Page 7 of Stream Heat (Omega Stream #1)

CHAPTER SEVEN

Kara

I didn’t move at first. Stayed curled up on the floor, arms around my knees, shivering, even though my skin felt like it was burning from the inside out.

Their scents hung in the air, five kinds of Alpha, each one distinct enough that even on the edge of falling apart, my Omega biology was sorting them, ranking them, cataloging them without mercy.

Reid: Cedar and summer thunder, the kind that shakes glass.

Theo: Green tea and electricity with an edge of burned sugar, sweet and sharp at once.

Jace: Ink and icy snow so cold it stung.

Ash: Vanilla and charcoal with a thread of hot metal running through it.

Malik: Sandalwood and that ozone-crisp scent of just-washed linen.

Stupid, treacherous body.

It had already decided that those smells meant safety. Home.

Pathetic.

“Fuck that,” I said, the words all ragged.

I got to my feet using the wall, half-sure my knees wouldn’t hold.

The dizziness was worse now, buzzing under my skin like static, a whole symphony of withdrawal symptoms getting louder the longer I stood upright.

My hands shook as I made it to my chair, the battered old gaming chair I’d spent thousands of hours in.

I expected it to ground me, but sitting just felt wrong for a different reason.

My phone buzzed on the desk, and then again, piling up notifications like snow on a mountain top, one wrong move from me and the avalanche would consume me.

I ought to chuck the damn thing out the window.

Or crush it under my heel. Or even set it on fire and watch it burn.

Instead, I stared at the screen, thumb looping around the different social media icons.

Old habits, right? Even when they’re the exact things that destroy you, they stick. You can’t look away.

I tapped one of them.

#StreamHeat still perched at the top of Trending, now past two million tweets. My name, Kara Quinn, just below it, like a warning. I scrolled, the words slicing deeper and closer with every swipe.

Quinn’s whole career was built on a lie. How many tournaments did she win because she was hiding her omega status?

Imagine trash-talking Alphas for years then going into heat the minute they speak to you lmaooooo

This is why omegas shouldn’t be in competitive gaming

But even knowing how bad it’d be, I kept scrolling. Couldn't help it. Some distant, clinical part of me recognized it for what it was, digital self-harm, a way to punish myself for existing at all. Then, a thumbnail caught my eye.

Stella Saint.

Of course.

Her makeup was so perfect it looked computer generated, blonde hair loose around alpha-sharp cheekbones. The stream title slammed into me like a brick:

RESPONDING TO QUINN’S HEAT CRASH: The Truth About Omega Suppression in Gaming

There it was. I should have closed the app. Instead, I tapped the video.

Stella’s background was exactly what I expected, all designer monitors and Alpha-coded LED strip lighting, with her signature scent diffuser front and center, so no one could even forget for a second what she was.

“Welcome back, Saints,” she started right away, voice as smooth as the foundation on her face. “I know you’re all waiting for me to address what happened with Kara Quinn last night.”

She made a show of running a hand through her hair.

I’d seen her do it backstage, practicing in a mirror to make sure it looked as casual as possible.

“For those who don’t know, Quinn and I came up together.

Same management, same tournaments, same struggles as female gamers in a male-dominated space. ”

I nearly choked. “Same struggles.” Right. Stella had been ID’d alpha at twelve and treated like a star prospect at every event since. Alphas were born to lead, so everyone said. Born to win. The red carpet had barely cooled before she walked on it.

Stella pasted on a frown, but her eyes were cold and hard. “The difference was, I chose authenticity. Two years ago, I stopped suppressing my Alpha nature and embraced who I really am, despite the cost.”

Her chat flooded the screen: pride emotes, “queen” spam, and a sea of gleaming crowns.

“Yes, there was a cost,” she said, voice trembling just enough to sound authentic. “I lost sponsorships because female Alphas make some brands ‘uncomfortable.’ I was called aggressive, difficult, too intense. But I stayed true to myself.”

Bullshit. What she didn’t mention was how those “lost opportunities” were nothing compared to what she gained.

Her viewership had tripled after she went feral on stream that first time, snapping at an interviewer and breaking out the wolfish grin for the cameras.

The algorithm ate Alpha drama up. There was no reward for being Beta, nothing for being invisible.

“So when I saw what happened to Quinn last night…” She dropped her voice like she was about to confess to murder. “I wasn’t surprised. I was sad. Sad that she felt she needed to lie about who she really is. Sad that our industry pushed her to such extreme measures.”

