39

I stood in the shower, my hands flat against the cool tile while the hot water beat down on my neck and back. My body ached. No, not ached. I hurt, and somehow, I was going to have to find a way to push through the pain and fight again today.

After a long hard first day, our team was currently sitting in first, and all of us had made it to day two, which was a miracle in itself. Only twenty-four fighters remained in both the men's and women's divisions, and our team counted for six of them. Bella and I were both in the lead, but not by much. I had a tenth of a point over an asshole from Texas Tech, while Bella had just over one hundredth of a point over some chick from Nebraska.

Not only were points too close to count, but Riley was battling a hurt shoulder, Heidi had barely made it into the final day, Missy could barely see out of an ugly black eye, and Embry had broken two fingers.

"Babe, did you drown?" Bella asked, laughing as she pushed open the door to the bathroom and looked at me through the see through shower curtain.

"Maybe," I said, smiling. "Why don't you come check on me? I might need mouth-to-cock."

Bella laughed again, but shook her head. "Sorry, lover, but we don't have time. Bus leaves in five."

"Fuck," I groaned before I reached down and turned off the water and grabbed my towel, trying to dry off before stepping out of the shower. "How are you not hurting?"

"Oh, I am," she scoffed. "But I feel good about today. Our team stepped up yesterday, didn't they? We can win this tournament, and we can win Nationals!"

I smiled as I wrapped my towel around my waist.

"What?" she asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"You're so cute when you're excited," I snickered, walking up to her and placing my hands on her hips. Bella gasped, her hands flying up to my chest. "And you're right. We can win this. We will win."

"Not if you don't get dressed," she murmured, sliding her hands up my wet chest and tangling her fingers into my hair. "God, I want to fuck you."

"I'll make you a deal, baby," I cooed, lowering my lips to her ear. "When we win today, I'll bring you back to this room, and I'll fuck you like there's no tomorrow."

"Promise?" she moaned, pressing her body against mine.

I groaned, desperately wanting to be inside her. "Yes."

Bella pushed me away and smirked. "Deal. Now hurry."

"Damn temptress," I muttered under my breath, but walked over to my suitcase and pulled out my clothes.

Three minutes later, I was dressed and standing in the lobby with Bella and the rest of our team. Phil was standing on the other side of the room, his phone pressed against his ear and rage and anger pouring off him. Bella and I shared a look before we dropped our bags on the floor and looked over at Missy.

"Should we be worried?" I asked, tilting my head toward her brother.

Missy frowned. "Someone from the college board."

Just like that the tension we'd all been feeling for the last eight months hit an all new height. Had our program already been cut? Were we fighting for nothing but pride at this point? The thought of having to hang up our gloves and call it done had me nauseous. Our teammates had become family. What was going to happen if we had to find new programs?

"You ice it?" Bella asked, and when I looked over, I saw her standing next to Riley, both her hands on his shoulder as she massaged the injured tissue.

"Yeah," he murmured. "Still hurts. Hard to lift."

Bella nodded and placed one hand on his shoulder, and the gripped his wrist with the other, slowly and carefully lifting his arm. She'd only lifted it halfway when he winced. Not a good sign. Then, she tried rotating it, but stopped when he cried out. Definitely not a good sign.

"You have a rotary tear," she said, kneeling next to him and massaging the top of his shoulder again. "Possibly growth plate, too. You can't fight today."

"I have to," he argued.

"No, you don't," I said, drawing his attention to me. "You've done your job. You helped us get to today."

Riley shook his head. "But it's not enough. We have to win. All of us."

"And we will," I said. "But you're going to have that shoulder for a long time, dude. It's okay to let us carry the team. You've done enough."

Though I could tell Riley didn't agree, he wouldn't argue with us, either. He had too bright of a future to throw it away over a hurt shoulder. So, for now, he'd have to cheer us on from the sidelines. I shook my head as I turned back to where Phil was still arguing on the phone. We'd started out this season with twelve fighters: six men and six women, but now we were down to five of each. How many more would have to sacrifice before our season was over?

When Phil finally ended his call, I grabbed Bella by the elbow and dragged her over to him, knowing that as team captions we needed to hear the bad news before everyone else. If our season was indeed over already, it would destroy all of us.

"What was that about?" I asked, releasing my hold on my wife and silently praying she wouldn't beat my ass for manhandling her.

