Page 7 of Conflicting Lyrics (Heartbreak Melody #1)

“All packed and ready to go?” Lisa asks, standing in my doorway, eyes filled with tears.

“Stop it!” I laugh, grinning wide, but my own eyes well with tears as well as I walk over to her, pulling her in for a big hug. “This is a good thing.”

“I know,” she sniffles, holding me tight. “I’m just gonna miss you.”

Emotion clogs my throat. “I’m gonna miss you too,” I whisper as I bury my face in her neck.

Lisa might have started off as just someone assigned to me when I came to the center a few years ago, but it didn’t take long for her to become something of an aunt-like figure to me.

After the dust settled and the whole trial stuff was put behind us, I started to allow myself to heal. Through every step, Lisa was there for me. For all my ups and downs. My wins and losses.

She’s been the only person in my life for a long time now that I care deeply about.

“Okay, no more tears.” She sniffs, taking a step back. She grabs my shoulders and takes a deep breath. She’s a beautiful woman with long black hair and bright blue eyes. Something about her calms me, making me feel safe. She’s an Omega like me, and I think that's helped a lot with our connection.

“I’m so proud of you, Lulu.” She smiles brightly, a tear rolling down her cheek. “You’re going to do amazing at Calling Wood. I just know you will. And if you need anything, call me, please.”

“I will.” I nod with a smile, taking a shaky, nervous breath.

Her words hit me hard, making my chest tighten.

I can’t remember the last time someone was proud of me.

But she always has been. It’s helped keep me going.

The desire to prove myself, to show I can be a good person.

I can be better than the life I’ve grown up in.

“We'd better get going, or you're going to miss your flight.” She pats me on the arm before stepping past me into the room to grab a few bags. I laugh, knowing I’m going to be at the airport way before my flight is set to leave, and grab a few bags myself.

Last week was my twenty-first birthday, and I’ve been a wreck ever since.

Being an Omega, you’re always faced with new changes. It’s a never-ending roller coaster of new emotions and feelings, discovering new things about yourself.

The center has offered me a safe place to learn about my body and how it works.

I love being an Omega, but sometimes it can be lonely. It’s in our nature to want to be loved, cared for, needed. For us to bond with an Alpha, to care for them as well, to make them feel loved and wanted.

I know I’m not going to be able to get those experiences here at the center. The best place for that is Calling Wood.

Here I’ve been taught everything I need to know about being an Omega; all about Alphas, Betas, pack dynamics. You name it, I now know it.

One of the perks of being at the center for as long as I have been is that I get to bypass the mandatory first year of basic Omega lessons like Omega 101, a Home Economics class that Calling Wood requires before getting to enroll in all of the more educational courses that will help me get a degree in a career I want.

Even so, I still have no idea what I want to do with my life. I just know I want to be hands-on, involved with other people. Once I decide which career I want, I’ll take the right courses. For now, I just want to do what looks interesting and could be helpful for my future.

My plan is to go to Calling Wood, branch out, enjoy life, make new friends, and have new experiences.

I’m not the same person I was when I first came to the center. I’ve grown into this whole different person. Sometimes, I don’t even recognize myself.

More confident in myself than I’ve ever been before, I have a take no shit attitude. And while I still don’t trust easily, I’m a lot more open to the world around me. Not as closed off as I was before.

No more meek, little Lucinda. Nope. I’m Lulu Carter.

An Omega who says what she thinks with no shame.

I’ve spent way too long keeping things in, keeping my opinions to myself.

I hate being ignored, being silenced. I’ve become more bold, brave, and no longer care about pleasing others or what they think of me.

I’m me. And I have no shame. It’s freeing.

The ride to the airport was a sad one, filled with more crying from Lisa than I’ve ever seen. She held me for a long time before finally letting me go through security.

To say I was nervous the whole flight there would be an understatement. I should be used to major changes in my life by now, seeing how the last three years have been filled with enough to last me a lifetime.

But as I grab my bags, load them onto the luggage cart, and push them towards the exit to catch a taxi, I feel almost… scared?

