Page 45 of A Farmer’s Guide To Gamers

I shot a skeptical look at the beta only to be met with a half grin.

It had been a crazy night and day of work, along with random naps. Aiden, Kai, and myself had been up half the night working on ideas only to fall asleep in the living room until Dean showed up in the morning.

Waking up to the other alpha smelling like our omega had me instantly hard and out of sorts. A shower didn’t help, but the coffee afterwards did.

At least a little bit.

“It’s going to take some time to work out the kinks, plus we really need to focus on how to make our game stand out, among other titles in the genre. A new spin,” Kai said, talking with his hands as his eyes lit up with excitement. “I wonder if Tillie will have any ideas.”

“But she isn’t into gaming,” Aiden pointed out from where he was sitting on the couch, not looking up from his sketch pad.

“She’s a farmer and we’re building a farming game!” Kai shot back and rolled his eyes. “It could be the fresh perspective we need.”

“What would be the fresh perspective we need?” Dean’s deep voice rumbled from behind me.

Looking over my shoulder, I see the other alpha coming in from the garage where he had escaped to about an hour ago saying he needed time to think about the game, which meant he needed to do something with his hands.

“Tillie’s input about farming for the game,” Aiden said before I could speak up. “But she doesn’t game.”

“She farms, though,” Dean pointed out, sounding thoughtful as he hummed. “And we could always go over the basics for the classics of farming games. Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon⁠—”

“Along with some of the newer games, too — Coral Island, Moonlight Peaks,” Kai added on with excitement.

“She just has to get here for us to ask her,” I tack on, my worry slipping through even as I tried to keep Kai’s reassurance in mind.

It’s just five minutes. Nothing bad had happened.

Five minutes was nothing.

Just when I was about to lose it as Dean looked at me with surprise, a knock at the door interrupted us.

Walking over, I opened the door to a very flustered omega. Tillie was standing there with her blonde hair in wild disarray and her cheeks pink. In her arms was an aluminum foil tray and a few bundles of things on top.

Whatever it was, it smelled delicious but nothing could compare to the omega herself, which had me inhaling deeply without even thinking about it.

“Are you a magician? Cause looking at you, everyone else disappears,” I belatedly hear myself say and pride fills me when she smiles and laughs, her pink cheeks darkening as she blushed more and walked inside to join us.

“Take the food,” Kai said from behind me, exasperated that I completely missed a social cue.

“Sorry, sorry,” I said quickly as I took the trays from her.

“You’re fine,” she said easily. I could tell something was up from the way her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. The question was on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t want to potentially bring the mood down or ambush her just yet.

“This smells incredible,” was what I settled on instead. Her smile was a bit more genuine this time as she peeled off the foil to show homemade garlic bread and a big lasagna that was still steaming.

“I went for a classic,” she explained. “I made the pasta by hand, though, so it has a Tillie touch, still.”

“Well, I’m impressed,” Kai said as he started to set the table for us. Dean was grabbing drinks now and Aiden stepped up to find serving spoons. We all fell into our usual routines, simply including Tillie into it now.

“Let me pop out to the garage. I grabbed a dessert from the bakery earlier but I knew better than to leave it with this group,” Dean said, shooting us a look.

“Hey, I’m innocent!” Kai protested.

“I believe it was you who ate a dozen cookies last time we got a box,” Aiden said with a snort of laughter.

“Look, I was stressed,” the beta sighed. “We shouldn’t have sweets in the house when I’m trying to focus on a deadline. I blacked out, I swear.”

“Is it less stressful making your own game this time?” Tillie asked curiously. It was the perfect segue to us asking her about farming tips.