With him on board, all that will be left will be convincing her, which shouldn’t be difficult. Not once she realizes she’ll be accepted and once her wolf experiences the presence of an Alpha again. I wonder if she even remembers what it’s like? Knowing without a shadow of a doubt that you’re cared for. That the Pack will always have your back.
Once she’s in, we can protect her. We can make sure no one even thinks about hurting her again. And we can fucking retaliate if it comes to that. She’ll be safe. I breathe a sigh of relief. That’s all I want right now. Hell, it’s what I need. To know Isa Romero is safe.
Our coach for the night—Rourke of all people— drones on and on about how proud he is of each of us. How we’ve worked hard during the single practice we were forced to participate in. And then he yells at us not to fuck tonight up and threatens expulsion if any of us use excessive force. His speech is met with grumbled words of mock agreement and numerous eye rolls, but he does his damndest to ignore them.
Jordy elbows me in the ribs, a grin on his face as he sucks on a palerindas—a tamarind-flavored sucker. Personally, I can’t stand the things, but Jordy’s an addict and always has a few in his bag.
I bounce my leg, waiting for Rourke to hurry up so we can get out on the field. Since Isa was attacked my wolf has been on a rampage, and tonight is the perfect outlet for all my pent-up aggression. I’m going to put team vamp through hell and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.
The stadium lights illuminate the field and hundreds of people in the bleachers as I jog beside my team. I scan the crowd, not seeing Isa yet, but I know she’ll be here. Seats are packed, everyone on the home side decked out in red and black with devil horns on their heads. The away team side is filled with more people, all of them dressed in white and blue, some sporting halos or fake feathered wings.
Team captains chose our mascots for tonight. Des fittingly chose to name our team the Devils. Team vamp—led by Malachi Stone— decided to call his team the Saints. Funny, I know.
I make sure Isa’s bracelet is tucked beneath my glove before following the other guys to the center of the field. With Des acting as captain and quarterback, all eyes are on him as we huddle up and run through the details of our first play.
I’m hyped as fuck and bouncing on the balls of my feet, ready to leave the Saint’s defense in a cloud of dust. One last scan of the bleachers shows that Isa still isn’t here, but I shake off the irritation as soon as I spot my pops in the stands. I puff out my chest and when Des calls the play and snaps back, because I’m off. I sprint wide to the left, before spinning to catch the ball I know is aimed right for me. My hands connect with the laces and I clutch the damn thing like my life depends on it before taking off straight for the goal posts.
I’m tackled twenty yards from the end zone by a speedy little fucker—a vampire I vaguely recall named Emerson— but I’m still grinning because we picked up way more ground on the first play than we should have. Looks like the vamps aren’t all that great at American football after all. I know most of them are old-ass grandpas who probably never played a day in their humans lives while the rest of us, at the very least, played a little backyard football growing up. We definitely have the advantage.
It’s the end of the second quarter and we’re ahead by seven. The stadium is packed, making it harder to find my girl, but as I take my seat on the bench, Desmond points out Liu’s little sister. “Baby Liu’s here. That means Isa is, too.”
I nod, scanning the surrounding crowd for her dark brown hair. The spot beside Meiying is vacant. Maybe Isa went to the restroom? The idea alone is enough to have me clenching my hands into tight fists. “Yeah, but do you see her?”
He looks and shakes his head. “No.”
“Me, either. Which means she’s off somewhere at this packed fucking game alone right now.” Fuck. What is she thinking? Does she have any idea how dangerous it is for her right now? How many supernaturals would jump at the opportunity to take down an unaffiliated wolf?
“Maybe she just went to grab a soda?”
“I don’t care if she needed to take a shit. She knows the deal. She’s not supposed to go anywhere alone.”
He nods, a scowl on his face letting me know he doesn’t like this any more than I do, but there isn’t anything either of us can do about it from the field. Rourke calls us back to the locker room for our half-time pep talk and I have no choice but to follow the rest of my team.
Spirits are high when we return for the beginning of the third. We’re in the lead and even the vamps on our team are getting a kick out of showing up some of their own.
The seat beside Meiying is still fucking empty. Worry worms through me, followed quickly by anger when I catch my pops getting up from
