“What kind of food does she like?” I asked. This felt too important to fuck up. She couldn’t recover in a house that didn’t feel right. “What about her favorite colors? The more we know, the easier the shopping trip will be.”
“Of course,” he said absently, eyes still distant. I could tell his thoughts were running a million miles an hour. If I could take even a little of that burden off of him, I would.
Practice was already done for the day, so gathering the guys wouldn’t be hard.
“Wait, no, I can’t ask you to do that,” he started to protest as his brain finally caught up.
I narrowed my eyes, and thankfully this time he didn’t fight me. Conrad knew damn well he needed us. We might’ve started as teammates, but at this point? We were brothers.
It took another thirty minutes to get him out the door. He kept insisting that he needed to get back to the hospital, but I convinced him to talk to Coach on the way. The fact he drove the three hours from North Crossing to Westrgrave to tell us she was staying was telling. He was barely holding it together.
The moment his truck backed out of the drive, I headed deeper into the hockey house, looking for help.
Cade and Mason were playing some zombie game on the big screen in the den. Mason shouted curses nonstop, while Cade glared at the TV in full concentration mode.
Lennon sat off to the side, waiting for his turn and biting back laughter. His eyes caught mine as I walked in, brows lifting in question. My face must have given me away.
“Where’s Wilder?” I asked instead of answering.
“Reading,” Cade said over his shoulder, never breaking focus.
“I’m grabbing him. Then we need to talk. It’s important.”
“That’s fine,” Mason said with a smirk, tongue flicking over his lip piercing. A nervous habit that said he probably shouldn’t be this cocky. “I’m about to kick Cade’s ass anyway.”
I didn’t bother telling him my money was on Cade. He never lost.
Sure enough, I’d barely made it down the hall before Mason started yelling.
I pushed open the study. Coach had it put in so we could study other teams, go over drills… some sort of team bonding. The only one who actually used it was Wilder, unless Coach assigned some sort of homework.
Sure enough, Wilder was curled up on one of the couches, a blanket pulled over his lap, with a book resting on top. Fantasy,by the look of it. His favorite. We’d get a full breakdown of the story the moment he finished, too.
“Wild,” I called, but he didn’t hear me. Not unusual. An accident when he was younger left his hearing only half intact, and I was on his bad side.
He didn’t look up until I was standing in front of him. He shot me a look, then finished the page before giving me his full attention.
“Hey, Kieran. What’s up?”
“Pack meeting. Conrad needs our help.”
That’s all it took. Wilder slipped in his bookmark, tossed the blanket aside, and stood. Conrad wasn’t just my best friend, he was all of ours.
Back in the den, Wilder dropped onto the couch beside Lennon, leaning into his side. He was quiet with everyone else, but touchy with us, something none of us minded. We were packmates; there was no judgment here.
“You’ve got me on pins and needles,” Mason drawled in a bored voice. “Care to share with the class?”
“You already know what happened to Conrad’s sister.”
Every expression darkened. They’d all seen the fallout, helped keep Conrad together this week while she recovered and he bounced in and out of the hospital.
His family wasn’t much help. They were too wrapped up in their own lives.
It seemed that Conrad was the only one who made this girl a priority.
“Apparently, her story gets worse,” I continued. “They didn’t just miss the heat. She hadn’t seen her pack in months. Barely spoke to them. They treated her like an acquaintance.”
“Is she going to be okay?” Wilder asked. Everyone knew how much omegas needed touch and companionship. It wasn’t justabout bonding or sex, it was about the intimacy that came along with it.
