15
Chapter 15 Karly
“Alek, wait up!”It wasn’t the easiest thing to try to keep up with Alek when he was in a mood. I couldn’t do it at the best of times, and as my leg kept trying to remind me, this was definitely not the best of times. Trying to move fast with crutches was not working well for me. But I couldn’t give up, I wouldn’t. Not when the man I loved was hurting. Not even because I’d fallen for him, but also because he was my friend and he didn’t deserve to be treated like that. Especially since he was the one in the right. That was why it took me a couple of moments to process what the Bear King had declared, because it just didn’t make any sense. But now I truly got it, and it sucked. Alek wasn’t being kicked out, but he was being set up to fail the only real task he’d had in his life. “Alek, please. Wait for me…talk to me.”
The Bear King’s word was supposed to be final, but surely there was something we could have done. We could have fought his decision. If only we had gotten him to watch the footage of the crash, he would have clearly been able to see what Drew did. But Alek didn’t wait, he didn’t try. Was he not as bothered as he looked? Did he not want to marry the princess so much after all? The Alek that I’d always known would have never let something stand in his way like that. Especially when he rightfully deserved those points.
I lost sight of Alek, but I was pretty sure he was headed to his room, and I knew where that was, so I slowed down a little. Probably for the best, because that was the moment I noticed my cell phone buzzing in my pocket. It was a challenge to get out, what with my crutches standing in the way, but I managed it. I didn’t know the number calling me, so I answered with trepidation. I suspected it could be someone from the news team since I acted very unprofessionally and left Ben to fend for himself. Shit, I hoped he wasn’t too pissed off at me. But I knew I would have done the same thing for him. Especially if it was someone as important to him as Alek was to me.
“Hello?” I answered cautiously, bracing myself to get bitched out, but that never happened.
“Karly, it’s Chase. I got your number from Hatcher. Where are you? Are you with Alek?”
I sighed, in the hotel’s direction. “He’s too far ahead of me, but I think he’s going to his room.”
“Wait for us, we’ll catch up with you. We want to check on Alek as well.”
A lovely warmth spread through my body. It was so nice to know I wasn’t the only one who cared about Alek, that the rest of the little unofficial group we had formed during the Astro Games cared as well. I found that really touching, and I hoped Alek did as well. With all the recent developments, he was going to need all the friends he could get right now.
“Right, will do. See you in a moment.”
I was so distracted by everything that when I went to slide my phone back into my pocket, I barely even noticed it slipping through my fingers. I might not have noticed at all had it not clattered loudly to the ground.
“Shit,” I muttered. “That’s just great.”
There was no denying that rushing down to see Alek after the crash without my crutches had negatively affected my leg. I could almost hear the doctor whispering I told you so in my ear. I didn’t know how I was going to manage it, but I needed to work through the searing pain to bend down and grab my phone. I was not looking forward to this at all. I leaned my crutches against a tree, and took a deep breath.
“Come on,” I groaned as I stretched out my bad leg so I could bend the knee of the other one. “Come on, you can do this…”
Nope!As it turned out, I couldn’t do it at all. I lost my balance very quickly. The injury I had was about to get worse, just as soon as my ass hit the floor…
But I didn’t hit anything, as a strong pair of arms wrapped around me, keeping me upright. In my shock, I turned as much as I could to see who my hero was, and there was Rory.
“You have to stop falling all the time,” he chuckled. “I can’t always be around to keep you from hurting yourself.”
A blush hit my cheeks as he lifted me back up again and gathered up the damn crutches for me. “I swear I’m not a klutz, honest.”
He gave me a look, suggesting he didn’t believe me, but I didn’t get the chance to defend myself because Hatcher and Chase had arrived, both wearing equally grim expressions. They all knew that this wasn’t going to be easy, but that it needed to happen. That thick, tense silence remained with us as we headed up to the floor where Alek was staying. I just hoped he wasn’t so proud that he wouldn’t even let us in his room. He had been raised with pride, and that didn’t always work out well for him.
