“No, you must protect the human,” Eleanor said, nodding at Ruby. “I’m a shifter. I can protect myself, remember?”
“Hey, can we not call me ‘the human’ like it’s some kind of insult, please?” my mate asked. “Why don’t you both come to my place? All the security is upgraded so it’s probably safer than yourhouse, Eleanor. There are only two bedrooms so it’ll be a bit of a tight squeeze, but maybe you and I can share a room.”
“No!” Both Alexei and I spoke in unison.
I knew that Ruby and Eleanor were not attracted to each other, and Alexei knew it too, but that didn’t mean that our inner beings were going to be okay with the unmated females sharing a bed.
Ruby gave us a confused look, then shrugged. “Fine, then one of you can sleep on the couch I guess.”
“I can sleep on floor,” Alexei said easily. “I sleep in much worse places when I am on missions.”
Eleanor rolled her eyes but didn’t comment.
“Great, let’s head back to my place then,” Ruby said. “I’d like a chance to relax and get a good night’s sleep before we leave on our road trip tomorrow.”
Alexei and I were going to have to figure out how to manage the road trip. It would be unusual for me as a writer to travel on the bus with the team, but at least it was explainable. Alexei would be harder to explain.
As it turned out, we didn’t have to worry. After a quick check-in with Lois, we arranged for Alexei to be introduced as a visiting coach from Belarus, ostensibly here to see how U. S. teamstrained their players. I guess that’s why Lois was the boss, she could come up with a plausible cover story for anything.
“Did you tell Lois that Eleanor is your mate?” I asked Alexei as he hung up the phone. I’d stepped away to check on my own mate while he talked to my boss. She and Eleanor had disappeared into their respective bedrooms almost as soon as we did our security sweep of the condo.
He shook his head. “I am not making wolf angry,” he said. “I already have one angry wolf… how do you say? In hands?”
“On your hands,” I corrected, placing emphasis on the first word. “Okay, let’s get some sleep then.”
“You may have the coach Cassie.”
The next morning I woke up to find Alexei sleeping on the floor in the hallway, his big body blocking anyone from getting past him.
“Alexei,” I whispered.
The bear jumped to his feet faster than I could blink, immediately awake.
“Jesus Christ, how did you do that?” I asked. “I didn’t even see you move.”
“We were trained to wake up immediately and fight off attack,” he said simply.
“Do you want coffee?” I asked.
“Of course.”
The two of us headed to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. Ruby hadn’t prepped it before she went to bed the way she did the previous night. I had the feeling that she’d needed some time to process. A lot had happened yesterday.
We’d scarcely sat down when the two females came out, both of them looking slightly grumpy, probably because I’d heard both of them tossing and turning late into the night.
Discreetly I ran a napkin over my face, making sure there were no traces of the blood I was drinking from a coffee cup. I didn’t want my mate to pass out again. Ruby glanced at my two cups, wincing slightly as she realized one likely contained blood, then looked away.
Meanwhile Eleanor’s gaze went right to Alexei. The bear was shirtless, revealing a muscular chest and washboard abs, covered in just enough hair to make him look manly but not gross. With the dark stubble on his jaw and the half-lidded look he sent his mate, even I had to admit he looked hot, something that did not escape Eleanor’s attention either. She stared at his chest for so long that Alexei rumbled a laugh.
“My eyes are up here,” he teased.
Eleanor huffed in annoyance at being caught, then stalked over to the coffee pot, pouring a cup of coffee for both her and Ruby.
After we were all caffeinated, we gathered our bags and headed to the stadium to meet the bus that would take us down to Portland.
“Head to the back,” I instructed Ruby and Eleanor.
It would be easier for us to see what was going on from the back of the bus. Eleanor took a seat in the last row and when Ruby moved to sit next to her, Alexei blocked her with one large paw.
