Lyric & the Heartbeats

by Kole, Lana

“No. You’re Lyric Ceran, who’s got three alphas and a beta wrapped around her finger.”

  She chuckled. “Just one beta?”

  Desi waved her hand in the air. “You need someone to be impartial. Consider me the voice of reason.”

  “You’re the voice of reason?” she teased. “I really am in trouble.”

  Desi hummed thoughtfully. “Why are you so against ever finding a pack anyway? It’s… family.”

  Because it’s everything I’ve been fighting against my whole life.

  If she threw out every one of her rules scribbled in moments of desperation on the inside of her brain, what did that mean? It felt something like giving up, like letting her mother win. Becoming the pampered omega she always wanted Lyric to be.

  Becoming the pampered omega she always wanted to be.

  Because every grudge she’d held against her mother suddenly seemed cruel, even silly, if she made a one-eighty and settled down with the first set of alphas who she trusted enough to let her guard down around.

  But they’re more than that. Don’t belittle them because of your own issues.

  For once, Lyric listened to the voice in her head.

  Even if she didn’t want to admit it… Emerson, Adra, Henry, and Nohen had come to mean so much more to her than she’d ever thought possible. They’d somehow whittled away at the walls she’d stacked between herself and the world, snuck past her defenses, and rooted a home in her heart.

  “The only family I ever had tried to mold me into something I’m not,” she admitted.

  “And what was that?”

  “The perfect omega,” she bit out, bitterness shading her tone.

  Desi scoffed. “I’m a beta, so I’ve never really had to consider it, but if you asked me, I’d say there’s not really a perfect way to do anything. Have you ever considered maybe… that there are different ways to be an omega? It’s not all nests and serving platters and palm leaves.”

  Her cheeks flushed, because Desi’s description was a little too close to the caricature she’d drawn in her own mind.

  But the bottom line was… all omegas were dependent on their alphas. Even if Lyric didn’t need their monetary or physical support, she’d depend on them for something a whole lot scarier.

  Her happiness.

  Her heart pounded at just the thought.

  Lyric had thought that by living her life avoiding the steps her mother had outlined that she’d moved on, moved past her mother. But instead… she put just as much thought and energy into not becoming the person her mother wanted her to be that Lyric didn’t even know what she wanted.

  “You asked what this all looks like at the end. I think to figure it out… you probably need to be more open with them about where you are emotionally.”

  Which meant she needed to put everything out in the open… be completely honest with them.

  “I know you’re right,” Lyric admitted softly. She sent Desi a fragile smile. “I need to organize it in my head first. Is that okay?”

  Desi wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “You don’t have to ask me, silly. Take things at your own pace, but don’t leave them in the dark.”

  “This must be why Amber’s totally head over heels for you, isn’t it?” Lyric teased.

  A sound choked off in Desi’s throat, and Lyric glanced up. “Do you think she is?”

  Lyric scoffed. The heart-eyes Amber had sent from side stage during the few days they’d gotten to spend together had said enough. “You can’t be giving me advice like you are and be that oblivious.”

  “That’s what I get for consoling you? Pfft.” Desi shoved her gently away and grinned. “It’s not that I’m oblivious, I just… kind of want to propose to her. Maybe I’m nervous.”

  Lyric brought her hands to her mouth, hiding her grin. “Are you serious? At the end of tour?”

  Brushing a hand through her short dark curls, Desi shrugged, avoiding Lyric’s gaze. “Yeah. When I get home.”

  “That’s adorable. Do you have a ring picked out already?”

  Desi pulled out her phone, and Lyric listened intently as Desi described just what she loved about her girlfriend. Adoration shone in her gaze, and through the camera roll of rings, and trip down memory lane, Lyric was left with a question in the back of her mind.

  Was it possible to lower her barriers and let the others in like Desi had with Amber? Was Lyric even capable of allowing herself to be so vulnerable with someone in the same way?

  By the time Desi left her room, Lyric closed the door quietly but didn’t flip the lock.

