Page 3 of Omega Rock

Sable holds my gaze for a moment with a wrinkled brow, but then she slowly nods. “One.Just one. Because fuck, this is a tragedy.”

She hops off her chair and dances back across the bar to Seth. As she goes, I wonder if it’s fate that both me and Aiden Paltier are both having rough nights in the rock music world.

ChapterTwo

AIDEN

“I’m sorry, excuse me?”My tone is far nastier than it should be with someone who’s managed my career for over a decade, but the words just spoken to me do not add up. “I’m ‘being removed’ from the band?”

Darius stands behind Jordan looking deadly serious—and distant. A fuck lot of distant for someone who’s been my friend since we were teenagers. Ed and Arnold, my other bandmates, aren’t far behind. We were recording an album, the entire atmosphere thick with tension I didn’t know the source of, when Jordan walked in and told me to sit down.

Jordan crosses his tattooed arms. He’s wearing a Designation Outsider shirt like some big fan with a black vest thrown over it. “Yes. It can’t be all that much of a surprise.”

“The fuck it can’t!” I shoot a glare to Darius. “You couldn’t tell me face-to-face? Any of you?” My gaze flashes to Ed and then to Arnold. “We’ve been up here writing and recording all damn day.”

Ed raises his hands. He’s always been the most calm out of all of us, but even his jaw is locked tight. “Things just aren’t the same.”

“We’re not just aband, Ed,” I say but then look at all of them. “We’re a pack. We’ve been an alpha pack for as long as we’ve been a band.”

Ed inclines his head. “And now we’re not.”

Now we’re not.Just like that.

What thefuck.Leaving a band is one thing, leaving a pack is like having my existence cleaved in two.

“Just because we’ve never found an omega doesn’t mean this is so easily broken,” I say, my words and body shaking. “This is serious.”

Jordan nods. “Yes, it is. Which is why I’m here to break the news.”

I feel like I’ve been backed into a corner. Like this is some intervention, but I can’t think of a single fucking thing I’ve done todeservesuch an intervention. Blindsided doesn’t even begin to cover sudden pulsing in my head making me lightheaded. “I’ve given fifteen years of mylifeto this band, to this pack, and you’re removing me without any warning?”

Darius’s hard mask slips—just a little bit. “Your music… yourvoicehasn’t recovered as expected.”

“As expected,” I echo. “So you’re a doctor now? And what does my voice have to do with an alpha pack?” And why can’t our sound just change a little? It’s not like I fucked up my voice by using it wrong, or by smoking or something.

Jordan nods to me. “We can all tell you’re in pain every time you play for longer than twenty minutes, Aiden. This is less of a ‘kicking you out’ and more of a, ‘Please go rest as you were supposed to.’”

I swipe a hand through the air. “No, fuck that. I did everything the surgeons said. I rested, I went to physical therapy, and they fucking cleared me. I’m your damnfront man.”

I knew neck surgery would fuck me over, but I had to give it a go. I’d suffered a football injury in college and this was supposed to fix it. It’d sucked at the time, but set me on the music path that I’d devoted my life to.

A life Jordan and these bastards are ripping from me without so much as a head’s up.

Arnold has the balls to speak up. “We’re so glad you came through surgery okay, and that it mostly worked, and that you’re not in nearly as much pain as you were. But you’re still in pain, Aiden.”

I shook my head. “You don’t get to decide how much pain is too much. I show up, I perform at the top of my game every damned time.”

Jordan takes a step toward me. I want to back away, but I don’t. “Aiden, your performance has slipped. So has your voice and your ability to do your job. I, and the band, feel that it’s time.”

And the band.

Fuck Jordan. But the band? Mypack? I don’t understand why this is happening. How people I’ve known my entire adult life and then some are just dropping me like this.

“Then take some of the budget and send me to vocal lessons,” I say. “If you really think I’ve slipped that far, why not do that? You cannot break up an alpha pack over this, and certainly not as easy as breaking up a rock band.”

But I can tell. Jordan’s face is a practiced mask of neutrality. Ed and Arnold say nothing more. And Darius… Darius looks torn. But he’s silent in that conflict.

This alreadywasa conversation between Jordan and the band. The pack. But it feels like there’s more to it.

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