Chapter 41 #2
I shot up in my seat, fixing Cameo with a glare that would’ve made everyone but my stupid psychopath of an alpha cower with fear… probably.
"Bro,” Indi muttered, rubbing their temples. “That was sooooo the wrong thing to say.”
“I need a job,” I snapped. “Because I’m not some fucking kept omega pet that you can pay off forever.
And another fucking thing—” I turned to Indi, who did shrink a little at the intensity of my glare.
It would’ve made me feel proud, if I wasn’t too busy crying my eyes out over the two of them ruining my life.
“You couldn’t just shut my fucking stream off before you decided to force your cock down my throat? ”
I was shouting, or at least talking way louder than was reasonable for a public place, but I didn’t care.
"You were well into your scheduled Afterdark time," Cameo said, his voice clipped. "Why would we do something that would lose your donations Ms. I-Need-A-Job?”
I wailed, fat tears rolling down my cheeks and snot bubbling my nose. The kind of ugly crying that was reserved for the end of romance movies and sad commercials about animals.
Indigo pulled me into their lap, rubbing my back in soothing circles. We were definitely drawing eyes, but the sensation of being watched didn’t last long after Cameo’s low, warning rumble.
“Mind your fucking business,” the alpha growled. “Never had a bad day before?”
“Uh—doll, do you want to go home? I’ll call Marcus, have him take the day and come cook you something actually worth eating?”
I sniffed, rubbing my snotty, tear stained face on Indi’s shirt before pulling back to meet the alpha’s eyes. “Did your account get deleted too?”
Cameo made a noise of extreme distaste, clicking his tongue. “Doubtful…”
"Let me check," Indi said, pulling their phone from their pocket. “Um… no.”
"Why the fuck not!?"
"Because," Cameo answered, his voice surprisingly gentle. "They didn't know it was them.” He waved a hand in front of his face. “You know… The mask?”
"Great, so I'm the only one who threw their career in the toilet for a cheap fuck.”
Indi winced. “Your career isn’t ruined.”
“And I’ll have you know that you are a very expensive fuck, tesoro.”
I ignored him, mostly because I thought I might throw my water glass at Cameo’s head if he kept talking.
"No? Because there's no way I'm getting my account back.
What am I supposed to say in the appeal?
No, the pack I'm having a baby for didn't break into my house and fuck me silly? That was absolutely not me on video begging for two men in masks to use me like a fleshlight? Please, please Mr. Streamverse-TOS, it was all a misunderstanding! Some AI revenge porn made by my ex who somehow magically became aware that I like having my alphas tell me I’m a useless, slutty cum dump—”
A cough from behind reminded me that we weren't the only ones here, and I let it drop. I took a deep breath, trying to control my emotions and failing, tears continuing to track down my face until they were dripping from my chin.
"We'll figure something out," Indi said softly. "It'll be okay, Eva. I promise."
"How can you promise that? Everything I worked for. All of the late nights. The sub-a-thons. The charity streams. Everything. All of it, five years of my life. Just… gone.”
Cameo was so tense across from us, that I thought he’d turned to stone. Well, until I blew my nose into the sleeve of my sweater, and the alpha gagged with almost comical levels of sound.
“Eva, please…” he said weakly. “Any shred of decorum..”
Unfortunately for the dickhead alpha, I really didn't give a damn if he was uncomfortable right now since this was all his big, stupid, thoughtless fault.
“I want to go home!”
“Uh, yeah, of course, doll. Do you want me to call Joon and Marcus? We can all cuddle in the movie room?”
“No, Indi. Not the pack house. I want to go home. My apartment.”
The alpha winced, but whatever they were going to say was interrupted by the arrival of our food.
"Here we are," the waitress said, more cheerful than she’d been the entire rest of our time in the restaurant. She started putting down plates, and even though she’d obviously noticed I was crying, didn't mention anything about it.
I didn't blame her. Packs probably came through to break up or fight all the time, since the diner was just on this side of being the right amount of divey and public enough most people wouldn’t want to make a scene.
Unfortunately for me and my pack, I did not care about making a fool of myself one bit.
"Is there anything else I can get you?" she asked, curious eyes swinging between the three of us.
“Yeah, can we have some boxes, please?” Indigo asked with a nervous smile. “And the bill.”
Where Cameo was a complete and utter disaster at comforting people, Indigo actually wasn’t half bad. They sat with me in the back seat, holding my hand as we drove back to my place in silence.
Well, relative silence. I still hadn’t managed to get a lid on my tears, quiet sobs and sniffles piercing the quiet of the car every so often.
"I'll see if I can find a connection with someone who works at Streamverse," Cameo said as he pulled up to the curb at the front of my building. "I know people in the tech space. I'll try and get it back for you, alright?"
“It’s a nice gesture, Cameo but unless you decide to buy the fucking company, I highly doubt your contacts will do me any good.”
“Eva—”
“Thanks for the ride," I said, opening the car door and sliding out with breakfast in hand. “Bye.”
Indigo sighed at the obvious dismissal. “I’m really sorry, Eva. I know it doesn’t help, but…”
Cameo was already getting out of the car with his keys in his hand.
“I really don’t want company right now, Cameo,” I said irritably, about as politely as I could tell the alpha to get lost.
“Someone broke the glass on your vestibule,” he said, eyes narrowed slightly. Cameo cut a look to Indigo over his shoulder, before he offered his hand to me. “I will walk you to your door.”
“Is a bit of casual vandalism really worth all the fuss? I’ll call building management to come deal with it.”
But Indi was getting out of the car too, the door snapping closed behind them with a snap.
“Yes,” Cameo said simply, withdrawing his hand with a moody little frown that didn’t feel like much of a victory.
