Page 7 of Such a Fierce Omega
Pausing a moment, I took their silence as encouragement and went on. “Blaze pointed out that our themed rooms don’t have to be just based on the specific kink or the piece of dungeon furniture, etc. By taking advantage of what is in popular culture, we can set up rooms to match, thereby attracting not just older people—our demographic at this point is mostly thirty-five and up—but younger who have the same kink interests but also love things like anime and science fiction.” On the screen behind me were images I’d put together of the genres involved and how I thought they could be used to create play spaces.
“The littles, for example, have the generic young space currently, which is great and which I know they love but we could do like we have in the changing rooms and theme them. Right now, the membership who enjoy the daddy/mommy/little lifestyle is only about ten percent, but as we increase our population, even if it stays the same, it will be plenty of people to enjoy two or three more rooms just for private play or small groups.” I watched their expressions but saw nothing to slow me down. “Whoever came up with the playground was a genius, by the way. That alone is going to bring them in.”
I went on to show several other themes like dungeon, which was a no brainer, mad scientist, furries, pet play, a variation on that and others before stopping.
“Thoughts?”
“We did have to limit sales recently, but we will for certain be able to at least triple if we want,” Talon said. “And we’ll need to in order to support the additional square footage and still turn a nice profit.”
“Exactly.” I nodded at him. “I worked in retail in college and the managers were always talking about how much we made per square foot or didn’t make.”
“We need to put someone in charge of membership.” Bronson tapped his stylus against his tablet screen. “Until now, it’s been more like holding back the tide. This is going to be a big increase and require a serious amount of screening as well as some discreet advertising to be sure we have the same terrific feels around here. I know it will be more people, and more money changing hands…but…”
“But you still want it to feel like a homey safe space for people like us?” I finished for him.
“Yes. Can we do that?”
I brought up the next video. “This is me in college, please ignore the weird hairstyle. I thought it was cool.”
“What is it is? A mohawk mullet?” Talon asked, smirking.
“Great ignoring,” Liam, our resident landscaping owner put in. “Very cool, bruh.”
Ugh. “I show you this not because it’s worth laughing at, which it is, but because this is me as the membership chair of the only national shifter fraternity.”
“You advertised that fact?” Liam marveled.
“No. We did not, since we were at a human university and it would have caused problems. My job for three years was toattract and screen members. Being a shifter was not enough. We’ve all met assholes in our packs right?”
“Many,” Alex agreed. “And we have filtered out a few here. We do not want to be responsible for impact play in the hands of those who do not control their emotions. I won’t even deal with that type as suppliers.”
“Right.”
“Okay,” Jabez the healer said. “So…you’re making a point? I think I know, but go on.”
“I am volunteering to be membership chair for Cuffed.”
“You don’t want to do interior decorating?” Bronson chuckled. “With a background in finance, I didn’t think you would. Of course, I had no idea you were such a frat rat.”
“Frat wolf,” I corrected. “And yes. If you will permit, I will put together a plan to start a membership drive. Although we have some months left before we need them, we can have people visit and get to know them before they are members. I know sometimes that happens, but it’s never been a really structured thing.”
I was unanimously elected to a job that none of them wanted to do but really needed to be done, and walking out of the conference room I bumped right into Blaze and had to grab his shoulders to keep him upright. We stood there a moment, looking into one another’s eyes before sounds from behind me reminded me of where we were and with whom.
“You all right?”
“Yes.” He gave a little shiver before stepping back. “Sorry about that.”
“My fault.”
Chapter Seven
Blaze
I almost kissed Darsh in the hallway. At work. On the clock. In my uniform.
Well, not really. He almost kissed me. Our lips were only a breath apart, the heat from his body mingling with mine.
My heart thrummed so loudly it competed with the bass in the background. At least in my ears.
