23. Lucky
My brother and one of my best friends are bonded to my pregnant omega, and my alpha is on the verge of losing his ever-loving shit.
I cannot count the number of times I have snapped at people in the last day that weren’t doing anything wrong, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and an easy target for my ire.
For once I’m grateful our team is scheduled to play against our fiercest rivals today, since it should give me a chance to work out some of this aggression before I kill one of my pack mates.
I have always been the laid-back party boy in our pack, never taking anything too seriously.
But that was before Lainey came along. One night with her rewired my entire system and though I wouldn’t change it for anything, this seething anger is new and I have no fucking clue how to handle it in a productive way.
My alpha demands we beat the shit out of anyone that has ever touched our omega, and I don’t completely disagree.
Which is a fucking problem.
A heavy hand lands on my shoulder, scaring me so much that I jump and spin, coming face to face with my best friend. Wyatt’s head tilts. “Hey, you okay? Coach called us out a few minutes ago and you’ve just kinda been standing here.”
I shrug, knowing he would see right through me if I tried to lie.
“I’m struggling with not being bonded to Lainey when the other two are.
” It sucks to admit but if there’s one person in the world who won’t judge me for my feelings, it’s Wyatt.
He’s my twin flame in every way and has been for four years.
Sometimes I wish we had a romantic or sexual attraction as well, but we have tried on several occasions and while it was good, it just didn’t feel right . We love each other, but we aren’t in love . Some people are meant to be platonic soulmates and Wyatt Hanna is mine.
He nods, nothing but understanding in his expressive brown eyes.
“Yeah.” I watch a myriad of emotions pass over his face before a frown creases his brows.
“If I’m being honest, I am too. It’s like, I know she’ll eventually bond me too but in the meantime I am missing out on this huge part of her.
It almost feels like…” he trails off with a huff.
“Like you’re being left out?”
“Exactly,” he growls. The sound shocks me since I’m not sure I have ever heard him growl before.
“Hanna, Daire, get your asses to the tunnel before I bench you!” Coach screams from just outside the locker room.
We jump into action, quickly snatching up helmets before jogging to the players entrance.
Harbor University has some major donors for just about every sport since it’s a Division 1 school, but the football program is on another level.
We have the best stadium on the East Coast, highest rate of ticket sales per game, and they churn out pro players like they are getting paid to do it.
Hell, isn’t that what the multi-million dollar donations are for?
All of that to say, when the coach tells you to get your ass in gear, you get your ass in gear.
The roar of the crowd is an addiction I haven’t kicked in four years, and if I go pro I won’t have to for at least a few more.
We exit the long tunnel, me in the lead carrying our school flag, to the sound of over one hundred thousand screaming fans.
Adrenaline rushes over my body like a tidal wave, sharpening my focus like it always does when I step on the field.
Only this time, everything is different.
For most of my life I have lived and breathed by the game.
Nothing else mattered except the field and my team.
But now that attention is split, with Lainey and our babies taking the majority.
It’s jarring, realizing my life doesn’t revolve around this sport anymore, but it’s also invigorating.
Freeing in a way I never thought I would experience after my parents died.
Turning to my right, I catch Wyatt’s eye. I grip his helmet, my glove sticking to the hard plastic exactly how it will grip the ball in twenty minutes. I lean forward and he follows, our helmets meeting with an audible clack . “Eyes on the ball.”
He nods, a feral grin darkening his features. “Eyes on the ball.”
I grin back, letting the adrenaline of the crowd and the thought of my omega at home fill me until I’m damn near bursting at the seams. “Let’s fucking go!” I shout. The team choruses my words, our collective screaming barely audible over the roar of the fans.
Time to bring home the win for my girl.
“I smell like the back side of a fucking barn,” Wyatt complains a few hours later. We’re back in the locker room after annihilating the Boston Bantams forty-nine to six. The game was a complete clusterfuck on their end, but you won’t catch me complaining when it made us look so damn good.
I huff something that resembles a laugh but it’s hard to do much more than that when I’m tired down to my very bones.
I’ve barely slept since Lainey moved in because all I can think about is that my scent-matched omega is pregnant with my babies and sleeping two doors down but I can’t go to her.
My alpha is pissed, I’m pissed, and it’s making sleep practically impossible.
Too much longer like this and I am going to either have to come clean to Lainey and beg her to let me sleep on her floor, or ask the team doc for some sleeping pills.
Wyatt is the only one who knows how much I’ve been struggling, but like me, he has no clue what to do about it. Sure she’s been warming up to me, but I’m too afraid to undo our progress by doing something as dumb as asking to share her bed.
“Quick showers and then we get the hell out of here? I am dying to see our girl.”
Wyatt grins, slapping my back. “Took the words right out of my mouth.”
I may have fallen asleep standing under the warm spray, because next thing I know Wyatt is shaking me awake with a sympathetic look on his face. “Come on, man. If we take much longer she might already be asleep by the time we get home.”
Those words do exactly what he intended them to, and I rush through the rest of my shower with a smile on my face. The level of attachment I feel about Lainey might be slightly unhealthy, but ask me if I fucking care.
By the time we’re both dressed and out the door into the friends and family area, it’s after nine p.m. and I’m slightly less dead on my feet knowing in twenty minutes I get to see my girl and our babies.
Only, when we step into the friends and family waiting area outside the players entrance, absolute chaos descends. Someone let a bunch of fans back here and from what I can tell nearly every damn one is female and a student here.
