AllFreeNovel
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When I arrive at the football field, it’s deserted, but I find Coach in his office.
My knock on the door brings his head up, and he scowls. “Larson, you missed practice.”
My shoulders hunch. “Yes, Coach.”
His hard eyes narrow on me. “What’s your excuse?”
He doesn’t know about the OOP, and I’m too ashamed to tell him. “I overslept.”
“Well, put on your gear and start running laps,” he snaps.
I swallow the lump forming in my throat. “I don’t have my gear, Coach.”
Yet another thing I didn’t think to grab while my life was falling apart.
He closes his laptop and stares at me. “What’s going on, Larson? You never miss practice, and now you show up late with no gear?”
My eyes sting, and I blink quickly. “I lost my gear, Coach.”
“Lost it?” At my nod, he sits back in his chair. “How soon can you replace it?”
I shrug. Everything I had I spent on that one night at the motel. Can the OOP help me buy replacement gear? I should have asked Carrie about that this morning, but there was so much already happening.
Coach folds his hands. “If you miss two more practices without gear, I’ll have to bench you for the next game, and you know what that means.”
I nod. If my replacement, Hendricks, does well, Coach could decide to make him primary and keep me on the bench for the rest of the season. Hendricks has been gunning for my position, and if I’m benched, it will cost me any chance at getting a football scholarship to university.
“Well, get going then,” Coach says gruffly. “Don’t be late for your class.”
Nodding again, I leave his office and stride down the hall.
As I pass the locker rooms, Rian steps out, his hair wet from his shower, and that queasy knot in my stomach tightens.
His eyes widen with surprise before he lurches forward to grab my shoulders. “Brad, where have you been? I tried calling all weekend. Why didn’t you answer? What happened? Why weren’t you at practice today?”
His Alpha pheromones curl around me, demanding that I lean into him, that I let him fix everything that’s happened.
But that’s what got me into this mess to begin with. I trusted Rian, and now my life is trashed.
The anger and resentment that had grown over the weekend bubbles and festers. Part of me knows that we both agreed to go back to my house, that hormones had been driving our decisions, but I can’t make the resentment go away.
If not for Rian, I never would have given in to temptation, and I wouldn’t now be homeless, facing down the end of any dreams I had of playing university-level football.
I shake off his hands. “Don’t touch me.”
Shock crosses his face. “Brad?”
“Just stay away from me.” I turn and storm down the hall.
He catches up, spinning me around. “What’s going on, baby? What happened? You can tell me.”
I try to shrug him off. “I can’t be around you anymore. We’re over.”
“But…” His desperate eyes search my face. “Didn’t Friday night mean anything to you? We were each other’s firsts. My bite is still on your neck.”
“I wasn’t in Heat, so it will go away.” I look away from him, my throat burning. “Everything needs to just go away.”
“Baby, what happened?” He tries to pull me into his arms. “Did you dad?—"