Phil sighed and shook his head. "That was a contact I have with the board. He said they're being pushed to make a decision now about our program, to save them the cost of sending us to Nationals. He's trying to stall, buy us enough time to make it to the show, but the best he could do was get a hearing set for the day after tomorrow."

"So even if we make it to Nationals, we might not be able to compete?" Bella asked. "Is that what you're saying?"

Phil nodded. "I don't know what else to do. They're getting pressure from the alumni to invest our portion of the budget into better programs, like football. Because barely making it into the playoffs, and losing in the first round is so fucking impressive," he added with disgust.

"Jesus fuck," Bella muttered, dragging her hand over her face and to the back of her neck. "Okay, so what do we do? How do we fight this?"

"I . . . I don't know that we can." Phil sighed. "I just . . . I just don't know."

"You sound like you're giving up," Bella groused, and when I looked down at her, I saw a look of disgust on her face. "You brought us here to help save our program, and now you're fucking giving up? Are you kidding me?"

"I'm not giving up," he lied. We could both tell he didn't believe his bullshit any more than we did.

"It's not over until they pry our gloves off our fucking dead hands," I argued. "We haven't given our blood, sweat, and tears for this program just to lay down and take it up the ass. Now, fucking suck it up and help us figure out how to save our asses!"

Phil stared at me with wide eyes for several seconds before he burst out laughing, bending at the waist and bracing himself on his knees as he gasped for air. "Up the ass?" he wheezed. "Really?"

I clenched my jaw tight and waited until he'd stopped laughing before I said, "Are you in, or are you ready to be the school's bitch?"

"I'm in," he scoffed. "Just don't ever use the phrase 'taking it up the ass' again, kid."

"Whatever," I snarled before looking down at Bella. "I think if we want to keep our program, we need the support of the student body. I think we need to contact Sienna and see if she can't help us rally up some support. This program is hers as much as it is ours, right?"

"Good idea," Bella agreed and looked at Phil. "You have her number?"

"I do," he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "You think this would work?"

"Can't hurt," she said, and I agreed with a nod. "Let me talk to her."

Phil handed Bella his phone. Bella bit her bottom lip as she found Sienna's number and made the call. "Hey, this is Bella Cullen-Masen. We met a couple months ago . . . the tournament is going well. We're representing UCLA with pride, which is why I'm calling. They're trying to end our program before we can get to the tournament. And we know that our program is new and it doesn't measure up to the stature that football, or basketball have, but we've worked our asses off to prove that we belong. And now, they're trying to take it away from us. In two days, they're holding a hearing that will decide our fate. Now, we are going to win this tournament and win our bid to Nationals, but we need your help to endure that we can actually go . . . We were hoping that you could, maybe, rally the student body? Try to get them to stand for us . . . Yes. . . . I know, and I wouldn't ask if this wasn't important . . . Yes . . . yes." Bella smiled. "Thank you, Sienna, thank you so much. We'll be in touch tonight, okay? . . . Thank you! Goodbye."

Bella blew out a heavy breath as she ended the call and held the phone back out to Phil. "She said she'd handle it, even though we're asking her to put her job on the line. We're going to owe her big time for this, Phil."

"I know, and we will fight for her, too," he said. "Let's fight one battle at a time, though. Now, we need to get on the bus and earn our bid."

—LO—

The final day of the tournament turned out to be harder than I expected. Even though all eleven of us had made it to the final day, it didn't take long for our numbers to be weeded down. By the time the last four fighters in both the men's and women's divisions only me, Bella, and Maggie were left, which meant all three of us were guaranteed an individual ticket to Nationals, but it wasn't enough. Our team was neck to neck with the teams from Texas Tech and the University of Nebraska for first. Riley had had to withdraw due to his shoulder. Heidi and Missy were both eliminated in their first rounds. Bree, Benjamin, Embry, and Liam made it to the top twelve, so they still had a chance to advance, but Demetri had missed the top twelve by one point, ending his chances to advance individually.

"I can't do this," Maggie muttered, pacing back and forth in front of her ring. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

"Stop," Bella snarled, placing her hands on Maggie's shoulder and stopping her in mid-pace. "Damn it, Mags, you're ready for this. You can do this!"

Maggie tilted her head back and looked at Bella. "And if I can't? If I cost us the tournament."

