Chapter 112

Asher

I got Cynthia into my car and drove her back to campus. But she stayed unnervingly quiet all the way back to her room.

It wasn’t usual, her silence. So often, I was the one who didn’t talk and she was the one who would fill the void. I didn’t know how to act if our roles were reversed.

She went where I led her, and sat on the end of her bed. She seemed to stare right through me, like she couldn’t focus.

Her hands trembled. I took them in my own and rubbed my thumbs gently against her palms.

“Cynthia?”

A tear fell from her eye and my heart ached in my chest.

“You are safe now,” I told her.

She shook her head. “He won, Asher,” she whispered, so softly I had to strain to hear her. “I’m going to be kicked from the team, and… it’s over.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

Finally, she focused on my face. “If he would have… I was almost…” She closed her eyes.

I squeezed her hands, hoping to bring her back to me. I didn’t want her to imagine what could have happened. It didn’t, and that was what mattered.

“You are here with me now,” I said. “Everything else we can figure out together.”

She nodded, but another tear slipped free, down her cheek.

I tried to think of what I could do to help her. Then, I realized… what better way to help someone relax than a massage?

“Sit still,” I said, releasing her hands. Slowly, so she could follow my movements, I kneeled onto the bed behind her and lowered my hands onto her shoulders. I pressed my fingers and thumbs into her muscles, working away the tightness there.

With her wearing both her cardigan and my jacket, it wasn’t easy, but I stuck with it. I wasn’t about to ask her to remove any clothing after what happened to her today.

Eventually, she sunk in relaxation, body like putty under my hands.

“We’ll figure it out,” she whispered.

“Together,” I assured her.

Soon, she began to sway, eyelids drooping. Then she fell asleep.

I eased her down onto the bed, removed her shoes, and pulled a blanket over her sleeping form. She was peaceful in sleep, thank God. She’d been through enough today. Some rest would do her good.

Satisfied that she would be under for a while, I withdrew my phone from my pocket, along with one of the memory cards I’d taken from the new coach’s house. Carefully, I loaded the memory card into the back of my phone and searched through the pictures.

Cynthia was pale with wide, scared eyes. It hurt to see her like this, but I forced myself to keep looking. I needed to know all that this asshole had done, to make my complaint against him stronger.

I had told Cynthia we would figure out what to do next together, but I already had a plan. All I needed now was evidence.

I continued scrolling through the memory card, pausing when I landed on a picture that wasn’t Cynthia, but one of her fellow cheerleaders. She was totally naked, a tangled sheet covering her most sensitive parts.

My stomach churned and my blood boiled. She looked as scared as Cynthia.

The new coach couldn’t get away with this.

After that girl was another, and then another. With the other memory cards I had gathered, I wondered if he had taken pictures of the entire squad.

I had my evidence, then. More than I needed.

I went back to Cynthia’s photos and moved them from the memory card onto my phone, one by one. I had enough evidence without using hers.

I couldn’t let anyone else see her in such a vulnerable state. I might go feral. Even now, my wolf paced in the back of my thoughts.

“Let’s go back to the house,” it insisted. “Let’s rip his throat out.”

“We have to do this by the book.” I’d already crossed the line by punching Coach. He’d threatened to expel me. While I doubted that would come to pass, I couldn’t take too many chances.

My wolf growled, dissatisfied, but begrudgingly agreed.

Cynthia was worth more than the temporary satisfaction of revenge. If I was kicked out of school, I wouldn’t be able to protect her.

Removing the memory card, I returned it and my phone to my pocket. Then I checked over Cynthia to make certain she was still asleep.

Her chest gently rose and fell in a slow, steady rhythm.

With luck, I could finish what I needed to do and be back before she woke up.

I sneaked out of her room and made my way across campus to the faculty office, where students could file complaints about any of the faculty or staff.

I had evidence and motivation. I was ready to plead my case, yet when I opened the door, I heard a familiar voice raising hell with the administrative assistant at the front desk.

“You have to take action!” Coach shouted. “This student is directly interfering with my ability to teach!”

“Sir, if you could please calm down –”

“Calm down? Look at my eye!”

A bruise was forming around the circle of his eye, from when I’d punched him in the face. It was only starting to swell. I should have done worse.

I cleared my throat, and Coach glanced at me once, quickly. When he realized who I was, he swiveled to face me.

“How dare you show your face here?!” Coach shouted.

The admin looked at me with a bored expression. “Sir. You are trying to tell me that the person you wish for us to expel… is Asher?”

“How do you know him?” Coach turned back to the admin. “Is this some kind of conspiracy against me? Is it because he’s the son of an Alpha?” Coach’s face turned red in anger.

The admin slow blinked at him. “Sir, Asher is the Captain of the hockey team and top of our senior class. He has many merits in his favor.”

“Ridiculous!” Coach threw his hands up.

“However,” the admin continued. “Assault of a faculty member is a serious offense. Asher, I don’t suppose you have anything to say in your defense?”

“I do,” I said, stepping forward to the counter.

I placed the memory cards before the admin. She lifted a brow at me.

“This coach has been using his position of authority to demand the cheerleaders place themselves in compromising positions, for the sake of his photography. My girlfriend said that he planned on using the funds selling the photos for the good of the squad, but I doubt it.”

“Compromising positions?” the admin asked.

I pushed the memory cards closer to her. “Girls in various states of undress. Including total undress.”

“Preposterous!” Coach snapped. “There is no evidence that I was the one to take those photos. This is a frame-up plain and simple, because this Alpha kid has a grudge against me!”

“Sir, please stop shouting.” The admin rubbed at her temple. “Asher, we will investigate these accusations, of course, but you must understand how this looks. Did none of the girls wish to come forward themselves?”

I thought of Cynthia, with wide, frightened eyes and shaking hands.

“It was a traumatic experience for them,” I said. “I’m trying to spare them from that.”

The admin frowned. “It would be easier for the investigation if they would come forward.”

“They won’t, because he is lying,” Coach said. “He’ll say anything to get me removed from my position. He’s threatened by me.”

The admin lifted one single brow at him but did not comment.

Anyone could see that Coach was full of shit, but that the admin refused to call him out on it made something uncomfortable roll around in the pit of my stomach.

Despite the evidence, I could still lose here.

Without the girls to back me up… Maybe I was about to be expelled.