Page 45 of Their Alpha

Fletcher and I went our separate ways. I trusted him to both get what we would need and to protect himself if it came down to it. Gideon was the center of my focus now.

“I’ve been meaning to start reading again,” I said as I approached him, mostly to let him know I was coming, since he seemed really absorbed in his book. “Since we don’t have electricity or internet, books sound like a great form of entertainment.”

To my surprise, Gideon jumped and slammed the book he’d been reading closed. He whisked it behind his back so I couldn’t see the title.

“Yeah, more people need to read books,” he said in a rush. “It shouldn’t become a lost art form.”

“You’re only saying that because you’re an author,” I teased him, winking.

He relaxed a little and blushed.

God above, Gideon was beautiful when he blushed. He was something of a golden boy anyhow, with his blond-haired, blue-eyed look and aura of innocence. There was something about him that went beyond that now, though. It was like he was alive and thriving. Well, of course he was alive, but there was more to it than that. He glowed.

I wondered if it had anything to do with his heat just ending. He certainly still smelled delicious.

That had me wondering if other alphas could smell him. I glanced around, and yep, a couple guys scatteredthroughout the travel center were watching us. That was my cue to pull myself to my full height, cross my arms, and ward everyone off with a ferocious look.

Within minutes, every alpha in the travel center had gotten the message. That freed me up to do what I’d told Gideon I wanted to do and find some books to read. We were in what looked like maybe a self-help or possibly medical section, so after telling Gideon I was only going a few feet away, I walked over to the bestseller wall.

It took me thirty seconds of scanning titles before something pinged in my brain. Slowly, I turned back to Gideon. He had returned to looking at the shelves he’d quickly moved away from when I was watching him and was scanning the titles again with a worried look. The book he’d been reading before was still in his hand, and I saw that it had an adorable photo of a baby on the cover.

I froze. My inner alpha froze. Instinct rumbled deep within me, and I suddenly felt hyper-attuned to Gideon. Gid took another book from the shelf, another baby book, and started thumbing through that one.

It couldn’t be…could it?

Gideon glanced in my direction, and instead of putting him on the spot and making him nervous, I jerked back to the bestseller shelf, pretending I was interested in the titles. My heart was racing, though, and my alpha was…preening with pride.

Had I gotten Gideon pregnant during that one, massive wave where he’d mounted me? We’d had a breeding orgasm, that much was certain. Just thinking about it had my cock twitching. What had happened after that, though? Gideon had had more heat waves, hadn’t he?

That whole day was a blur, even though it had been less than forty-eight hours before. Fletcher had been in heat, too,and we’d started to bond. I remembered a lot of sex, a lot of knotting and orgasms, and…not a lot of details.

I might have gotten Gideon pregnant. But surely he would have said something. He definitely would have told Fletcher.

Unless he’d figured out Fletcher and I had bonded right away and was too scared to say something. Gideon and Fletcher had had to run from Goode only a few hours after their heats ended. He might not have had time to say anything. Maybe now he thought I would reject him and that Fletcher would reject him, too, because of the bond.

I couldn’t let things go unsaid for a second longer. If we were about to become a family, then we needed to face that together.

I put the book I’d been looking at back on the shelf and marched toward Gideon. Almost like he could feel me coming, Gideon turned toward me and sucked in a breath.

“Hey, Gid! Look at this!”

Fletcher’s excited call from the other end of the bookshop startled both of us. I hadn’t realized Fletcher had made his way back into the book section already.

Gideon rushed away from me, his face pink and his expression wary. I almost thought I’d frightened him again, but I got an entirely different sort of emotion from him.

“Look,” Fletcher said, beaming, as we walked into the young adult’s section.

I wasn’t sure what I was seeing at first, even though Gideon broke into a happy shout and covered the lower half of his face with his hands. There was a display of books about some sort of magical academy right in the center of that section,The Inner Light Academy, by Tristan Freehold.

Then it dawned on me.

“Are these yours?” I asked quietly, beaming with pride in my omega.

I mean, Gideon.

Gideon nodded slowly. His eyes danced as he glanced up at me. “It’s an entire display and everything.”

“It is,” I said, slipping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him close. I kissed the top of his head, and it felt like the most right and natural thing in the world.

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