He could barely handle his own.
"Shut up, Cam. I'm not in the fucking mood." Indigo snapped, slamming their mouse down as the 'you lose' text flashed on the screen in blood. "For fuck sakes! You don't get it, okay? I thought that there was something between Joon and me and now it's like it never fucking mattered? He wanted an alpha, just not me to be his alpha. So what does that mean? Marcus just gets to be his mate now? And I'm, what, exactly? The guy whose bed he sleeps in? Is he even going to do that anymore? It's fucking bullshit!"
A took a couple of steps further into the room, but stopped at the same moment that Indigo did, the little "going live" alert bannering across their screen from Eva giving me an idea.
"I know how to make you feel better," I said with a grin, slinging my arms around the back of Indi's chair to wrap around their front, taking the mouse to bring up Eva's stream starting soon screen. "Let's go play with our fucktoy."
"Cameo—"
I took the alpha's chin in hand, turning their eyes towards the neatly lined dolls on the small shelf above their monitors, lifeless and unmoving with no one holding their strings. "Take back your control, Indigo. You're an alpha. Act like it."
The name of Eva's stream changed to STALKED BY KILLERS??? and Indigo hummed, it was like watching an artist at work, the gears in the alpha's mind kicking into action as they flicked between the puppets and Eva's photo… before landing on the pair of masks hanging on the wall beside his door.
"She wants to be stalked by killers, huh?" Indigo said slowly, excitement coiling in me like a viper.
"I can get into her apartment," I whispered against the alpha's ear, hot breath making him shiver. "You can take and take and take. Finally get a little back for everything you give, Indigo."
"Let's go play with our doll."
My apartment had always beenperfect.
Okay, well, not always. But I’d made some serious effort to make it like one big nest, and now that it was done?Chef’s kiss.
Since I'd been working from home for basically forever, I spent a lot of time here, so being comfortable was priority number one. Even with saving for the game studio and skimping wherever I could, the one thing I always splurged on was my place. A lot of time was spent choosing furniture that had the perfect plush and rugs that felt nice on my feet. On mood lighting that didn’t irritate the fuck out of me when I was in heat or leading up to it. And on trinkets that brought me joy whenever I looked at them.
But now, after spending a few days with the pack, my perfect sanctuary felt a little… lonely.
Maybe I needed a pet or something.
OrmaybeI needed to stop letting myself get so damn close. I had to remember I was there to do a job—fulfil a contract. Andcatching feelings would only lead to pain later. Pain Iabsolutelydidn’t want to deal with.
And upon further inspection, it seemed… cleaner in here than I remembered it. I wasn't a slob—or I really tried not to be. But I was never this… spotless. Even my throw pillows were fluffed, and had that fold down the middle you saw when professionals had staged a place. A closer inspection of my TV stand revealed that the whole thing had been dusted, all of my little figures rearranged by height.
In my bathroom, everything had been scrubbed top to bottom. And in the bedroom, where I normally let my true disaster out, the real transformation happened. There wasn't even a single sock on the floor. My bed was made, and my closet was organised by color. Even all of the drawers were fully closed, not a single piece of clothing bursting from them like normal. Though I did notice I seemed to have a distinct lack of panties in there, like someone took a handful.
I also quickly noticed it was colder in here. Usually, this was the warmest room with the way my heating worked. Then I realised one of my windows was open, not a ton, but just a crack.
Had I left it open? I didn't think so, but maybe I cracked it at some point. It could get really hot in here, so I'd been known to.
Either way, I walked over and shut it the rest of the way, being sure I locked it before I was done. Then I went around and checked the rest of them, all locked.
I shook my head. There was only one psycho I knew to break into my apartment. But he decided to break in and… clean? Yesterday he went out to"do some errands"while I was with Joon. Were these his errands?
did you clean my apartment??
I realized I hadn't really looked at my phone at all over the past few days. There were a few emails I should probably get to sooner rather than later, a mess of tags across social media and a few mixed texts… nothing major.
Havoc was another story; I’d never seen the little red numbers at the top of the app icon show 99+ before. But what could I say? I’d been distracted.
So,so, happily distracted.
In the sea of messages, the ones from Jason caught my eye.
hey, you still down for gaming today?
just let me know, I'll be around.
I assume you got busy. no worries, just let me know.