Maybe I’ve grown used to the comfort of the Omega center. My room, my nest, my workers, and the group meetings. I’ve only had less than a year of normalcy, since everything died down enough for me to even try to be a normal girl, and now I’m packing up and moving.

This time however, isn’t like the last. I’m not starting over new, running away from a toxic nightmare of a life and from the people who contributed to it.

I’m taking this much-needed next step in my life. One I’ve been excited about for a while now. I can’t let my fear of the unknown and big changes get in the way of all the new and exciting things that will come from attending Calling Wood.

It’s my chance to take back my life and make it what I’ve always wanted it to be. No one holding me back, no one keeping me down.

The world is in my hands, and I get to choose what to do with it.

I’ve chosen to come to Calling Wood for a life I have only ever dreamed about.

With a deep breath, I get in line for a taxi. One pulls up and helps me put my bags in the back.

Sliding in, I put my seat belt on and look forward.

“Where to?” the driver asks, glancing up to look at me through the rearview mirror.

“Calling Wood University, please.” I smile politely.

Nodding his head, he pulls away from the curb, and I settle back into my seat.

This giddy excitement fills me the longer we drive. My eyes bounce around as I stare out the window, trying to take in everything at once. From the buildings to the palm trees. At one point, we take a road that runs along the waterfront of the beach, and a wide smile lights up my face.

I’ve never seen the ocean before; all of this is something I’m seeing for the very first time. There was only one time in my life I’ve left Montana, and that was for a great aunt’s funeral back when I was ten.

I can count on one hand the amount of times I have even left the city I grew up in. All the times Ally would declare we were going on a spontaneous road trip, but never far enough that we couldn’t be back by dark.

As scary as it is starting over again, putting myself out there in a place where I know no one, that’s over a thousand miles away from the place I grew up, is where I am meant to be. I know that in the deepest depths of my soul.

As we pull up to the big iron gates with a sign next to it that says “Welcome To Calling Wood”, a settling comfort blankets my body and takes away some of that nervous energy from before.

“I can’t take you past here,” the driver informs me, parking the car.

“Oh, ah… okay.” I nod, quickly grabbing my wallet to pay. Once that's done, I get out, grab my purse to help the driver with my suitcases.

“Thank you!” I wave the man off as he gets back in his car.

Once the car is out of sight, I let out a heavy breath and stare down at all my things. “Now, how the hell am I gonna get all of this inside?” I mutter.

“That would be my job,” a male voice sounds from behind me.

I let out a very high-pitched squeal of surprise before spinning around wide-eyed to face a tall man standing behind me.

“You scared the shit out of me!” I close my eyes, hand on my racing heart, as I struggle to catch my breath.

“Sorry about that,” he chuckles. “Didn’t mean to frighten you. But I was expecting you.”

“You were?” I open my eyes, frowning at this stranger.

“Yes.” He nods. “Name’s Rick. I’m your Beta guard.”

“Oh.” I blink in surprise. “Rick, right. Okay. The email mentioned something about a Beta bodyguard.” I tilt my head to the side as I take him in.

He wasn’t bad looking, in his mid-thirties by the look of it.

Tall, cleanly cut brown hair, matching eyes that shine with mirth, the longer I stare.

“What's the deal with needing a bodyguard?” I ask, crossing my arms as I raise a brow. “I know it’s meant for an Omega’s protection, but is it really that bad at this school to be needing one? ”

“No.” He shakes his head, smiling. “The complete opposite, really. Calling Wood is one of the safest places for Omegas. It’s more of a precaution.

At the end of the day, Alpha and Omega hormones, urges, and instincts play a big part in their everyday lives.

There's always a risk, anywhere in the world, that something could happen. An Omega going into heat without notice, an Alpha rut taking them by surprise. One sniff and boom, you are scent matches, and it’s like all common sense disappears.

Okay, not all the time, but it happens.” He chuckles again.

He’s not wrong. I know all this. Well, I know of this.

I learned almost everything there is to know about Alphas, Omegas, and Betas back at the center.

The only thing is, I've never seen it for myself. Since presenting, I haven’t really spent much time in the real world to see these things happen for myself.

My nose twitches at his last comment. “Scent matches,” I sigh. “That's the real fear.”

He gives me an amused look. “You think so?”