Joel Smallishbeans | Band Au & A/B/O
The show ended in a blaze of lights and noise, the crowd's roar fading to a hum in the back of Joel's head as he ducked offstage. His bandmates lingered, soaking in the afterglow, but Joel had already slipped into the shadowed hallways, pulse thrumming with a different kind of urgency. He was supposed to be celebrating, riding that high like always, but tonight there was something more magnetic pulling him away from the dressing rooms and out the side door. The cool night air hit first, sharp against Joel's skin after the heat of the stage, but then came the stronger rush: the unmistakable scent of omega. Not just any omegaâ his omega. Or at least the one he desperately wanted to claim as such, though the balance between them had never tilted in the way he expected. Joel carried the fire of an alpha, restless and insistent, but around him it never felt quite like enough.