Page 3 of Sticky for You

Seriously Twirlie, why do you have to think about you-know-what when we can hear your damn thoughts?

The hot, huge monster with a strawberry blond mane. Yummy. I wanted to tangle my human fingers in it. The size of his hands and his hard, muscular chest…please let him be that size all over. I squeaked aloud at the thought, forgetting myself for a moment.

Shhh, Red, a beta and my brother, hissed. He’ll hear you.

Did I care? All I wanted was the monster’s large hands enfolding my furry shaft.

If you’re getting erect, I’m feeding you to the pan. Glass, my oldest brother, who could be a pain in my rhubarb, freaking growled the warning at me.

I ignored him. Just because he was older than me and an alpha didn’t mean he was the boss of me.

And it wasn’t like Glass hadn’t threatened me with the pan before.

Spoilsport, I fired back

There was a large pan on the stove Mom told us she would use to make rhubarb desserts out of naughty young stalks. Like she ever would. Rhubarb shifters were rare and precious. Not all of us were destined to be man and stalk.

Only Crimson knew which sprout had a human inside and which stalks were destined for the market. We were lucky to have Crimson. The previous alpha hadn’t been so discerning, and many young Valentine shifters had been lost to the c-r-u-m-b-l-e.

We never said that word aloud in Valentine Growville. Crimson might have helped the monster if he hadn’t mentioned that word.

C-r-u-m-b-l-e.

I shuddered.

No, really. It was a rookie mistake in our town. Someone needed to tell them.

Which was why the monster stomped out of the shop, sans rhubarb. The little monster with him looked very downcast. He was quite sweet, really, with pink hair. Not my type, of course. I liked my humans built like monster man.

Once they were out of sight, we shifted, taking a deep breath as we adjusted to our human form. Crimson, who had learned to be fast as lightning around visitors, had swept our clothes under the counter. Seeing the coast was clear, she handed them over and we all quickly dressed, used to seeing each other naked by now.

Crimson tutted at me, but then I was used to it and grinned back cheekily. “What did I tell you about wriggling in front of monsters?”

“But he was so hot, Crimson!”

She tutted again, and I just gave her a cheeky grin.

Glass, of course, acted like an ass, bossing us all around as soon as he was dressed. I hated that as an alpha he could shift and go straight into asshole mode, whereas it took me, an omega, a minute to catch up, limbs, brain, dick. Yup, everything was in the right place.

You think I’m joking? Have you ever seen a part-rhubarb, part-human shifter, with his dick growing out of his head? Never shift when you sneeze. That was my motto. It had worked so far.

‘I’m going now, Crimson,” I said, moving away from the counter. “I need to get home and help Mom with the dinner.”

Everyone stopped talking and stared at me. Then they burst out laughing.

“Good one, Twirlie,” Red hooted, slapping me on the back so hard I stumbled.

‘Don’t bruise the fruit,” I grumbled, recovering my balance and shoving Red away.

I might have known they wouldn’t believe me. Like I’d ever cooked in my life. I was a shifter. I could eat and drink like a human, but usually I bedded down in the dirt at night and took my nutrients that way.

“Whatever.” I waved a hand. “Later.”

I sauntered out, hoping to see Valentine’s newest residents, one of them at least, but I was too late. I was sure that was their taillights in the distance. But now I had a good idea which house my monster had moved into.

I sighed, feeling more than a little frustrated for some reason. It wasn’t like our Main Street was huge, but I hoped at least one of the six stores we kept for human visitors would have caught their attention. I scanned them, getting more deflated. Not even Barb Roo’s Boutique for the Tall and Slender had attracted their attention. I’d picked up a passel of men outside Barb’s shop. It was my number one hook-up site. None of them were brave enough to go in.

If Barb’s store wasn’t going to capture the monster, how could I meet him?

---