Page 34 of Stream Heat (Omega Stream #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Kara

My phone chirped, a soft little ping that snapped me out of my post-pack haze. For a minute, all I could register was the warmth in my chest, the faint mix of Alpha scents still lingering in the air, grounding me. But even in that cocoon, instinct shivered down my spine, urging me to check.

I almost ignored it. God, I wish I had.

The notifications were from all manner of social media. Someone had tagged me, and whatever it was, it was blowing up. Way too fast.

"Everything okay?" Reid’s voice cut through the air, calm, a little wary.

I stared at my phone, dread frosting over my veins. My tongue felt glued to the roof of my mouth. "No," I managed. The word came again, ragged. "No, no, no."

"Kara?" Malik, steady as ever, but there was an edge there he didn’t bother to hide. "What happened?"

My hands shook. I tapped open the tweet. Stella. Of course it was Stella. @StellaStVictory, first in everything, bitch supreme. She’d posted a thread. It was a series of screenshots: medical records, school docs, designation forms, every single one stamped with my name, bright and unmistakable.

She’d written, right at the top, in all-caps like she wanted to punch through the screen: The TRUTH about @KaraQuinn's 'late-presenting' Omega status. She's been LYING for YEARS, not just to fans but to sponsors and platforms. Time to expose the fraud.

I made a sound. Half laugh, half raw animal. "She leaked my medical records," I said. "All of it. My original Omega designation from when I was twelve. The illegal suppressants. The school accommodation requests. There’s proof I lied, right here."

Four Alphas converged on me instantly. Theo cursed, hot and fast. Jace’s whole body went statue-still. Ash’s jaw flexed, silent, but his scent was pure murder. Malik, always calm, smelled like the crack of a storm.

Reid took the phone from my hands, careful as if it might explode. He scrolled, his face hardening with every swipe. "This is illegal. Medical records are private."

"Doesn’t matter," I said, hollow. "It’s out now. It’s everywhere." I didn’t even need to say it, the phone started buzzing again, so fast there was no point trying to catch up. My texts, a dozen group chats blowing up. My inbox, too. Notifications rolling in so fast it felt like drowning.

Theo took one look at his phone and whistled. "It’s going viral. Over fifty thousand retweets already."

Jace, quiet and precise, "She uploaded the prescription details for the military suppressants. Dosages, administrations, everything."

Malik spat the truth like a bullet, "She wants to destroy you. Permanently. No recovery, no second chance."

I felt like I was watching myself from outside my body. Twenty minutes ago, the world had felt different. I’d started to hope. Now? Now nothing had changed at all. Stella hadn’t just come for my career, she was coming for my whole life.

"She’s calling me a drug addict," I whispered. Down the thread, Stella had highlighted the suppressant use, big and bold. "She says I cheated. That I used military chemicals to enhance performance."

Reid’s growl was all teeth. "That’s bullshit. Suppressants slow you down, they don’t boost anything."

I gave a little laugh, because what else was there. "Truth doesn’t matter. Only what people choose to believe."

The phone rang. Victoria Smith. I rejected the call, not ready to listen to her bullshit right now.

"We need to hit back," Ash said, voice flat, all business. "If we don’t respond, Stella controls the whole story."

"With what?" I shot back. My hands were trembling and I didn’t even try to hide it. "Stella isn’t lying! She posted real records. I did all of that. I lied. I took illegal substances. I built my entire career on pretending to be someone I wasn’t."

"That’s not all it is," Reid said. "Context. Motivation. Pressures. Those matter, even if it doesn’t feel like it now."

"Not to the Internet," I said. I tapped the screen, scrolling through the replies. Each one burned.

Always thought she was kinda off. No woman plays like that unless she’s juiced

Wait so she’s a druggie? Strip her titles her records ALL OF IT

lying about being Beta is one thing, but MILITARY SUPPRESSANTS? That’s jail time

lmaooo now it makes sense. Classic omega, always a messy liar

I’d survived the last disaster by pretending none of it mattered. This time, it was like reading my own execution, line by line. Everything I’d worked for, every record, every round won, it was all twisted, erased, replaced with disgusting stereotypes. I dropped the phone like it physically hurt.

"I can’t do this," I said, so soft I hardly recognized the voice as my own. "It’s over. She won."

"No," Reid said. I didn’t want to look at him, but his voice was pure Alpha, no room for argument. "It’s not over unless we walk away."