Wyatt whistles under his breath, taking in the mob forming in front of us. “Someone is so getting fired for this.”
I nod, in complete agreement. This is fucking ridiculous.
Not only is it frustrating, it’s not safe .
None of these people have passes to be back here, and after Shepard Kennedy was assaulted outside of the baseball locker rooms last year, security really cracked down on allowing people access to players.
If Coach doesn’t file a complaint to the board, I will.
Two thin, tan arms wrap around me from the side, bringing with them the cloying smell of vanilla.
It’s not the natural kind either, more like an old vanilla candle you would find buried on some forgotten shelf at a discount store.
The kind that supposedly comes from a beavers ass.
“Hey there, sexy,” the woman purrs. I know she’s trying to be seductive, but her touch on my body is making me feel kind of sick.
I’m desperately trying not to meet her gaze as I untangle myself from her grasp, but she’s twisting around like a snake trying to catch my eye.
My eyes flick to Wyatt, praying for some intervention, but I see him in the exact situation with a redhead wearing his jersey. Resigning myself to the confrontation, I place my hands on her wrists and tug her off. “Please don’t touch me.”
She rolls blue eyes at me. “No need to play coy. Everyone on campus knows you’ll fuck anything on two legs.” She shrugs. “Figured it could be my turn tonight. I know you have to be riding a high after that win and I am more than happy to help you work some of that energy off.”
A grimace twists my lips, nausea pulsing in my gut. It’s not that her words are offensive, because there is more truth to them than I care to admit, but me being a bit of a slut in the past doesn't mean I can’t say no now.
When she tries to move in again, I sidestep, feeling only slightly guilty when she falls into the concrete wall nose first. “I’ve asked you not to touch me.
I will call security and have you barred from the stadium if you can’t respect that I’m telling you no.
” I can’t remember the last time I had to implement such firm boundaries with someone, but it doesn’t feel great.
It’s not that I am attracted to her or want her touching me, but any negative attention makes my skin crawl and turns my stomach into a pretzel.
That feeling only gets worse when she pulls out a cell phone and starts snapping pictures of me.
I can only imagine what my expression looks like right now.
Another hand slides across my lower abdomen between my cropped muscle tee and my joggers, but this one is warm and familiar.
One deep inhale and my body settles out of panic mode, relaxing for the first time since leaving the locker room.
“I’m pretty sure I heard my alpha tell you no.
Are you hard of hearing?” Lainey asks calmly.
Her huckleberry pie scent is charred and I can’t tell if it’s from something I did or if she is just pissed at this chick and hiding it really well.
I’m hoping against all hope it’s the latter.
The chick scoffs, stomping her foot like a two year old. “Who the hell are you to tell me who I can and can’t touch? Last I checked, Lucky is single and free to sleep with whoever he wants.”
Lainey grins viciously, and the look makes my cock thicken in my pants.
It’s the same feeling I get when she’s being mean to me, only this time I have a feeling she’s about to be mean on my behalf, which makes it ten times hotter.
“Okay so not deaf, just dumb. Got it. In case you didn’t hear me, my alpha told you no.
Back the fuck off my man before I convince him to press sexual assault charges against you.
” She spins around, pointing to the girl still hanging on Wyatt.
“And you. Has he told you not to touch him?” The girl’s eyes are wide, but she nods hesitantly.
“Then why the hell are your hands still on him? I swear to all things holy, the fact that I am standing here teaching two women that it’s not okay to touch someone just because they are sorta famous or maybe a little slutty.
Act your age and fuck all the way off before I start biting. ”
The girls scurry away and before I even process my actions I have yanked the three of us into the locker room, backed Lainey up against the heavy door, and crashed my mouth to hers with all the gentleness of a semi truck.
“Fuck me,” I groan against her lips. My hips grind against her thigh shamelessly.
It would normally be her belly, but for obvious reasons that won’t work right now.
The reminder that she’s pregnant with my babies only makes me more desperate for her.
“You are so goddamn sexy when you’re all territorial over us. ”
Wyatt nudges me out of the way so he can take her mouth, meaning I get full access to her neck. My lips, tongue, and teeth work in tandem to leave little love bites all over her neck that I know she will yell at me for tomorrow.
And I can’t fucking wait.
“I wasn’t jealous, in case that’s what you thought,” Lainey pants when Wyatt finally lets her up for air.
Her perfume soaks the space, rivaled by peppermint and hot cocoa.
It’s like post Christmas dessert at the Rivers house, only more arousing.
Kind of a mind fuck if I think about it too hard, so I don’t, instead focusing on forming a response that’s more than the pathetic whimper my body wants me to set free.
“So you don’t want me to tattoo ‘Property of Lainey’ somewhere on my body?” I ask teasingly. Though I don’t hate the idea. Hmm… “Or maybe we should get t-shirts with your face on them so people know we’re taken?”
“No!” She blurts, face blushing all kinds of pink.
Wyatt is edging his way down her throat to her exposed cleavage.
I didn’t notice until now, but she’s wearing a thick v-neck sweater in navy blue and a hot as hell pair of white skinny jeans.
It’s not my jersey, but the fact that she went out of her way to wear Harbor U colors sends a thrill through me anyway.
This self proclaimed player hater showed up to our game repping school spirit and came to find us afterwards. I’m wondering if Lainey Ryan isn’t actually as indifferent as she would like us to believe.