Page 132 of Scrum Heat

But I had to, because there was a meeting to get to, and apparently, it wasmyjob to convince a board of mostly middle-aged men in matching quarter-zips that me being bonded to four alphas was not, in fact, an operational hazard or a bad PR choice.

I wriggled out from under Finn’s arm, pressed a kiss to his hair, and turned to kiss Jax’s temple too.

They both made annoyed, sleepy noises.

“Traitor,” Finn mumbled.

“Jax, bite him,” I whispered.

Jax didn’t respond, but I’m pretty sure he smiled.

I know I shouldn’t be too worried, since I’ve prepared as much as I possibly could for this meeting. I’ve written out all the potential questions they could ask, I’ve bullet-pointed my bullet points, and I even tried to distract myself this morning by checking the stats on the rugby footage I posted yesterday.

That was, unfortunately, ahugemistake.

The video of Theo lifting Finn into the air by the shorts during training has gone viral. And not just rugby-viral: full-scale girls-in-group-chats, multiple-account-fandom-threads viral.

Someone clipped the slow-motion part and added a popular song that’s now sent it trending. Another user edited a fake trailer for a fake romance series about—and I quote—feral teammates who bond in the locker room and have unresolved tension over who gets to be the little spoon.

And now, as a result of all the attention, the online girlies and guys have all banded together and bought the last of the tickets for Saturday’s semi-final. Not even just the locals—some of them are travelling from hours away, and are planning on streaming their journeys to town.

So. That means that Alderbridge RFC is officially playing a sold out match to one of their oldest rivals, in a game where the stakes could not have been higher.

No pressure.

Just me. The club. The OSC. Thousands of ticket holders, and a trending hashtag called#ScrumAndKnot.

(Kill. Me.)

*

It’s too quiet in the hallway.

That’s the first thing I notice.

The second is that I’m sweating through my bra.

“Don’t overthink it,” Evie says briskly, heels tapping up the narrow stairs as we climb toward the Alderbridge boardroom. “They’re not here to attack you. Just to ask questions, clarify the situation, and assess risk.”

“Which is definitely not the same as attacking someone,” I mutter. “Very soothing, thanks.”

Evie snorts. “If you’d prefer, I can be blunt about it: this is a politically delicate, legally fraught optics review that could impact your future and theirs.”

“I would not, in fact, prefer that.”

She presses her lips together, like she might actually smile. “Good. Then walk straight, speak clearly, and don’t let them bait you.”

I hesitate. “I should probably tell you something.”

“Let me guess,” Evie says as she raises a brow, not once slowing her pace. “You’ve bonded to all four of them.”

I blink again. “Okay, how do you—”

“I know everything,” she cuts in calmly.

I don't respond—I just keep walking. Mostly to hide the fact that I’m a little creeped out by how she manages toalwaysknow everything.

“I saw that the Theo-Finn video passed 400k shares,” she adds lightly, glancing down at her phone. “And I’m sure you know that you’ve officially broken into the side of the internet where people write academic think pieces about locker room homoeroticism and hashtag it with rugby thirst traps.”

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