"You don’t get it." I shoved up off the couch, anger sparking through the numbness. "They’re going to blacklist me! This isn’t just about being outed as Omega anymore. It’s about drugs, fraud, lying to sponsors. Nobody will touch me."

"Then we fight," Theo announced, thumbs already flying across his phone. "If she wants a war, let’s give her a goddamn war."

"With what?" My laugh was half-crazed. "Anything we give them, they’ll just use against me. That’s how this works."

"Not if we set the story," Malik said, voice low. "Give them the why. The pressure, the threats behind closed doors."

"The public doesn’t want nuance," I said. I scrolled again, half-obsessed. "They want a villain. Someone to feed to the wolves."

Jace, quiet as ever, "Then we become the wolf."

The phone rang again. Platform exec, this time. My mouth was dry. I answered, hands shaking, and hit speaker.

"Kara," he began, no greeting, just a sharp, chilly voice. "We’re aware of the situation."

"I know," I said. I tried for strong, but it landed more exhausted.

"Given the revelations regarding banned substances, we’re initiating a formal investigation. Your partnership status will be suspended, pending results."

"But the suppressants weren’t performance enhancers," I said, desperate. "They just kept my designation from showing, it didn’t make me better, it made me worse."

He didn’t even pause. "Controlled compounds are prohibited. Use during tournaments is a violation regardless of intent. Legal will be in touch after review."

He hung up. Just like that.

"They’re going to strip my wins," I said. This time the numbness was complete, bone-deep. "All of it. Every last thing I worked for. Gone because I wanted to be seen as more than just an Omega."

Reid’s hands closed over mine, unshakeable. "Listen, Kara. It’s bad. But it’s not the end. We have resources. And you’re not alone."

I pulled away, sharp, raw. "And what, the power of friendship will keep my sponsors from running?"

His jaw clenched, but he didn’t rise to the bait. "No. But there’s more power in a pack than going it alone."

Notification: my biggest sponsor, gone. The email was cold, corporate. "Non-compliance with company values." "Undisclosed substances." Just the facts. I almost snorted. Guess they didn’t want to wait and see if I could salvage anything.

I laughed instead, the sound jagged. "There goes my living. Fuck."

Malik, gentle as always, said, "Breathe. You’re spiraling, Kara."

I spun, adrenaline spiking. "I have every right! You don’t get it. All this? This is my nightmare, and it’s already happened once before. I thought I could claw my way out, but Stella just set fire to the whole thing. She didn’t want me to ever get up again."

Ash, finally spoke up, "It’s jealousy, not justice. She didn’t need to wait years. She wanted to crush you when you finally started getting your footing back."

That caught me. I stopped pacing. "She waited. Why?"

"Because the heat crash just outed you as Omega, but you were handling it," he said. "You were adapting. That’s when she needed to kill your shot at coming back."

Theo piped in. "It’s all about her, really. She failed as an Alpha. You succeeded as a Beta. Now she’s making sure you don’t get a fresh start as Omega, either."

It didn’t make the panic better, but it shifted something. For the first time in hours, I could breathe. This wasn’t just about me. It had never been.

I looked up at them all, my pack, my last defense. "What do we do, then? How do we fight this?"

Reid’s eyes blazed, energized. "We go nuclear."

In less than an hour, the room was a war zone.

Ash grabbed every monitor, tracking the thread, running sentiment analysis, numbers crawling by.

Jace drafted statements, precise and sharp, distilling facts to the bone.

Theo was everywhere at once on socials, breaking up the hate, rallying the few crazy loyalists.

Malik coordinated legal, already emailing and calling and DMing anyone who might help.

Reid? He was quarterback, strategist, and damage control all at once, keeping me upright while managing the battle.

"The first step is a statement from you," Reid urged, reading what Jace had written. "Direct. No hedging, no dodging. It’s your story, your way."

I was scrolling the hate again, unable to stop. "If I’d just ditched those records, none of this could’ve happened. I should’ve burned the whole trail clean."

He shook his head. "No. Hiding the truth is what let Stella do this. She took control of the story. If you’d been the one to say it, maybe it would’ve gone down different."

"Right. Sure. Or I’d have been a footnote, hauled out for novelty-fetish interviews and ignored by every serious org. ‘Look at the brave little Omega who plays shooters.’ You know how they are."

His face softened. "Maybe before. Now you have a platform. Now you have support. You have us."

One notification surprised me. Callie Cross. The Omega lifestyle streamer. She’d gone to bat for me after the crash. Her DM was pure fire.