Coach Namir
I sat my cup down behind me on the wooden table as I looked out at my athletes getting settled on the field.
Looking up, I didn’t see the moon in the sky, but the clouds were clear, and the stars were bright.
Quietly, I waited as I glanced down at my phone in my hand to see the picture of Maggie.
She just woke up from a deep sleep and her hair looked like a cloud fell over her face.
With a single yawn since she was still half asleep, I captured the zombie-like moment, sneaking to take the shot before pretending to be distracted with something else.
Now looking at the picture, I found myself getting irritated because where the fuck have you been for you to reach out to Asha and not me?
“Coach?”
I looked up at the sound of my name before realizing everyone was waiting on me to say something.
Grabbing my cup, I took a sip of the drink before placing it back down.
These are my core athletes that were actively on teams and competing with other schools.
Ones that had set uniforms, schedules, practice, and times blocked out for school, career and family time.
Of the group, four were competing this Saturday in dome and though I had all the confidence in the world we were going to take home the win, I also had a feeling I couldn’t quite shake or explain.
“I called this meeting because for the next few days, I won’t be here to train and get y'all prepared for Saturday.” Everyone started to look at each other, already exchanging expressions, hidden stares and mutterings of whatever rumors they might have heard already.
I raised my hand in the air for silence before scratching at my brow.
“We’ve been at this for the past two years and I am confident that you all are more than prepared mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually for this weekend because it will test you.
It will fuck with your mind,” I said as I tapped the side of my head.
“What was my biggest thing when training everyone? Even if you’re not partaking in the games, what did I instill in you all and make sure your coaches have you do? ”
“Endurance,” they all said together. Nodding, I reached for my cup again to take a sip.
“Endurance of the mind and body. No matter what, we don’t…”
“Give up,” they replied in unison.
“To the death?” I called out. They responded.
“We fight.”
Looking at my work, I smiled at my coaches standing in the back before nodding my head.
“As you all know, there are multiple wolf families within the Underground but the main two are the Pack, and the Nation. I am born from the pack which would be the largest. With everything going on with my brothers and what happened last year at the funeral, things are starting to change. I’ve decided that I will take the role of Alpha–––”
The commotion amongst the group began to stir as they began to applaud. I held my hand in the air to silence them.
“If you know me, you know this…this isn’t…” I paused, wanting to be careful with my words. “Life has a way of putting you on the path you were destined to be on, even if you’ve been avoiding it. So for the next time you all see me, I will be king of the jungle so to speak.”
They laughed while I took a sip of my drink and pointed to the first hand being raised.
“I didn’t say this was a God damn Q&A,” I laughed. “What? What is it?”
“Will you take a mate?” Laila asked as she batted her lashes towards me with a smile.
“I will. My brother Ty didn’t take on a mate which is…
unusual given his status but they allowed it with him.
They won’t give me the same courtesy. I’m telling y'all this because we’ve been at this for two years.
Two years strong, day and night, early morning runs, the screaming matches, the arguments, and fights…
We’ve become somewhat like a pack of our own and maybe a part of me feels this is why I never felt the need to become alpha. I had my own pack to run,” I said.
“Ahhhhh Coach,” Cory cooed childishly. “That’s so sweet, man…”
They began to laugh together while the coaches in the back chuckled. Frowning, I looked down at my feet with a slow nod of my head, accepting the jokes I knew were coming my way. Yeah laugh it up alright. Y'all are about to be doing laps around Cedar Park in a second fucking with me.
“Can I ask who you mate will be?”
The unknown voice caused me to look up, trying to figure out who said it.
Instead, everyone was still laughing as their eyes grew dark to the point of looking like black marbles reflecting back at me.
I stood up, confused as the laughter continued until one hand pointed up at the sky.
Looking up, I could see the full moon hovering just above the field before looking down as their faces began to morph into something dangerous.
Teeth began extending from their mouths as noses and nostrils stretched into snouts and hairy jaws.
