“Thank you!” I said brightly as she stopped at the far end of the room, another door, this one affixed with a card reader awaiting us. “You ever done fashion colors before?”
“Nah, the maintenance is killer. Have fun, hey?” She scanned me into the room, and I stepped inside, finding the rest of the invitees turned towards each other, chatting while the loading screen for Kill Floor made their monitors glow behind them, casting the room into an eerie red light.
“Promise you aren’t gonna scream in front of all these people?” a deep, familiar voice asked that made my toes curl in my platform heels.
I scanned the small group, unsurprised to recognize a couple of faces.
“I make no promises,” Jesse said with a laugh, running a hand through their blond curls.
“Why did you even come, bro?” asked another familiar voice, though I'd never met this particular alpha IRL.
Jason played games with the group of us, though his content was more targeted towards rage-baiting teenage boys than anything else.
He was the first to notice that I'd arrived, turning towards me with a little jump in his icy, mint scent. The alpha was… as nicely as I could put it, generic-looking. Cropped brown hair and a standard build that didn't make any real impression beyond classifying him as‘guy’in my mind. But, even though his looks were extremely average, he was very charismatic, something that he'd leveraged well even now, flashing me a smile.
“Because Indi was coming and I got fomo,” Jesse complained with a groan, turning to follow where his friend's attention had gone. “Evie! You made it!”
I barely heard them, offering a vague wave. My belly fluttered as I met a pair of deep, dark eyes. Their irises nearly black in the low light of the room.
Indigo.
The alpha whose pack I'd fucked during Omega Lust’s Halloween Trick or Treat Packtacular event… and hadn't spoken to since.
It hadn’t even crossed my mind that they’d be here, but it made total sense. Indi was one of the most popular gaming streamers,period, and was easily considered a household name in the horror streaming space. They had incredibly genuine reactions to the games they played, along with great audience interaction that kept people coming back again and again.
Plus, it didn't hurt that Indi was hot as hell—the ultimate triple threat.
I'd never forget meeting them at my first creator con. Shoved in the corner with a lot of other small creators who barely had the audience to be in attendance, yet they were so nice to all of us. At the time, the big game on the scene was calledFlirting with Death, and when they came up and told me they’d seen a clip of me kicking ass in gameplay, I just about melted to the floor.
That was the convention we met Jesse at, too, and we’d formed a nice little group over the years. And though it'd always just been that, playing games or catching the odd movie all together, I couldn’t lie and say I hadn’t always had a bit of a crush on Indigo. It was a secret that I’d kept buried, since I was sure they didn't feel the same way.
He wasIndigo Garotti,and I was barely scraping together the viewership to become a partner. I didn't want to come off like I was just chasing them for their viewership… Besides, in the time I'd known them, Indigo didn't often spend time single. They weren’t just talented and hot; they were kind. The sort of person who would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it.
So far out of my league it wasn’t even funny.
It was easier to spare myself the humiliation and keep my feelings close to my chest. At least then I could hold onto the hope that there was a possibility. That it was just timing that was getting in the way of turning their flirty smiles into something more… a stupid idea that I let go of after the Packtacular.
Theirentirepack had fucked me during my heat, and Indigo didn't so much as graze me once. I didn't need it written in black and white to understand where we stood.
They. Weren’t. Fucking. Interested.
It was disappointing, even a little awkward. But at least I hadn't asked them out and fucked up our friendship entirely.
But… God, did they have to look like that?
Indigo's long legs were stretched out in front of them, their lace-up boots peeking from the baggy hem of their pants. At the top, near their waist, the band of a pair of fishnets rested above their belt, the material peeking out of a rip at their knee. An artfully distressed crop top hung loosely around their torso, the fabricjustgrazing their pants while they sat crouched, shielding their abs from view. Until they lifted their hand in a little wave, revealing the lean muscle beneath with a rustle of chains decorating the jagged hem.
Perfect.
Unbearably so.
I waved back, half holding my breath as I passed them, our awkward, prolonged eye contact dissipating as I found the only unoccupied seat beside a girl I’d never seen before. It was kind of a relief that there was another one; I’d half expected to be stuck in a room full of guys all day.
“Evaaaa!” Jason called excitedly. “I was hoping they'd reached out to you.”
I leaned over to offer the alpha a high five, grinning in a way that I hoped hid the nerves that Indigo’s lingering gaze stoked to life.
“Good to see you, J,” I said to Jesse, earning a nod from the beta.