  There was really only one way to find out, right?

  Lyric crawled beneath the covers and sent off a text, then wrung the blankets with her hands until a soft knock came through the door.

  It swung open silently, and Nohen’s head peeked through.

  “Hey… can I come in?”

  Lyric’s cheeks heated. “Yeah. You can’t cuddle me from out there, can you?”

  Nohen’s lips twitched as he entered the nest and shut the door behind him, flipping the lock as he gazed warily at her.

  It was the first time she was allowing one of them in her nest, so his apprehension wasn’t misplaced.

  Lyric patted the bed and scooted over to make room for him. The mattress dipped as he slid beneath the sheet, and Lyric sought his warmth, wrapping herself around him and laying her head on his chest before he even got settled. She inhaled and released a deep breath, his soft, soothing scent washing over her like a cool balm. He didn’t smell quite floral, but something equally light and airy. Safe.

  “Everything okay with Andi?” he asked. His voice seemed loud in the four walls that hadn’t heard anything but her own cadence in four weeks.

  “Yeah. Just wanted cuddles,” she said, nuzzling into his chest.

  One of his arms snaked around her and began drawing shapes on her lower back, and she melted into him.

  “Not going to lie and say it doesn’t give me a thrill to know I’m the first one to stay.”

  Lyric buried her smile in his torso. Her beta was so cute when he was jealous.

  “Good,” was all she said, barely swallowing her giggles.

  Waking up next to Lyric was Nohen’s second favorite place to be. The first would be falling asleep next to her.

  He was on his left side, curled around Lyric, their legs tangled together beneath the sheets. His heart pounded a steady rhythm as sleep fell away, and he drew in a silent breath only for his lungs to fill with honey dipped lavender.

  He nuzzled into her, counting the seconds and storing them in his mind so he’d never forget them.

  She hummed sleepily, the sound incoherent, and seconds later, it faded, and she shuffled around before her breaths puffed evenly once more against the back of his hand. His arm was wrapped around her side and tucked into her torso, her clavicle warm against his palm.

  Being surrounded by her scent wasn’t torture enough, no, he was aligned with her head to toe, and her breasts framed his forearm, her breaths barely pressing her chest into his steady touch.

  Cursing everything under the sun, he carefully shifted his hips back and tried to will his arousal away.

  She just wanted to cuddle, not to be woken up by—

  Nohen’s breath cut off as she shuffled on the bed, following his path and bumping her ass back into the front of his hips.

  His eyes drifted closed in annoyance.

  Why me?

  But he couldn’t tell if the two words were posed as a plea or praise.

  He tried turning his face into the pillow, maybe suffocating himself would do the trick.

  “You’re doing that on purpose, aren’t you?” he breathed silently into the fabric. The same fabric that smelled like her.

  “So what if I am?”

  Nohen could have choked on his own breath as her sleep soaked voice filled the air. He’d barely muttered the rhetorical question and hadn’t expected a response.

  “Are you awake
?” he whispered after a long pause.

  It wasn’t likely she was sleep talking into the conversation, but maybe he wanted to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

  “Yeah, been waiting for you to wake up,” she said softly.

  Nohen almost groaned aloud and pulled her close, nuzzling her neck until he could press his lips to her skin.

  She arched her neck up, making room for him, and he started softly, tracing gentle good morning kisses into her creamy skin before he shifted his arm up for his fingers to reach her chin. Tilting her head to his, he brushed a soft kiss over her lips, waiting for her reaction.

  She sighed, her bottom lip brushing over his for a split second before he kissed her and pressed every ounce of jealousy and need and want he’d been harboring into the action.

  Lyric met him with just as much pent-up want. He tasted it on her lips, felt it in the way she cradled his arm to her chest, her nails biting into his skin and jolting him awake.

  He pulled back, their heavier breaths matching pace.

  “Good morning,” he drawled.

  Lips curling into a smile, she rolled over and faced him. “Good morning. Want some help with that?”

