"-So there she was on this buckle bunny, shoving cake in her face," Tim grits out between fits of laughter. "Like some wild animal, took two guys to pull her off."

"Fuck you were a wild child," Jason cut in as the table laughs to my embarassment.

"Wait I have questions," Jace says trying to be serious. "What the hell is a buckle bunny, and why cake?"

"Buckle bunnies are like rodeo groupies, hot girls who follow around the winning cowboys. As for cake, I don't actually know? She wouldn't tell us what happened, hell you were grounded for what, a month for that?" Jason replies deep in thought.

"Two actually, apparently I chipped her tooth," I mumbled. "Don't look at me like that, she was such a bitch."

"She did treat you aweful, but you never stood up to her, why then?" Jason asked more intent. I just shrugged, but he clearly wasn't letting me off the hook.

"She made Sissy cry," I said with a sigh. Both guys made the ohhh face, confusing Chris and the guys.

"Sissy is my cousin, sweet girl, too innocent for her own good. If there's anyone that all the guys look out for more then Jess it's her," Tim explained.

"I can see her doing that," Derek chuckles. "You have a habbit of letting people push you around, but the moment they try it on someone else," he trails off shaking his head.

"You guys are up," a man calls to us.

We take our places on the rope, me first followed by Jace, Tim, Jason, Jude and lastly Chris. Our opponents this time were a bunch of the ranchers from Baxters.

"You're on the wrong side Jason," the lead guy says.

"I'm good," he says with a wink. "I prefer the winning side anyways."

"Big talk, care to put your money where your mouth is?" The challanger asks. Jason looks over our team and I see the wheels turn.

"You're on. Fifty?"

"Make it an even hundred."

"You might as well go put it in farmers relief fund now," Jason says with a smirk.

Oma steps in the middle and drops the flag. They surge ahead a split second early and pull us forward slightly before the guys dig in. The crowd roars as both sides dig in, neither giving up more then an inch.

I feel like a cartoon character as my feet move but I make zero progress. It's all up to the guys behind me. I must look like a puppy on the leash as the rottweilers behind me do the real work.

"Hey Andy, double or nothing?" I shout to distract him. "Marvel Mutts if we win?"

"You're on, but I want a dance when we win," he says with cocky smirk. Both groups really dig in at this point. I heard an angry growl from the back as the crowd whooped and hollered.

'Are you trying to piss him off?!' 'More like added motivation?'

I felt the rope surge back as our side made progress. Once the momentum started the ranchers were screwed. The crowd was deafening as they cheered on our victory as we pulled them across the line.

"Better luck next time Andy," I say with a wink. "Pay up!"

He passes $200 over to a smiling oma, as he grumbles and walks away.

"Are you trying to provoke me?" Chris whispers in my ear. His tone was dangerous, whatever my reply it could either smooth it out or set him off.

I twisted in his grip to face him, Cyrus was right up at the surface with his brown eyes staring back at me. I just gave him my best innocent look through lashes as I slipped a hand around the back of his neck.

"Think of it more as motivation?" I asked weakly.

"I don't need any motivation to break anyone's arm who dares to touch what is mine, beautiful," he warns.

"What about motivation to win? It's a good cause and I'd be very greatful," I murmur. His expression instantly shifted as he considered my words, a devilish smile spread across his handsome face.

"And what do I get for winning," he asks seductively, causing my core to jump 20 degrees instantly.

"Whatever you want, with in reason of course," I mumble against his lips. He instantly deepens the kiss as his hands pull me tightly to him.

A throat clearing pulls us back to the moment and we see several eyes on us. I light up like a tomato as he reluctantly releases me.

"Next teams are anxious to get started," Jace says with a knowing smirk. "Drinks?" He asks with a laugh as we head back to the food.

We sit down at a table with more food, while Jace and Jason show up with some drinks. Chris is warming up to them but he keeps me close, I'll take it as a win.

"So what other dirt have you got for me on my elf?" Jace asks with sudden interest.

"Oh thats enough on me thanks," I grumble.

"What's the matter baby? Afraid what they might say?" Chris challanges raising a brow.

"There are plenty of stories," Jason mused. "We've known you since you were adopted so that would have made you what? Five?"

"Four," I grumble.

"You made her cry the first time you met her," Tim scoffed.

"I was a bratt, she got me back," he says rubbing his neck nervously. "That was the first of many times she threw me in a water trough," he laughs.

"So you have a long standing thing with throwing guys in water hunh?" Jace chirps, getting confused looks from Tim and Jason.

"She threw me off a cliff once into the lake," Jace replies to the shocked guys.

"It was not a cliff, like barely a hill, and technically you threw yourself, I just changed your angle," I deflected as laughter broke out.

"We sure did miss you girl," Jason says smiling. "I don't know what changed but keep it up, we're glad to have you back," he says giving Chris a nod.

I leaned back into Chris with a smile just enjoying the moment. The music and drinks had caught up to me and I was bobbing along as the guys chatted on.

"Jess, you guys are up again!"

We made our way up to the field, Chris had his hand posessively on my lower back. The crowd parted to let us through as people clapped us on our shoulders rooting us on. I had enough booze in me not to care, but not so much that I was falling down, just need to maintain this level.

Jace and Jason had hit an easy rhythm and were busy chirping at the other team. The six brawny guys looked up to the challange, I was beginning to feel like a real handicap.