“Alek!” But he hadn’t even made it inside his room. It was almost as if he had given up getting inside at the very last second, and had dropped to the floor in exhaustion. “Alek, I’m so sorry.”
He lifted his weary head and smiled at me weakly, pain in his eyes. I hated this for him. Even if I didn’t necessarily want him married to Azariyah, I would never stand in the way of his dream. Not when it destroyed him like this to not have it happen. Once he realized I had not come alone, he attempted to straighten up, to make it seem like nothing was too wrong. Alek even found the strength to rise to his feet and let us in, but that didn’t mean we didn’t see the damage done. The guys all knew it just as well as I did, and they did their best to offer suggestions and try to make this less awful once we were inside his room. I was the only one who was stoically silent and sad.
“We can fight this, Alek,” Rory insisted. “You need to marry Azariyah, one of us has to. One of us needs to be the Bear King.”
Maybe that was why I couldn’t find anything to say. Because the focus was still very much on marrying the princess. Of course, I couldn’t be too upset, because I knew the men came for her, but because I was feeling conflicted and confused, I didn’t like it.
“You are too good to let this beat you,” Chase agreed. “Fuck Drew. You can’t let him make you feel bad. Right now, it might seem like he’s gotten what he wanted, but he won’t win the war.”
“Alek, you are our best bet,” Hatcher jumped in. “You are the best of the best. I say we either fight the ruling and get the Bear King to change his mind…” His words trailed off when he spotted Alek shaking his head. Alek knew that wouldn’t happen no matter what they did. “Well, then we have to train more to ensure you aren’t beaten out by that little asshole again. We won’t let him keep targeting you like that, it isn’t right.”
But none of these words were making him feel any better. I didn’t know what I could say to change this, but I did know what I could do. I rose to my feet and hobbled across the room until I was close enough to sit on his lap. It was a place I’d been a million times before, with my arms looped around his neck, but this felt different. There was something far more intense about it. I didn’t know if it was because we weren’t alone, or because I was consumed by my feelings for him.
“We’re here for you,” I whispered sweetly. “Whatever you want from us, whatever you need, we’re here.”
His eyes darted all over my face, and I couldn’t help but wonder what he was searching for and how I could give it to him. I stared right back, offering him all of me. Whatever it took. My questions were answered surprisingly quickly, although what he wanted from me stunned me to the core. He crashed his lips to mine and kissed me fiercely. His sadness quickly transformed into passion when his tongue invaded my mouth and his hands slipped up to cup my breasts. The rubbing of his thumb over my hypersensitive nipple was almost too much. My underwear soaked as this man dominated me just as he always did.
But then it definitely became too much, but in the best way possible. Rory’s seductively rough, calloused hand slipped around my waist to stroke my inner thighs, to tease me into an oblivion. I didn’t want him to stop, and I expressed this by kissing Alek that much harder and letting out gasps and moans of pleasure between his lips. Fuck, I was on fire.
By the time Chase took my hand to lead me over to the bed, I felt like I wasn’t quite real, like this was all a beautiful daydream I couldn’t get enough of. Even the pain in my leg wasn’t bothering me anymore, I was too busy swimming in anticipation. When Hatcher began to slowly peel my clothing off, I was soaring higher than air. No one was thinking about Azariyah right now, or the Astro Games. No one was worried about a thing because we were all so caught up in the lust and one another, and it was perfect. As the kissing, the touching, the tasting intensified, I was stunned by how right it all felt. Before coming to the Astro Games, I knew about harems, but I never thought I would be involved in one. Nor did I think it could possibly be so phenomenal. Yet here I was, with three guys I barely knew and one I’d been screwing around with forever, and instead of feeling rushed and insane, there was something really beautiful about it.
Pleasure balled up inside me, and I just knew this was going to be an explosive experience. Even if it was just a distraction from the reality of the games, a blip on all of our radars, I fully intended to embrace every damn minute of it. After all, four smoking hot guys who had my panties soaking wet just by looking my way weren’t going to cross my bed every day. I had to embrace this while I could.