12
MASON
Ho-ly. Shit.
The minute my eyes landed on her, my bear lost control and I knew. I knew it was her. And she was Kingston’s little sister. Son of a bitch.
What were the fucking odds? The drunk girl from the party, the one that I hit it off with and hadn’t been able to stop thinking about since, was my best friend’s little sister.
Kingston was going to murder me.
But then I remembered something. I wasn’t the only one. I swallowed, turning to catch Ryder’s eye. He was looking at me, both of us knowing. There was no way not to. She was just as perfect now as she was that night at the party. Only now she wasn’t smiling and giggling. She was looking as panicked as I felt.
Ryder grimaced and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. We were in some serious shit.
But there was another part of me, a part of me deep down that had no care for consequences, that was elated. Fucking ecstatic. She was here.
And not only was she here, I knew exactly who she was now. Yeah, the truth of who she was wasn’t very pretty, but it was a whole hell of a lot better than moping around wishing I knew how to contact her.
At the same time, Ryder and I both looked at Keely, silently trying to tell her to keep this quiet, to keep it on the down low, to not blow this whole thing wide open right here and right now. We needed time to soften Kingston up to break the news to him. And we should probably talk to Keely herself to find out where she wanted to go from here.
My chest tightened at the thought. Way too often a girl was presented with that choice and went for Ryder. I dreaded giving her that ultimatum, but it wasn’t like she could be with us both… was it?
“Uh… Is something wrong?” Kingston asked, and I realized that we were all three just standing there staring at each other in stunned silence.
Keely blinked, shaking her head, and seemed to snap out of it. In one swift move, she was over the railing and down on the field with us. I grinned, but she wasn’t looking at me. She only had eyes for Ryder and jealousy spiked up hot and fast. Then she took three long strides, her lean legs on full display in the denim cut-off shorts she wore. Already my cock was hardening, remembering those legs wrapped around me, remembering the sweet heaven buried between her thighs.
But she was standing right in front of Ryder, hardly even acknowledging that I existed. My bear was ready for a fight when Keely aimed a sharp kick at Ryder’s groin.
Ryder doubled over fast, clutching his dick and groaning.
“What the hell?” Kingston said, jumping to Ryder’s aid.
But I didn’t pay either of them any attention, because before she flounced away, Keely turned and locked eyes with me, and smiled. My heart stopped, aching to go with her.
“Shit,” Ryder hissed, taking long deep breaths, hands on his knees. “Fuck it’s been a long time since someone’s done that to me.”
“You deserved it though,” I said, feeling absolutely no sympathy for him. From where I was standing, he’d taken advantage of her and she wasn’t happy about it. That meant I wasn’t happy about it either.
That didn’t mean I didn’t have anything to be happy about though. I still had that little smile she’d sent my way, the one I knew was just for me.
Ryder sucked in a breath and blew it out slow. “Yeah, s’pose I did.”
“Is anyone going to tell me what the hell just happened?” Kingston growled, his hands already balled into fists at his side. Shit. This was not how I wanted to tell him. To be honest, I didn’t want to tell him at all. But I didn’t think that was going to be an option, no matter how much I wished it would be. He was going to find out one way or another and it was probably just best to rip the band-aid off.
I looked to Ryder, who had finally straightened up, hands on his hips, still sucking in deep labored breaths, his eyes drifting off in the direction Keely had left.
“Well?” Kingston prompted.
Ryder blew out a long breath and looked over to me, shrugging. “Might as fucking well.”
“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that,” I groaned.
“So help me…” Kingston warned, his ears turning red, a big vein in his forehead pulsing.
I held up a hand to stop him from swinging before I could even get the story out. If we weren’t careful our bears would be squaring off within seconds, and then someone would end up with a broken bone and done for the season.
“So, the other night… At Ryder’s party? There was the girl that went upstairs with me… and we didn’t know who she—”
His fist connected with my eye socket before I could even finish that sentence.
“You son of a bitch!” he roared.
“I didn’t know who she was!” I protested, my eye already swelling shut, my whole head ringing like a church bell on Sunday morning.
“She’s my sister you perverted fuck.”
Ryder started laughing. I don’t know what the fuck was so funny about this situation, but he laughed hard enough that it made him wheeze and cough.
“Shut up,” I growled at him, clutching my eye, but he just laughed harder. Until Kingston went and kicked him in the same place Keely had. And he didn’t hold back.
Ryder dropped to his knees, his eyes going unfocused as he struggled for breath, a high-pitched whine escaping his throat.
Kingston was shaking with rage, his whole face crimson, his head looking like it was about to explode. He was going to Shift, I knew it. We were screwed. “Both of you stay the fuck away from my sister.” And then he marched off the field, leaving us both to lick our wounds.
“That could’ve gone better,” I said, groaning as I sank into the grass next to Ryder.
