Ezra’s hand falls on my bicep before it comes to blows. For being her bodyguard, I haven’t gotten the chance to beat the shit out of anybody yet. It feels like a waste of my talents.
“Thanks for the offer, but I’m going to pass, Colton,” she dismisses.
He gets pissed. “All these years of us in town looking out for you, and you’re going to mate with the newbloods? Seriously?”
She turns around completely in her seat to glare at him. “I don’t owe you a damn thing.”
He smacks his hand on the bench, making a scene. “What the fuck do you see in them that you don’t in one of us, huh?”
She leans back against Vyrian casually, pissing Colton off worse with the lack of reaction he’s getting from her. “They don’t throw little bitchfits when they don’t get what they want, for one.”
He starts in on another tirade, but I have had enough. I rise to my feet, towering over him and making myself abundantly clear. “You should leave now.”
He looks like he’s debating throwing a punch, but ultimately spits on the ground and storms off. Elias is coming up the bleachers at the same time and passes a shirt to Colton on the way. The coach snatches it and the two dissolve into heated whispering before parting ways. Elias joins us on the stands and squishes between Ezra and me.
“You quit right before the match?” she asks, surprised.
Elias snorts. “Yeah, because I want to deal with that bullshit. He either would’ve benched me or put me through the wringer pissed off like he was.”
Her face falls, “Eli, I’m sorry, I-“
He cuts her off. “I don’t blame you, Ez. It’s a game, not the end of the world. But people suck and as much as they shouldn’t, take stuff out on the rest of us when they’re pissed; sports even more so. I wasn’t about to spend the next hour running laps and getting screamed at because coach got shot down.”
She looks like she wants to argue or go smooth things over with that asshole so Elias doesn’t need to deal with the fallout, but he just starts poking her in the side of her cheek until she gets annoyed and smacks his hand away.
“Feed me, oh mighty sister mom,” he continues, effectively slamming the door closed on the past. “I’m withering away from your neglect.”
She rolls her eyes and gets to her feet. “Since we don’t need to stay for the game now, we might as well go back home and start dinner then.”
Yri pulls out his phone to shoot Cai a text, letting him know to meet us at her house instead. We climb into her SUV, and make it back without any more incidents. Dinner prep is easy, falling into a bit of a routine over the last week.
We’re just setting the table when Cai arrives, hair still damp from a hasty shower. He looks uncomfortable and I fight a smile.
“You know, if you hadn’t been avoiding the house this last week, you wouldn’t feel so awkward about this.” I keep my voice low so the conversation stays between the two of us at the door.
Cai looks so worn out that he might fall asleep standing up. “I already explain-“ but I wave off the excuse before he can hide behind it.
“No, you’re scared and hiding behind work. I get it. But you’re building this up in your head way more than it needs to be. Just breathe and pretend it’s any other night, alright?”
He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You’re right. Fuck. Okay,” he mutters and I grin, slapping him on the shoulder, his awkwardness more amusing than it should be.
We sit down to dinner and the tension bleeds out of his shoulders the longer the evening wears on. As per usual, when the time comes to head our separate ways for the evening, I feel a pang of unease.
The two of them are alone more often than not. I shouldn’t be, I mean hell, they’ve had this routine for a decade when the two of them were far younger, but the reminder doesn’t put me anymore at ease. She can protect herself, sure, but what if someone tried to use Eli against her? It’s incredibly obvious that he’s her weakness and she would go with someone if it meant keeping her safe.
Fuck, you can’t camp out in her yard, you’ll look like a psycho.
“You alright?” she asks, giving me a concerned look.
I force a smile on my face. “Of course, little dragon. Same time tomorrow?”
She taps her finger on her lips as she debates. “The three musketeers should be home around midnight and tomorrow’s a training day. Honestly, I feel bad making you follow me around everywhere as it is. Don’t you want a day off?”
I balk, but Yri beats me to it. “No matter how fast you’ve healed, you cannot possibly want a repeat of last weekend already!”
She rolls her eyes. “The Gauntlet is in a couple weeks. I need to be on my A game if Caius is running.” She turns to give him a look of appraisal. “It’s been a long time since I came that close to losing.”
He smirks. “Maybe you’re letting all those victories go to your head.”
