Chapter 14 Ruby
Ruby
Iwas dying to know what happened between Eleanor and the giant man who’d been standing next to Cassie, but for now, we had to focus on the game. We jogged out onto the field, ignoring the irritated look our coach sent in our direction at our tardiness.
The next few hours went quickly. Our team played hard.
Vancouver was a formidable opponent, and while it was touch and go throughout most of the game, the Starfish emerged victorious.
While we played, Cassie and the guy who was with her stood at attention on the side of the field, watching everything.
On the other side, near the Vancouver team’s bench, two more women stood with similar watchful gazes.
“Does your team have security now too?” I quietly asked a Vancouver player who’d come to the International Games with us.
“Yeah, I caught some dude wearing a ski mask in my hotel room this morning leaving weird shit on my bed. I think it’s the same person who’s been after the other players. The league is calling in security for all the teams now.”
I gasped in shock. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I started screaming and get this, he jumped off the balcony – seven stories – and landed on his feet like a freaking cat. Ran away like nothing happened.”
I chanced a glance at Eleanor. She had a look on her face like this was pertinent information. I raised one eyebrow and she mouthed, shifter.
That made sense. I didn’t know too much about shifters, but I damn well knew that a human couldn’t take a flying leap off a seventh floor balcony and not at least have a few broken bones for their troubles.
When the game was over we shook hands with the other team, waved to the fans, then headed back into the locker room.
Cassie and the guy stopped outside the door, and I knew from our previous conversation that she felt okay waiting outside because there wasn’t another way to enter and exit the space.
The mood in the locker room was ebullient. We always felt good about beating Vancouver, although most of the women in the room had no idea that their star player had such a close brush with danger this morning.
After our wrap up with the coach, Eleanor and I waited for our turns in the shower, then put on our street clothes.
“You’re still coming with us for dinner, right?”
Eleanor gave me a look I couldn’t interpret. It was a cross between petulant and hopeful.
“Is that guy coming?”
“What guy?”
She huffed impatiently. “The big ass bear shifter who was with your mate.”
That’s why he was so big. The guy was a bear shifter.
I shrugged. “I never saw him before today. I have no idea who he is or why he was with Cassie.”
I hadn’t felt jealous though, not like I had with Jeannie, our yoga teacher. Somehow I knew the guy wasn’t interested in my bodyguard, although I couldn’t say how.
“Are you ready?” I asked Eleanor.
We were two of the last people to leave the locker room and my friend seemed to be stalling. I wondered if it was because of the guy. What had he said when he saw her? Mine?
“What did he mean, when he said mine?” I asked. “He was looking right at you when he said.”
“He thinks he’s my mate,” Eleanor said glumly.
“Why does he think that?” I asked in confusion.
“Because he is.”
“And you’re not happy about this?” I guessed.
“Not really,” she sighed. “But we’d better go out there. I can sense him growing impatient all the way in here. I don’t want him to hulk out and wreck our locker room.”
Cassie and the bear were waiting right outside, both of them looking impatient.
“Everything okay?” Cassie asked, looking me up and down.
“Yeah, we were just last in line for showers,” I lied.
I saw her nostrils flare, as if she could tell I was lying, but she didn’t call me on it.
“Ruby Wozniak, this is my friend and occasional coworker, Alexei. Alexei, this is my mate Ruby, and her friend Eleanor Parkhurst.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Ruby.” Alexei’s words were aimed at me, but his eyes were fixed on my friend. “And you as well, Eleanor.”
The two shifters exchanged a long, charged look before Eleanor spoke.
“Look I just want to tell you up front, I don’t want a mate.”
“Ah, your wolf is telling you that we are mates, same as my bear. This is good.”
Eleanor huffed in irritation. “No, it’s not good at all. Did you hear, Yogi? I don’t want a mate.”
“My name is Alexei,” he said.
Judging by his accent and the confused look on his face, he didn’t get the reference to a cartoon bear.
“Let’s get dinner, shall we?” I said loudly, interrupting the stare-off between the two shifters. “I’m starving.”
As if they’d planned it, Alexei and Cassie moved to the outside, flanking me and my friend, their gazes watchful.
“We’ll take the Sapphic Security SUV,” Cassie said. “It’s armored.”
Eleanor and I exchanged a look but didn’t comment.
Once we reached the vehicle, my friend pulled me into the backseat with her. Sending Eleanor a glum look, Alexei slid into the front seat with Cassie.
“Where should we go?” Cassie asked.
“We must go to my restaurant,” Alexei said. “My brothers and their mates will be very eager to meet my… meet Eleanor.”
Cassie sent me a look over her shoulder. “The bears have a great restaurant, you’ll like it.”
“Bears?” I asked.
“Yes, Alexei and his two brothers, Boris and Yuri. They work with us sometimes.”
As we made the thirty minute drive to the restaurant, Eleanor and I debriefed on the game, then fell into silence. Until I remembered something.
