“Okay, drink up... the next round’s on me.” My idiot brother, Zeke, pushed my half-finished beer in front of me with a grin. “Now tell us what happened this time. Did she cheat on you?”

“Ooh! Ooh! Me, me!” Kade chirped, bouncing on his seat and waving his hand in the air like the kiss-ass teacher’s pet that he’d been as a kid. “I bet she left you for one of her co-workers. No.... wait. Too easy. I know! She got sick of you showing up smelling like manure, and took off with the mailman. No... still too easy.” He chewed his lip thoughtfully while Zeke cracked up.

“She met someone at the bar while waiting for you to show up late for yet another date,” he suggested helpfully.

Kade grinned at Zeke. “Good one. Or, she took off with the valet after she gave up on Dean actually showing up and they drove off into the sunset together.”

I groaned and drained my beer, shoving the empty mug at Zeke while shooting a smirk at Kade. “You’re half right, actually, about the driving off into the sunset part. And you also called it with the co-worker, but Zeke had it with the cheating. As we speak, Juliet is on her way to Reno with her new Romeo. Apparently, she’s been seeing him while I was busy on the farm, and they’re getting married. Tonight.”

Both of my brothers groaned and pulled out their wallets. As they exchanged money for whatever bets they’d made between themselves, Kade flipped his bright pink bangs out of his face and glanced at me thoughtfully. “Wait, I forgot to ask... Pregnant?”

“Naturally,” I answered with a knowing grin as Zeke pulled a twenty out and passed it to Kade. Before Zeke let it go, his eyes lit up as he looked back at me.

“But, is it his? Yours? Or do you know?” My brothers both waited for my response with expectant smirks.

“His. Not mine, since we hadn’t had sex yet. She told me she wanted to wait to be sure, if you can believe that shit.” I laughed.

“Oh, I can believe it,” Kade nodded. “Juliet? Trust me, doll. That heifer wanted to be sure she had one of you locked down before she played that card. Good job on not letting that one in your drawers, I told you she had shifty eyes. Never trust someone with eyes that close together.”

“Bullshit. It’s not the eyes that need to be further apart, it’s the thighs,” Zeke said as he waggled his eyebrows. “How’s our baby bro supposed to make her fall in love if she won’t open her legs?”

Kade smacked Zeke across the chest with the back of his hand. “Oh. My. God. You’re such an alphahole. How are you even related to me? I can’t believe you’d say something that sexist, even about a harlot like her.”

Zeke rolled his eyes. “Please. You were thinking it, I’m simply the only one honest enough to say it.”

“You know, Dean,” Kade said with a raised brow. “If you’d give a male omega a shot, you’d see that we are just as able to please our alphas as the gals are... if not better. I mean, it takes a man to know how to please a man, if you get my drift.”

I rolled my eyes and pointed at my empty glass. “I thought you were getting another round, Zeke? If I have to listen to this shit, I’ll need a few more drinks in me.”

Zeke stood but tilted his head toward Kade. “You know, he’s not wrong. I mean, you know I swing both ways, and I’ve found the male omegas are much easier to please than the females. And they really do give the best head. With a guy, he doesn’t act like he’s doing you a personal favor or flinch at sucking on your balls. I had this one guy that could make me see God with just a wiggle of his pinkie finger.”

“Stop. Please. I don’t want to picture you with any omega... female or male. Now give me a break, you both know I only swing one direction.” I crossed my arms defiantly as I leaned back in my seat. Zeke went off to get our drinks, while Kade looked at me sadly.

“You know she was wrong, right? Mom, I mean. Just because you liked to take dance with me as a kid didn’t make you less of an alpha.”

“Kade. This has nothing to do with Mom and everything to do with my personal tastes.”

