As we completed our circuit of the market, Archer laid a hand on my arm and I stopped. “Sylvia,” he began, “do you think you’d like to go on a date with us. Out to dinner, maybe, or for a hike somewhere?”
Ohhh. I didn’t, wasn’t ready for a date. Was I?
Could I say no?
Panic was seeping back in. I didn’t want to see them walk away, but the idea of going out on a date was so terrifying.
“Sylvia.” Dax’s voice pierced my mini freakout. “It’s going to be okay. I get overwrought sometimes, too. There’s no rush.”
“Maybe we could text?” suggested Archer, who I was figuring out was the pack alpha. “Get to know one another that way?”
I could live with that. Somehow I communicated that, and they took me back to Lily and Rumor andpromised to text me later. Then they bought all my cards.
After the trio walked away, Lily asked, “Do you want to go home now?”
They still had a lot of things left to sell, and it wasn’t fair to make them go home before they could finish up their business, so I shook my head and took a seat on one of the folding chairs away from the counter.
By the time we went home, I was already texting back and forth with the three wolf shifters who claimed we were a scent match.
Chapter Ten
Archer
For the last few days, I’d become a huge fan of texting. Sylvia and I had conversations about everything. Books, mostly. Like me, she read everything. Some people stuck to romance or mystery, but I would read almost any book put in front of me.
I’d also noticed a trend with our omega. She liked a late-night treat.
I wished I could hear her voice, but knowing her and having her in our lives was more than enough. She was more than enough.
Dax and Talon were texting her as well. There were a few texts in the group chat, but it often got confusing for all of us.
She told me Dax sent her pictures of our home, our garden, and even Emma the goat. Our omega had never been around animals before moving into her brother’s farm.
We would see her again at the farmers market on Saturday, but my alpha was going nuts in the meantime. Scent matches were rare, and packs and their omegas usually moved along with the process of mating and being together fairly quickly, but Sylvia was as rare as us finding each other.
She was reserved. Maybe that was her general personality, but I thought there was more.
Time for the alpha of our pack to make a bold move. Good thing I was the alpha.
I closed the book on shifter biology I’d been half reading and stood up, a plan forming in my mind.
We were supposed to be courting our omega. It was high time we started.
I’d never loved flowers as a gift. They died soon after receiving them. Didn’t seem right. But I could get her an arrangement that never died. Like our love for our omega.
Fuck, how cheesy.
Sylvia deserved wooing.
“Don’t forget the grocery list.” Talon plucked it from the fridge and waved it at me.
“I’m not going to the store. I’m…I’m making the first move with Sylvia. It’s time we courted her over more than text.”
Talon lit up. Dax walked in the back door, wiping his hands on a towel. “What’s happening?”
“I’m going into town to that florist that has the wooden flower arrangements. And to the chocolatier. Text isn’t enough for me. I’m sure you two feel the same way.”
“Should we come?” Talon asked, looking down to assess his outfit. We stayed pretty casual around the homestead.
