Page 13 of Poke the Bear

Boom.

That was the only way to describe it. I didn’t know who Freya was, her last name, only that she knew Jack and she liked to draw. I was hungry, so fucking hungry to hear more, know more, but right then…

People were clapping and I should be too. It was the decent thing to do, because every bloke here was celebrating everything they’d achieved this year and they deserved that applause. But any thoughts about good sportsmanship were shoved aside for this.

There were only two things I wanted in life, to make it into the national Australian Football League and to find my mate and right now it felt like it was there for the taking. Silently I tried to communicate that to Freya. Jump with me, I wanted to say, even as I knew how fucking insane that would sound. Make the leap and I’ll catch you every single time.

But I didn’t, I couldn’t. Making a fucking idiot of myself in front of the whole state wouldn’t help anything, so I just smiled, hoping she’d see it. But I didn’t get a chance to find out if she did. The compere spoke then.

“And now we get to round seven,” he said, nodding to me.

Shit, I remembered all about that one. We were pitted against fucking Port Adelaide and the game was brutal. My head whipped around before I could even think about it and Nathan Lyons was there, watching me with a smirk. I was about to punch his teeth down his throat during the game, but somehow I’d pulled the bear back and we’d played an insane game, trouncing the ’Pies, but that was nothing on this. The prick shifted his focus to Freya, and as I growled in response, he cocked an eyebrow.

I knew what that look meant. Right before some bloke was going to say something really shitty about a woman, he looked like that. Like she was nothing but a piece of meat. My grip on Freya’s hand tightened, too tightly it seemed. She let out a little noise of pain and that had me focussing on what really mattered.

“Don’t get fucking distracted out there!” our coach would always shout at us. “Don’t let those other pricks get in your head.” He’d tap his temple then. “You play the game in here. In here first. You let them dominate you in here, you’re done, no matter how fast or strong you are.”

I took it to heart on the field, but right now I needed to heed the same advice.

As Freya got to her feet.

The bear rose to attention. He’d go into hibernation inside me during shit like this because it bored him, but not now. He flexed inside me, had me moving to my feet without thought, but Freya waved me away.

“Just going to the toilet,” she whispered and then walked away.

Go after her, that’s what the bear demanded, but everyone’s eyes were on me, not the screen. Even the compere paused in his speech to stare. Jack shifted around to the perimeter of the room, waving her hand vehemently to force me to sit down and the man obeyed.

I saw tawny fur prickle across the backs of my hands, forcing me to shove them down under the table, because everyone was watching. The questions in my teammates’ eyes were obvious, but no one said a thing as the ceremony continued. And neither could I. The bear was close, so fucking close to shoving his way free, in ways I’d never experienced before. She’s coming back, I told him, over and over, feeling just like a guy would, standing in front of a raging bear. She has to come back, I insisted, desperately hoping that was true.

Chapter 7

Freya

I could not do this, I just couldn’t. I’d felt on edge before when Jack asked me to come, but this went beyond bestie duty. I rubbed at my arms as I wove my way through the tables, keeping my head down, not meeting anyone’s eyes. The only relief I got was once I was beyond the seated players, stumbling out into the outskirts of the ballroom.

“You OK, Frey?”

Jack appeared at my side in seconds. Those keen eyes seemed to take everything in all at once.

“I’m fine,” I said, faking a smile. “I just need to go to the loos.”

“Frey.” She grabbed my arms and turned me towards her. “Freya—”

“I’m fine.” I palmed the room key she’d given me. “I’ll just duck upstairs and then I’ll be back.”

“C’mon,” she said, moving closer. “It’s me. If that little shit Adam has been messing with you—”

“No!” I blinked, then looked around me. “No, he’s been lovely.”

“Lovely?” Nothing could distract Jack from her job, nothing but this. A smile spread across her face. “How lovely?” She looked back over the crowded room, catching Adam staring back at us. “I mean usually I’d warn you the fuck away from one of the players, but Adam…”

“But Adam?” I prompted.

God, I sounded needy. Probably because that’s how I felt, because while I now had a good working knowledge of Adam’s 2023 season achievements, I knew nothing else about him but this.

He was like the sun. I felt warmer when I was around him, something that spiked into a bittersweet heat every time he looked at me.

And he did, over and over.

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