Page 9 of Rumble of the Crumble

“Are you standing outside the door all night or are you going in?” Gordon asked from behind us.

I hadn’t heard him or Red arrive. For some reason, there were daisies woven into Red’s hair.

Red noticed me staring and blushed. “You know Gordon loves flowers.”

This was true. Our goat shifter adored them. Since meeting his mate had calmed his libido, he’d had time to focus on other things, like planting flowers around Red’s dirt bed and presenting his mate with the huge bouquets he loved to make.

No, I didn’t get it either, but it made Red happy and if it made Red content, Gordon was too. That’s all that mattered. I wanted the pride to be happy. I’d put them through so much.

The pride couples had their quirks. Glass and Apollo did it with handcuffs, Burke and Ricky with poles, Maximus and Tim with a disco soundtrack, Tartie and Randy with clippers, Drew and Goliath… I wasn’t sure what their quirk was. I glanced at Butch. He didn’t seem remotely bemused. I guess in a town of rhubarb, he’d seen it all.

“Hey.”

I looked up to see Gordon scowling at me. “What?”

“You didn’t put us through this nightmare. Amell did that. You, Maxi and Apollo saved us. Without you…” He swallowed hard. “Without you, there wouldn’t be us.”

The door opened, and I wasn’t surprised to see Maximus and the rest of the pride standing there vying to get in the doorway. Just the pride, not the mates. I ended up in the middle of a pride hug and if there were some sniffles, no one cared.

We saved each other!That was Maximus, and we all agreed. We’d saved each other.

“Does this deserve a song?” Tim trilled.

Maximus groaned, and his head landed on my shoulder. “Couldn’t it have been anything else except singing?”

“You want him to put you in handcuffs?” I asked, grinning cheekily.

“Oohhhhh,” Tim said breathily.

“Don’t even think about it,” Maximus snapped. “I’ll always be the one with the key.”

Tim’s hum didn’t sound convincing.

“Let’s go inside,” Randy said, herding us into the house and shutting the door on the outside world.

My head snapped up. “Where’s Butch?” Shit, I’d left him on the doorstep.

“Red took him around the side of the house into the kitchen as you guys were making out in the hallway,” Tim giggled. “We thought we’d have our own make-out session.”

Maximus rolled his eyes. “Don’t scare him off. He’s still new to the pride.”

I opened my mouth to point out that Butch wasn’t part of the pride, but Randy herded me down the hallway and into the kitchen before I had a chance to protest.

“I think he fits right in,” Maximus said quietly.

I stopped in the doorway at the sight of my gruff sheriff cuddling Burke’s sweet and totally feral baby against his chest. It made a ball of emotion gather in my throat as I watched him whisper in the baby’s ear. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

“He’ll be a wonderful dad,” Randy murmured in my ear.

I knew that. But we were two alphas. We couldn’t have children. I could feel the love as he rocked the baby through our link and felt a deep sadness.

Butch looked up at me and smiled. “Alright?”

I nodded. Randy gave me a shove. “Go take care of him or he’ll end up nursing all the babies.”

“Where’s Ricky?” I asked, noticing his absence.

“Hungover. Crashed in the soil to recover,” Maximus chuckled.

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