JAY

The rush of shadows as he jogged towards the blaring white lights in the stadium and field only added to the pumping of his heart.

The memory of Sydney's sweet warm scent filled his mind as though he could smell it now. The short memory when his lips brushed and met her peach ones excited his being. Then the image of Sydney, hair wild from her activities and static, swaddled in a layer of a hoodie and a coat standing in the warm light of the locker room struggling not to smile, was all he could see.

Darkness completely overtook Jay as he was forced through a dark patch of the parking lot.

All those beautiful and bright memories were all dashed when he opened his mind up to the entirety of yesterday. Tears streaking her cheeks. His despicable brother's words cutting her down. Sydney saying they never would have found each other without the power of her attack.

She's not wrong. The dark thought lurked.

Over the curb of the parking lot, Jay quickly was overtaken by the almost unbearable lights of the field.

"And now he shows! What kept you so long Captain? That pretty little blonde back there?" A teammate jabbed.

His wolf was immediately on the prowl and Jay was also put off by this behavior. "Mind your own shit, Dawson!"

Some woops and hollers rang out on the field as the boys rang out across the field. Either because of Jay scowling at Dawson or Dawson's insinuation Jay was sure it was a mixture.

It left a bitter taste in Jay's mouth to find the field wasn't completely curing his abused heart. All throughout school and practice for the game nothing completely took Jay's thoughts away from last night.

Terrence raised an eyebrow, "You guys talk?"

Jay noted the other team was starting to offload from their bus, the game's face-off was approaching fast and, despite his other worries, Jay was excited to show off his team.

And blow off some steam.

He found himself shrugging to tell his friend, "Not too much. She wants to talk to the omega," the word escaped Jay's mouth like it was acid.

His beta grimaced, "That can't be good."

'The omega needs to know Sydney is ours!'

Jay bristled at this. He knew they agreed to be friends, but the pressing of Sydney's body and lips to his made those thoughts flee away.

Everything had built up to cloud nine only to be wrecked by the omega's invasion of their time. From there it tumbled apart even more. The words that tornadoed between them to a point that, when Jay had left Sydney standing alone in her room in tears, an unsettling feeling in his heart questioned what was going to happen to them.

Was it possible their matching as mates was wrong?

The drive home was numbing as trees, lights, and stop signs all blurred by aimlessly. Somehow he had brushed by his parents and their questions, only to end up laying on his back staring at the ceiling in his bed.

A tangle of shifting scenes faded in and out of his dreams, some pleasant, but in the end, they all ended with pain and anger.

Sydney curled into him until Jay pulled back and in a blink of an eye he was not laying in bed with her but, instead, watching from beside the bed, Mathew coxed Sydney into his arms. Jay went to reach for her, but then the comforter would rise with the pair swaddled on the taut fabric, then the edges curled with fire, until it ate the entire thing of fabric, only to find they were gone.

He woke up with chills throughout the night, his muscles were cramped, teeth chattering. Jay began to wonder if it was some illness from fighting with his mate that was chocking his body, but figured it was the physical manifestation of heartache.

When the night finally came to an end, he seriously considered staying home and wallowing in his sleepless, heart-aching state. A quick text from Terrence dashed those thoughts. His friend prompted Jay with a reminder of their first game of the season and was curious if, when, and where the afterparty would take place.

Just the thought of cleaning up his parents' house again had Jay feeling more exhausted, so he sent Terrence a message saying maybe just a pizza point so everyone could go home and rest up or celebrate with other folks since it'd be the first game. With just a thumbs up as a reply, another notification rang out on the team's group chat announcing the afterparty plans to be family-friendly. With that had Jay rolled out of bed and was met with a rough reflection of a sad and disheveled man.

☽✣☾

Sweat stung his eyes as it dripped from his damp brow. The lights piercing the field were making things even more difficult. Nevertheless, pleasure and adrenaline were pumping through his veins.

"Come on guys! We have to hold firm! Just two more minutes left!"

He looked to the two other attackers, both of which were human and exhausted.

'As though we aren't tired too.'

The onset of the end of the game had some of Jay's limbs beginning to ache, but other all, Jay was feeling great though. The blood coursing through his body was delivering oxygen to every inch that was cramped the night before leaving him feeling rejuvenated.

They were ahead by one, too close for comfort, but with the clock dwindling down Jay knew that they needed to make a power move in order to propel themselves forward and make it almost impossible for the other team time to tie things up.

He signalled towards the other two attackers with their plan of action for their next play would be. Small nods and a flash of a few fingers back indicated they were ready.

Jay shook his shoulders and rotated his neck in hopes of loosening the tension building, when movement on the side of the field drew his attention just as the play moved forward.