He laugh-wheezed, groaning and rolling over clutching his groin. “Fuck, that family should’ve gone into soccer.”
“Or boxing,” I said with a huff.
For a while, we just sat there on the grass, both of us probably trying to gather our thoughts and put everything together.
“At least one good thing came out of all of this,” Ryder said, getting to his feet.
“Oh yeah?” I asked, following suit. I was worn down, beat up, and still pretty confused, but Ryder was grinning ear to ear.
“Yeah. We know who she is.”
“Oh… Right,” I said, eyes drifting to the tunnel where she’d left.
“Why don’t you sound as excited as you should?” he asked, nudging my shoulder, leading the way deep into the stadium to the locker rooms. I hoped that the rest of our teammates were already gone. Most people didn’t really like to hang around longer than they absolutely had to. And from what I could tell, Kingston had left straight away without even going back to the locker room. So hopefully the coast would be clear. I really didn’t want to answer any questions about how I ended up with a shiner after practice.
“No reason,” I said, shrugging. I knew if I said the real reason out loud I would just sound ridiculous. Like some whiny pansy-ass bitch. And I wasn’t going to do that. Not with Ryder, not with anyone.
He wasn’t buying it though. “I thought you had the hots for her?” he asked, his eyebrows knitting together.
I snatched my towel out of the locker and slammed it shut again.
“Why does it matter to you? We both know how these things go, Ryder.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing, forget about it.”
“If you’ve got something to say, just say it.”
I growled, dragging my hand through my hair. “Look, we’ve been friends for a long time now and you have a pattern. A pattern of taking the girl I’m into and discarding her before I even have a chance.”
“I don’t—”
“Yes, you do. And it’s not a big deal. I know you’re not totally to blame. They’re just as much to blame as you are, but I’m not going to get all worked up over this one only for her to decide she likes you better.”
Ryder frowned, his forehead wrinkling.
“Why didn’t you ever say anything before? I just figured you felt the same about it as I did.”
“I’m not gonna make a big deal out of it. It’s not worth it. You know before you and Kingston, I wasn’t exactly the most popular kid in school. I mean, I was on the football team, but I was also in the Robotics Club.”
“Nerd,” he snickered.
“Exactly.”
“Sorry,” he said, looking down at his feet. He actually looked sorry, which made me feel bad. Yeah, it kind of pissed me off that things always went the same way with him, but like I’d said, it wasn’t really his fault. It’s just the way things were. It’s how they’d always been and how I figured they’d always be.
I sighed. “I can’t do one-night stands like you guys do. It never feels right to me. I mean, I’ve tried, but I want something more. I’m sick of being a bachelor. I want to find my mate.”
Ryder nodded. “I know what you mean.”
That stopped me in my tracks. I never thought I’d hear Ryder say anything like that. Anything even remotely close to implying he wanted to be around a girl for longer than one night.
“You gonna be around for a while? I wanna hit the shower,” I said, hooking a thumb over my shoulder in that direction. Ryder nodded.
“Yeah, I’ll be here.”
I gave him a nod before I headed off to the shower, letting the warm steam envelop me and wash away all the weirdness from today. I wasn’t even sure what all had happened.
I’d met Kingston’s sister — who happened to be the same girl who’d been occupying my mind for the last few days — and, by the same token, I found the girl that I’d been obsessing over.
It wasn’t ideal, but maybe I could work with it. Especially if Ryder wasn’t going to cockblock me like usual.
That was another weird development. We’d been friends for the better part of a decade and I was supposed to believe he never realized how he always swooped in to take the girls I was into? But maybe he really was that oblivious. Maybe he really did think that I was through with them by the time he got to them.
My hands balled into fists as I connected that thought to Keely. I couldn’t imagine ever being through with her. I’d seen something in her at the party, but it had been hard to really put my finger on. And the next day, I hadn’t been sure it was there at all. I mean, after all, we were both drunk and more than a little irresponsible. And I wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about the whole thing either since I’d been the one stupid enough to leave without any way of getting in touch with her.
But one thing was for sure, this girl was different than the others, and my bear made sure I knew it.
I pictured that little smile she sent my way after kicking Ryder in the dick. The way fire had sparked in her eyes and they tilted up at the corners as if she wanted me to chase after her. Like she was challenging me to come and take what was mine. My bear longed to answer that call. To claim her.
But it wasn’t that easy. Her being Kingston’s sister complicated everything and I didn’t know what I was going to do to get out of this mess. It seemed like the way things were going, I was going to be forced to choose between the siblings — assuming I even had a chance with Keely, which I still didn’t know if I did — and I didn’t know how the hell I’d ever be able to do that.
I’d spent enough of my life twisted into pretzels over anxieties that never came to fruition to know how to shove them aside, so finally, I told myself that I’d cross whatever bridge appeared when I came to it, and until then, I wanted to find a way to see Keely again.