Chapter 15 Mazzie #2
We were bumped, poked, and almost trampled on as a large group of hungry touchdown bunnies postured for the tunnel location, and my hand fell from Bailey’s as she got swallowed up by the crowd.
My racing pulse spiked higher as I spun around, searching for her strawberry-blond hair in a sea of bodies. “Bailey!” I shouted, but my voice was drowned out by the deafening howls.
Panic fluttered in my chest, not because I was lost but because the possibility existed that I could kiss Lucas.
As that thought crossed my mind, I knew the odds were astronomical.
There were easily a hundred women for every player on this field, maybe more.
So I had nothing to worry about, and even if I did, then I’d have to accept that fate wanted us together.
I shouted for Bailey one more time. Like she could hear me over the noise. So I nudged my way to the sidelines, more to keep these crazy women from trampling on me. As I managed to find an opening in the opposite direction of the tunnel, the stadium plunged into pitch black.
“Argh.” I could barely see in front of me.
Women began to whimper as if they were being kissed by football players.
I used my glow bracelet to guide myself back toward where I’d been sitting, but it was useless.
I could barely see in front of me. The crowd on the field kept pressing farther toward the tunnel.
I was afraid Bailey would find my body when the lights came on.
Or maybe I would find hers. Breathing heavily, I kept blinking to orient my vision, but it was useless.
The roar in the stadium competing with the women’s screams of excitement disoriented me.
I was going to kill Bailey if I died.
I pushed through short and tall ladies, feeling as though I was swimming against the current.
You’re going to be a doctor. You can’t panic. You need to be calm in crazy situations.
I laughed out loud at how nuts this tradition was.
Stay still and breathe, girl. I couldn’t. I needed air.
I didn’t remember this amount of insanity in my freshman year. Then again, I’d been a naive girl, wearing rose-colored glasses and eager to do anything to fit in.
Howls tore through the stadium as I broke free of the madness, or so I thought I had before I bumped into yet another body. Only this time, I didn’t have anyone pushing me. Instead, I was locking lips before any of my senses kicked in.
Of course it was my luck that I would be kissed tonight.
I didn’t want anyone’s lips on mine except those of the guy I couldn’t stop thinking about.
But in the madness of it all—the darkness, the deafening roars in the stadium, and my pulse pounding in my ears—I decided it didn’t matter who had my body pressed against his.
I closed my eyes and gave in. When in Rome and all.
My tongue tangled with his as I held on to his waist for purchase.
“Thirty seconds,” came from the yell leader above the sounds of whimpers, squeals, and howls.
But the longer this dude kissed me, the more the sounds began to grow faint, and I lost myself in his embrace.
I put everything I had into the most tender yet sensual kiss I thought I’d ever had. Something about it felt… familiar. Like a memory I hadn’t made yet.
Suddenly, the sounds died instantly.
It took me a second to realize that the Wolf Howl was over. Yet he and I still had our lips fused together, and I was afraid to open my eyes.
A collective intake of breath zipped around the stadium as he tugged my bottom lip between his teeth.
My belly went haywire, even more so when I slowly opened my eyes to a lighted stadium and lifted my gaze.
I lost the ability to breathe as Lucas came into focus.
The logical side of my brain opened up as I tried to figure out how he had found me. The odds had been extremely low considering how packed the football field was.
But I didn’t have a chance to process any of this because with his hands on my cheeks, his copper eyes filled with awe, my brain shut down. My breathing ramped up. My heart was on speed.
The stadium was deathly quiet, or maybe I lost the ability to hear above my racing pulse.
He brushed his lips over mine. “Sweet as apple pie.”
Goose bumps fired along my arms as I giggled. “You were supposed to disappear.”
“Didn’t want to. But I do want to kiss you again.” And he did.
That time, applause erupted along with howls.
“Has a wolf found his mate?” The yell leader’s voice blasted through the speakers. “Tradition says that if a wolf is still kissing a girl when the lights come on that he might have found his true mate. But let’s find out.”
The stadium chanted number eleven as Lucas pulled away and held up his jersey to the crowd.
I raised an eyebrow. “What’s happening?”
“It’s all part of the fun,” he said, grinning like a boy at Christmas.
“If the random number generator lands on Lucas’s number, then fate has chosen his mate—and when a wolf finds his mate, the Wolves will never lose the game tomorrow,” the yell leader declared.
The stadium thundered with howls.
Never lose the game? Fate choosing his mate? Out of a ton of girls on this field, somehow Lucas had found me. Maybe the odds weren’t crazy at all. Maybe this was destiny.
Still, as Lucas put his jersey on me, I rolled my eyes. “Do you believe in this?”
He wrapped an arm around me. “Maybe.”
All eyes were on the Jumbotron as random numbers were flashing by.
“Stop it now,” someone in the seats shouted.
I barely had a chance to blink when the roar from the fans erupted.
I did a double take at the flashing number eleven on the Jumbotron.
The crowd started chanting, “A wolf has found his mate! We’re sure to win the game tomorrow!”
Lucas lifted me into his arms and swung me around.
Applause zipped through the stadium.
Win or lose? Mate or not? I wanted Lucas in my life.
I locked my fingers around his neck. “I’m sorry I lied to you. I need you, Lucas.”
“I know, Midnight. My heart isn’t the same without you. Stay with me tonight?”
I nodded. “I would like that.”
I was done lying to myself.