Page 52 of The Golden Receiver

I had to get closer to him.

He was mine, and someone had hurt him.

“No.” One word. One simple word in Coach Erikkson’s deep voice. He stepped out in front of me, almost like he’d materialized from thin air. “Hemmings, leave.”

Two more words.

I didn’t say anything. I just ripped off my helmet and started running toward the edge of the field. My helmet fell to the ground as I ran. I didn’t stop until I hit the woods.

I doubled over as I hit the familiar trail, the same one where Kieran and I had fooled around for the first time.

Kieran, who was on the field.

Kieran, who had just been hurt.

Kieran, who was mine.

I shifted.

Every instinct in my body was screaming at me to run back to practice, to be with him. Every instinct told me not to let him out of my sight. He was in danger. He could be hurt. He could be injured right now, and I’d been sent away. No. No, I wasn’t allowed. I’d been sent away. I ran faster. I went off the trail. I kept running until the anger started to ebb, but that desire to be near him didn’t.

I didn’t know how long I was out there before the desire to be near him became too overwhelming.

I started back toward campus.

“That was fucked up.”

A voice caught my attention. I ran toward it instead of Kieran.

“Shut the fuck up, Dobson,” another voice hissed. That voice was familiar. Willis. I would know that voice anywhere. “You agreed to do it. Don’t be backing out now that Coach ripped you a new one.”

“He almost benched me!” Dobson’s voice was loud. He was shouting. “All because you can’t stand that Sawyer⁠—”

His words were cut off by the sound of a thud. The coppery smell of blood filled the air around me. “Fuck you. He’s not better than me,” Willis hissed.

“Calm down,” another voice warned. “If you fuck this up…”

Reyes. That was the other voice.

“I’m out.” Dobson’s voice sounded like he was in pain. Good. He deserved to be in pain if he’d done something to Kieran. Because that was who they were talking about, wasn’t it? He’d said his name. He’d said my human’s name.

“Say anything, and you’ll regret it,” Reyes warned.

Dobson didn’t say anything back. I heard him walk away, his footsteps made louder by the crunch of dead leaves under his feet.

“You still thinking about making him pay?” It wasn’t Reyes or Willis, but the voice was familiar. I knew the voice, but I couldn’t place it.

“Yeah,” Willis answered, “and he’ll never see it coming.”

I didn’t know what they were planning on doing. I didn’t know when they were planning on doing it. When they started to leave, I followed them. I stayed at the edge of the woods, and I followed them all the way back to their dorms, but they didn’t say anything else.

Whatever they were planning couldn’t be good for Kieran.

I needed to protect him.

Chapter Seventeen

Kieran