Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Kane
Iwas in this surreal sort of headspace as we sat in the locker room, waiting for our time to go warm up in the training facility.
Kayla wasn’t answering our calls and texts, and we were on edge. She might have been taking a nap, but that didn’t explain why her phone went straight to voicemail—unless she’d turned it off.
We’d started our day with a delicious spread for breakfast with Kayla then headed to the stadium for a practice and debrief on the schedule for the day.
After that, we’d showered and done several interviews, including a segment for one of the sports broadcasts on how Alphaball is played.
One would think doing anything before a game would leave us tired, but it only amped us up more for our games.
Brian had been surprisingly quiet since arriving shortly after us. Maybe he’d finally realized his time with us was over. We didn’t make the decision lightly since we’d have to find a new manager and coach.
“I’m going to check the cameras,” Beck muttered from across from me.
We had several cameras around our property, but none in the house. That might need to change if Kayla was going to be staying there by herself often. If she’d let us. The reason we didn’t have any inside in the first place was because we weren’t confident that they wouldn’t be hacked.
“We’re up on the practice field and then will be going straight out into the stadium for the National Anthem.” Brian didn’t look up from his phone he’d been texting away on for the last several minutes.
The four of us stood from where we were lounging around in our small locker room.
We had on special edition all royal blue uniforms with our signature pack of gnomes with butcher knives in hands screen printed on the front and last names on the back.
The blood-red cleats had our gnome printed on the side with a printed signature.
The look would be launching on our Alpha Fit website at the start of the first game.
It had been Rio’s idea to do an exclusive limited run of our championship uniform, and our website tech team was already anticipating a sell-out within minutes of going live.
I grabbed my cell phone and followed my pack out of the locker room, texting Kayla that I couldn’t wait to see her later.
“Did we leave the gate open?” Beck fell into step beside me. “I could have sworn I waited for it to be shut. Am I losing my mind?”
“No, I’m pretty sure you shut it because in my head I was thinking about what a lunatic you were for blocking the car that pulled up behind us while it shut.” I grabbed his phone as we walked down the corridor. “Let me back it up. We left at what? Nine?”
We made it to the practice area and Brian nearly clotheslined me as we filed in through the door. “Put the phone away.”
“Dude. What the actual fuck? I am a grown-ass man.” I rarely lost my temper, but I was about to. I shoved past him and backed the camera footage up to nine when we left.
“We are less than thirty minutes away from game time now. I need you four to focus. Surely your omega is fine.”
“Weren’t you the one who pushed for us to have an omega?” Rylan snapped, setting his phone down on a bench and taking off down the half-field doing high knees.
“The gate was definitely shut.” I put the feed on a slow fast forward.
“Here, I’ll watch the damn thing and you go get warmed up.” Brian held out his hand for Beck’s phone.
“It’s on three times the speed.” I handed him the phone and put mine on the bench next to Rio’s and Rylan’s.
I took off across the field, running through the quick agility drills we did before every game and then grabbed a weighted ball to toss back and forth with Beck to warm up our arms.
“How the hell are we going to focus if we’re worried about Kayla? We should have just brought her with us and kept her next to us the whole time,” Rio said from next to me where he was tossing a ball with Rylan.
“Like we’d be able to focus with her here. We’d be looking for her every second. She’s probably just taking a nap or something.” If we thought things were bad now with us worrying, when we bonded it was going to be crazy.
“She said she was going to watch us so she should be texting or calling us back soon.” Rio caught the ball and didn’t throw it again. “I think I’m good with my warm-up since our first game will be like playing for fun.”
“You can say that again.” Beck jogged in with our ball and we walked as a pack over to the benches where Brian was to grab our phones. “Anything on the camera?”
“No. It seems to have opened by itself. Probably needs to be checked by a technician.” Brian handed Beck his phone back. “All ready to win this thing?”
“Do you even have to ask?” Rylan walked to the door leading back to the main corridor of the stadium. “Let’s roll some heads!”
We all shouted in agreement and my excitement started to grow. I was stronger, faster, and had more energy than I had in months. There was no way we were giving up the win.
Outside of the practice room, the rest of our team was waiting for us, including our team doctor in case one of us was injured, our publicist, and a photographer.
Waiting on the field for us were a few teenagers we’d met at the foodbank when volunteering, who would be giving us water and our towels when we needed them.
We liked to keep our game day entourage small so we weren’t distracted by them, so the rest of the people that made our team tick but didn’t need to be on the field were in a private box to watch the game.
There was a commotion back down the hallway where our locker room was, and we all turned at the exact moment Kayla came barreling through two security guards that were in the hall outside the door.
One of them snagged her around the waist and practically threw her into the wall, pinning her there with his massive body.
The growls that ripped out of the four of us were unlike anything I’d ever experienced. I’d growled plenty in my life, but never from somewhere buried so deep inside it almost felt like it was from another person.
The security guards and Kayla all looked our way as N’Pact rounded the corner at the end of the hall at a sprint.
We moved toward the security guards and Kayla as a wall of raging alpha. Beck was slightly in front of us, his body taut and ready to fight. “Let her go.” His bark was fierce enough to immediately cause the security guard to back off Kayla.
“Damn, I think my nuts just retreated a little.” Cal cackled from where they were approaching from the opposite side of the corridor. “See, we told you that running ahead was a bad idea, Kayla.”
“Back up,” Beck barked at the two men, who were also alphas but had claim bites on their necks. “She’s ours.”
The guy who had shoved her against the wall held up his hands and backed up several steps, heeding Beck’s warning.
