“Brother,” Mad Dog told D, “that was intense, and we weren’t even part of it.”
As soon as he said it, I knew he was wrong. The trees had filtered some of the MC’s energy to us, and ours to them.
“Yeah, you were. Not directly.” I pointed to the nearby trees. “They directed your energy to the trees in the circle. I didn’t realize it at the time.” I looked at D. “Did you?”
“No, but you’re right.”
We ate in Mad Dog’s man cave. He has tabletops he can put on the pool table, ping pong table, and foosball table, and plenty of folding chairs in an adjoining storage area.
The party at the clubhouse had been our official send-off, but this was family, and they made me feel as if I belonged. Everyone hugged me before we left to go back to our house, and they weren’t just being polite. They wished us safe travels and told me to go kick ass. All of them knew the tournament would be broadcast live on social media, and they knew what time our first match was. Mad Dog told me Velvet would have it on the screens in the bar area of the restaurant, and all I could do was hug him because I couldn’t figure out how to thank him for making me part of the family.
Chapter Thirty
Dementor
I hate flying commercially. Packed in like cattle. No, worse — like damned chickens. I was prepared to pay for first class seats, but Ember wanted to sit with her teammates. I tried to buy two coach seats for my big ass but the fuckers wouldn’t let me. I’m big and I don’t mind paying extra to be comfortable, but that apparently wasn’t an option.
If the team managed to make it to the semifinal tournament, no way was I flying steerage class internationally. The players all wore Birmingham Hellcats tight-as-fuck t-shirts, and the rest of us wore everyday shirts with the Hellcats logo. It’s possible we were a little rowdy on the plane, but the other passengers and the airline employees seemed to enjoy it, so it all worked out. I have a feeling some of them might’ve even made plans to watch the match online.
I’d reserved a large suite complete with living room and conference table, which I intended to use to feed everyone. As soon as the team began talking about where they were eating, I told them, “I’m planning on ordering thirty hamburgers and enough fries to go with them. They have veggie burgers too, will six be enough? We have a suite, so ya’ll come to our room for dinner. My treat. I’ll have plenty of bottled water. If you want something else to drink tonight, you’ll need to bring it with you.”
“I’ll text our room number to the group chat when I get it,” Ember told them. “Our first bout is kind of early tomorrow, and this will let us eat and chill and talk about strategy a little more.”
Ember
The tournament featured fifteen matches in three days. If we kept winning, we’d be in four. We only needed to win the first two in order to make it to the semifinals, but we weren’t seeded terribly high, which meant we’d have to take out some heavy hitters. Winning the first match would be an upset, winning the second would be a major upset.
But none of that was on my mind when we started the first jam. We’d watched so many videos of the opposing team, I felt as if I personally knew them. Things didn’t go well the first couple of jams, and my heart sank as their points racked up and ours crept up.
Until it was my turn to be jammer, and my inner swan pushed so hard I had to restrain myself a few times. When my jam ended, we were only five points behind. They pulled me out for the next jam so I could catch my breath, and then I went back in with the star on my helmet — and a twenty-one point deficit.
But I was on a roll, and I went around and around the track. No one could stop me. I skated under, around, through, and even jumped over outstretched legs a few times. We held a nine point lead when the whistle blew to end the jam, and I bent over to try to catch my breath.
My points streak took hold and energized us. Our other jammers started making better headway. When the final whistle blew we were ahead by twenty-four points, and our competition was stunned.
Unfortunately, the team playing us in the next round royally kicked our asses seven hours later. We lost by ninety points. They crushed us.
And everything hurt. Our suite came with a hot tub, and Dementor put me in it and brought me wine.
“We’re all going to a sports bar in a little bit,” I protested when he brought the wine. “I want to get drunk with them. I shouldn’t get a head start!”
“Just one glass, then. Enough to loosen you up so you don’t get stiff.”
I took a sip of wine, settled it on the side, and relaxed my head back. I’d need to wash my hair before we went to the bar, so I wasn’t worried about it getting wet.
“This means my big day is Thursday,” I told him.
“It does. How do you feel about that?”
“Excited. A little anxious? I don’t know. I’m mostly looking forward to it but there are some unknowns.”
“Aaron says he understands you’ve always chased the next adventure.”
“That’s probably accurate.” No, it was the fucking truth, actually.
“More wine.”
I opened my eyes, sat up a little, and drank half the glass.
He chuckled and smiled. “The timer will turn off when you’ve been in fifteen minutes. I’ll grab a shower now so I won’t be in your way while you get ready.”
Dementor
The bear saw the entire team and their people as his. I had to push him down a few times when Ember’s teammates talked to people we didn’t know. He wanted to make sure everyone was safe, but these girls could take care of themselves. Not only that, but the bar was full of our team as well as other teams, and they all seemed to have each other’s backs. Any man who decided to be an asshole jerk on this night was in danger of losing his balls.
My job was to keep Ember in drinks, which didn’t turn out to be terribly difficult. The team started doing tequila shots, and I bought a few rounds for everyone. I also put one of the team members who doesn’t have much money on our tab once I realized she’d stopped ordering more. She protested at first when I put a drink in front of her and told her to drink up, and then she protested again later when I ordered food for her, but she ate it.
When Ember and I finally hit our room at around three in the morning — five in the morning back home — she was nicely toasted. I was tempted to take her out on our large balcony to fuck her brains out, but there was no way she was going to be quiet with this much tequila in her, so I bent her over the high back of one of the sofas and fucked her ass hard. I didn’t want to take the time to dig the donuts out so I could go hard and fast in her pussy, which meant her poor little bottom got everything I’d held back for the nearly two days since I’d last fucked her. I don’t know if she could walk when I finished because I carried her to bed and then proceeded to fuck her ass some more when she spooned back into me. By this time, she’d sobered up, which meant she begged for relief. But I didn’t give her any.
I also reached around and twisted, pulled, slapped, and just generally fucked with her clit the whole time I fucked her ass once we were in bed. I hurt her worse if she got too loud, so eventually she learned not to scream when she begged me to stop.