Page 79 of A Farmer’s Guide To Gamers

But it had done its job.

Everyone around us had stopped and looked over. Jonathan also saw the change. All eyes were on him and whispers started.

Dean stood and grabbed Jonathan’s chair, pulling it out roughly. He nearly toppled out but leapt to his feet, ready to square off, but Jack and I moved at the same time, flanking him and blocking our omega who was now clinging to Aiden.

She could handle this herself if she wanted to, but he was scaring her and we weren’t going to stand for that.

“I’m going to the police, Jonathan. If words don’t work, maybe a restraining order will,” she said.

He blinked at her in utter confusion. I’d swear this alpha was bipolar with how fast his emotions switched, but I think he was just a possessive, entitled alpha who didn’t have a hold of his emotions and didn’t hear the word ‘no’ often enough.

“We can escort you out or we can get the police to do so.”

I glanced over to find our server along with a few others standing near us with fierce expressions.

Jonathan looked at all of us, then pointed at Tillie with barely restrained fury.

“You’re going to regret this,” he warned her.

“And we will make a copy of the security footage for the police to have when she files for that restraining order,” our server said.

They all grabbed hold of him and manhandled him out of the door. Not long after two police cars pulled up and started to deal with the commotion going on outside.

“I’m so sorry,” Tillie muttered, her voice thick with tears as she looked at us with tear-filled eyes. “He wasn’t like this before, but… It wasn’t anything serious. I just don’t understand.”

“Some men don’t understand that no is a complete sentence,” I told her firmly and wrapped my arms around her. “You have nothing to apologize for. You’re not responsible for his actions. And as much as we know you can take care of things yourself, we’re here to help you.”

Tillie clung to me, her head buried against my chest as I felt hot tears on my shirt.

The end of our date night had us dealing with police questions and then us going to the station to get information on filing a restraining order against the alpha.

By the time we got home, I could tell Tillie was emotionally exhausted and needed to nest and sleep. Everyone was on the same page, so Dean and Jack took Tillie up to settle in for the night.

A meow drew my attention, and I looked down to find that damn pirate cat, Earl, rubbing himself against my pants.

Reaching down, I picked him up and surprised myself by enjoying how much he purred in my arms.

“You’re pretty amazing, Kai. You know that?” Aiden said, surprising me enough that I blinked a few times until I was staring at him. “How you stood up to him and reassured Tillie. And me, tonight. I don’t think I realized how much I rely on you until tonight.”

“Just figuring that out?” I tried to keep my voice light. “Man, I really need to work on my skills then.”

“What skills?” Aiden asked after a heavy beat of silence.

“Oh, nothing. Never mind,” I backtracked and put Earl down. “Look, I’m going to go get ready to get some sleep. Don’t forget you need some, too, beta.”

I tried to brush past him, but unlike all the other times, Aiden stopped me with a hand on my wrist.

“I want to ask you something, Kai. And I don’t want you to brush me off.”

“Okay…. What’s up?” I asked, desperately hoping he couldn’t feel the pounding of my heart or that my scent wouldn’t give me away.

His was surrounding me.

Green tea, almond, and honey… some of my favorite scents now.

“You look at me like you look at Tillie… Why?”

My throat had never felt drier. My tongue almost seemed stuck as I tried to figure out how to respond. This is not how I ever thought this moment would come about. I always envisioned how smooth I would be and sweep him off his feet.