Page 10 of Lyric & the Heartbeats

With that, he turned and walked away.

Lyric’s cheeks heated at the utter embarrassment engulfing her.

Maybe he remembers me after all.

She didn’t even know what to say. Speechless, she turned to Andi, whose brows had crawled halfway up her forehead, anger coloring her cheeks.

“What an asshole,” Andi hissed in his direction. “Wow. I can’t believe he said that.”

Spoiled omega?

“Let’s get out of here,” Andi said, and stacked the plastic cups together.

Lyric slid from the chair to her feet, adjusting her beanie.

Why hadn’t she said anything in response? She didn’t even know what she could have said.

The realization made her even angrier. She’d replay the interaction in her head a thousand times and come up with the best response… days later when it didn’t fucking matter.

She followed Andi through the crowd, keeping her head down. But she couldn’t help lifting her head by the door, searching the room. Her gaze was drawn to the bar—and there he was. Tall, practically glowing in the soft gold emanating from the lighting above the bar.

She scowled in his direction, and as if he could feel her gaze, he cranked his head over his shoulder and found her.

His expression of indifference didn’t even falter as he turned away from her to continue his conversation with whomever he was talking to.

“A spoiled omega? I’m not fucking spoiled,” she ranted in the car as Andi drove them back to her house.

Andi remained quiet, content to let her get it out of her system. “I worked too fucking hard to get to where I am for him to make assumptions like that.”

I worked too fucking hard to avoid the omega stereotype.

And there was the underlying reason for the hurt that still tightened her chest. Even after everything she’d accomplished, two albums, and now a sold-out tour, some people would still see her as just an omega. Just like her mom had before she tried to mold Lyric into her vision, someone with nothing better to do than to lay around a nest all day and wait for her alphas to take care of her.

“Ugh!” she growled, and crossed her arms.

“Don’t listen to him. He’s an ass. Just sleep knowing that he’s playing in venues like that when you’re about to fill places four times as large.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lyric agreed.

She turned her head to look out the window, counting the streetlamps they passed.

She’d only gotten to thirty-three by the time Andi parked outside her building in the gated community, and she sighed.

“Despite what an asshole he was, thank you for taking me out. Tomorrow, we’ll find someone even better,” Lyric announced.

“That’s the spirit. Have a good night,” Andi said. “Love you!”

“Love you too!” Lyric called out as she crawled from the car.

Andi didn’t drive away until she unlocked the security door to her apartment, scented the entryway for intruders, and unlocked the deadbolts. Once inside, and after another scent check, she flipped the hallway light on to signal she was okay.

The car’s engine faded as she drove away, and Lyric grumbled some more as she unarmed the alarm system, the soft beep echoing in her home.

That she’d purchased herself.

“Spoiled omega, my ass,” she muttered. Lyric tugged her beanie off, untied the ribbon, and let her hair fall free as she headed to the shower.

But as she relaxed into the warmth of the rainfall showerhead in her bathroom, she frowned.