“Mm. I wonder... Don’t think it’s escaped my notice that while you proclaim to love the ladies, you’ve yet to ever let one get under your skin. I’ve never seen you have deep feelings for any woman.” Kade tipped his head and eyed me thoughtfully, his bright green eyes watching me closely. “So, tell me. Are you really doing okay with being yet another woman’s Mr. Not-Quite-Right before she meets her prince?”

I shrugged a shoulder. “Why wouldn’t I be? Plenty more fish in the sea, right?”

Kade pushed his hair back and leaned forward. “Why wouldn’t you be? Hmm. Because your girlfriend of five months, who you admit to never having screwed, ran off in the arms of another man? A man she did give it up for and who is now the father of her unborn child? Seriously, babe. You just had a break-up. Unless you’re emotionless, you must be feeling something in that hard heart of yours.”

I winced. “Ouch. Hard heart, huh? Fair enough, I suppose. I mean, I wanted to love her. I really tried... but, it didn’t feel right. Will I miss her? Sure. It sucks to have to sit alone in restaurants or the movies. But single women are a dime a dozen. I’ll be fine.”

Zeke joined us again and slid our drinks to us, before turning his own green-eyed gaze on me. “You’re cold, man. And that’s coming from me, who never lands in the same bed twice. Or floor, counter, backseat... you get my drift. Hit it and quit it, that’s my motto. But I’d still like to think that I’d feel something if yet another lady in a string of them ran off with another man.”

“I don’t get it.” I tried to explain, but it was difficult to put into words. “I’m not being an asshole. I mean, I just don’t get the whole romance and feelings thing… at least, I haven’t yet. But you have to give me points for trying, right? I always get right back up on the horse and try again with the next one.”

Kade leveled me with a long look, then clapped his hands together. “You know what, little bro? I think that’s your problem! You’ve never really been in love. And what’s more? I think you’re afraid to take the risk. After Mom and Dad divorced and she took off, you’re probably afraid it will happen to you too. Like, maybe you think it needs to be forever before you open your heart. But, you can’t find that without trying, babe.”

Zeke looked like he was about to speak, but I held up a hand. “Look, I appreciate where you’re coming from, I do. But Mom and Dad split up when I was what, eight? How could that have any bearing on my current lack of luck in the love department?”

“I think it could have everything to do with it, now that I think about it.” Kade pulled out some clear pinkish glossy stuff and rubbed it on his lips before continuing. “Look, Dean. I don’t care if you don’t want to switch teams. If you like ladies, fine, have at ‘em. I only care about you finding someone who will love you like anything and be your best friend. Their gender is irrelevant to me, it’s not like I’m the one screwing them. So yeah. Find that, and I’ll be the first one to toast you at your wedding.”

Huffing out a breath, I nodded curtly. “Okay, I’ll hold you to that. Now can we do what we came here for and get a little shit-faced? Just because I’m not crying in my beer over my break-up doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed the dream ended again. But before I can have my own family, first I have to find an omega who will stick around for more than a minute and not take off on me with the first guy to come along.”

Zeke tipped his chin toward a group of attractive women walking into the bar. “Like I always say... the best way to get over one omega, is to get on top of another.”

Kade drained his beer and stood. “I’ve heard enough alphadouchery shit for awhile. I’m gonna go find me a hot man to grind on the dance floor.”

I watched him work his way through the crowded bar, then looked back to see Zeke watching me with a soft smile.

“He’s not wrong you know. Mom did a number on your head, Dean-o. And then her taking off to parts unknown and only showing up here and there or maybe sending a card on our birthdays if she happened to remember? That would be enough to make anyone fear intimacy. Don’t quote me on this, but that’s probably is a big reason why I don’t see the same person twice. You can’t have your heart get broken if you don’t put it out there in the first place.”

“You know, for a drinking night, this is feeling an awful lot like a therapy session.”

Zeke grinned, his white teeth sparkling against his tanned skin. “Nah. I’m not nearly drunk enough to dig into your psyche. I’m just saying... maybe Kade’s not wrong.”