Chapter 41
Sore didn’t even touch the stratosphere of the ache in my muscles as I leaned against Indigo, tucked into a window booth at a diner somewhere in the middle of our places.
The waitress, a college co-ed who looked about as rough as I felt, dropped off our coffees—iced for Indi and me, hot for Cameo—and disappeared behind the counter before we could try and ask her for anything else.
Honestly? It was kind of a mood.
Besides, there wasn’t anything that she could bring me that would help more than the creamy, sweet, and freezing cold glass of caffeine.
I chugged the drink, skipping the bendy straw that Indi pulled from the dispenser to offer me.
Even after an absolutely heavenly eight hours of sleep, I was exhausted.
Getting used by Indi and Cameo was fun, but I could only be bent like a pretzel for so long before it hurt my back.
Not to mention my alphas weren’t small in any sense of the word, so sitting was a sort of awkward, lopsided thing after the intensity of our games the night before.
"You shouldn't be drinking that," Cameo said, nudging my still-full water glass towards me over the plastic table cover in a not too subtle hint for me to hydrate.
I raised an eyebrow, and if I wasn’t already feeling a bit like a doll with the strings cut, I might’ve found it in myself to brat a little. But, my desire for a peaceful morning won out as I traded the mostly empty coffee for the water.
"Why not?"
"Caffeine isn’t good for pregnancy,” the alpha replied like it was obvious. “It can stunt the baby’s growth.”
This time, I couldn’t help it. I rolled my eyes. "I'm not even pregnant yet."
"You could be,” Indigo said mildly, sticking a hot pink bendy straw into their coffee for a long drink. “Honestly, after that performance? Surely I’m in the lead. I came, like—”
“That makes no difference,” Cameo said, a little more irritably than he’d been a moment before.
Jealous fucking alpha always had something to complain about.
Still, my hand instinctively found my stomach, something a lot like hope making my chest feel light.
In the heat of the moment, I hadn’t thought about it at all… but by now there were pretty good odds that I may actually be carrying.
I could be pregnant.
And the baby could be Indigo’s. Or Cameo’s. Marcus. Joon.
But, I could also not be, and I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high so early into trying. It could take a long time to get pregnant, and I hadn’t had a heat cycle yet, so the likelihood was already pretty fucking slim.
Still… the idea was exciting. It was easy to picture myself picking up a glorified pee stick from my bathroom counter to find a little pink plus marker. Picking out nursery colors, going to ultrasound appointments, birthing classes….
When I first agreed to sign, I didn’t realize how excited I was going to get. The more time that I spent with the pack, the more that I got to know them—fuck.
I really did want this baby.
Indigo’s arm rested against the back of the seat, their long fingers toying with a few loose wisps of my hair where I’d missed getting them into the sloppy knot on the top of my head.
The touch was casual, intimate, and though it’d never been a question whether or not I wanted this particular alpha, their counterpart across the table was another story altogether.
I shrugged, sipping the water. Even if I knew now that I wanted Cameo as more than just part of some deal, that didn’t mean I was just going to roll over and play good omega.
This time, I let the attitude sink into my tone. “Probably does, alpha.”
Cameo's growl was so low that if i wasn’t paying attention, I probably would’ve missed it. "Don’t think I won’t put you over my knee right here, brat.”
Indigo groaned, stretching their long legs under the table. "Relax, dude. It's not even ten."
“What, spankings follow the same rules as phone calls?”
“In our household? Yes,” they muttered, rubbing a hand over their face.
They had a point, it really was fucking early. Especially for people who typically worked the nightshift like Indi and me.
Since most people—like, the bulk of our audience—had jobs that kept them busy from nine to five and watched live streams in the evening, it was only natural we’d keep a later schedule.
Something that Cameo, who was either one of those sexy alpha vampire twins and didn’t need sleep, or simply didn’t care about suffering through being perpetually exhausted, didn’t understand in the slightest. It didn’t matter how late I saw the alpha go to bed, whenever seven AM rolled around, he was up for the day.
With a little strategic cock warming and some making out I’d managed to score another hour this morning, but damn, I was feeling the early start more and more the longer that I waited for our waitress to come back to take our food order.
To add insult to injury, the alpha looked positively refreshed, sitting across from our half-in-the-grave corpses like he’d slept twelve hours on a bed made out of clouds.
“So is it too early to ask why you still haven’t forgiven Joon?