  Her hand dropped between them to brush her fingers over the bulge in his boxers.

  Nohen swallowed sharply. “That’d be a hell of a way to start the day.”

  “Good. I dreamed about you all night,” she said, and his cock jerked as she molded her hand around him through the fabric.

  “You did?” he asked, barely able to string the words together.

  Her hum was drenched in desire before she continued. “Want to know what about?”

  “I think I have an idea,” he breathed, tracing the outline of her collarbone. Her nipples were tiny pebbles pressing against the fabric of her shirt, and he lowered his touch to swipe his thumb over the tip.

  She arched into his touch, and Nohen gently pushed her to her back, following her to hover a few inches above her.

  “But do share,” he prompted her, painting a kiss on her lips before dropping lower, tugging the loose hem of her tank top down with him.

  He ended up out of her reach, but as he wrapped his lips around one of her nipples, pulling a soft, breathy sigh from her lips, he figured the trade-off was well fucking worth it.

  Sleep wrinkles were creased in her skin, and he traced each one he could see with his lips and tongue. Goosebumps lifted and pebbled across the pale expanse, and he lowered his hands to her hips, itching to remove her shorts as he stared up at her.

  “So? The dreams?” he prompted.

  She shimmied into his touch, catching his fingers inside her shorts and trying to rush him. “Each one happened the exact same,” she breathed. “We’d wake up in different positions and you’d be touching me—caressing my hip.” She tilted her hip at him. “Tracing my thigh, just, everywhere.”

  He tugged her shorts down and off, dragging her underwear with them as a reward for sharing. “And what else?”

  The sound that caught in her throat could have been one of frustration, but he couldn’t quite tell.

  “I woke up every damned time before anything good happened,” she growled.

  Ah, frustration then.

  Nohen grinned, he couldn’t help it. His cock jerked inside the waistband of his boxers.

  She’d lain there the whole night? Waking up time and time again, frustrated and wanting?

  “Sounds awful,” he teased. “Want some help with that?” he questioned, mimicking her earlier words.

  Lyric arched a brow and slid her foot toward her thigh before tilting her leg to the left at the last second. She opened herself to him, and he swallowed a groan at the glisten between her thighs.

  He planted his palms on either side of her hips and leaned down to mouth a kiss onto her hip bones, shoving her tank top out of the way. Lyric lifted her torso and stripped her shirt off, tossing it to the side before lying back down.

  Just like in her dream, he traced shapes into the top of her thigh before dragging his fingertips to the inside of her thigh. He followed the trail with his gaze, his pulse pounding in his ears.

  Her scent surrounded him, his mouth watered, and all he could think of was—

  “Nohen,” she said, gripping his chin and tilting his gaze up to hers. “I had like seven hours of foreplay. Put your fingers inside of me.”

  His lips twitched at the mix of command and frustration in her tone, but he obeyed.

  Need wafted off her in waves, and he dropped his fingertips lower, lying against the mattress alongside her leg.

  “Lyric,” he hissed as he dragged a fingertip through her wetness, scorching and slick, and her hips canted up into the featherlight touch.

  “Don’t tease me,” she bit out. “Please.”

  At the sound of her softened plea, he shifted his touch and pressed his thumb against her clit.

  Her head rocked back into the pillows as he dragged a steady rhythm over the swollen bud, spreading her wetness.

  He’d love nothing more than to suspend her on the edge, in that moment with her head thrown back, notes of ecstasy falling from her lips, and keep her there.

  But she’d asked him with that edge in her voice he couldn’t resist.

  With the pad of his thumb to her clit, he nudged his index finger against her core, humming his awe into the flesh of her thigh at the heat.

  Ah, fuck.

  Her hips rolled, and the motion slid his digit a little deeper. Nohen nipped her thigh at the same time he nudged deeper.

  “More,” she whined and canted her hips up.

  He nudged his middle finger at her core and thrust both inside, her warmth and wetness enveloping and tightening around him.

