“Fucking hell!” I growled, dumped my bags, and pulled out my phone without checking the screen.
“Leave me fucking be!” I yelled, hung up the phone, and turned on the do-not-disturb feature.
When I looked up, Ollie stood there wide-eyed, tears pooling, his pacifier in his mouth. It bobbed frantically and I felt like shit.
“I’m sorry,” I said, placing my hand on his. He slid his hand out from under mine, and a moment later, Ewen came through the doors leading to the club area.
“What’s wrong, bug?” he asked, and Ollie buried himself in Ewen’s arms.
It should’ve looked ridiculous because as big as Ewen was, Ollie was bigger, but when you looked at him like this, his size didn’t register.
“I yelled. Screamed, actually. A lot. And cursed.”
“Why? What’s wrong?” Ewen asked while comforting Ollie.
I scrubbed my face with my hands before running them through my hair, pulling the hair tie from my bun. Painfully.
I sighed when Ewen cocked his head. “My roommates are assholes, and I took off after reserving a room. Only they’ve blown my phone up since I left the room, and I lost it.”
“Living in close quarters with people you’re not fucking fucking sucks, but if you think three or four roommates are bad, try several hundred, stacked three high in a metal berth made for someone half your size while stuck in the middle of the ocean on a Navy ship.”
I stared at him for a moment as I unpacked everything he said. Then asked, “You were in the Navy?”
“No. Marines.” Ewen whispered something to Ollie, and he pulled his head up and walked toward the club entrance.
At the door, Ollie turned around, pulling his pacifier from his mouth and said, “I’m sorry your roomies suck. That’s no fun.”
“It’s not, but I shouldn’t have yelled the way I did. I’m sorry.”
“Apology accepted,” he replied with a slight lisp and a bit of a juvenile slur to his words before shoving the pacifier in his mouth and disappearing through the doors.
I looked back at Ewen. “I didn’t mean to upset him.”
“He doesn’t do well when people are really angry. Some trauma I won’t divulge. He’ll settle soon now that the logical part of his brain has caught up to the fear that caused him to regress.”
“I know I told him myself, but please let him know…”
“I will, but don’t worry, my brother’s strong. He’ll be fine. I promise. Now, you said something about reserving a room.”
“Yeah. I did. I reserved it on the app. I hope I did it right.”
Ewen looked at his phone and nodded. “Yep. You were up there the other night. Do you remember how to access the floor and room?”
“Yes, I just stopped because my phone wouldn’t shut up and well… you know the rest.”
He nodded. “Did you talk to the frantic Daddy Dom you left at the munch?”
I groaned. “Do I gotta tell you that?”
He chuckled. “No. But I’m curious.”
I looked around to make sure we were alone. “He’s my coach.”
“Oh, shit. You play for the Maulers?”
I nodded, my system feeling like it was powering down slowly sucking all the life from me.
“Well, that sucks.”
