Chapter 16: Snuggle Up

Coach Murphy found his voice first. “Open these four windows.” He pointed at me. “You, sit down.”

I did as I was told without hesitation. He moved a barely conscious Ellery into the seat with me.

“Put as much of her on you as you can manage and take her hair down.” Then he bent and took off her shoes.

Lewis could be heard muttering “Mr. Sinclair is not going to like this” over and over again.

“I am aware,” Coach Murphy snapped at him. “Sean, who made the decision to schedule this game at this date and time?”

Coach Hendrix was vibrating with fury. “I don’t know, Billy, but you bet your ass I’m going to find out.”

Ellery whimpered and clutched at my arm before sighing and relaxing against me. I worked the bobby pins out of her hair, discarding them on the floor, stroking her hair back as it loosened.

“Everyone okay?” Coach Hendrix called. The team all gave various versions of yes and then the next directive was given.

“Great, find your phones and let your parents know that you’re all safe and that we should be back at the school within an hour. I’m proud of all of you for how you handled yourselves during and after that game. I am sorry that you had to go through that and I promise it will never happen again.”

“What the hell just happened back there?” I asked no one in particular.

“What happened is we all almost got killed.” Nick was in the seat behind me. He lowered his voice to add, “Elly is the only reason we’re not dead.” His brown eyes were filled with concern as he looked down on her.

“What? Seems more like the other way around.”

“Trust me. Ellery saved all of us in that gym. We just returned the favor on the way to the bus.”

“How is she doing?” asked Matt as he cleaned his hands with a towel.

Coach Murphy prevented me from having to answer. “She’s exhausted. That son of a bitch coach of theirs drew that game out as long as he could. It’s a miracle that she held out as long as she did. Her dad is going to be so pissed, but so proud of her too. The best thing for her is to keep the bus cool, dark, quiet, and calm.”

He looked at me when he said calm. “Calm, do you understand? Matt, will you rub her feet?”

“Sure thing, Coach.”

“You, keep doing what you’re doing. Touch her as much as possible, but keep it PG okay? Nothing below the waist,” he whispered.

My face must have shown my shock and confusion because his face registered those in response.

“I thought…..you don’t know do you? Holy shit.” He looked down at Ellery and then back at me. “I am going to strangle Ethan. Matt, please clue him in. I can’t handle it right now.”

“Me?” he asked, incredulous. “Here? Now? Over which part?”

“Any of it. All of it.” He went to sit down muttering in amazement. “He doesn’t know. She did all that without, holy shit.”

“Gods damn it,” Matt muttered. “I’m not good at this.” He looked at Nick. “Help me out, dude.”

“Do you think I know how to explain it? I’m the oldest in my family and my parents gave me a book!”

Matt whispered “fuck,” before asking me “Xander, when did you first meet Ellery?”

“Meet her or see her because that’s two different things.”

“See her,” Matt clarified.

“Back in September, but I don’t understand why that matters.”

“Had anything significant happened around the time you first saw her?” he asked.

I stroked Ellery’s hair while I thought. “Not really. Oh, it was the day after I turned eighteen, I do remember that.” Nick and Matt both looked pained by my answer.

“Unbelievable. I know you don’t have any brothers or sisters, but don’t you know anyone just a bit older than you that you can talk to about stuff?” Matt asked.

“What type of stuff?”

“Stuff stuff.” Matt lowered his voice. “Shifter stuff.”

I scoffed. “You’re as bad as my mother. She’s not one of us. It’s not her.”

“Gods above and all the stars,” Matt muttered. “She’s not a Shifter, but your mate doesn’t have to be one.”

“Well, she’s not human either, and no one in my family has ever mated with anyone other than other foxes or humans.”

Nick started to say something but was cut off by Ellery.

“Alexander,” she murmured, as she turned towards me and burrowed into my chest.

“It’s okay. I’m here, you’re safe.”

“Hold me closer.”

“Whatever you want, Princess.” I shifted her in my arms and brought her further into my lap so that she could rest her cheek on my chest. I pressed a kiss to her temple. “I’m here, I’m here,” I whispered as I stroked her hair.

“Touch me,” she begged in a ragged voice. I slid my hand to rest on her breast.

“Here?”

She answered with a groan of pleasure, and I felt more than saw Nick and Matt slam themselves across the aisle into other seats.

“Open more windows,” one of them said in a strangled voice

“Open all of them,” said someone else. I couldn’t tell you who because everything around me faded out of focus. All I could concentrate on was Ellery. I sat there, cradling her, stroking her hair, her face, her arms and the sides of her breasts until she drifted off to sleep.

When I looked up the rest of the team was crammed into the six seats at the very back of the bus. Andy was sitting in the aisle with his head between his knees.

“Kill me now, I can’t take it,” he groaned.

“What the hell?” I demanded. Ellery whimpered and I relaxed, sliding my hand down her body in slow, gentle strokes. “Ssh Princess, no one’s going to hurt you. I won’t let anyone touch you.”

“Just you,” she whispered.

“That’s right, just me.”

“Alexander…”

“What is it Ellery?”

“Don’t stop.”

“I won’t, Princess, I won’t.”