"No, he tried to get me to get rid of her for a long time."
"What finally convinced him?" I asked as Indigo reached into the tin with the tweezers.
Joon cleared his throat, drawing my gaze.
"I just asked really nicely,” he said, offering me a suggestive smile that told me there wasn’t muchtalkinginvolved.
“So it all ended—” I started, looking back towards Indi and narrowly stopping myself from letting out a shriek at the bug waiting at the end of the tweezers, jumping backwards and accidentally knocking into Joon.
“Well,” the omega chuckled, catching me around the waist. “You aren’t scared of bugs, are you, Eva?”
“Terrified,” I mumbled, feeling a little silly. “I fucking hate them.”
“That’s hilarious,” Indi said, dropping the bug into Potato’s tank and closing the lid on the tin before stowing it away again. “Don’t worry, doll. All gone, see?”
The little snake was after the bug in a flash, barely letting it touch the bottom of the tank before she snapped it up. It was almost comforting; at least if therewasa bug in here, I could trust that the world’s cutest exterminator would be quick to make sure it wouldn’t be for long.
“Why is that funny?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the alpha.
“No reason,” Joon said quickly, giving his alpha a dirty look. “Want to see Indi’s office?”
“You could meet the girls!” Indigo said, smiling so wide, that I decided to let the weird moment drop.
Stinking cute alpha, how was I supposed to worry about anything with them throwing around pet names and smiling like that?
“Bathroom is through there,” Joon said, motioning to the door to the side of their bed. “And this way…” they walked backwards in the direction of the fireplace, waving for me to follow, “is where the magic happens.”
“Shouldn’t that be the bedroom?” I asked, earning a pair of heated looks.
Indigo’s hand wrapped around my waist, lips brushing my ear as they pressed into my back. For a moment, my world collapsed into that single point of contact, heat blooming over my chest and up my neck.
“C’mon, doll. I think we all know that it can be both.”
I swallowedas Indigo released me, swaying a little in the sudden absence of their touch. Again, I was reminded of our unfinished business from the bathroom of the arcade. About how badly I wanted to touch them the night that they’d been instructing me on stream.
“Um…” I blinked in an effort to clear the haze of arousal from my mind, sure that I was already perfuming everywhere. And, if I kept up that train of thought, it was only going to get worse.
Giving myself a shake, I focused on the room. A task that was even harder when I caught the heated look that Joon shot the alpha.
Standing in Indi’s office was weird—kind of like visiting the set of a sitcom you’d been watching for years—familliar, like I’d been here a hundred times, when it was the first time I’d ever actually set foot in the room.
The walls were all black, making the vast collection of their things pop on the floating shelves. There was a mix of gotcha toys, spare controllers, and Punk-O figures from horror moviesand games mixed between framed photos. Their desk faced toward the hall, the door ajar, a mask that made my thighs clench with excitement hanging beside it. I was surprised to see a collection of dolls above his desk, but they were…different.
For one, they were all in individual cases, some kind of clear glass or acrylic that made some of the larger toys press against the sides of their container. Plus, they were a lot older than the other collectibles Indigo kept in the room. Looking a little worse for wear in some way or another—broken face plates, chipped paint, or, in the case of one particularly sad little clown, their stuffing poking out from damaged seams.
"What are those?"
“Those are the girls,” Indigo said, excitement palpable.
"Their haunted doll collection," Joon clarified, as if he'd just told me the weather.
"I'm sorry…what?"
Indigo leaned in the doorframe, their shoulder resting against the dark-stained wood. God, they looked so good, even just casually watching, that I almost forgot to be horrified for a second.
"They’re a little shy, so I don’t talk about them much. But I’ve been collecting for a while.”
“Except Polina.” Joon corrected, stage whispering to me. “She’s a camera whore.”
