Page 2 of Omega Rock

Her eyes go as wide as her grin. “Should I?”

“Yes, go!” I shoo her away from the table and watch her hurry up to the bar.

Never once have I seen her so excited to be withanyone. I smile as she whips out her phone to get his number and wonder what relationships must be like for non-omegas. Sable is a beta, but she doesn’t have a pack, and I’m pretty sure Seth isn’t an alpha. But me…

I sip my water again. I was designated an omega as a teenager and have been on heat suppressants ever since. They’ve started to wane with their effectiveness—or maybe that’s the increased alcohol usage as of late—but with them, I’ve managed to keep my life mostly functional. No distracting heats aside from the first, no alphas following me around. But it’s also meant no scent matches, no alpha for me, nor a whole pack of them.

It’s a little lonely, if I’m being honest. Especially since the world is promised to omegas who find their matches.

But it’s fine. Because as much as that life calls to me, music calls louder.

A pack of my own would be everything, but Idreamof succeeding in music. Of finding the perfect band. Of touring and playing gigs and making music videos. Music is joy and heartbreak. It’s therapy and catharsis. It’s storytelling and empathizing—one of the few things that can genuinely connect people everywhere.

So yes, maybe at twenty-two I’m dreaming a bit late to be considered for most of these things. All the bands I grew up listening to started in their late teens and were fully established by now, including Designation Outsider. I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen them, how deeply their music has been etched into my veins and soul. Or how many times I’ve fantasized about kissing their leader singer, Aiden. Everything about that man feels like a magnetic force pulling me to him.

Designation Outsider was established by the time the guys were eighteen. They started touring by twenty. And now they’re on top of the rock world in their thirties.

They’re living the absolute dream, one my parents find to be a complete waste of time compared to my father’s training and teaching at Juilliard. My parents would rather I be in college, not chasing a few hundred every few weeks at dingy bars on the wrong side of town.

I bite the inside of my cheek as I check my phone. Messages from both Mom and Dad are there, asking how the gig went. But even through text only I can hear the dryness in their tones.

They want to know if I made anything off it. If something is coming from me going viral and soft-launching my career. Well, the video of me strumming along toDreaming Latein the stairwell of my apartment building went viral enough to land me a talent manager. Doesn’t that prove I have a chance?

I catch sight of Sable’s short pink hair ducking through the crowded bar with panicked eyes. By the time she makes it to me her breath is so shallow, all she can do is shove her phone in my face. “Look.”

I blink and grab her phone. “What, it’s just a phone number, right? Or did Seth already hit you with a?—”

My eyes go wide. My stomach sinks.

Designation Outsider Front Man Aiden Paltier Leaves Band.

Aiden Paltier Kicked Out From Designation Outsider.

Aiden is the Real Outsider—Ousted From Band.

A dozen news stories from across the rock world. All of them wondering what the future of my favorite band is now that their lead guitarist and lead singer are gone so suddenly.

I look up at Sable with my eyes still wide. “Whathappened?”

She shakes her head and takes back her phone. She starts scrolling wildly with one finger while holding the phone in her other palm. “No idea, looks like no one knows. Maybe he’s on drugs or something.”

I level her with a look but don’t say more. It’d be so cliché to think that. Or maybe that’s just me being way too involved with a stranger’s personal life, even if they’re a celebrity.Especiallysince they’re a celebrity. Who really knows what happens in the lives of all these stars?

Sable sits back. “Well, another one bites the dust. I always hate to see bands break up. It’s like your favorite TV show getting canceled. First Lost Time, now Designation Outsider. Almost as bad as?—”

Sable goes on but I tune her out. Not because I’m not interested in sharing in this trauma with her, but because I pull out my own phone and can’t stop looking at the photos of Aiden that these rock news sites keep using.

Some are old, from when Designation Outsider just started as teens. Others are from far more recent live shows, where Aiden looks paler, thinner, and almost in pain while playing guitar.

What happened?I ask the photos, as if Aiden would jump out of them and answer me. As if I had any right to those answers as just a fan. But something deeper pulls at my chest, a hurt that doesn’t belong there, or to me.

It’s grief, yes. As a fan of Designation Outsider, even if they don’t fully break up, their music will never be the same without Aiden’s deep voice and brilliant guitar riffs.

But it’s also something I can’t fully place. A mix of concern and sadness for someone I don’t actually know. It’s round, and large, and sticky inside my gut and I don’t know what to do with it.

It’s how I felt when Leo Altis was kicked out of Lost Time, and their music changed forever, too.

So I close my phone and sit back as well. “Sable, I think we both could really use a drink now.” I hope she’ll acquiesce. I don’t know what to do with all these feelings tonight. The disappointment from my “band” and now this loss. It feels like a stupid thing to be upset over, especially with the latest viral video still a hopeful sign, but the emotions gnaw away at me regardless.

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