“Our apologies, but when we tried to stop her for her credentials to be in this area, she didn’t have them, and then when we asked who she belonged to, she said no one and ran. We were just doing our jobs.”
Pride swelled in my chest, not just because she’d gotten around two massive security guards, but because she hadn’t changed even after her heat left her dependent on us.
I was the first to her and put my hand on her arms. “What are you doing here, sweetheart? We’ve been trying to call you.”
Knocking my hands away, she bent over with her hands on her knees, her breaths coming in pants from running. “Broke my phone. Had to escape OPS. Brian.”
“OPS? Escape them? What does Brian have to do with that?” She held up a finger to tell me to give her a minute while she caught her breath.
She straightened suddenly, her eyes going straight past us to the empty hallway behind us. “Where is he?”
At the same time, Beck stepped past the security guards to N’Pact, his fists clenched at his sides. “What the hell are you guys doing here and why do you smell like our omega?” Beck stepped toward N’Pact, his fists clenched at his sides.
If they laid even a finger on Kayla, we were going to beat their asses so they were singing the National Anthem out of their assholes.
Rio, Rylan, and I moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with Beck, blocking our omega from their view.
The security guards had moved back from us, and they weren’t threats with them being claimed by an omega.
“Woah, man. We just gave her a ride here. She took a fall right outside our gate as we were leaving.” Alvaro lifted his chin in Kayla’s direction. “She’s taking off again. Feisty little minx, isn’t she?”
She was sprinting down the corridor and nearly ran into a wall turning a corner. We took off after her, not really knowing what the fuck was going on with her but not willing to let her run through a stadium full of who knew how many alphas who were just looking for an omega to claim.
“Kayla!” Beck barked as we rounded the same corner just as she leapt onto Brian who had quickly been walking away.
“You son of a bitch! What bet? Was that about your extended warranty? I’m going to kill you!” She was yelling loud enough that a few doors along the corridor opened, and staff poked their heads out.
Brian fell to his knees and then rolled, but Kayla had attached herself to him and reached around to hit his face.
“Get off me, you psycho!” Brian was about to roll over on top of her when we reached them and pulled Kayla off of him. “Jesus! Keep your fucking omega on a damn leash!”
“What the fuck did you just say?” Rio shoved him into the wall, and I grabbed his arm to pull him back.
“I heard him! Just now! He said something about betting!” Kayla twisted away from Beck and Rylan, and I tried to grab her around the waist but was too late.
Her knee collided with Brian’s crotch, and he fell to his knees, his phone dropping to the floor and his hands going to cover his junk. “Fuuuuucccck!”
“Kayla, that’s enough.” I rarely used my own alpha bark but did this time because we didn’t need her getting an assault charge.
I grabbed Brian’s phone, which was still connected to whoever he was talking to. The name was unfamiliar. “Hello, who is this?” The call ended and I threw the phone down next to Brian, sending a crack across the screen.
“He messed with my pills.” Kayla was vibrating with rage but hadn’t moved since I told her that was enough. “It makes so much sense now!”
“Gnomes! You have five minutes to get yourselves into your position on the sideline!” our publicist yelled down the corridor. “Do I need to send security?”
“Yes!” Beck yelled back to her.
“Thank God. It’s about damn time you realized she’s playing you.” Brian used the wall for support as he got to his feet.
Was he fucking serious? I let Rio go, and it was my turn to shove him into the wall. “What game are you playing? You fucked with our omega’s pills?”
“What? What are you talking about?” he spluttered as I pressed my forearm against his chest. He didn’t try to fight me because he wouldn’t have been able to get past four alphas and a rabid omega.
“Her pills. They were swapped with blanks.” His eyes widened at this revelation, but I couldn’t tell if it was from shock that her pills were swapped or because he’d done it and been busted.
“So, when did you do it? Hm? We changed our security code as soon as we got home. Does that mean you broke into our house?”
“Why would I mess with her pills? Her heat doesn’t benefit me.” He sneered and narrowed his eyes on who I could only guess was Kayla standing behind me. “That little cunt never wanted to be here.”
“Where do you want us to take her until the police get here?” The two security guards plus a third came down the corridor we were in.
“Not her. Him.” Beck pulled Kayla against him protectively.
“On what grounds?” Brian was practically foaming at the mouth now and started trying to get out from under my arm. I put on more pressure.
“Tampering with an omega’s heat suppressants.” Beck kissed Kayla’s temple. “We have a new coach now.”
“You can’t be serious.” The security guards went on either side of Brian and I let him go. “You have no proof!”
“I’m sure as soon as we check the security footage in the corridor and get the video and sound evidence of what you said to whoever you were talking to, we’ll have all the proof we need.” Rio picked up Brian’s phone. “I’ll be holding on to this.”
Security led him away from us, and I tuned out the bullshit he was spewing about putting us on the map and Kayla being manipulative.
Kayla pulled away from Beck and stood in front of us. “You are all fools! You gave him your phones? Did you really think someone was calling about your car warranty?”
My cheeks heated, and I honestly didn’t have an answer to that. I was always getting spam calls, so it didn’t surprise me in the least when he’d said it.
“You really think he’s the one that swapped your pills?” Beck asked, stepping forward, but she stepped back. “Kayla, don’t shut us out.”
“I’m not shutting you out.” She crossed her arms. “You have a game to play, and if you touch me then you aren’t going to be able to focus. And I don’t know he did it for sure… but he got my bag while I was exploring the house when I first got there. I didn’t think anything of it until earlier.”
“And what about OPS?” I checked the time on my phone. “Shit, we need to get out there before they start the National Anthem.”
Things with Brian were far from over, but for now, we had our omega safe with us and we had a game to play.