Reid grimaced. “If I’d known, we could have—”
I shook my head. “No, I—I had some things I needed to learn, and I’m back in school now.” It wasn’t the time to get into the nitty-gritty details of what my home life had been like. What was important was that I was on my own now, and I didn’t rely on my parents anymore. I’d love to say that they were happy with mysuccess and proud of my accomplishments, but the truth was, they didn’t really care.
He tucked the hair behind my ears, brushing his fingertips over my temple then down my neck. “I want to learn all about what you’ve been up to the past five years, and I want you to tell me everything about how you became a mascot.”
I chuckled. “Well, that was kind of by accident. I met Evan at a sports camp. I was just working as a counselor, and he was there volunteering. He saw some of the silly things I did on the ice for the kids to keep them entertained between the sessions with the actual players, and he asked me to try out for the mascot position.”
“You’re great out there. You really do bring the energy.”
“I try,” I said, with a smile.
“You succeed.”
Chapter 14
Reid
I didn’t enjoy having to leave Rowan, but at least I knew he was home safe in my bed. Then again, in an hour or so, he would have to get up and go to work. He wasn’t coming to the arena to skate, since we had practice here, but he would go to the office and work with the marketing team for the plans for the on-the-road events. When we were on the road, he didn’t get as much time on the ice to do his things, because the other team’s mascot was there, but he did travel with us.
It took more organization when we were on the road, because Rowan needed extra handlers to make sure he was safe amongst the other team’s fans. It never occurred to me how dangerousit could be for the mascots to be out in public. But when you mixed alcohol and enthusiastic fans, it could become a recipe for disaster.
I sat in my office holding a puck that I kept on my desk. It was from my college days, one of my last games I played. I flipped it in my hands, letting my mind wander.
“What’s got you thinking so hard today?” Mario asked. “Is it a certain omega?”
I took in a deep breath. It wasn’t often that I let myself open up like this with my colleagues, but desperate times called for desperate measures. If everything went the way I wanted it to, everyone would know about Rowan and me sooner or later anyway.
“What are the league’s rules about relationships?” I asked.
Mario smiled like he’d anticipated the question. “The official stance is that affiliated officials may not engage in intimate relationships with active players under league jurisdiction.”
I raised a brow. “Should I worry about why you had that memorized?”
Mario laughed. “My previous team had a situation between players. Unfortunately, I had to learn the rulebook backward and forward in order to get us through that mess. Don’t get me started about how the League of Ice Kings, affectionally known as LIcK, requires declared omegas to maintain scent neutralityat all times. Ultimately, if the relationship is between alpha players, as long as it doesn’t affect anything on the ice, the league doesn’t care. When it’s an alpha and omega, then it becomes an issue—the power imbalance and all that. Coach and player relationships are absolutely off limits. Relationships between coaches and other staff members? Probably not a big deal. Omegas are more restricted than alphas, so I guess the question is, are you and Rowan going to talk with the team owner? Talk with HR?”
“Am I that transparent?”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what’s going on between you two, especially after you spent his heat with him. That omega’s eyes follow you everywhere. I’ve seen him in the locker room with alphas before. He never bothered to look twice at any of them. Hell, he and Evan live together. There’s never been a spark between them. Suddenly, you came in and everything’s sizzling.”
I rolled my eyes. “He tried out for the college team I coached for half a minute. I met him then.”
Mario looked at me quizzically. “He never played in college. You cut him from the team?”
I nodded. “I—” It’s not that I really wanted to spill Rowan’s personal business, but Mario was my friend, and I trusted him to be discreet. “He tried to persuade me to keep him on the team.” I let the words linger. I didn’t have to spell it out. It was obvious what I meant. “I was tempted then. So tempted. I thought maybe I wasn’t as strong of an alpha as I thought I was. But now, seeinghim again… I realize it’s him. He is the reason I was so tempted. There’s just something about him. I can’t fight it, and I don’t want to.”
“He’s grown up a lot. He’s not a kid. Even in just the year I’ve known him he’s grown up. If you two are serious, I think if you go to the league and explain, they won’t pitch a fit since he isn’t a player, even if he’s practically been adopted by the team. It does set an interesting precedent, though. The league is not kind to the omegas that are in it.”
I shook my head. I didn’t know if that was good or bad. There needed to be rules, but the rules needed to be fair to both designations. Right now, they heavily favored the alphas. Omegas were expected to do all the work to keep their scent neutral, and interrupt their bodies’ natural processes just so they could play hockey. Meanwhile, alphas got away with being jackasses.
The team started filtering into the locker room, each of them lifting a hand to wave through the glass.
“We have work to do,” I said, more to myself than to Mario. I was the one daydreaming about my omega. “Who’s working on room assignments while we’re traveling?”
“Not sure. The operations team works on that. Would you like me to see if I can get Rowan his own room? He usually bunks with Elliot or Phoenix.”
Since we only travel with three omegas, they each rotated who got to have a room to themselves. Many of the alpha players bunked alone, though we did pair the rookies up with a senior player for a while, so they could build up a rapport.
“I don’t want to ask for him to have his own room, that will raise some red flags. But maybe see if it’s his turn for a solo room.”