Sydney was walking alongside the motion of their team snapping photos. Jay was conscious of his body moving without thinking as he rushed into the action but his brain felt like it was split. It was like he was there in his body, but he knew of every inch of Sydney.

There was a notable tick towards the journalist blond, clocking Sydney's movement. The trajectory she was on was aimed towards a slew of water bottles strewed across the field floor. His wolf wanted to signal her of the impending hazard, when instead he saw her camera lower and her mouth begin to form words.

A grunt was his only warning, but by then it was too late.

A jarring force knocked the wind from his lungs and everything in his scope of sight shifted. The mouth guard threatened to give way under the piercing strength of his teeth as he clenched his jaw in defense of his attacker then quickly in preparedness for the fall. The ground punished him again making his head snap back into the turf upon recoil.

It wasn't the first time he found his appreciation for the padding in his helmet, but it sure didn't happen often. A wiggle of his jaw and rapidly blinking his eyes assured Jay nothing was damaged.

A bulky form stood over him tugging Jay from out of his rattled state.

The wash of blue and yellow gave way to the form being from the opposing team. This time Jay gritted his teeth in anger seeing an opponent on the other team smirking down at him.

The player scoffed, "Shit, it really is the team captain here. What the fuck were you looking at anyways? With the shitty track record from last year, you'd think your head would be in the game?"

Though mockingly, the guy sporting the number 17 made a visor of his hand and scanned the side lines. Jay couldn't help but follow his line of sight and was unsettled to see it had settled on Sydney.

While relieved to see that she had stopped before stumbling over the bottles, it alarmed Jay the look of worry that flooded her face. That and venomous jealousy that Jay still wasn't used to oozed when he saw that the other man's eyes were also on Sydney.

"Damn that'd distract me too!" 17 paused and thought on this, "Or maybe not, who knows with all that bulky shit on her? But clearly is good in the sack if she is worth throwing the game for." With a humored wink, the guy ran off, drawing Jay's attention to the fight down near his team's goal.

"Shit!" Jay cursed under his breath and leaped back up heading for the action.

He was too late, though, they had progressed forward so much that the other team had scored before he could reach the others. A quick glance over to the scoreboard told Jay they would likely be going into sudden death, unless they pulled something out of their asses quickly.

'Let's take down the scum that looked at our mate.'

Jay hushed away the jealous wolf, knowing even if they did what the wolf wanted, it would likely result in them being tossed from the game for a personal foul.

'No, this isn't about Sydney. This is about us and the team.'

His wolf had difficulty coming back, 'I know you want to just flat out crush the other team but look at this as a positive influence improvement from last year. Usually we'd be down by half of whatever the other team scored.'

Whether it was meant as a pep talk or a reason to throw the rest of the game, Jay wasn't sure, but it bittered his now shaky mood.

'Being knocked down by the other team is one thing, having you not believe in me doesn't help either.'

'No, no it was simply and observation! You are a good leader. You should just be proud of how far you have come.'

Again, Jay was a little confused, but figured the emotional turmoil they had undergone with their mate twenty-four hours ago did blur the lines a little for both halves of Jay.

'It is certainly an improvement, but we can't stop there.' Jay hesitated, 'Now, I don't want your help, but I want your support. Winning this might look good to her you know.'

What felt like a breeze of air rushed over his entire form, but instead of a physical manifestation of his wolf, which is something Jay did not way, Jay was happy to know it was the mental encouragement from his wolf to do his best.

A smile pulled Jay's lips right as a teammate hollered his name.

"Jay! Heads up!"

It was like he heard and felt the air of the ball flying towards him as he spun and caught the rubber ball with the pocket of his lacrosse stick. The vibrations from the stick traveled up his arms and felt great.

Cleats digging into the turf and propelling him forward, Jay hustled towards the opposing goal. With determination to lead his team to victory, and the will to impress Sydney, his arm muscles coiled and vaulted the ball from his possession into the net.

The yelling of the bull horn announced the ending of play time, just as the scoreboard lit up with the Red Mountain High emerging victorious.

The stands flew into a frenzy as people bellowed, rang their giant cow bells, and sounded their spirited clappers.

The hands and arms of his teammates swallowed Jay up as they all cheered for their victory and the people of the stands began flooding the field.

"That's the way to end a game Cap!"

"Dammit Jay way too close man!"

"Fuck yeah!"

A full blown smile had Jay grinning so hard, his cheeks ached.

To his right a flash drew his attention, and standing there smiling was Sydney behind her camera lens. She pulled the camera away from her eye to flash him a soft smile and thumbs up.

His heart warmed in a different way, knowing that despite the shambles and hurt words of last night, Sydney wanted them to be something. He could wait, but hopefully not for long.