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The rest of practice passed in a blur after that, my mind still on Enzo’s surprise appearance.
He had always been slammed at work during that point in the day so he’d never been able to come before.
“Do you think he’s been fired?” I asked Artie as we sat together unlacing our skates so we could hobble our way to the showers. I was half-tempted to join Artie in his today, but Aurelia’s scolding about having sex on Complex property was still ringing in my ears.
Artie snorted. “As if they would ever fire him. Have you seen what they’ve been calling him online?”
“You know I don’t go online much.” I shuddered just thinking about the time I stumbled on to a figure skating reddit page and saw a picture of myself photoshopped with ridiculously sized tits. Never again.
Artie lifted his fingers in the hashtag sign with a cheeky grin. “Hashtag hot reporter. Leith told me about it and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that man laugh so hard. Apparently there’s thirst traps on TikTok about him.”
Okay, that much I understood about the perpetually grumpy alpha. His on-air personality was friendly and personable, not to mention the stylists spent more time than I thought possible on his hair.
But I still thought the rumpled man who stumbled into the kitchen in the morning for a cup of coffee, one hand tucked under his shirt and rubbing his bare belly, was infinitely more attractive.
Not that anything had happened yet.
It was actually starting to peeve me off in the week since the anniversary of the car accident.
After that day things had gone suspiciously back to normal, and by normal Enzo still kept me at an arm’s length after monologuing at me in a way that made my heart flutter like a damn schoolgirl’s.
Standing, I helped Artie to his feet and put his hand on Charm’s harness. His eyesight had been worse this week, and though he wouldn’t tell us the true extent of it, there were fresh bruises on his arms and shins from falling this morning. “Well hashtag hot reporter should still be at work right now, shouldn’t he?”
“I dunno,” Artie just said mysteriously, telling me he knew exactly what was going on with the wayward alpha. “I’m going to shower and meet you in front of the ladies’ locker room?”
“Sure,” I said, narrowing my eyes at the omega’s back as he began to walk away.
“Looking at me like that isn’t going to get you the answer you’re looking for, sweetheart,” Artie called over his shoulder.
“How did you know I was looking at you?” I grumbled quietly, forgetting that the omega’s sense of hearing was much better than my own.
“Call it an omega’s intuition,” he said with a laugh before he and Charm turned the corner and left me to my own devices.
With a shake of my head, I made my way to the women’s locker room which was blessedly empty of any of the other female athletes at the Complex.
Dropping my things I took the hottest shower I could stand, smiling at the memory it brought of Leith’s and my time at the hotel suite.
The past month had been a haze of practices and spending time with my new pack and sometimes I still believed it was all some kind of joke and I was in a coma or something.
No one should be as stupidly happy as I was—and yet here I stood in a shower smiling like an idiot.
I was even humming under my breath as I got dressed, dragging the sweatshirt I’d stolen from Wiz this morning over my head and inhaling his clove-y scent.
My mood was so good, that when I stepped out of the locker rooms, my eyes looking for Artie, I wasn’t surprised when I found Richter leaning against the wall waiting for me.
Because of course something had to ruin the warm fuzzy feeling I had, and the only person capable of that was the burly hockey player standing in front of me.
Pulling the strap of my duffel more firmly on to my shoulder, I shot him a cold look.
He hadn’t tried to approach me since the night of the party—though to be fair I’d been constantly surrounded by my family or my pack since that day anyway.
I’d been hoping that he’d given up, but judging by the expression on his face he was a long way off from that.
“Ciara—” he began but I wasn’t interested in hearing any of it.
Turning I headed in the opposite direction that I needed to go, hoping that he would get the hint.
I made it halfway down the hall before a hand gripped my wrist and swung me around until I was nose to nose with the other alpha.
