Wereball Serie - Along Came A Mate
Chapter 36

AN/ DOUBLE UPDATE!

Will post another double update when the book reaches 20 reviews.

“..I reject you as my mate...”

Interesting how much power lies in six simple words. It is impressive how many existences are destined to change and how many lives prevented from being born because of a combination of 16 letters. And it is disgraceful how powerful werewolves fear these six little words.

Because words consist of vibrations and sounds, and these create the very reality that surrounds us. And the werewolf who had just received them, had literally crumbled. Anyone who had supernatural eyes and perhaps even human eyes, if there were any, could have seen pieces of heart scatter across the grassy ground, right in the middle of the Wereball’s arena.

Most importantly, everyone expected the strong wereball player to refuse, shout, go berserk. But the rejected wolf did nothing of what was expected. What he said next, it triggered unbearable pain for the werewolf who had started the game of rejection and crumbling hearts:

“I accept your rejection.”

There were gasps, exclamations, and murmurs. Two souls saying goodbye. Two wolves that ached with pain....

How did we come to this agonizing situation?

Let’s take a few steps back and start from the beginning, right before the match between two mighty teams was about to start....

........

“Oh Goddess! The game hasn’t even started Yvaine!” Amaia sighed, while I peeked at my father, sitting next to me. He seemed to have heard nothing, too busy keeping my mother at bay. She had stated that she would show her Scottish flag-painted boobs to distract rival players and it didn’t look like she was joking. Not that you could ever know it with her.

My knees were bouncing, and my foot tapped the ground as if possessed by a crazy foot-spirit. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FindNøvᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Calm down!” Amaia took my hand that was currently unfairly torturing the sleeve of my sweatshirt.

“I knew I had to take my portable defibrillator with me, damn it,” she muttered to herself when I made a duck-like sound.

The whole pack was at the arena, every single member, even those who had no idea what Wereball was, even the people who left the pack had returned to watch the game of the year. Everyone was buzzing at the prospect of fighting and bloodshed, and no one wanted to lose the event or not be a part of it.

I could already notice some members of my pack stretching or cracking their knuckles. The group of Comet Ultras led by Tiziano (wielding his inseparable megaphone) was a few rows away, right below us, and were already chanting the typical stadium songs and beating drums.

I could see huge sacks full of rocks, and other objects with the sole purpose of inflicting pain.

People were already losing their voices from the amount of screaming and shouting.

I shivered at the thought of the inevitable confrontations and potential bloodbath.

My eyes moved to the other side, towards our enemies. I saw several groups of fans. Some were dressed as Terminators, others wore their team colours, some more wore weird skull-shaped masks, the meaning of which escaped me but which I would have understood during the game, later. Then there were girls with signs like “Mate me”, “Terminate me”, “I love you, my only captain”, “My son will be called Thor” and so on. My wolf wanted to find a gigantic rake and mow down those females like weeds infesting the lawn.

“Just keep twitching like that, and your parents will believe you took some wolfsbane.” Amaia grumbled, after I crossed and uncrossed my legs for the fifteenth time. I shrugged, waving off her concern.

Makena giggled from the seat behind us, after patting me on the shoulder with some sort of reassurance. I was stacked between a robot and a heartless woman laughing at my misfortunes.

“I would like to see you two, if you were in my situation!” I retorted, moving my leg over the other, again.

“Oh please! It’s just a game! When it ends, you will still be mate of Who-We-Know-Who and your twin will still be your twin!” Makena said to Amaia and me, after bending down so as not to be heard.

“If there will still be one,” I said with a fake smile plastered on my lips.

The fateful day had ‘finally’ come and had made its presence known: my heart and my body functions had been heavily tormented and frustrated already.

“You know, research shows that such a tic”—my robot friend pointedly looked at my legs—“indicates premature cases of Tourette’s syndrome.”

“Should this make me feel better, Amaia?!”

“It was meant to be informative.” She rolled her eyes as Makena’s chuckle filled the air, before we were distracted by my parents.

“Let me go, Husband, before your blood pressure starts to rise again!” My mother yelled at father after he put her back on his lap, trying to contain her with his arms.