“Hey Cassie, do you know anything about a player from Vancouver finding the stalker in her hotel room? Some shifter dude who jumped off a balcony?”
Cassie nodded. “Yeah, my boss called me about it before the game. That’s why she sent Alexei to help me.
Clearly this situation is ramping up. We have two agents from our office guarding the Vancouver players who were in Paris, with teams from our other offices providing security for other teams around the league. ”
“One of the Vancouver players is a shifter,” Eleanor offered. “She won’t need a bodyguard.”
“Well, she’s getting one anyway. The league is insisting. Speaking of which, Alexei and I are going to be keeping an eye on you too, Eleanor.”
“The hell you will!” my friend exploded.
Alexei turned to give her a stern look which Eleanor ignored. It was kind of hot. If I was into dudes I’d be all over that bear.
“Here we are,” Cassie interrupted, her tone unnaturally bright. “Let’s get some food.”
Alexei’s restaurant looked like an old school diner, with red vinyl booths, chrome tables, and napkin dispensers on the table. As soon as we walked in, two giant men came ambling over, one of them holding a toddler.
“Brother! You have brought our friend for a meal!”
Alexei clapped both men on the shoulder. “I come with good news. The vampire and I have both found our mates.”
He pointed at me. “This is Ruby, she belongs to Cassie, and this…,” his smile grew so big it seemed to take up his whole face. “is Eleanor.”
“Wolf, welcome to our family. My name is Boris,” the guy with the toddler said. “And this is Yuri.”
“Um, thanks,” Eleanor said, her voice more uncertain than I’d ever heard it. “But I’m not really sure how I feel about this whole mate thing yet.”
This was a departure from her earlier anti-mate opinion, but I didn’t point that out.
“No sense fighting it, honey.” A very tall woman came to join us, another toddler on her hip. From the looks of it, the boys were twins. “They’ll just wear you down. These brothers are relentless. I’m Elana, Boris’s mate.”
Eleanor’s face was turning red, and I knew her well enough to know that she was about to blow a gasket. I tapped on Cassie’s arm.
“Can we sit down now? Eleanor and I really need to eat.”
“You will sit anywhere,” Boris boomed. “I will bring you all the food.”
I wasn’t totally sure what that meant but I followed Cassie as she walked to a booth by the far wall.
She gestured for me to slide in, then she sat on the outside.
Eleanor took the seat across from us, but then Alexei sat next to her, forcing her to slide over.
She pretended she was annoyed, but I couldn’t help but notice that she kept looking at the bear shifter out of the corner of her eye.
I had a feeling her resistance to the handsome bear wouldn’t last long.
“Tell us about yourself, Alexei,” I prodded.
Alexei launched into his history growing up in Belarus, joining the military, then finally settling here in Seattle, while Eleanor listened intently.
After a few minutes his brothers started bringing over platters of food, much more than we could hope to eat.
Well, if we didn’t have Alexei with us anyway.
The bear was putting away food at an alarming rate.
Then again, both Cassie and Eleanor weren’t exactly eating like birds themselves.
I’d always marveled at how Eleanor managed to stay fit when she had such a hearty appetite, but now I realized it was likely because she was a shifter.
“Do shifters have a high metabolism?” I asked, nodding to her plate.
Alexei buttered a roll and handed it to her. Eleanor took it without a word.
“Yeah, all of our systems are enhanced,” my friend explained.
“We metabolize food and alcohol much faster than humans. We have much better hearing, smell, and vision. Thanks to our supercharged immune system, we rarely get sick and don’t generally fall victim to any of the diseases that plague humans. And we tend to be hypersexual.”
I choked on a bite of mashed potatoes, looking first at the two shifters across from me, then at Cassie. “Is that true of all supernaturals?”
Cassie gave me a long look, her eyes sparkling with amusement.
“Vampires have good senses, not quite as strong as the shifters but much stronger than humans,” she acknowledged. “But the rest is true. Plus vampires have superior intellect.”
“You mean vamps are snobs,” Elana said as she deposited a platter of fried chicken. “You all think you’re better than the rest of the supes.”
“What’s your point?” Cassie teased.
I loved the way they all had this ease about them, as if they were all one big happy family.
“Where’s your mate, Yuri?” I asked as the third brother hovered by our table watching us eat.
“She is at the hospital. Stacy is nurse,” he said proudly.
“That’s great,” I said. “I can’t wait to meet her.”
I realized it was true. I hadn’t agreed to be Cassie’s mate yet. I didn’t even fully understand what it meant. And yet I could see myself coming here after games, talking and laughing with Cassie and her friends. Hanging out with Eleanor and her new mate and meeting the rest of the crew.
It should have scared me, but I was lucky enough to have grown up in a loving family, and I recognized another close family when I saw it. I was going to like being part of this group – assuming everything worked out with Cassie.
Hopefully there was a way I could maintain my focus on my athletic career and have a relationship too, because I already knew that no matter how much I thought I didn’t want a relationship, there was no way I was going to be able to let Cassie go.