Page 3 of Lyric & the Heartbeats

Lyric glanced down at the paper on the top of the stack. Jacoby. Beta. Auditioning for the role of drummer. He had no choice but to take a seat behind the set of drums placed in the center of the room.

Dark hair, tall, a slit cut into his eyebrow, he smirked at the glass as he lifted the sticks.

He had a decently impressive past in the music industry, according to his application, but after checking the box marking himself as an ex-member of a band, he’d purposely left the reason why blank.

Though she’d never heard of them.

Which didn’t mean anything…

As he clapped the sticks together to count the beat in, Lyric narrowed her eyes.

He played a fast and furious beat before transitioning it to something simpler, less intense. It was impressive, she couldn’t lie.

Andi typed away on her laptop, and Lyric pointed out the section he’d left blank.

“Know anything about him?” she inquired.

Andi glanced over with a smirk. “I will in about three sec—Bingo.”

Lyric read over her shoulder and frowned at the first mention of sexual assault.

“Ew. Next,” she said. Andi repeated her sentiment—a little more kindly—into the microphone and instructed Jacoby to leave. Jacoby laid his drum sticks down with a proud smile, as if confident he’d make it to the next round of auditions. A guard ushered him from the room and Lyric placed his paper in the hell no pile. Otherwise known as the trash.

In the music world, it was no secret that bands often got themselves mixed up in sexual assault cases. They let the fame get to their heads, took advantage of fans, and Lyric wanted no part of that near her or her reputation. And at the very least, she didn’t want some asshole on her payroll.

“Well, that makes the process a lot easier,” Lyric commented.

As an omega, she was even more cautious about adding a touring band into her everyday life. On the road, she’d be surrounded by her bandmates nearly twenty-four seven, and Lyric wasn’t looking to spend her time with someone she wasn’t completely comfortable with.

And even though selecting them from the applications was only the first step in the process, followed by in-depth background checks, drug testing, and even covert psych eval interviews with the omega center, she wanted to weed the bad ones out as quickly as possible.

“It does. You think it would be common sense, since you’re an omega and all.”

“You’d think. Instead, it probably just entices them more to try and get away with it. Get close to me.”

She shrugged the shiver away that tried to work its way up her spine and studied the next applicant. Her paranoia wasn’t born from an overinflated ego.

It was simply that omegas were coveted. By nature, they were a little more vulnerable, and as always, someone existed who wanted to take advantage of that. Whether it be entitled alphas who thought themselves above the law, black market sex traffickers, or simply assholes who liked to bully those weaker than them. Lyric wasn’t willing to try her luck.

“Next we have Ryan…”

And so the day continued. For ages. Weeks. Years, it seemed. But no, a few hours later, they’d viewed nearly twenty applicants. And of those twenty, Lyric had only set two papers aside to continue with the process.

“Ugh,” Lyric groaned, and laid her head on the table.

“We’ll find them, don’t worry,” Andi comforted.

When Lyric just rolled her head to the side to stare at her, Andi grinned as she responded to her Bluetooth earpiece. “Bring it in.” Then she spoke to Lyric. “I ordered—”

The cheesy garlic scent wafted in as the door to their room opened, and she lifted her head off the table to sigh dreamily. “Pizza! Andi, have I told you I love you lately?”

“Yes. But don’t stop on my account.”

Lyric chuckled at her as the guard—hired by the label to escort applicants in and out of the building—sat the pizza down and left with a kind smile.

As the next applicant was ushered into the other room, Lyric propped open the box and slid her hand underneath the warm crust to remove a slice for herself.

“Oh, god,” she moaned as she tilted her head back to catch the dripping cheese from the edge of it. “This is so good.”