Page 44 of Stream Heat (Omega Stream #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Theo

My fingers ached, knuckles burning, but I didn't let up.

Not when Victoria's army of bots was in full swing, burying every mention of Kara's name in synchronized shit-slinging.

Three hours of this. My desktop was a battlefield: I dissected attack patterns, charted bot behaviors, flagged and traced every fake account, and built a counter-strike that would make Sun Tzu bring me coffee.

I fired up streaming software. No cam. Just my voice, and my desktop. Time to cut deep.

"What's up, Ruin Squad?" My tone was sharper than usual, energy wound tight. "It's Theo. Let's have a little digital lit class today: How to spot a coordinated harassment campaign."

I started dragging examples onto the screen. Highlighting the repetition, everything from the same syntax, to the same three typos, and the same thirty-second interval between posts. Once you knew what the algorithm looked for, it had been like neon graffiti on a blank wall.

"See, when someone's desperate to tear someone down and can't do it with facts, it's about volume. Flooding the feed, making it look like the world hates the target. But it's just one sad sack with a botnet and too much time."

Viewer count spiked. Good. If people had understood how the game worked, maybe it would have stopped working so well.

Phone had buzzed. Jace.

How long have you been up?

I checked the clock: 2:47 PM. I started at 6 AM, when I saw the first wave hit Kara.

Long enough to build a beautiful case file, I shot back. Victoria's fingerprints are everywhere.

Take a break. You're going to burn out.

I ignored him. Kept recording. “If you really want to piss off astroturfers, you don’t argue with bots. That’s what they want. Instead, you signal boost the real voices, the ones actually saying something.”

So I did. I reposted every genuine Kara supporter, every Omega creator with their own war story, every brave soul calling out the bots. I had reach. Each repost was a spotlight. Death by a thousand paper cuts.

Another ping. Reid this time.

Everything okay? Haven’t seen you leave your room.

Weaponizing my chaos powers for good. Very okay.

Which was mostly true. Except every hate comment about Kara felt like someone twisting a crowbar into my ribs.

And I kept hearing her voice from last night, scared and vulnerable, trusting us to handle it.

It made me want to find Victoria Smith and show her what happens when you messed with my pack.

My Omega.

The thought fired off before I could kill it, and I almost trashed the recording out of pure reflex. Kara wasn’t mine. She’s pack, yeah, but that’s it. Comfort during heats, backup in crises, the found-family script.

Except. The way she had looked at me with my hoodie on. The way her smile had lit up when I had made her actually laugh that first stream. The way her longing for us reverberated through me…

Focus, idiot. She needs you sharp, not spiraling.

I pulled up another suspicious account: @ProStreamNews. Six months old, but silent until today. Classic sleeper. Higher effort, same cheap script.

“Here’s a fun one,” I tell the stream, magnifying the profile. “Old account, but notice? Every single post today matches the bots. ‘Victim mentality’. ‘False accusations’. ‘Destroying careers’. All reading the same tired lines.”

And they were. I’d found the playbook an hour ago, sitting wide open on a file-sharing site. Not even a password.

My door cracked open. Ash stepped in, eyes scanning the four screens, the seventeen browser tabs, the fortress of empty energy drink cans. He shakes his head.

“When’s the last time you ate?”

I hit mute on my mic before I replied. “Food is for people not conducting psychological warfare,” I said. “Want to see something beautiful? I found their playbook.”

I put the doc on display: the talking points, the hashtags, the list of targets. Black-and-white proof.

Ash whistled, low. “That’s hard evidence. Harassment, coordination, the works.”

“I know. Kara’s lawyer already has it.” I grinned. “But I’m not done.”

I spun up a new doc. Started assembling a point-by-point breakdown including every tactic, every screenshot, every timeline overlap. It read like a dissertation on digital warfare.

Ash’s voice went soft. “She’s okay. Kara’s okay. You don’t have to carry this whole fight.”

I met his eyes. “I know she’s okay. But it isn’t just about her, is it? It’s about whether people like Victoria get to eat anyone they want alive.”

“And you’re going to stop her?”

“I’m going to try.” I turned back to my screens. “Someone has to.”

Ash watched for a second. Then, “You care about her. More than just pack, Theo.”

