Page 3 of False Catch

“So,” Beckett says, breaking the tension with forced cheer. “Anyone want to tell me why Coach texted at six AM asking if we needed ‘support resources’?”

The kitchen goes dead silent.

Gray sets down his spatula. “He said what?”

“Support resources. Quote unquote. Which sounds suspiciously like code for ‘I know something’s up with your team dynamic and I’m fishing for information.’”

A full body shiver works through me. “What did you tell him?”

“Nothing. Obviously. But guys...” Beckett looks around the table, his expression uncharacteristically serious. “We need to talk about how this looks from the outside.”

“How what looks?” Zane asks, but even his voice lacks its usual humor.

“All of us acting like we’re fresh out of puberty every time someone gets within ten feet of Reese. Gray snarling at that guy from the lacrosse team yesterday. Bo carrying her lunch tray like she’s made of glass.” Beckett’s eyes find mine. “It’s not exactly subtle.”

Heat crawls up my neck. “I don’t need to be handled.”

“Whether you do or don’t is not the point.” Gray turns from the stove, his steel eyes hard. “The point is we’re drawing attention we can’t afford.”

“What kind of attention?” Tyler finally looks up from his book.

“The administrative kind,” I mumble. “The kind that asks questions about team policies and female coxswains on an alpha crew.”

Everyone’s silent. No one wants to say the next part. About what happens to mixed teams that get flagged. About how fast the university can shut us down.

Cameron chooses that moment to walk into the kitchen, hair still damp from his shower. He takes one look at our faces and stops. “What did I miss?”

“Coach is asking questions,” Gray says. “About team dynamics.”

Cameron’s expression doesn’t change, but something flickers in his dark eyes. “What kind of questions?”

“The kind that means we need to be smarter about this,” I say, standing up. “All of this.”

“Smarter how?” Bo asks.

I look around the table at eight faces that have become more important to me than I want to admit. Eight Alphas who risked everything to protect me during my heat. Who are still risking everything, just by letting me stay here when there is someone stalking me who clearly wants to take us all down at the same time. When the university authorities are clearly waiting for them to take advantage of the first opportunity.

“We go back to how things were before,” I say. “Teammates. Nothing more.”

The words feel wrong leaving my mouth, but they need to be said.

Gray laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “You think we can just pretend the last week didn’t happen?”

“We have to.”

“Like hell we do,” Jackson says. “You think I can forget the sounds you made when—”

“Jackson,” Eli warns.

“No. She thinks we can all just unring that bell. But that’s not how this works.”

“We don’t have a choice,” I bite out. “If the school decides I’m a liability, I’m gone. We’re all gone.”

“No.” Jackson’s eyes lock on mine, intense and uncompromising. “We’re not going back. We can’t go back.”

“We don’t have a choice.” My voice comes out sharp and cruel. “If Coach is already asking questions, how long before someone higher-up starts looking into our situation? How long before they decide a female coxswain is too big of a risk regardless of my designation?”

“Then we’re careful,” Bo says. “We figure out how to make this work.”