“YOU! It rises because of YOU,” He growled as Uncle Andrew laughed at them, after biting into what appeared to be his third hot dog and commenting that my dad’s advanced age didn’t help his case.

With my family and best friends all around me, in normal circumstances, I would feel in a festive mood. Especially if I had not kept the biggest secret in history all to myself.

I was telling myself that after the game and after talking to Logan, I would clear everything up with everyone.

‘It has been a little more than two weeks, it’s a healthy omission.’

My thoughts were stabbed by the change in the air; the sky seemed to darken as the rival players began to enter the arena from the opposite door of our team.

The crowd went wild like the romans during a gladiator’s match in the Colosseum.

Dark Diamonds’ permanent tattoos were in full display since they wore little clothes; from daggers and dragons, to different forms of wolves.

Some of them had extra body fat, probably the defenders, as they looked bulkier, more like werewolf tanks that could stop a bullet train.

My eyes were glued to the entrance as the players appeared, one after the other.

One of them caught my attention for a moment, as he was wearing a mask that covered half of his face. It was a black mask with the smile of a skeleton. Also, the guy had bones drawn on his bare chest and legs. I blinked my eyes a couple of times: he looked familiar.

Meanwhile, my twin’s nicknames were on numerous mouths, shouted by fans and not fans, some encouraging, others in a way that would make a priest turn into a vampire.

“You, pieces of junk!!!! Give me the biggest scream of your lifeeeee for the oooone and onlyyyyy..... Thooooooor!” The chief of the DD Ultras shouted from his megaphone while the drums increased their pace.

Tiziano, on the other hand, cheered and pushed our people to boo loudly.

As usual, when I heard that name, my heart acted strangely as if it were speeding up and stopping at the same time. It happened every single time.

If Dark Diamond players had seemed like beasts walking on two feet, emitting brute force and showing aggressive looks, my mate ... well, he was something entirely different.

He entered last; like a true Alpha wolf who had previously waited for all members of his pack to enter without problems.

The way he walked, the way his shorts hung over his huge legs, the way his stout shoulders moved... confidence and power seemed to be his aura.

Two meters of walking muscles that screamed pure raw masculinity.

Some tattoos that triggered salivation decorated his chest and shoulders, and to my great disappointment he was not wearing the necklace.

‘Probably because he doesn’t want to ruin it or lose it.’

To his defence, he wore no protection or shoes either.

As soon as he reached the corner of his team, a robust man approached him with a small bottle.

I hated that thing with all my heart. It was the notorious gel that kept the players from healing, and the more you used it, the more you proved yourself superior.

As already mentioned, it was completely primitive and unnecessary, but I could not avoid the spark of pride when Logan wore it like a piece of cloth. *the gel

He mischievously poured the entire contents of that evil substance, enemy of all doctors, on his shoulders, neck, and chest. He basically took a shower in it and spread it everywhere.

He smirked at our team as if to show that he did not need to recover from injuries. Because there would not have been any injuries.

Skeleton Guy had spread the gel right after Logan, even if in smaller quantities. My brother had some on his chest, that was too much in my opinion.

I forgot all about it when I saw Logan sniffing the air. Then he started to check the crowd, on the side-lines of Comet, my heart began to fill with butterflies and my breath stopped until our eyes met. It seemed like hours, but it was only mere seconds. He looked at me, and I stared back at him, and, without realising, I gave him a small, encouraging smile.

My mate, The Terminator, the captain of Dark Diamond, the team I had heard endless stories about their dirty games, was still staring at me with an unreadable expression when a massive car’s door flew at him.

I was about to jump to my feet and scream when he turned swiftly, caught it with one hand and threw it right back as if it were a frisbee, in the same direction where it came from. The mischievous grin reformed on his lips when three of our Ultras, who had sneaked onto the field, were chased away.

The look full of arrogance and confidence, like a challenge to my team, that mockingly said, “Come and beat me if you can” radiated from his overdeveloped body.

I compared Lachlan and Logan for a second. My twin had ignored the entry of the DD players and the little scene of my mate and was now intent on warming up and incite his teammates, with a confident smile.

If Logan was the mischievous and unbeatable dragon, tricking all the travellers along the way and ending up devouring them, Lachlan was the immortal hero who slayed the monsters that haunted in the dark woods.

