Page 75 of Players and Pages
“We’ve got to keep our head in the game, otherwise how do we provide for our girl?” He just had to get the dagger in the chest at least once, didn’t he?
More pressure. Always someone expecting more of me and me falling short.
I frowned as his words really sank in. The last thing I wanted to do was jeopardize this life we were building.
“The trick is finding out the right balance of life with her, and your own passion. If you can’t have both, it will only drive you crazy in the long run,” the assistant coach said. “Keep your focus on her when you can, but when you’re here, living the life you worked your ass off for? This is where the focus has to be. The honeymoon phase passes and when that happens you need a strong foundation outside of each other as well.”
“I’ll work on it,” I promised as I moved out of the dugout, ready to give the game my all. The last thing I wanted was to embarrass myself in front of my omega on top of this.
Jackson jogged toward the mound, doing his signature flip and earning more cheers from the crowd. The beauty of thisleague was they tended to scream for both sides, despite the rivalry.
I’d leave the stunts to my packmate. The one time I tried to do a flip, I landed on my face and was black and blue for over a week. That was the end of that for me and since I led the team dance I didn't have any special moves to get to my position.
Plus, imagine flipping around in all this gear. It would be disastrous.
I gave the bond a moment of focus, just needing to check in. It felt a little off but she sent a wave of reassurance. That was enough to calm my nerves. If she needed us, I knew she’d call, or we’d know through the bond.
For now, I couldn’t let the team or our fans down.
Griff and I walked out onto the field at the same time and he patted me on the ass and told me to focus. He was right, I was the captain and if my game was off so was the team’s.
Once I was in my sweet spot behind the plate, a lot of the anxiety melted away and I got in the zone. I watched as each of the players stepped into their positions and we all waited for the first batter.
The team we were playing were our rivals, the organization pitted us against each other as often as they could, and that drove ticket sales.
To my horror, their first batter headed out to the batter's box doing some kind of shimmy dance and it was none other than Henry. Bile rose in my mouth at the sight and I started to rise, eyes darting to my packmates.
They had to be fucking kidding.
I noticed that both Jackson and Griff mouthed 'what the fuck?' That about summed it up.
This was fucked up beyond belief. And we couldn’t do anything right now under the view of the cameras and our own contracts.
Dani was safe. She was with friends.
"Miss me?" Henry smirked, fixing his stance in the box. The smile he flashed me was full of vengeance. This was about to be a bloodbath.
"Hard to do with that smell lingering," I answered back. “How are you going to get a pack with a scent like that?”
He chuckled to himself, but I wasn't trying to be funny. If that asshole thought that he was going to get close to Dani again, he had another thing coming.
Thank god we had invited Taryn's pack as well. I didn't know her guys outside of brief meetings, but from what Dani has told us, they could handle Henry if he tried to get to her before we could.
I had no doubt they saw his face on the big screen when he walked out. Instead of shutting out the bond to focus, I blew it open, sending her reassurance again in hopes that she knew she was safe here. She returned it, but shut it down from her end.
That did nothing to calm my rising anger and worry. Fuck.
The ump took his place behind me and the game was on its way. We ran through a dance before Jackson could throw a pitch. I did my best to keep on time but Henry being here threw me off and he knew it.
"Too bad Jackson is a shitty pitcher," he remarked the moment the song ended and the game actually commenced. He was looking back at me instead of the pitcher.
Rookie move, that was his mistake. Jackson flung the ball over the plate harder than he ever had before. I guess that anger worked in his favor.
"Strike one," the ump called as Henry stumbled, cursing us both.
That was what he got for underestimating Jackson. Everyone thought he was too sweet and reserved to get petty.
If only he knew how far our packmate would go to end this man’s career any way he could.
