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“You don’t know that.” She let me lead, which showed just how nervous she was to face the pack. I got it, I did, but this was the only way she was going to redeem herself, and I knew she knew it. “I’m surprised they’ll even let me on the field with them.”
“They love to show off, especially to females.” It wasn’t a lie. Although I did have to promise them a night at the pub with all-you-could-eat wings to get them to agree to a game including Charlie after what had happened with her attempted mind meld.
Kane still hadn’t made an appearance from his wing of the mansion, and I knew it was because he was fuming over what Charlie had done. When he was super pissed, he isolated himself until he cooled down. It was a strategy that had kept him from doing a lot of unwise shit over the years. His temper was unreal…kind of similar to what Charlie’s werebeast was like.
Her werebeast, like it was a separate entity. Levi would have my head if he knew I was thinking that way. He and Kane both thought Charlie had split herself in three. Three separate entities—her wolf, herself and her werebeast. She should be all in one, a package deal, but somewhere along the way she developed some not-so-great coping mechanisms, and Levi thought it was all because of those masters that had trained her. Kane agreed. Me? I could appreciate her struggle. Sometimes I’d like to shove my wolf side away and just be human, blend in, be normal. How tempting would it be to silence the ever-pulsing desire of my wolfie needs? Shelter. Food. Mate. Persistent urges to secure all three all the time.
Charlie being here had quieted some of that instinct, cementing my belief that she was the one. She was mine. I just needed her to see that I was hers.
I knew Levi had made some headway with her. Not that he’d said anything to me but the shit-eating grin he’d been wearing all day had said it all. He’d felt he’d conquered her in some way, and his ego was glowing.
And that alone was enough to get my competitive drive to triple. Charlie wasn’t a prize, but if mega-geek Levi could get her to melt, then so could I.
Charlie didn’t say anything else until we were stepping onto the multi-purpose field. The guys were all playing around, tossing the ball, doing their best to ignore us. I could tell their hackles were up since the tension on the field doubled. It made my skin tight and the urge to shift very real.
Charlie kept walking until she was standing center, looking small in the middle of the pack. The guys all stopped what they were doing, finally forced to accept that she was going to get up in their faces. There were low murmurs, some growls, grumbles but they turned toward her, willing to listen at least.
“I know I did you wrong, and I’m sorry.” Charlie projected her voice as she scanned the guys, making eye contact with as many as she could.
Pride swelled in my chest. I hadn’t been expecting her to own up like this…to stick her neck out.
“I made a mistake. It hadn’t been my intention to trap you like I did. I meddled with power I don’t understand, and you all paid for it. I’ll never forgive myself for that, and I don’t expect you to, either.”
No one spoke. Charlie’s cheeks flared red. Her obvious discomfort sat in my chest like a boulder, empathy to the extreme. I wanted to save her, but I held steady, soaking up the tension. She nodded, accepting the silence as something other than forgiveness—or at least affirmation of whatever was going on in her head. She turned to go. I was about to give the look to the pack, the one that said, ‘cut her some slack’. I hadn’t coached them to hear her out, but I had expected more flexibility.
“Everyone makes mistakes,” one of the guys in the back said—probably Lewis, if I were to guess. He was always the first to forgive and forget.
“No judgment here,” another added. “We were all a bunch of fuck-ups when we joined.”
“You still are, Steve.”
The whole group laughed, someone threw a ball and it knocked one of the guys on his ass. That was when Charlie must have realized we played with weighted balls. She barked a laugh. Another ball flew, and just like that, the game was on.
Charlie, being in the middle, was caught up in the melee, and I dove in next to her. The teams were quickly sorted by skins and wolves. We were on skins, remaining in our human forms with one huge exception…Charlie’s ability to partially shift.
“Show these guys what you can do, Charlie!” I roared as I caught a ball mid-air, absorbing the weight before zinging it back to the sender.
She managed to jump out of the way of a ball that skimmed her head but didn’t use her shifting abilities to aid our team.
I psyched out a wolf with a fake throw then tossed the ball Charlie’s way for the hit. She barely caught the heavy thing, swaying backward as she fumbled it for another member of our team to snatch and deliver.
“Charlie, you can use your unique talents, you know.” I rolled my eyes when she looked at me blankly. “Shift your arms or something.”
“That’s cheating!” she said as she shook her head.
Three balls came her way in quick succession, and she turned to face them, shifting instinctively, her powerful wolf legs getting her out of the way in a seamless duck, dive then capture. She hauled back two of the balls, one in each clawed hand then sent them reeling, taking out two members of the other team.
“Hell yes!” I yelled, and the rest of the team cheered.
Being able to shift parts of her body was an element of who she was, and it was time for her to accept it.
The guys pumped her up, shouting her name, throwing balls her way just to see what she could do. As team members fell, struck out one after another, Charlie kept the game going. Her energy was infectious, and her laughter ignited chortles all over the field, even a few yips from the wolves who weren’t on our team.
I was so in awe and so caught up in her magnificence that I took a hit to the chest that sent me sprawling. I was out, but Charlie kept going.
* * * *
She’d cleared the field in record time, and when we’d switched sides and our team had become the wolves, she’d done it again—kicking ass all over the place and impressing me more and more.