Although the two had similar builds, my mate was slightly taller, although my twin was broader.

“Hello!! Earth to Yva!!” Makena exclaimed, snapping her fingers in front of my face: “Did you even hear a word of what I said?” her expression showed exasperation and irritation.

“Um, Caius asked you to speak after the game?”

“No! Tomorrow! And he invited me out” She sighed. Her black hair tried to escape her perfect braid as she shook her head.

“Fantastic,” I smiled faintly. “So, are you guys on good terms now?”

My hands began to sweat when I perceived a particular gaze on me.

Tiny detail about mates: when one stared at the other, no matter from how far away, a wind made of sparks stroked the ‘observed’ mate.

So, thanks to that I missed everything that she said, the comments of Amaia, the jokes of my mother and the new song chanted by our Ultras, the same that Tiziano had worked on for weeks.

A few menacing growls were heard, and the two Jokers were released in the arena. They were bigger than usual, just to add some more spiciness. The two beasts began to stroll in circles and observe the players, as if to decide which one they would have bitten first.

The two teams were on opposite sides of the arena, on the farthest corners, ready to run, and, right in the middle of the stadium stood Logan, holding the ball in his hand.

The visiting team always started first.

A defeated sigh left my lips and worry invaded every cell of my body; the gaze going from Lachlan to Logan frenetically. Last night I made my-silly-self swear I would not be affected, but it was tougher than expected. However, nothing could have prepared me for what was about to happen.

The Dong that started the game almost went unnoticed due to my distracted mind. I could not help but stare at my mate as if I had fallen under a spell and a feeling of elation invaded me as I knew he could perceive my gaze.

And then something strange and disconcerting occurred.

The Terminator, whose eyes were fixed on a precise spot in front of him, instead of focusing on passing the ball to his advancing mates, launched himself towards the Comet side, all by himself, facing the approaching Comet wolves with the ball under his arm.

I could not even look; it was a suicide mission. ′What the hell are you doing?! What the hell are you doing?! What the hell are you doing?!′

When I finally grew the courage to peek through the cracks between my fingers, my heart nearly leaped out of my chest.

Logan was like thunder; he jumped, slipped, punched, dodged Comet players.

His mates called his name; they were shocked and confused. It seemed like they did not know what his intentions were.

Nobody knew.

At the very last second, surrounded by too many Comets, he threw the ball backwards, to a teammate. The ball landed smoothly in his hands; everyone would have taken it, including me: it had been a perfect pass.

But Logan did not stop to check; his eyes were still fixed on one spot in front of him. The determined gaze could dig the ground or set the grass on fire.

And he kept running and running towards our defence, towards ...

Alex.

My stomach dropped.

‘Was he...?’

After another heartbeat, I watched in horror as my mate pounced on Alex and slammed his fist into his face. Our defender had little time to react as Logan pummelled him furiously.

For a brief moment, the game stopped.

The crowd fell silent.

Though Alex tried to block his punches and defend the last inch of skin and pride he had left, his attempts only seemed to infuriate Logan more.

It was unreal how bruised and battered Alex was; it looked like he had played 3 consecutive wereball games and then participated in illegal MMA fights. I could not imagine how much pain he was going to feel.

My throat tightened at the sight of Alex lying on the ground.

The impacts of Logan’s blows had left his face and body covered with wounds and gushes of blood. While I had never been afraid to see this bodily fluid that supplies necessary substances like nutrients and oxygen to cells and carrying metabolic waste products away from those same cells, I hated seeing blood waste like that.

When Logan was done, he stood up and gave poor Alex one last kick.

Never have I ever seen pure satisfaction in someone’s face. My mate wore the biggest smirk ever recorded in the history of smirks as he wiped the blood, which was not his, from that rocky chest as if nothing had happened.

Then his head snapped to me and he threw me a winning grin that made me sink further into my seat...

If his little ‘show’ had been a dirty strategy to distract the Comet and get their Running Back to score, it had worked:

Because Dark Diamond made their first touchdown.

And if I had some genuine concern for my mate before the game, they were all completely erased.

Actually, I began to feel scared for the other players.

###

AN/ Will post next chapter on Sunday ;)

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