Chapter Two

Burke

I've got it. Yes, I can do this. I'll show Ricky just how limber I am. I can pole dance! I am king of the pole!

I hung on tighter as I wobbled a bit. No, I've got it. Swing around gracefully, one arm out, and—

Smack!

Stars tangoed in my eyes as I crashed into the rusty metal pole I'd erected in the garden. Ouch! My nose smacked into the pole and I dropped like a stone, landing on my back in the dirt, sprawled out like a starfish.

Ouch!

I hurt from my nose to my balls. Who said pole dancing was easy? The guy on YouTube, that's who! Lying liar. Pole dancing for beginners. It was laughable, or it would be if parts of me that shouldn't be hurting definitely were.

"Maximus, Apollo. Quick! Come here!"

Could this day get any better? Now I was going to get an audience, all because of Tim.

"What's happened, Tim?" Maximus called from somewhere. I didn't know where, I didn't care. I just wanted them to leave me alone.

"Burke is unconscious! He's bleeding."

I'm not unconscious, Tim. I just wish I was so no one could witness my shame.

And did my alpha's mate have to scream by my ear? It was sweet how concerned he was, but could he dial it down a notch? Then I could just take a nap and pretend like life was a bunch of rhubarb.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Maximus growled from somewhere above me.

Someone nudged me with their sneakered foot. I opened my eyes and winced as the sunlight and my headache collided, making me want to toss my cookies.

"Sleeping," I mumbled, because wasn't it damn obvious?

"In the dirt?" Maximus asked, sounding disbelieving.

"It works for your mate," I fired back, trying to deflect from the situation they were all making worse by staring. I could feel their pity.

"He's a rhubarb," Maximus pointed out. "You're a bull. What the lion were you doing on that pole?"

"Your nose is bleeding," Tim added helpfully, bending down to poke at my nose, making it throb worse.

"Ow! Just leave me to die," I begged, closing my eyes again.

"Come on, teeny-tiny cow," Maximus said, hauling me up and throwing me onto my feet, grinning.

Blood spattered across the dirt. My stomach lurched, and I had to practice deep breathing for a moment. I glared at Maximus for repeating Ricky's words, even knowing it was pointless. I am a tiny bull. Maximum is an alpha lion. And I would always have a build like hairy LEGO bricks stacked together. Short and square with fluff around the ears, bovine or human. The only big things about me were my balls.

Wait! Why did I think about my balls? I had balls. I am a damn bull. But I didn't think about them all the time. Just the times they were blue. Which, I had to admit, was pretty much all the time. I sighed heavily, feeling their weight.

In my last herd, I was the bull who sniffed out the ladies in heat. That was my job. Did I ever get any action? Eck to the hell, no. And what was worse about that job? I am gay! I wanted action with the bulls. Yeah, that didn't happen either. They all said I smelled like rhubarb and that was weird. What was wrong with that? It's better than smelling like cow shit, right?

Joining Maximus's pride hadn't helped with the blue balls, but at least I was with other gay guys who didn't fit in. We were a true herd, and I loved them all. Even when they were giving me those pitying looks. Like right now.

"He's bleeding into my soil," Tim whispered to his mate. "Shove him near the roses. He can fertilize them."

I held back what I wanted to say. It just wasn't worth facing the alpha's anger. But then Maximus turned and guided me into the house, his touch gentle. I swallowed hard, my swollen eyes stinging. My previous alpha never showed kindness like Maximus did.

"Drew!" Maximus bellowed.

I smacked my ear, wincing at the volume. He was so loud!

Maximus ignored me. Had falling done something to my hearing?

Okay, I was being dramatic, but my nose and balls still hurt.

The llama appeared in the kitchen doorway. "What's wrong? Burke, did you play on that pole again?" He tutted at me like I was a two-year-old who didn't listen to reason. "I told you, you're a bull, not a rhubarb. You ought to get Ricky to teach you. Come here, I'll clean you up."

I submitted to my nose being wiped, poked, and prodded. Drew tried to be gentle, but seriously, it throbbed exactly like a nose hitting metal would.

"You've a broken nose, but shifting for a while will heal it," Drew said, patting my shoulder.

"I'll shift later," I muttered, going cross-eyed to see if my nose was now wonky.

Every time I shifted, I got all horny again. And then I thought of Ricky. He was gorgeous. All lithe and limber, an excited look in his dark eyes that went straight to my dick. He was all I thought about these days. Me wrapped around his tight muscled body. Him pressing inside me—balls to bull. I sighed at the wave of heat coursing through me that had nothing to do with pole dancing.

"Stop that!" Drew glared at me. "It's bad enough with our alpha broadcasting what's going on in his head night and day. I don't need a running commentary about your sex life, too."

"I don't have a sex life," I muttered, disheartened.

"Not yet. Because you haven't gotten off your ass and found your ma—"

Maximus coughed loudly. Drew scowled and spat out a yellow love heart with purple writing. I picked it up.

Rhubarb 2 Go.

I waved it at him. "What does this mean?"

"Work it out for yourself," he snapped, and vanished with the bowl of bloodied tissues.

I turned the love heart over and over. Nope, no clue. I turned to ask Maximus, but he had vanished with Tim.

On my own, again. I groaned and buried my head in my arms on the kitchen counter.

"Wanna talk about him, brother?" Apollo came and stood beside me and poked me in the ribs…painfully.

I raised my head to stare at the second-in-command of the weird pride I was part of. "Him? Who him?"

Apollo stared at me. "Uh, Ricky. You know, the skinny stalk from town."

"I know who Ricky is," I snapped back in confusion.

"Then why did you ask? Wait, I don't care. Why are you being a broody bull in here? Is it your nose? Did you know you've got two black eyes now?"

"I need to shift," I muttered, "and I'm not brooding."

"Uh-huh." Apollo didn't hide his skepticism.

"He doesn't like me." Now why did that slip out?

Apollo slung his arm around my shoulder and squeezed me hard. "Are you sure about that, Burkie? He didn't run away from you, and you were behaving like a crazy bull."

"Don't call me that. He hasn't called." On a scale of one to pathetic, I was right up there at eleven.

Anyway, why would he call me? I was just the idiot raving about my jacket and forgetting all about personal space.

"Have you called him?"

"Uh…no." I scowled at Apollo, even though it hurt. I didn't need him to be logical.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm an omega. I'm not supposed to do the running."

Apollo's snort was long and loud. "Have you met Tim? You know him? Our alpha's omega? The one who serenaded us for days and days?"

"I want someone to woo me," I muttered uncomfortably.

I buried my head in my arms so I wouldn't have to meet Apollo's pitying gaze. I'd just admitted my deepest desire. I was an omega, and I wanted to be the one who was wooed.