"Where's your sixth?" The captain asked purposely looking over me and dramatically scaning. I just raised a brow at his insult.

"Really Trent? Don't be a douche," Jason snapped. Trent just laughed unphased as he looked at me.

"I know it's all for charity, I guess it's true what they say, charity begins at home," he says looking down at me.

"Is that how you ended up on a team?" I asked not missing a beat. Thank you whiskey! The crowd started to snicker and laugh souring Trents mood further.

"Don't bitch about a handicap when you loose," he grumbles. His team mates are less then impressed to be associated with him at that moment.

"You about done flapping your gums there?" Oma snaps. Trent just scoffs at her. "Ok, put your money where your mouth is, 50 bucks says Jess wins." His jaw ticks as he narrows his eyes at her.

"You can't bet, you're supposed to be an impartial judge," he challanges.

"What's the matter Trent? You know Jess will whoop your ass!" Someone from the crowd heckled as others joined in.

"Fine, 100 bucks! And when we win, you'll be my gopher all night long, winning is thirsty work," he chirps.

"You know what? Make it 150, I'm all in," I say glaring at him. He stares at me a moment longer as a sinister grin crept on his face.

"200, what you gonna do to make up the differenece?" He asked raising a brow.

'This fucker-'

"500 that we win," Chris cuts in with a snarl. "And when we win, you give her one hell of an apology!" The crowd roared and cheered at this. Trent scowled and nodded as he turned to take his possition on the rope.

"So these are your people then eh?" Jace asked with a trace of amusement. I just smiled and nodded.

"Now you guys just need to win, nothing major," I said nervously.

"Oh don't worry about that elf, Chris has been blasting the link, unless we want to run northern patrols for the next two months we better get it done," he replies with a laugh.

Oma dropped the flag and both teams dug in fast. The ground had really been torn up from the previous matches making getting a grip difficult. Jace slipped taking my feet out at the same time as our team was dragged towards the center line.

The guys grunted in effort as they strained against the load as we regained our footing and dug back in. The crowd was clearly on our side as they jeered when we lost footing and cheered loudly as we regained our lost ground.

Strength wise we were equally matched with the opposing team. Neither one made much progress in the give and take. I heard the guys grumble behind me as they started to move in unison.

No doubt Chris, Jude and Jace were talking via link but Chris must have clued Tim and Jason in now. They started a new tactic of digging in and pulling back in unison. Stepping back, and reefing with their upper boddy and repeating. I went along for good measure, like a mascot.

Before long the crowd was roaring loud enough to drown out the band. With a couple more heaves oma blew the whistle calling the match.

"Jess and the boys win," she shouts out. "Pay up!" Trevor emptied his wallet and turned to leave.

"Are you forgetting something?" Chris asked, as the crowd quieted down. I could feel him flooding the area with his alpha energy leaving those near feeling uneasy.

"Don't worry about it," I said trying to calm him back down.

"Baby," he says lifting my chin to look at him. "I won't tolerate someone disrespecting you like that. It went past smack talk, he owes you an apology, and he's gonna pay up."

"Trent, don't be a puss dude, a deal's a deal," Jason called. Trent stopped, his shoulders dropped and he slowly turned and walked over to us. He paused and studied me for a moment before speaking.

"Sorry Jess, I was a bit of a tool-"

"Douche-"

"Ass-"

"Wanker," his teammates offered grinning.

"All of that," he says rolling his eyes. "At any rate I'm sorry for being a dick and underestimating you guys," he says sincerely. I smile and nod and we shake and it's done.

The crowd came in to congratulate us, several flocked to Chris and Jason for the roll they played. I caught mentions of thanks and apologizes for Trent. Chris took it in stride as he made his way over to me.

"Dance?" He asked grabbing my hand as I nodded. A moment later he passed me an ice cold water as we made our way to the dance floor. The water was a welcome relief, the booze and day had really started to catch up to me. I was 100% drunk at this point, not a hot mess, but definitely past warm and fuzzy.

Once I finished the water Chris tossed the bottles and pulled me in close to dance. His hand dropped to my lower back as his other held mine. I dropped my head to his chest listening to the steady beat of his heart.

His presence had me at ease in such a way as nothing else before. We swayed away to the music in our own little world, I had forgotten about the crowds. It was just me, Chris and the music as far as I was concerned.

I don't know how many songs we stayed like that for, but all too soon Jace linked for the next match.

"This is a lot of work," I mumbled as we made our way over. Chris just let out a hearty laugh as we made it back to the ring. This was the semi finals. But it turned out to be anticlimactic.

Our opponents were a motly crew of sons, around 20 years old each. Strong sturdy guys, but they hadn't quite filled out to Tim's level let alone come close to Jace. The match was clean and over pretty quick with good sportsmanship handshakes at the end.

"Sweet jezus elf, you're finally drunk," Jace says as we sit waiting for the next match.

"Says the pickle," I chirp laughing, wrapped up in Chris.

"You guys throw one hell of a party," Chris says to Tim.

"Thanks, you'll have to get here earlier next year, I think there's a good chance we'll have a title to defend," he says grinning.

"Care to wager?" A guy asks. The group of six guys are clearly the last team, and look to be a mix of police and firefighters. They also look like they should be on a calender.

"Whatcha got in mind?" Jason asks.

For fucks sake, not again...