Page 41 of Baseball and Shifters

“It’s in our blood. You’re coming to the game tomorrow, right?” Lucas practically begs her.

“I don’t know… Things didn’t go so well last time I went,” she mutters.

“I think they went amazing. It was by far the best game of my life,” Lucas argues.

“I’ll think about it,” she says with a laugh.

“Is your dad coming?” Bas asks me.

“I don’t know.” I shrug.

“Your dad comes to your games?” Rachel asks, her voice going up in pitch at the question.

“Sometimes. Not all of them. He tries, but the council keeps him busy.”

“But you said he was just here, right? When my dad was here? He can’t… He can’t know about us. You can’t tell your dad. If my father finds out…”

“Shhh. Hey, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it, Firefly. We won’t let him find out. You’re safe with us. We won’t let anyone hurt you.”

The idea of anyone hurting my Emerald is enough to have my dragon breathing fire. I barely manage to keep it contained. I don’t want to scare our mate but I have to tell my father. He willknow what to do about Ranger and he needs to know how Rachel has been treated.

“We’ll kill anyone who even thinks about harming you,” I snarl, smoke pluming from my nostrils.

Okay maybe I didn’t do as good a job as I thought at keeping our anger under lock and key.

“Easy, big guy. I’m okay. No one’s trying to hurt me… Not yet at least,” she whispers the last bit, but my dragon picks it up, no doubt Lucas and Bas hear it as well.

I don’t know what her piece of shit father did to her, but she’s clearly terrified of him. We’re going to have to have a serious talk about what to do with him because right now, my dragon wants to hunt him down and eviscerate him.

The lights come back up in the theatre room and I realize how late it is. Rachel stands and stretches out her arms before letting out a soft yawn. It doesn’t take us long to get cleaned up and then we are walking her down the path to the girls’ dorm.

“Thank you all for an amazing night,” she says softly as we arrive in front of the building. “And thank you Bastian, for inviting me.”

“Anytime, Firefly, and call me Bas please. Only my father calls me Bastian.”

She giggles in response as he plants a soft kiss on her cheek then turns her towards Lucas.

“You’ll think about the game tomorrow?” he asks.

She nods and he pulls her into a tight hug before kissing her forehead and sending her to me.

“Sorry if my dragon scared you, Emerald. I’ll do better,” I promise as I look into her gorgeous green eyes.

“He makes me feel safe,” she whispers into my chest as she wraps her arms around my middle. “You all make me feel safe.”

My chest warms and pride fills me. I can’t stop myself from planting two big kisses right on her cute little cheeks and she letsanother musical laugh free. With one last goodnight and a quick wave, she disappears inside the dorm building. When she’s out of sight, I turn and level Bas and Lucas with a look.

“So what are we doing about Ranger St. James?”

Lucas

We narrowly defeat the Lunarcrest Phantoms five to four and once again, I blame myself for the less than stellar game. We may have continued Eldergrove’s undefeated streak but unlike my teammates, I don’t see any reason to celebrate. Not having my Moonbeam in the stands fucked with me. Why wouldn’t she agree to come even after our awesome date last night? I was distracted the entire game thinking about her and trying to figure out how to convince her to come to every game. Because I can’t do this again. I need her. I need to know she’s watching me. If she’s not, what’s the point?

We had a kid on our team a few years ago that went all out if he knew there was a scout in the stands. He’d make incredible plays nonstop. But if there was no scout, he was a totally different player. It’s like he was only worried about putting on a show for the scouts and not playing the game. It infuriated me. I love this game and he was treating it like it was meaningless. Tonightthough, I think I understand. It’s not the same anymore. I still love the game. Don’t get me wrong. But without her there, it doesn’t mean as much as it always has. And that scares the shit out of me. So while the guys are off celebrating, I’m escaping to my safe place.

As soon as I step into the woods behind the dorm, my wolf takes over. We transform in an instant. When we’re on four paws, he throws our head back and howls at the sky. Running as my wolf has always been freeing. When I’ve been stressed about school, or ball, or just over stimulated by all the noise at home, I’ve always had my wolf to help me get away from it all and clear my head.

Now, that peace won’t come. As I run through the woods, everything reminds me of my mate. Of our time playing in these woods. I know I just saw her last night, but I miss her so damn much. I don’t know how Liam is staying away from her since he knows she’s his mate. I couldn’t imagine going a day without her.

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