52 Playing Tennis

Jules' pov

I had my eyes squeezed shut as I puffed out strained breaths from my nose and mouth. My left hand clutched my stomach where the tennis ball had hit, and my right hand was still around the tennis bat. The team had suggested we start practicing today so we can all know our strong and weak members.

When I blinked my eyes open, I glanced sideways and my gaze locked with Blaze, and he looked very furious, causing me to gulp timidly.

Blaze glanced at the other side of the field, towards where the predator who had purposely targeted the ball at my stomach was snickering with his friends. As soon as the predators noticed Blaze's gaze, they all tensed up at once, laughter drying up.

Blaze remained silent and moments later, I repositioned myself and gripped the tennis bat with two hands again, eyes trained on the ball which packed more strength than it looked.

This time, I was against a different predator, and once again, he purposely directed the ball towards my leg.

A cry tore past my mouth as I dropped the bat and sank into the grass, clutching my calf. At once, I noticed as Blaze crossed the room and grasped the collar of the predator. In the next moment, he was punching him right in the nose.

My mouth fell open in horror. Blood rushed from the nose of the punched predator, because Blaze punched him again and again in the same spot.

The predator didn't fight back, and no one tried to stop Blaze. Instead, they all watched the scene unfold with shock on their faces. Once Blaze let go of the predator, his friends rushed to him at once, while Blaze walked over to the first guy who had directed the ball to hit my stomach.

"This is the shit y'all do here? Mess with preys who don't know shit about this fucking game?" He demanded, and even though the predator tried acting like he was unfazed, the tremor in his voice betrayed him as he spoke.

"We w- we're just having fun…"

Blaze grabbed his collar and tugged him close before speaking, hand pointed in my direction. "Well, don't fucking have fun with him, okay?"

Everyone's eyes panned in my direction and I swallowed emptily and tried to sink into the ground. The predator in Blaze's grasp struggled to find his next word but Blaze shoved him away and then he was walking towards me in the next second.

My cheeks were bright pink and I felt like I'd die from embarrassment when Blaze crouched in front of me and quietly murmured. "You okay, pup?"

I bit on my bottom lip as I nodded my head, cheeks flaming even more. I was yet to fully wrap my head around what had just happened. Blaze had broken someone's nose because of me, and he had warned them to not mess with me.

Something like this has never happened to me before, so I didn't know how to fully comprehend it just yet.

"Can you stand?" He asked and I hastily nodded my head, because it felt like he'd actually pick me up if I respond with a 'no'.

He rose to his feet and held a hand out for me, tugging me up in one go. At this point, it felt like my cheeks would fall off from being too hot because Blaze's hand settled on my waist for a few seconds before he retrieved his hands and walked back to the sidelines.

Everyone were currently staring at me and I bit at the inside of my cheek as I picked up my bat and repositioned myself to play.

But this time, only the few preys on the team willingly played against me, and the ball never hit me once. Meanwhile, no predator was willing to play against me, and it was clear that it was because of Blaze who still has a dark look on his face.

After a little while, Blaze began to force the predators to play against me one after the other. I couldn't believe my eyes or ears. Never in my life since I enrolled in this school, have I ever witnessed predators looking this tense and worked up as they all stiffly walked to the opposite side of the field with a bat.

As each predator faced off against me, they all moved the bats as weakly as possible, because Blaze kept barking out orders every few seconds.

"Be careful, you moron."

"Are you blind? You trying to injure him?"

"One more hit to his stomach and you're gonna regret registering in this team."

"Are you trying to test my patience on purpose?"

"Don't hit the ball too hard. Should the ball collide with his body again, you're all gonna lose your hands."

After he growled out those words, no predator had the guts to object or talk back, which still shocked me to the very core. Instead, they stood in the opposite direction one after the other and played the ball in a feeble way that it never managed to get close enough to me.

I wasn't sure of how to feel about this entire thing. A huge part of me felt extremely flattered, because no one has ever outrightly defended me this way, and the person who's finally doing it for me, is Blaze of all people. But on the other hand, I wasn't sure of how to feel about being publicly protected by him to this extent. It made me feel super weak and helpless, and this would undoubtedly attract more attention towards me.

When the coach finally arrived, he introduced himself and asked if everything was fine. The predators were tense and they all stared at the ground as they mumbled positive responses. It was clear that no one was bold enough to report the entire thing that took place.

"What happened to your nose?" The coach asked the injured predator whose nose had finally stopped bleeding and before anyone could respond, Blaze announced that he was the one who inflicted said injury.

I held my breath in suspense, but as soon as the coach took a closer look at Blaze, he significantly paled and then he frantically nodded his head before speaking.

"O- oh. W- well, I'm sure you had a very valid reason to d- do that." The coach turned around and urged us to continue praticing, before practically sprinting away.

Once he was gone, Blaze let out a delighted laughter and clapped his hands together, while the predators flinched.

"Let's get back to work then."

~~~

"Thank you… for standing up for me and protecting me back there." I mumbled while staring up at him. He hummed as he reached out and stroked my hair out of my face.

"Why do you keep using scent blockers?" He asked after a few moments, completely catching me off guard with the question.

"Wearing your scent draws a lot of attention to me." I admitted and he rolled his eyes before nudging my chin up with a finger.

"I don't remember that ever being a bad thing."

I chewed on my bottom lip as I contemplated on how to respond.

"But a lot of attention on me usually means bad news. Whenever people see me, people who are stronger, they always want to hurt me and mess with me, so I prefer not to draw attention to myself." I explained, which was nothing but the truth.

Blaze tilted my chin upwards even more and then he was leaning down till our nose almost brushed. We were currently standing on the empty field, but I'm certain some people are undoubtedly staring at us right now.

"Do you know that no one would dare touch you so far you wear my scent?" He husked out, breath fanning across my lips and I sucked in a deep breath as my stomach flipped around. I gripped the hem of my shirt tightly as I struggled to think of a response through the warm, distracting haze around my brain.

"Oh." I ended up whispering and he snorted before pulling away, lips twitching as he regarded me closely.

"That's right, bunny." He responded and I tried to remember when any predator had bullied me when I had Blaze's scent on, and I realized that I couldn't remember that ever happening.

"You can also choose to skip this dumb tennis team, or the entire sports team and the competition. You don't need to participate, you can sit it out the same way I did." He continued and I blinked at him in disbelief.

"Can I really skip it?" I echoed and he hummed before reaching out and dragging his thumb over my cheek.

"Of course you can, I'm gonna take care of it."

As he spoke, something else registered in my brain.

"You skipped the competition? I thought you changed your mind and decided to participate, because you joined the tennis team…"

Blaze rolled his eyes before shoving his hands into his pockets. "That was only because of you, bunny."

My heart began to race erratically and my eyes widened in complete shock.

"Oh."