Three Alphas, Three Mates

Chapter 5 - Watch Out (for Girls Like Us)

I look up at the source of the command, and it's Axel. He gets in between me and Coach Kenet and stares her down.

My mouth falls open. The crowd stares wide-eyed, even risking looks at each other to confirm what's happening before them.

Coach Kenet takes one look at Axel and then goes berserk. "What did I just hear fall out of your mouth, Alpha?" She marches right in his face. "You think you're too grown for me to pop your behind?"

Axel flinches.

Carson steps in. He points directly at her, standing tall. "You can't talk to him like that."

"Oh can't I?" Coach Kenet asks, crossing her arms.

Carson puts on a stank face and stares at her for a while.

"Is that a yes?" she asks.

"I'm not playing these mind games with you," Carson says.

She jerks forward.

He flinches. "Hey!"

Coach Kenet chuckles maliciously, not having really moved from her spot.

"Are you serious?" the brother, who I don't think likes me very much, asks. I don't know if he's talking to Axel or Carson though.

While Coach and Carson are having their standoff, Axel leans down to my level and touches my arm.

I jerk, just a little.

Just a slight shift back. The contact is like electricity, and he jerks from it too. Our eyes connect. His burning amber, my dark brown. We hesitate for a moment, just suspended there. Me gasping for breath, him losing his. He reaches for me again, slowly. Softly. He holds my hand in his own and asks, "Are you alright? Your heart is beating so fast..."

I can't be sure, but I think he's wrong. I think my heart just stopped.

"Axel." The other brother towers over the both of us. He doesn't lean down, doesn't try to come to my level. He doesn't even acknowledge my presence. He just says to Axel, "She'll never be able to if you and Carson baby her."

"So what should we do, Aiden? Let them shit on her? Geez," Carson barks out.

"Exactly," Axel looks away from me for a moment, and at his more apathetic brother. "You're acting like she's just not trying hard enough, but she'll never be able to do this."

Whoa, wait, what? I cock my head back. I thought he was defending me?

"She's not built for it," Axel says.

He looks at me sympathetically, but I pull my hand away from his "rescue." So much for moral support. Here I thought he was trying to give me a motivational speech, 'do your best and get back up again!' Oh no, he's the referee tapping me out!

Aiden almost scoofs. He looks down at me. His height over me only adds to the aura of his own arrogance, polluting the air like a miasma. He's like some Sasuke knock-off and he makes me as sick as his eyes say he is of me. "You can at least admit she has some room for improvement."

Some voices in the crowd have the audacity to voice their agreement. Thankfully, Carson and Axel just wave him off, wave cranky Coach Kenet off, wave the crowd off, wave everyone and everything off to help me.

Axel smiles, but unlike his usual grin, this one seems almost... sad? Regretful? He reaches for me. "Come on. Let's take you to the nurse."

I lean away. "No. I'm fine."

"You're about to pass out," Carson says.

I sigh. "No. I just have a weak heart and lungs and... everything around here basically," I do a large gesture towards my entire respiratory system and chest area. "I just need to lay down, and maybe some water."