  Her scent threaded through the air, he was drowning in her, and he didn’t want to come up any time soon. He nipped at her skin, mapped kisses across the pale expanse of her flesh. Across the tops of her thigh, nipped the inside, and finally replaced his thumb against her clit with his lips.

  Her flavor burst on his tongue and he groaned, his hips shifting into the bed for any kind of relief. She cried out at the first lap of his tongue, and he continued, though it was completely selfish. He wanted more of her taste, her scent, to feel her against him.

  He sucked and licked and thrust until she was rocking against his hand, his face. Until her scent was coating his lips and chin.

  Little shocks of pleasure ran from his scalp, where her fingers were twisted in his short curls, to his cock, where he rutted into the mattress.

  Her grip tightened as she tugged, and he came up for air. Her lids were half lowered, lips reddened from where she muffled her own cries by biting them.

  “Kiss,” she said, and he leaned up to give her his lips.

  He shared her own taste with her, sweet and perfect, her breaths soft, the tiny gasps and moans of pleasure mixing into the most beautiful composition he’d ever heard.

  He throbbed, heat racing up and down his spine to center at his lower back, his pulse heavy in his cock as he watched her near the edge.

  Her hips rocked up into his touch, her nails biting into his shoulders, her pussy tightening around his fingers. The flush painting her cheeks deepened in color and her lips parted as she cried out.

  Lyric stilled, letting out the sweetest gasp, and then she pulsed around him. Her hips and stomach jumped and flexed as her moans filled the air. Lids fluttering, cheeks flushed, hair tangled over the pillows, she was a vision.

  “Now you,” she murmured, and dragged at his waistband.

  He wasn’t going to argue and helped her get his boxers out of the way. As soon as they were lowered, Lyric grabbed his hand and wrapped it around his length, framing it with hers.

  The wetness from her release coated his fingers, and he jerked into their hold as it eased the glide. A moment later, she knocked his hand away and took over, slim fingers wrapped around his length, stroking root to tip.

  This time it was him searching out her lips, and she tilte
d her face up to him, parting her lips beneath his as he rocked into her tight grip.

  Each time she stroked up, she twisted her wrist, and it felt so fucking good each time. Her ecstasy replayed in his mind, heightening his own as he saw her head tilted back, lips parted around a moan. All over again he felt her tighten around his fingers, imagined what it would be like for her to squeeze so tightly around his—

  Lightning shot up and down his spine, and his chaotic thrusts stuttered to a lazy nudge as he came with a garbled shout. He lowered his head to her neck, breathing in the mixture of their scents as the haze subsided and her hand fell away.

  He smoothed soft kisses into her neck, tracing them up her jaw and finally onto her parted lips. His palms pressed into the mattress on either side of her, and he leaned up to glance between them.

  “Messy,” she sighed.

  It satisfied some primal part of his brain to see her glazed with his release.

  “Good,” he murmured.

  “Of course you’d say that, you’re not the one lying here,” she teased.

  His lips twitched, and he dropped a kiss onto the tip of her nose before shifting toward the edge of the bed.

  “I’ll go get something.”

  Her eyes sparkled with humor. “Enjoy your walk of pride.”

  “Oh, I will,” he replied as he pulled up his boxers. He sent her a wink just before he opened the door.

  He spied the others almost immediately in the main room, and Emerson leaned around the wall, arching a brow as his gaze dipped toe to tip.

  “Finally,” Emerson muttered just loud enough for Nohen to hear as he opened the bathroom door and grabbed a cloth from the stack on the shelf and wet it.

  Nohen flipped his middle finger in Emerson’s direction and floated on his high all the way back to Lyric’s nest.

  “Lyric, stop pacing and tell us whatever it is that’s bothering you,” Adra demanded. His tone came out soft through pure will, because his gut had twisted into more knots with every step she’d repeated in the small space of the bus.

  She sighed, wringing her hands together, and stopped to face them. Emerson and Henry’s conversation came to a halt, and Nohen’s attention had been glued to her since she’d begun pacing.