As they began to look up at the moon, as if stuck in a gaze, I could see the red eyes forming in others, the blood-stained fangs and veins throbbing on the side of their necks. What…the fuck is this…
“Coach?”
The voice came out of nowhere but when I turned around, I could see people…
dark figures of humans standing on the other side of the field, waiting as they too looked up.
In front of me, wolves and werewolves but behind me…
I could smell the dead from their pores.
I could smell when they last fed on someone.
They smelled the way the wolves looked. There was no difference when it came to it yet, I stood in the center as both looked up at the moon and simply stared.
“Coach?”
I felt a tug at my shirt as I looked down at a little boy with black eyes and a snotty nose. He wore a red t-shirt with a cartoon of a flying bat and matching black shorts with bare feet. I stepped back as he continued to tug at my shirt before realizing he looked familiar. Is this…Birdie’s son?
“The moon doesn’t feel good.” He let out in a hushed whisper. “The sun is mad, and the earth is scared. Bad things are going to happen…”
I pushed his hand off my shirt and looked again as every single person on the field was now looking up at the moon.
“What…bad things?” I asked as I looked back down at Bryson. “What bad things are going to happen?”
He suddenly grinned before sniffing to draw up the runny snot back into his nose.
“Everybody will go like this.” He clapped his hands together and held it, squeezing tight to make one brown fist before looking at me.
I looked around again before hearing the infamous howl that echoed across the Grounds.
My skin began to crawl, feeling the hairs slowly pluck from my skin as my body reacted to the call.
Bryson took off running, disappearing completely as the remnants of his body trickled into the air like small, tiny dusts of light orbs.
My head was on a swivel, looking around for where the calls were coming from until I heard my name.
“CAINE!?”
I turned around and froze when I saw Maggie standing directly behind me.
Her eyes were bleeding from the corners of her pupils.
Her mouth hung open with the heavy fangs drawn down to her lower lip.
Her dark brown hair was slowly trickling upward as it began to turn frost white and she stood in a torn Drew Collins uniform as her heavy low sitting eyes stared at me in a daze, as if she were drunk.
There was nobody else left on the field.
Just her and I and every part of me wanted to tear her apart.
I wanted to hear the skin rip and her bones snap under my pressure.
At that moment, I wanted to kill her. The same as before when my body struggled to adjust to her, but she simply stared at me as if she dared me to move.
Her hair was completely white, but her eyes were dark ruby red.
Just as her top lip curled up to expose the full fangs, I reached for her neck when she screamed my name out of fear.
I jumped up in a panic as my body shot up from the bed.
I could hear my own haggard breathing and loud pulse echo in my ears.
My claws clenched at the sheets beneath me, and I could feel my tongue thickening and lengthening in size.
I was attempting to shift but my body was trying to calm down.
I looked beside me out of habit, as if Maggie would be right there sleeping next to me.
I slowly laid back down and stared at the dark ceiling in my bedroom.
That dream felt like a warning…maybe not a warning but some sort of insight of what could happen.
I know in the past I had issues with controlling my shifting around Maggie, but I thought… I thought I had it under control.
“What are you doing up, Namir?”
The voice wrapped around my mind like a warm blanket to the body when I looked back down at the bed to see the white curls slipping out of the bonnet.
Maggie slowly turned over on her back, barely showing a peek of her breasts from the sheets as she rubbed her eye with her hand.
Smiling, I pulled the covers back up to my chin and laid down beside her.
I knew it wasn’t real. My mind was fucking with me, but I still stared at her.
She yawned, letting out a dramatic cat like growl before turning on her side to stare back at me with her hands tucked underneath her cheek.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” She asked softly.
“I can’t look at you?”
“Mmm…I can’t tell if you want to eat me…or…EAT me…eh?” She asked with a wiggle of her brows at the suggestive pun. When I didn’t smile, she sucked her teeth with a roll of her eyes. “Well it wasn’t one of my better jokes, but I still went with it.”
“You did.”