His office was as clean-cut as the man himself. The bookshelves were color-coded, and everything on his desk was turned just the right way. He even reached over and adjusted one item slightly, then looked up with a sheepish smile.
“I might be a bit eccentric about order.”
“I’m sure the hockey players make that easy for you,” I joked, trying to keep it light. I didn’t want him to feel self-conscious about his quirks.
He chuckled. “No, they certainly do not. Though, I think they’ve come to accept it.”
“As they should,” I said firmly.
He cleared his throat, ready to move on. “About those papers you asked for. You got off a little lucky,” he said as he laid them out one by one, until the top of his desk was nearly covered.
“How so?” I asked.
“The only major allergy we have is one of the alternate defensemen can’t have mushrooms. Then we have three vegetarians. No vegans.”
“Oh, I can absolutely work with that,” I said, already getting excited.
I had plenty of vegetarian recipes saved. A lot of my favorite dishes could be supplemented with plant-based protein easily as well.
“These are each of the players’ main profiles. When Conrad mentioned last week that you were coming, I also put some of their preferences, but definitely talk to the guys yourself. You know how finicky they can be,” he teased.
“That I do,” I said. “And I really appreciate the extra work you put into this.”
“Anytime. I’m always here if you need to bounce any health-related questions off me,” he reassured. “I look forward to seeing what you can do.”
No pressure.
Chapter
Twelve
Kieran
“Laps!” Coach Fallon called out. There were groans here and there, especially from the rookies.
Cade clapped me on the shoulder, his pale eyes intense before he was pushing off. I didn’t need the encouragement today. It was already a hard day.
Today was Gabriella’s birthday. My late omega was so full of life, full of joy, that I didn’t know that I’d ever reconcile the fact that she was taken so young.
I still thought about her every single day. No matter how much time had passed… weeks, months, years. It all kind of blurred together. Hockey was the one thing that kept me grounded.
My muscles burned from practice, even if it was shorter to account for the game we had tonight. I just didn’t know hownotto push myself past my limits. I needed that release.
The cool-down laps always turned into a competition. I exhausted myself just the right amount to make my brain go quiet.
When the coach’s whistle blew, I finally slowed down.
“Showers, then head to the cafeteria. Our nutritionist has been working hard in there. Everyone, play nice.”
There was a protective threat there that I couldn’t blame him for. I’d only just met the girl two weeks ago, and she had all of my instincts going crazy. There’d been a time or two, when she first came to us, when she was still so weak that I found myself subconsciously cutting her meat and doing what I could to make sure her life was easier. It felt nice.
I barely processed the chatter around me as I tore off my gear, exposing my sweaty boxers. At this point I was grossing myself out, but even the shower wasn’t satisfying today. I could feel the worry through our pack bond.
Maybe it was a bit out of the ordinary that we bonded early, but we wanted to be a strong pack. One worthy of our omega when we found her, something we established before we even met Conrad.
Being family was one of the things that made it so hard that Conrad wasn’t part of our pack. Something just never clicked into place between us. There wasn’t that spark that told me I needed to protect him in the same ways that I did everyone else. But he was strong, almost as dominant as Cade, and that was half the issue.
Two pack leaders couldn’t exist in one pack.