"Then we'll beat your ass," she said, smirking, but Maggie cringed and tried to pull herself out of Bella's hands. "What the fuck do you think we're going to do? Kill you. We're all feeling the pressure, Mags, but we're fighting. You can beat her. She has nothing on you. Keep your arms in tight, move your feet, and beat her into the mats. If at the end, you come up short, you will know that you put everything you had into this match."

Maggie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "You're the strongest person I've ever meet, Bella. You know that, don't you?"

"I'm not," Bella denied, though I knew she was. "I just refuse to stop fighting. Now get your ass in that ring and kick that bitch's ass."

The rest of our team was gathered behind us as we watched Maggie climb into the ring, getting some last minute coaching from Phil. The girl she was fighting — Selina something — had two inches and a good ten pounds on Maggie. We'd watched as she took out both Missy and Bree. She was tough. She had a hard left and quick feet.

The referee called them to the middle, giving them the usual speech about fighting clean, before having them touch gloves and move back into their corners. I could feel the nervous energy rolling off of Maggie as she waited for the bell to ring. As the judge started the match, Selina immediately came out on the defensive, pushing Maggie against the ropes and landing several hits to her arms and gut.

"Get off the fucking ropes!" I snarled. Maggie pushed her off her, but had barely taken two steps to her left when Selina was back on her. Throwing my towel on top of my bag, I walked up to the side of the ring. "Fight, Mags, fight for your life! Quit being a bitch and fight!"

Maggie screamed around her mouthpiece before pushing Selina off her. The larger girl stumbled backward, but gathered herself quickly and tried to attack again, but Maggie finally had pulled her head out of her ass and was fighting back. A left jab, right, two uppercuts, and Maggie was back in the fight and going for the win.

However Selina wasn't going down that easy. For every hit Maggie got in, she countered with another one. The score had to be close, keeping the two of them neck to neck as they battled through two rounds and started their third. By then, both girls were showing signs of fatigue. Their punches were weaker, their feet dragging on the mat.

"Let's go, Mags," Bella yelled. "Dig deep and get it!"

"She's done," I murmured, causing Bella to look at me. "She doesn't have it."

"No, she doesn't," she agreed before turning back to the match. "But she doesn't know it yet."

While Bella yelled again for Maggie, I dug my tape from my bag and began to prep her hands. Her match would be next, and I needed something to do. After another eight minutes, the round ended and Maggie and Selina stumbled back into their corners. Phil pulled her headgear off and dragged her towel over her face and into her sopping, sweat-soaked hair.

"Good job, Mags," he said, wrapping one arm around her and trying to keep her from collapsing.

"Was it enough?" she half-cried. "Did I win?"

Phil hesitated before saying, "I don't know."

Maggie groaned as she draped her body over the ropes, trying to keep on her feet while the judges tallied the scorecards. Several minutes passed before the referee called both of them into the ring. Maggie was near tears as she stumbled over, and Selina didn't look much better. Her lip was bleeding, there was blood coming out of her nose, and she had bruises already popping up on her arms.

"Winner, by two points, is . . ." The referee paused, and I had never wanted to smack someone so much. "Selina Thomas from Texas Tech University!"

Maggie muttered a congratulations before climbing out of ring, the sound of everyone cheering for Selina was like adding salt to her wounds. She ripped off her gloves and threw them into her bag, sitting on the bench with her head between her hands. Bella made toward her, but I put my hands on her shoulder and shook my head.

"You need to get ready. I'll take care of her," I murmured.

"Okay," Bella said, turning back to Phil, who looked just as upset as Maggie.

I walked over to Maggie and knelt in front of her. Grabbing her hands, I began to peel the tape off. "You did good, you know."

"It wasn't enough," she muttered. "We needed the win, and I choked. I let my nerves get the better of me, and I fucking choked."

"You did," I admitted, causing her to look up at me. "But then you shook them off and gave her the fight of her career. When people are talking about this match tomorrow, you know what they're going to be saying?"

Maggie shook her head.

"They're going to say that feisty red-head from UCLA made her work for it. She's gonna be one to watch at National tournament."

"You think so?"

I nodded. "Hell ya, Mags. You made us proud today."

Tears flooded her eyes as she dropped her attention back to the floor. "Thanks, Edward. I needed to hear that."

I gave her shoulder a tight squeeze before I sat next to her on the bench and waited for Bella's match to start. It would be up to her to secure the women's team a spot in the National Tournament.