The next few hours went quickly. Our team played hard. Vancouver was a formidable opponent, and while it was touch and go throughout most of the game, the Starfish emerged victorious. While we played, Cassie and the guy who was with her stood at attention on the side of the field, watching everything. On the other side, near the Vancouver team’s bench, two more women stood with similar watchful gazes.
“Does your team have security now too?” I quietly asked a Vancouver player who’d come to the International Games with us.
“Yeah, I caught some dude wearing a ski mask in my hotel room this morning leaving weird shit on my bed. I think it’s the same person who’s been after the other players. The league is calling in security for all the teams now.”
I gasped in shock. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I started screaming and get this, he jumped off the balcony – seven stories – and landed on his feet like a freaking cat. Ran away like nothing happened.”
I chanced a glance at Eleanor. She had a look on her face like this was pertinent information. I raised one eyebrow and she mouthed,shifter.
That made sense. I didn’t know too much about shifters, but I damn well knew that a human couldn’t take a flying leap off a seventh floor balcony and not at least have a few broken bones for their troubles.
When the game was over we shook hands with the other team, waved to the fans, then headed back into the locker room. Cassie and the guy stopped outside the door, and I knew from our previous conversation that she felt okay waiting outside because there wasn’t another way to enter and exit the space.
The mood in the locker room was ebullient. We always felt good about beating Vancouver, although most of the women in the room had no idea that their star player had such a close brush with danger this morning.
After our wrap up with the coach, Eleanor and I waited for our turns in the shower, then put on our street clothes.
“You’re still coming with us for dinner, right?”
Eleanor gave me a look I couldn’t interpret. It was a cross between petulant and hopeful.
“Is that guy coming?”
“What guy?”
She huffed impatiently. “The big ass bear shifter who was with your mate.”
That’s why he was so big. The guy was a bear shifter.
I shrugged. “I never saw him before today. I have no idea who he is or why he was with Cassie.”
I hadn’t felt jealous though, not like I had with Jeannie, our yoga teacher. Somehow I knew the guy wasn’t interested in my bodyguard, although I couldn’t say how.
“Are you ready?” I asked Eleanor.
We were two of the last people to leave the locker room and my friend seemed to be stalling. I wondered if it was because of the guy. What had he said when he saw her? Mine?
“What did he mean, when he saidmine?” I asked. “He was looking right at you when he said.”
“He thinks he’s my mate,” Eleanor said glumly.
“Why does he think that?” I asked in confusion.
“Because he is.”
“And you’re not happy about this?” I guessed.
“Not really,” she sighed. “But we’d better go out there. I can sense him growing impatient all the way in here. I don’t want him to hulk out and wreck our locker room.”
Cassie and the bear were waiting right outside, both of them looking impatient.
“Everything okay?” Cassie asked, looking me up and down.
“Yeah, we were just last in line for showers,” I lied.
I saw her nostrils flare, as if she could tell I was lying, but she didn’t call me on it.
