After that, the game went from unfocused to brutal. Every one of us took the hit as a personal challenge, pushing back morethan ever. Now that we’d worked past the tension in our team, we were a force to be reckoned with.
We weren’t the only ones fired up. It didn’t take long for the Canine’s to retaliate for the scuffle I had with their alpha. Team loyalty tended to run high, and this was no exception.
By the second period, more than a few of us had been in fights. Coach looked like he was about to lose his damn mind. The rest of us weren’t much better. It went beyond the first-line and into the rest of the team.
The entire arena was unsettled. The crowd was screaming again, more people escorted out. I guess that group wasn’t alone.
“First-line, you’re back in,” Coach called, sending us out onto the ice for another round of hell. Sweat had my base gear clinging to my body, and I nearly tripped on my skates as my focus fell to the crowd again.
By the time the game ended in defeat, I was almost relieved to head for the locker room.
I was in a trance as I hurried through my routine, pulling off my sweaty uniform, tossing things in the laundry, and taking a quick shower.
All I wanted was to be close to my omega, maybe curl up with a book in the library, whatever worked.
Unfortunately, we didn’t stick together tonight, and I wasn’t the first one out. Kieran and Cade had already claimed her by the time I got to the kitchen.
Their car wasn’t even in the lot anymore when I headed that way. Jealousy sliced through me for the first time since being in the pack. I wasn’t sure why I was so caught up in it tonight, but it was enough that my pack noticed through the bond. Their reassurance came back, a soothing balm to the sharp frustration.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Mason said, startling me from my inner brooding.
“I think I’m just now realizing how hard this pack thing is. Sharing fucking sucks.”
“So you noticed the alphas stole our girl too,” he joked, but I could see tension on his face too.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “I think that game and the fight got me worked up. And what was with those people getting kicked out before we even started?”
Something passed across his face, and he frowned.
“An anti-delta group, apparently. News of Lana switching teams got out, and they’re blaming the delta from the Narwhals, painting some story about how we’re dangerous. I guess he got into it on the ice last week, and they’re using that and our brutal game against us all.”
All my jealousy seemed so irrelevant now as I stared at him. “Are you kidding?”
“I wish. They were calling for us to be kicked from the AHA.”
My stomach turned. Without even thinking about it, I pulled Mason into a hug. “We aren’t going to let that happen. You’re part of this as much as I am, as much as any of these motherfuckers are. They won’t win.”
“I’m not sure who I am without hockey,” he admitted into my shoulder, giving into the hug and holding on tight for once.
It wasn’t intimate. This was just family. I could feel his appreciation through the bond, and I tried to send as much calm as I could back to him until I felt it myself.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s get home and talk to the pack.”
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
Lana
Kieran pulled me closer, his mouth brushing over mine before moving down my body. The water from the shower pelted down around us as steam rose in the air. It seemed to intensify our scents, his bourbon and pear, warm and spiced, mixing with my own white chocolate and raspberry.
I moaned as he reached my hard nipples. I’d already had a moment with Cade, but my body was always on board for more. I couldn’t get enough of my pack.
They all needed a little reassurance and a release after that loss. The game was close tonight, and every bit of it was painful to watch. Being a hockey player meant you wouldn’t win every game.
The Canines were some of the best in the league. Between that and the crowd losing their minds, it was no wonder it ended in a loss.
Kieran dropped to his knees on the shower floor, looking up at me with a level of admiration only an alpha could give his omega