I let the pair of them lead me up the stairs, rolling my eyes. “You’re overreacting, you kn—” I started, the words dying on my tongue as I spotted my door knob on the carpet, the frame cracked and leaning heavily away from the wall.
Before I could react, Cameo was in front of me, shielding my body. "Stay here with her," he barked to the other alpha. "I'm going to look."
Indi nodded, pulling me towards them as Cameo pushed the door open just enough to slip inside. I let myself lean into them, taking a deep breath of their burnt sugar and salt scent as my heart pounded against my ribcage.
“You’re alright,” they whispered, though the anger they were trying to keep under wraps was betrayed by the tremble of rage in their voice. Their head turned back and forth down the hall, monitoring for any movement.
After what felt like hours, but was likely only a couple minutes—more than long enough for me to concoct a whole mess of horrifying scenarios in my head either way—Cameo returned to slip through the thin gap again, closing the door behind him as well as he could with the destroyed frame.
"Let’s go home," he said in a tone that didn’t invite alternatives.
"What happened?" I asked. “It’s… it’s really bad, isn’t it?”
The look on Cameo’s face was a mix between anger and anxiety. It was clear that he didn’t want me to go inside. “Someone broke in.”
“No shit,” Indigo said quietly, earning a positively scathing glare.
“It’s my apartment,” I argued, shaking Indigo off in an attempt to push my way inside. “I want to see. I can handle it.”
Cameo caught my shoulder. "You don't need to," he said, a note of pleading in his tone. "You and Indigo can go back to the car, I’ll collect some things for you. Have this dealt with.”
“Yeah, like you dealt with turning my stream off?” I snapped, shaking the alpha off. “I’m going inside, Cameo.”
"Please, go to the car, Eva. Let us deal with it."
I shook my head, though the more that Cameo pushed back, the less I found that I wanted to argue with him.
The problem was, with the way the alpha was acting, my mind had already gone to the worst case scenario.
And, if I knew Cameo and his hatred for mess, it was probably nothing more than a bit of mud on my carpet and some smashed plants.
"I need to see what they took so I can file a police report. It’s not like you have a catalogue of every item in my place, right?
“I—well—no, but—”
“Exactly.”
He sighed, sharing a look with Indi that almost made me change my mind.
But I was stubborn, and Cameo was decidedly an unreliable assessor of mess.
"Fine,” he conceded, giving my shoulder a squeeze. “But on the condition that you will, as quickly as possible, pack a bag. Indigo and I will be taking you home, and you will be staying there until we find out who did this.”
A big part of me wanted to argue. What kind of insane alphahole bullshit was getting me fired and then deciding that I was formally moving in the same day?
But Cameo’s face wasn’t the impassive mask that I’d come to expect from the alpha, and the barely concealed emotions making his scent into a forest fire set my teeth on edge.
“Fine.”
Cameo took a deep breath through his nose as though he was preparing for impact, releasing my shoulder. “Fine.”
Without the door knob, the door had nothing to latch it shut, a gentle push with my fingers enough to make it swing open with an eerie creak.
It was nothing like what my anxiety had conjured; it was a million times worse.
I screamed, my hands flying to cover my mouth in horror.
“Fucking—fuck—” Indi muttered behind me in disbelief. “What the—”
“Fuck?” Cameo finished grimly. “Eloquent as always, Indigo.”
On the other side of the threshold, my cozy, tidy little one bedroom had been completely ransacked.
My TV was broken, it looked like with something blunt, like a bat.
My trinket collection was smashed on the ground, every one looking broken.
A knife had been taken to the couch and split, and my shelves all knocked over.
Indi was there in an instant, hugging me close as I sobbed. All of my things, this life that I built, was destroyed in front of me. And the scent was all wrong.
"I'm going to pack a bag," Cameo said, probably more to Indi than me.
He let me stay there as long as I needed, rubbing small circles around my back.
I wasn't sure how much time passed before I was peeling my tear-stained face from Indigo's now wet shirt.
"Can I see my room?"
"I don't know if that's a good idea," Indi said.
"Come with me?" I asked. I needed to see, but I also needed the support.
"Of course."
He held my hand as we walked through the halls. All the photo frames I had up were face down, broken glass crackled beneath them. My eyes felt heavy with all the crying.
When we got there, I instantly felt regret. My PC, monitors, thousands of dollars worth of equipment destroyed. But that wasn't the worst part.
Scrawled across the wall in what looked like red spray paint, in jagged, messy lettering, was a message: YOUR MINE WHORE.
I started sobbing again, but this time, it wasn’t because I was sad. I was fucking terrified.
"Why did you bring her in here?" Cameo asked, entering the room.
"Look at me," he commanded me.
I did as he asked, for the first time, seeing what felt like a bit of uncertainty on his face. "It's going to be okay. We won't let anything happen to you.
Understand?"
I nodded.
"Good girl. Now, go to the car with Indigo, you saw what you needed to. Let me finish grabbing your stuff and I'll be out soon."
"Okay." He was right. There was nothing more for me to glean from this mess.
Cameo kissed me hard once before releasing me to Indi.
I let Indi lead me outside and to the car. He opened the back seat and I climbed in. What I didn't expect was him to climb in after me.
"Come here," he said, opening his arms to me.
There was no need to ask twice, I crawled into his lap with ease. He wrapped me in his arms and his pheromones, calming me quickly.
"I know it's scary, but it'll be okay. We'll protect you. We always protect what's ours."
I let myself pull back from him a bit. "And that's what I am? Yours?"
He smiled fully, despite the circumstances. "You have been since day one, Doll."
A shuttered breath left me as I relaxed against him. "I like the idea of that."
The car door opening made me jump, but it was just Cameo. He tossed the bag he'd packed for me into the front seat and shut the door. "Ready?" he asked.
"Yeah."