On the day of the tie, it was raining pretty heavily. Anna was not feeling confident. She traveled in the convoy with Reid, Rhys and Molly. Molly looked at her and said "I'm glad it's going to be indoors." Anna turned to her. She was looking concerned. Anna tried to smile. "The boys are going to win. I just hope they don't riot." she said. Rhys said "If they riot, you'll be able to take them." Reid cracked a small smile. "I don't get what's the big deal here. All of know how strong you are. You killed alpha soldiers on your own before." She sighed. As they pulled in, the conversation came to a stop. The security of the venue ushered everyone where they needed to go. Charles looked at her and asked what was wrong. "I'm just sad. The same types of alpha that kidnapped Ronan at the border were the exact same that were protesting us." He frowned as his hand reached up to his collar. "Hmm. I see." It was about 5 minutes later that he said "At the end of the day, I want to see it through. Time to see Reilly on the court is coming to the end. The alphas won't let him; he's an omega. They'll win."
Charles was an omega male as well. He was Anna's mother in law just as Kevin was her father in law. "If they win this tie and the finals, they'll become national heroes. It would be amazing." Anna said. Charles nodded. "Yes. If I could see that happen, I would be the happiest man alive. But I'm just waiting for this amazing dream to end. All of them will need me then." he said before looking down at the clay court. Anna knew that was how they felt. Both he and Kevin loved all of their 4 sons. It was not up for debate. They simply could not understand just how good they all were. To them, this was just a phase of rebellion that would end with a few losses to alphas. Even now, they had no way to believe that they would win the Burke Cup at the end of this. Being proved wrong each time made them proud. It allowed them to appreciate their sons even more. Still, every new tournament was a stage for them to lose to alphas. Anna was not sure one loss to an alpha would break then. Sure, 100 probably would do it. This was always the last chance to make his huge mark on the sport.
Kicking this down the road was impossible. It was do or die. The tie began. The regulations for the Burke Cup demanded that the venues were bigger each round. It was a global competition. People from all over wanted to be there to see it in person. This stadium had to be at least 50% bigger. It was the biggest stage they had been on. A whole world would be watching. The home team was exclusively alphas. A couple of them were in the top 100 in the world. That was pretty intimidating. Anna could only hope the boys could handle the pressure. Ronan was up first with the alpha ranked 86 in the world as his opponent. He fought him to the best of his ability. The chair umpire was from a neutral country, but the line judges were all of the host country. The line judges were all very quick to call Ronan's balls out and very lenient with his opponent's. Ronan had to challenge a lot of decisions. The chair empire actually called things down the middle. Once the plays were reviewed, Ronan had the bad calls overturned 89% of the time. People booed it. They were totally pissed off.
Uppity omegas should know their place. How dare Ronan argue with an alpha official? It was because the line judges were trying to screw him over. At the end Ronan, in his usual dominant fashion, won the rubber in 3 sets. All the natives were screaming in outrage. It took 10 minutes to quiet the crowd. The chair umpire threatened them with disqualifying the team. It made everyone shut up. The rookie alpha pulled through in the fifth set for a win. The boys clutched both the doubles rubbers for the overall win in the tie. That did not go over well. Everyone was on the verge of rioting. It was time to go. The security team had to extract everyone fast. It was never in the plan for them to stay long in the country. They went straight to the airport. Not even the terminal was safe, so they had to board from the tarmac. Everyone hated them and the air marshal could not ensure the safety of the delegation from Breaca. Even with all the fuss, the trip was a giant success. They would be going to the finals. One more tie to go, and they would have their Burke Cup in all their dominant hands.
