of the reason why I'd been so drawn to him.

He wasn't your typical growlly alpha, too busy being silly to worry too much about typical pack dynamics and doing things the proper way.

Perfect for me, since I didn't really fuck with the weird ritualization of modern courting—buy me presents because you want to, not because it's expected in some freaky tradition to show me that you can provide for me or some other designation-based hierarchical bullshit.

I can do that myself, thank you very much.

It was quiet, leaving me listening hard and wondering whether or not I'd imagined the disturbance in the first place, until the distinct cadence of the alpha's voice drifted from the first floor again.

It was too muffled to hear exactly what he was saying from up here, but he must've been shouting pretty loud for me to have caught anything.

Curiosity took over as I pulled out my other earbud, leaving them and my tablet behind as I eased open the door of my nest and crept into the hall.

The stairs could be creaky, so I was careful to walk quietly as I approached the top of the landing.

Based on the sound, clearer with every step as I approached, they were probably in Marcus’ precious kitchen or maybe the dining room beside it.

“We shouldn't even be having this talk without Joon,” Indigo snapped, their irritation obvious. They had a playtest this morning, and based on their tone, they were running a bit late, so whatever the alphas were arguing about had to be important.

Though it didn't really matter if it was important or not, once I'd heard my name, there was no chance I was moving any time soon.

What conversation were they having without me? Was it about me?