“Bet he can’t wait to spread himself all over your cheating scent.”
Of course he had to reference me wearing Sillas’s sweater again. But wait, did Rudolph just…purr?
“You are so creepy!” I squawked. “I’ve never cheated!”
“Not as creepy as you are, bunny perv.” I could hear the smirk in his voice. “Your mate won’t be thrilled if this game ends in a draw. It’d be your fault, by the way.”
I was perplexed and slightly anxious. “My fault? How?”
“Weeeell, because you couldn’t stop ogling him the entire game! He could feel you switching between his ass and abs.”
My mouth opened. How did Rudolph catch me?
“Oh, and don’t even get me started on your calf fetish. Dang, Icould almost feel you looking atmine!”
I did have a tiny obsession with muscular calves…but only ever since I’d seen Logan’s! And how the hell did Rudolph know? Was I that obvious?
How mortifying, to think that Logan could sense my gaze on his body parts…
“Shut up! You’re just a crazy, nosy reindeer!”
“Sure am. Nobody denied that. But you be careful,Yvaine.” His voice dropped an octave. “Because after feeling your eyes glued to him the whole fucking game, do you know what your mate’s gonna do the second it’s over?”
“I-I don’t think he felt?—”
“He will hunt you down.”
After the awkward chat with Rudy—which had left me down one lung and with a thin film of sweat slicking my skin—I forced myself to focus on the game rather thanhim.
Thank Stephen, Lachlan wasn’t getting pummeled as much in the last quarter, but by then, his face was all swollen geometry, with puffed cheeks and shoulders blotching purple. Even worse, he’d slathered himself with that cursed Lorea, so the cuts just sat there, refusing to close.
The game stretched thin, tension unbearable on and off the field. The score swung back and forth like a pendulum, never settling. Each exclamation from the stands shifted further from a cheer and into something sharper, more bestial.
Everyone knew what was coming.
A draw in wereball?Suicide.
Nobody would tolerate it.
At least a win would make half the stadium happy. With a tie, not a single beast would leave satisfied. Some wouldn’t leave at all.
On the field, both sides were unraveling, slamming harder and hitting faster, every play hungrier for a snap or a scream.
The crowd’s noise blurred into one thick animal roar, but underneath it all, I could still hear thetick-tock-tick-tockof the game approaching its end.
My pulse spiked when I saw Lachlan gesturing his teammates close, heads bowing into a tight circle. He was speaking fast, voice firm, his bloodied hands carving through the air with sharp gestures. And they listened. Every single one of them. Shoulders straightened and eyes lit back up like he’d just pumped fresh fire into their veins. When the players broke the huddle, they weren’t limping anymore. They charged the field with teeth bared and rage ready.
And just when I dared to breathe again, thinking we might actually limp to the finish line, the inevitable happened.
My twin and my mate. Face to face. Radiating enough testosterone to choke.
Highlander vs. Terminator. Only a strip of defenseless grass separated them.
Every muscle in my body went rigid as Logan sized up Lachlan, studying him with narrowing eyes, slow and surgical. I wondered if he was measuring the lines of Lachlan’s face against mine, mapping our shared bones, if he recognized my own eyes in Lachlan’s…
A slow grin crept up on one side.
Then his lips moved, the words lost in the riot of the crowd.
