Chapter Three

Gordon

I raised my head and caught his glorious smile. Pretty? I thought he was the most alluring rhubarb ever to walk the earth and had done since I first met him. All I wanted to do was enfold him in my arms and keep him safe from the rest of the world.

“I’d like that,” Red said shyly.

I furrowed my brow. “You’d like what?”

“For you to hold me and protect me from the rest of the world.”

“Wait, you heard that?”

We all heard that.

Fuck off, Tim, Red said. This is my wooing, not yours, and I received flowers.

I heard my stalk loud and clear and if I’d been in my goat form, my little hooves would have kicked up in joy, jumping about the fact he knew I was wooing him.

And who told him to take the flowers?

I groaned at Tim outing me.

Hey, I got the kinky candy from my mate. That was Glass, adding to my torment.

I guess we all had our weird love language, but I needed them all to get lost because the noise was too much! I tapped the side of my head, as if I could kick them out.

“What’s wrong?” Red asked, looking concerned, clearly not getting that I could hear the entire conversation between him and his brothers.

“I think the entire town just took residence in my head. Is this what it’s like all the time?”

Red’s smile lit up the room. “Welcome to the wacky world of Valentine. Your business is their business. Particularly if Tim is listening in.”

Nothing is secret in Valentine, Maximus agreed.

The town and the pride!

We are one.

I wasn’t sure who said that, but there were more than a few sniffles.

This is all heartwarming and stuff, but I have a… mate who needs my arms right now, I said firmly. Take a hike out of our heads, okay?

Silence.

Blissful silence.

Red and I locked gazes.

He loves jasmine, Tim butted in.

Maxi, go do unspeakable things to your mate before my mate feeds him to the pan, Red ordered.

I heard an outraged gasp and a growl, but the silence returned.

I sighed and held out my hand. “Let’s make the most of it while we can.”

Red took my hand, and I tugged him closer, pulling him against me. We both sighed at the touch. It was real, we were mates.

Then Red took a step back, and my heart thumped hard against my ribs.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, panicked that I’d maybe scared him. Had I been too forceful? Too overly goaty?

Red picked up the wilted flowers. “I think I should put these in water. They need it. If you add some Mountain Dew to the water, they’ll last longer.”

I couldn’t have cared less about the flowers at this point, but I let Red go, watching him bustle over to a kitchen cabinet and draw out a vase just the right size. He caught my look of surprise.

“What?”

“I don’t know many guys who’d have a vase, let alone know where it was.”

Red chuckled and opened the cabinet to show me just how many vases he owned. “I’ve always loved flowers.”

My heart skipped and pitter-pattered like kids let out to play. Destined to be mine, that’s all I could think. It was fate. How had the Goated Gods found the one stalk in the world who didn’t laugh at my love of flowers? As I held his stare, I knew he’d been worth waiting for.

From the hitch of his breath and pink cheeks as Red filled the vase with water and arranged the slightly crushed flowers, Red had clearly heard my teen O.M.G. (oh my goat) moment.

I swallowed hard and tried to recover my dignity. “You don’t sleep in the soil?”

“When I need to eat and recover, I sleep among the flowers in my backyard. I have my own house because I like my privacy, and you can’t always get that in Valentine.”

If he wanted to stay at the pride house, I’d dig out a space for Red away from the others, just under the jasmine. I knew just the place.

Red placed the vase in the middle of the kitchen table, then stepped into my space. “Can we resume the hugging? I could really do with one.”

It was easy to tug him closer and wrap my arms around him, burying my nose in the crook of his neck and inhaling his floral scent. I loved the power of his solid body flush against mine.

“You don’t mind that I’m not a teeny-tiny stalk?” he murmured in a hesitant tone.

I guess he meant an omega stalk built like Tim.

I raised my head to nibble on his ear. “You’re perfect, just the way you are.”

He giggled and writhed under my touch. “You’re not going to eat me, are you?”

“I want to eat you,” I admitted. “Your mouth, your cock, your ass. I want to nibble your fuzzies until you’re screaming my name. There isn’t a part of you I don’t want to lick and touch and make mine.” I nibbled the other ear for emphasis.

He shivered delectably in my arms. “I like the sound of that.”

I buried my face against the smooth skin of his neck and ran my hands up and down his back, feeling his occasional shiver. Red could do anything, and I’d follow. He was perfect. But was this my libido talking?

I really didn’t know what to do. I was the Inexperienced Alpha. And I didn’t even know how much experience Red had. Would it be the virgin duo or had Red cantered around Valentine, tasting every alpha in town?

“Gordon?” Red sounded very amused.

“Yes?”

“You know I can hear all this, don’t you?”

“Oh my giddy goat,” I groaned. I was never going to be able to look my omega in the eye again.

“You could just ask me instead of panicking.”

I took a deep breath and locked eyes with him.

“Red, omega of my heart, have you gone stalk to stalk before, been deflowered, popped your cherry—”

He pressed a finger across my mouth. “I get it, and the answer is yes. I have. And I’ll happily be the honeybee to your pollen. Or the other way around. But we’ll work this out together. Just keep me safe from the monsters, Gordon, because I’m stalkin’ scared.”

The unexpected shift in conversation sent icicles through my furry curls. I held him close to my heart.

I will protect you until the end of my days.