"What can I get for you?" our waitress asked, brandishing her pen and flip-top notebook like my thoughts had conjured her from thin air.
It was all business, but I didn’t mind. Even for a weekday it was busy as hell in here, and she seemed to be the only one working the front.
"I'll have a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel please," I said, handing over the menu that I hadn’t even cracked open.
"And I'll take a spinach and mushroom omelette," Indi ordered, grabbing Cameo’s menu to hand them both to her. “With hashbrowns, the shredded ones.”
"Frittata, please," Cameo said. “And an orange juice for her.”
"Coming right up," the waitress said, clicking her pen and hustling away without so much as a second look.
“Orange juice?” I asked, frowning at my half-empty water. “I thought it was hydrate or die hours?”
“Your meal didn’t have sufficient vitamin C,” the alpha explained, fidgeting with his mug. “I was simply correcting your mistake.”
I opened my mouth to tell Cameo to fuck off and that I could eat whatever I wanted, but Indigo spoke over me, changing the subject gracefully.
"Do you know when the contractor is supposed to come?"
"I think next Wednesday,” Cameo said, nudging my water towards me again in a silent command to drink. “But I'm not entirely sure, Marcus booked it. I believe it's in the shared calendar."
"Right,” Indi said, taking out their phone to check. “Oh, good. I don't stream Wednesdays so I'll probably be able to meet him, save you having to leave work.”
"They're just assessing the structure, so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle… A couple of hours at most."
I sat and listened—and, earning me a smile from Cameo, drank my water—as the alphas chatted. It was almost shocking, Cameo and Indigo falling into an easy sort of back and forth that felt like more words than I’d seen them speak to each other up until now combined.
It made sense, since they lived together, shared a pack and partners and a life, but seeing it in action was something else entirely. And, even though I knew that they weren’t trying to, I suddenly felt very on the outside.
My input wasn’t needed about pack business since I was just a babymaker, right?
I shoved the thought away. It wasn’t fair to Indi to minimize what we had down to the contract, but Cameo? That was a lot more complicated.
Looking for the easy distraction of a mindless phone game, I pulled my phone from my purse only for my stomach to drop into my ass at the first notifcation—the preview of an e-mail, titled: STREAMVERSE: Notification of Account Termination.
What the fuck?
I unlocked my phone with shaking fingers, navigating to my email app with tears already starting to blur my vision.
ATTN: EVA_AFT3R ACCOUNT STATUS
Dear EVA_AFT3R,
You have been suspended indefinitely from the Streamverse platform. This decision was determined after a violation of our Code of Conduct and review of your stream content.
Reason: Explicit content on the platform.
If you believe there has been an error, you may submit an appeal via the link below, and a representative will review and respond to your claim in 7-10 business days.
Regards,
Streamverse Health and Safety
No, no, no, no!
I took a steadying breath that was a whole lot more like hyperventilating as I tried to open the app in disbelief. I’d gotten my fair share of weird scam messages in my career, and it was possible that this was all just some kind of fucking—a big warning icon popped up as I tried to sign in.
Account not found.
“Fuck!” My phone clattered to the table as I buried my face in my hands, mind going a mile a minute.
What was I going to do?
How was I going to pay my bills?
All my followers, all the work I’d done, it was just gone?
Why? Why was thing happening to—
"What's wrong?” Indi asked, rubbing my side comfortingly. “Not feeling good?”
"My Streamverse account was deactivated,” I whispered, not trusting that I’d be able to keep the crack out of my voice. “I got banned.”
“What?” Indi said, with so much surprise in their tone that it made me look up at them, their face blurry with my tears. “What do you mean, banned?”
Cameo collected my phone from the table, reading the email aloud.
“Explicit content…” Indigo said slowly. “You weren’t streaming on SLCK’d last night?”
“N-No–” I sobbed, putting my face onto my folded arms on the table at the guilty look on Indi’s face. Feeling bad wouldn’t fix this. Nothing would. Even if I appealed it… I was fucking guilty. There was no getting around that. “I thought you turned the camera off!”
Cameo hummed. “What’s the big deal?”
"The big deal is that I just lost my job!" I shouted, though my anger was heavily undermined by the petulance in my tone.
"You don't need a job,” the alpha said, stressing the last word like it was a curse. “You have us. Besides, when will you have time to stream while you’re running a studio?"