I flinched and stopped typing.

“She’s…” I tried to explain, but there was no easy way to say it.

How did I say that someone reprogrammed the way my brain fires just by laughing?

That their pain made me want to torch the world and start over?

“She’s Kara. Brilliant. Stubborn. Makes me want to level up as a human being just to keep up. ”

“Does she know?”

I snorted. “That I’m halfway in love with her? Fuck no. She’s got enough on her plate. No way I’m dumping more mess on her.”

“Might be worth it, after all this.” Ash. He didn’t push. “She’s braver than you think.”

“Yeah, maybe.” I pulled up the next bot, digging into its post times. “Right now she needs us as pack. Support system. Anything else is just…” I shook my head. “Later.”

Ash left it alone, and turned to go. “For what it’s worth, I think she’d be lucky.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled, meaning it. “But first, I’m going to tear Victoria’s botnet limb from limb.”

Once he’s out, the rhythm comes easier. Bots were simple, once their patterns were mapped. The influencers trying to pass as organic? Trickier, but I managed. By 4 PM I had a full map of Victoria’s operation.

Phase two.

I spun up my streaming app. This time I went live with video. The audience explodes, thousands pouring in. The word’s out that I’m going nuclear on the Kara situation.

“Ruin Squad!” I sat up, letting real adrenaline flavor my voice. “Hope you caught the earlier breakdown. Now, let’s have some fun.”

I popped my analysis onto the screen and walked the audience through every step: The bot accounts, the timelines, the charade of ‘real outrage’. It’s an autopsy.

“Not saying you should mass-report anyone,” I smirked. “That’s coordinated harassment, and we’re not garbage people. But if you stumble on obvious spam or bot behavior and want to report it, well, that’s just good digital hygiene.”

The chat floods; I can barely see the text. Looks like everyone’s on board. In minutes, #ExposeTheBots is trending, neck and neck with #TeamKara.

Notifications go wild. Other streamers picking up the thread, sharing their own evidence. One person with a grudge and a laptop became a movement.

I got a message from Kara.

Theo what the hell are you doing?

I grinned, quick to respond.

Protecting my pack. How's that feel?

Like I don't deserve you guys.

Wrong answer. Try again.

There was a pause and I worried for a moment that I’d offended her somehow.

Like I'm lucky to have you.

Better. Now go rest. Let me handle the mess.

Thank you. For all of it.

I lingered on the message, a slow tension rolling off my shoulders. She was safe, at least for now. She knew I'd got her back.

I turned back to Ruin Squad. “Okay, so we get the point about bots. But while we’re here, let’s talk about something better than hate. Like, who actually deserves support. The voices that should be louder.”

Next hour, I boosted every Omega streamer I could find. Every voice that didn’t get a fair shot. By the time I was done, #TeamKara wasn’t just a slogan anymore, it was a movement.

The door swung open again. Reid, this time, with a plate of food and a look I didn’t trust.

“Heard you declared war on the internet,” he grumbled as he put the plate beside my keyboard.

“Just a nasty little corner of it. And I’m winning.”

He studied the screens, the trending tags, the avalanche of support. “You know this isn’t just about pack, right?”

I almost choke on my food. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you just spent ten hours destroying a botnet because someone went after Kara. That’s not just loyalty, Theo. That’s…” He frowned, searching for it.

“That’s what?”

“That’s love,” he said. “The kind that makes you burn down the world for someone, without asking.”

Suddenly my sandwich was forgotten. “She doesn’t need to know.”

“Sure about that?” Reid leaned in. “Pack bonds change. The question is whether you’re honest about it or not.”

“And what does it mean for me?”

He smiled, startlingly gentle. “You’re in love with an Omega who's brave enough to change everything. And you just proved you’d torch the whole internet for her.”

I looked at the chaos I’d made, mapped and weaponized. The walls I built around her. My pack. My person.

Maybe Reid’s right. Maybe this was what it was supposed to feel like.

“Victoria’s going to hate this,” I smirked.

“Good.” Reid’s voice was pure satisfaction. “Let her. She started this.”

Our pack. Our Omega. Maybe more.

I could live with that.

I started a new document. If Victoria wanted a war, she could have it. But she was playing my game now. And I was very, very good at chaos.