Chapter 5 – The Locker Room Confrontation

“I’ll meet you back in our room later. You can head out without me.” I told Monica as people swarmed past us after the game. Monica frowned, confused. “Wait. Where are you going?” I hesitated, “I’m going to find Liam. I need to talk to him.” “Are you serious? Are you going to ask him out or something?” Monica asked, her eyes going wide with delight. I shook my head. She was always jumping to conclusions, “No! I’m just going to go clear some things up with him.” “But what about—” Monica continued but I cut her off. I didn’t want Liam to leave without me seeing him. “Just go! I’ll meet you back at the dorms.” I turned and headed for the locker room. What I didn’t want to tell Monica just yet was that I had to see Liam because I had to get answers from him. Liam I know, was a playboy. Everybody new this about him. But the way he’d been acting with me since yesterday was…confusing. He’d been acting like somebody who cared. Liam had been sweet, he’d been protective, he’d gone out of his way to show care. I knew that anybody else would take this as a sign of something significant. But I couldn’t get the feeling out of my head that he was toying with me. It felt like he was a sly cate who was toying with his latest favorite mouse, just before he gobbled it whole. I had to find out what he and I were. It wasn’t like I thought that all of a sudden just because he’d slept with me, we were boyfriend and girlfriend. That would be insane and delusional of me. But, I just had to get some sort of clarity about what was going on between us. My anxiety would remain crazy if I didn’t. As I was heading toward the locker rooms, Ava, the she-wolf that Noah had cheated on me with, stepped directly in my path. “You’re looking for Noah, aren’t you?” Ava said, a smug look on her face. I wanted to smack it right off. I refused to respond, trying to step around Ava. But she wouldn’t let me. She just kept blocking my way. I couldn’t move forward at all. “Ava, get out of my way,” I said, my voice low and steady. Ava rolled her eyes as if the seriousness in my voice was nothing but a game. “Noah and I just had a one-night-stand. That’s it. I’m not trying to steal him away from you.” My head reared back in shock. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Ava was talking about sleeping with my boyfriend, like it was no big deal. Like I should just get over it and move on. It felt like I was in a completely different dimension. “Are you kidding me right now?” I said, just looking. “Get over yourself, Ella. You should be glad Noah isn’t the Gravens brother that I’m even interested in,” Ava said. Wow. Just wow. “So, it’s Liam that you’re after.” Ava shrugged, a small grin on her face. She looked like she was oh so proud of herself. “Who wouldn’t want the Alpha? Just look at me. That’s who I deserve anyway.” Ava had always know she was hot and everyone treated her like she was the sexiest she-wolf in the room. She could practically get whoever, or whatever she wanted. But apparently, that didn’t include Liam. “You’re a pathetic attention seeker, you know that? So what? Liam wasn’t interested in you so you settle for Noah?” “Shut up, bitch,” Ava growled. Her eyes turned furious and her body took on a subtly crouch like she was getting ready to pounce on me. I took a step back but stood firm. “I don’t care what you think of me. And I certainly don’t care what Noah does with you, or anybody else, anymore.” I turned and continued toward the locker rooms which were right ahead. I swung the door open with all the strength I had in me. And came face to face with a room full of werewolves. The entire hockey team was in the middle of undressing. They were slipping their jersey’s and padding off. Half the team was completely bare chested. I froze. What in the world had I been thinking! Of course they’d all still be here. I was expecting that Liam would be here by himself, waiting for me. But that was just plain stupid. My face began to turn bright red. My entire body felt like it was going to combust. “What is she doing here?” one of the players said. “I, I’m looking for…” I couldn’t get the words out of my mouth. Why couldn’t I just get the words out like a normal person? “Uh, duh, duh, duh,” the player said, imitating my stutter. The entire room of male wolves started to laugh at me. Just then, Noah came from around the corner, his eyes widening in surprise. Then he put on a smug smile. “Oh, so, you finally decided to come looking for me?” “I wasn’t…” I tried, but again, the words wouldn’t come out. All of these huge muscular bodies in one room, just staring at me was too much. I knew they were loving how a silly human girl like me thought she could just barge into their space like this. “What, you want me to date you publicly, that’s why you’re here isn’t it?” Noah said. His teammates laughed even harder. He looked around the room loving that he was a part of giving them a show. Even if it was my expense. “No—” I said, slowly finding my voice again. “I don’t know why you keep begging me to be your boyfriend. But you know what, I’ll throw you a bone. Sure, I’ll agree to date you publicly. Even though your just a human girl and nothing more,” Noah said with a snare. “Noah—” I couldn’t believe the disgusting way he was treating me in front of everybody. I thought he would at least treat me better. “But you’re going to have to share me with someone else, of course. You know that werewolves don’t stick to one human girlfriend. Everybody wants a piece of us, and we’re all too happy to share,” Noah said. The room erupted in laughter and one of his teammates walked up and clapped him on the back encouragingly. It was then I found my voice. There was no way in hell I was going to let him walk all over me. Not again. “I’m not here for you Noah. You’re nothing to me,” I said loudly. “I’m actually here looking for the person that gave me those hickeys you were so concerned about earlier. The person I spent all last night with.” That wiped the smug look right off Noah’s face. “Excuse me?” Noah said. “You want to know who gave me more pleasure last night than you ever did. It was Liam, your brother. That’s who I came looking for.” Noah growled. “You’re lying.” He said, his voice low and menacing. “Actually, no she’s not.” I turned around to find Liam, leaning up against the locker room frame, the doors swung wide open. Liam stood there, glaring at Noah. “And just so we’re clear, Noah, from now on, Ella is mine.”