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 yourcontactswill 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.
