Page 89 of Stream Heat
I sat back, breathing through adrenaline. Victoria had tried to blackmail me into silence, but what she’d dug up just painted her guilt in neon. Suppressants, cover-ups, exploiting Omegas for money and content. It was the story I was ready to tell.
“We’ve got two hours until the summit,” I said. “Is that enough?”
“We just have to get ahead of the narrative.” Reid shrugged like he’d already mapped it out. “If she posts the footage, we hit back with the truth. Show everyone what suppressant toxicity looks like. Admit the medical emergency. Frame it exactly as it was. She can’t win if we own our side first.”
The group chat was going wild. Ash hunted down Jin. Theo prepped counter-content. Jace stitched together medical comparison videos. Malik worked with the summit organizers to adjust our plans in real time. Their solidarity made my chest ache with something like pride.
“They’re all in,” I murmured, a lump rising in my throat.
“Obviously.” Reid’s voice was rough. “You’re pack.”
His words steadied me more than caffeine ever could. For the first time, I wasn’t facing this alone. No matter what Victoria threw next, I wasn’t the only one in the ring.
With hands steadier than before, I typed a reply to Victoria.
Release whatever you want. The employee was a medical student who recognized your suppressant toxicity. He was helping me during a medical emergency you caused. It’s more proof you broke the law and nearly killed me.
She fired back instantly.
You’re bluffing. No one will believe it.
I sent the killing blow.
Try me. Summit starts in two hours. I’m not backing down.
That was the line in the sand.
Reid caught my sleeve before I could leave. “Are you sure?” His eyes were sharp, deadly serious. “If you go all the way, Victoria will use whatever she has. There’s no going back.”
I looked at him and knew I’d never been more certain of anything. “Let her. I’m done hiding. She doesn’t get to control my life anymore.”
His pride was like a pulse in the air. “Then let’s do this. The way only pack can.”
We moved to where the others were already assembling. I felt lighter than I had in months. Victoria’s last weapon hadn’t crushed me, it had made me dangerous.
Time for hiding was over. Time for truth had come.
Let her come. I had nothing left to lose, a pack at my back, and the reckoning Victoria Smith had been dreading was already in motion.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Kara
I stared at my reflection in the monitor, steadying my breathing as the countdown in the corner crept closer to zero. Five minutes until I went live and said what needed to be said. My hand wasn't exactly steady as I fiddled with my headset, and I couldn't help but notice the hoodie I was wearing. Pack Wrecked. Theo’s, technically, though lately I’d stopped pretending that it mattered to anyone but me which pack member’s hoodie I was wearing. It still smelled like him and was oddly grounding considering he was such a chaos gremlin, especially on a night when everything felt just one step from coming apart.
With nothing else to soothe my anxiety, I went through my notes again. Not a script, I didn’t want to sound rehearsed, but a few bullet points, something to keep me anchored if things got messy. Victoria’s Tokyo footage had been leaked as she’d promised and there was already backlash, but Jin, the med student who’d actually helped me, had told his side of the whole story turning the narrative inside out. But I wasn’t really thinking about Victoria anymore. Or at least I was trying not to, what I wanted to focus on was the other Omegas who were goingthrough the same thing I was just in a less public way. I needed to do this for them as much as for myself.
Malik caught me pacing in my room, occupying a patch of floor between my desk and the closet, arms full of discarded shirts. "You don't have to do this tonight," he said, voice low and careful, like he was trying not to spook a skittish animal. "Callie would understand if you wanted to reschedule."
"I need to do it," I answered, hating how my hands trembled as I pulled out another shirt, only to drop it right back. For some reason a hoodie felt too informal for this, and yet I couldn’t bring myself to take it off either. "If I wait, I'll just keep putting it off until I can't do it at all."
Jace looked over from the window, where he'd mostly been a silent shadow. "What are you afraid of?"
It was so blunt I almost flinched. "Everything," I admitted. The word sounded stupid, but it was the truth. I flopped onto my bed, the soft mattress mounded with more clothing than I'd worn in the last week. "I'm afraid people will think I'm unstable. That I can't hack it professionally. That Stella's already spun the story so tight, all I can do is tangle myself up in it.Not to even get into all the things that Victoria and the Nexus legal team are going to try and do to us."
"And?" That was Reid, coming into the room and sitting beside me, patience and curiosity in every line of his posture. Theo and Ash were just behind him but both lingered closer to the door. I didn’t miss the smile that tugged at Theo’s lips when he saw me wearing his hoodie though.
"And that once I start talking about what happened, I won't be able to stop. That I'll go too far and make everything even worse."