EXPOSE HER QUEEN!

Tell us the real tea about nexus management.

did u know she was omega??

I watched the familiar calculation flicker across Stella’s pretty face. She bared her teeth in a smile, then played the martyr card. “Many of you are asking if I knew Quinn was an Omega. The truth is, yes. I did.”

It was like gravity cut out from under me for a second.

“We were both signed to Nexus Management as teenagers. Victoria Smith approached us both with the same offer, suppressants that would make us ‘marketable.’ The difference was, I eventually chose to stop. Quinn kept lying.”

The chat lost their collective mind.

HOLY SHIT

RECEIPTS QUEEN

VICTORIA SMITH IS EVIL CONFIRMED

Stella leaned in closer, her voice a razor blade wrapped in velvet. “What you all saw last night wasn’t just a heat. It was a suppressant crash. Military-grade suppressants, the kind that are illegal in most countries. The kind that can cause organ damage, cognitive issues, even death.”

She was right, but it still tasted like poison.

“How do I know? Because I was on them too. Until I realized what they were doing to my body, to my mind. Until I realized that Victoria Smith was slowly poisoning all of us for profit.”

It felt like swallowing glass. Every word she said was true, but she’d turned my medical disaster into ammunition for her own clout war. Just like always.

She started rattling off names of suppressants, side effects, and more. The more she talked, the more the chat bayed for blood, for Victoria’s, for mine.

“Quinn made her choice,” Stella insisted, eyes hard. “She chose to keep taking those pills. She chose to build her entire persona around mocking alphas while secretly being an Omega. She chose to lie to all of you.”

The betrayal in her voice would’ve made me believe, too, if I hadn’t been sitting on the floor next to her while Victoria Smith told her she was “too alpha” for the market.

If I hadn’t seen Stella sob for an hour after losing a major sponsorship over one “unbecoming” outburst. If I hadn’t been the one to pass her my own suppressants in a paper cup, back when we were both just desperate not to be noticed at all.

“The worst part is,” she finished, “she didn’t have to lie. Look at me! I’m thriving as an openly alpha female streamer. Yes, I faced discrimination. Yes, I lost opportunities. But I never compromised who I really am.”

Laughable. Maybe the world hated alpha women, but it annihilated Omegas. No one wanted us in pro gaming unless it was to be a mascot, a joke, something to stare at. Not a threat.

“So while I feel sorry for Quinn’s medical situation, I can’t condone the years of deception. The gaming community deserves better. Her viewers deserved better.” There was no mistaking the glee in her eyes, no matter how soft she made her voice.

The chat went straight for the throat:

she betrayed all of us

no wonder she always attacked alphas, classic self-hatred

tell us more about nexus!!! expose them queen!!!

Stella didn’t even try to hide her smile. “Should I tell them about the Nexus contracts, chat? Should I show them what Victoria Smith is really doing to young streamers?”

They howled for it, and she teased them with more. “Maybe next stream. I need to talk to my lawyers first.” She knew exactly what she was doing.

I closed the stream before I could smash my phone.

My hands were shaking so bad I could barely keep hold of it.

It was true, everything about Nexus, about Victoria Smith, about the pills.

What Stella left out was the part where she’d begged me for a handful to get her through Worlds.

The part where she’d only gone alpha after it was profitable.

The responses to her stream were worse. They always are.

@StellaStVictory dropping TRUTH BOMBS about Quinn's fake Beta scam

So Quinn was lying to everyone for EIGHT YEARS? No wonder she crashed so hard

@KaraQuinn care to comment on @StellaStVictory’s revelations about Nexus Management drugging streamers?

I scrolled until my vision blurred. I wasn’t sure if it was tears or withdrawal. Maybe both. There was a rhythm to this kind of pain, click, scroll, bleed, repeat. Most people couldn’t keep up. I was a professional.

Then another thumbnail jumped out. Callie Cross, AKA. Clickbait Queen. Pink hair split in two cute braids, oversized crewneck, heart-shaped face. She looked serious. Like, funeral serious. The video title jumped out at me.

On Kara Quinn, Heat Stigma, and Why We Need to Do Better

I hesitated. Callie wasn’t a “friend.” We’d crossed paths, but I’d always written her off as background noise, lifestyle influencer content, “easy mode,” nothing like the high-strung grind of competitive gaming. Still, something in her eyes made me tap.

“Hey besties,” she said, quieter than usual. “I know everyone’s talking about what happened with Kara Quinn last night, and I’ve been debating whether to address it.”