Chapter One
Nate
Nothing gave me life like a morning skate. To this day, my mum still couldn’t understand why the smell of a locker room full of well-worn gear and sweaty guys was one of the best things I’d ever smelled in my life, but it was straight up comfort.
This is home.
“Morning, Decks,” my Swedish team mate, Bo, called as soon as he stepped over the threshold. He sauntered across the room, and dropped his gear bag next to me on the bench. Bo was like a brother to me—a green-skinned, seven-foot brother. I grinned in the mirror inside my locker and bent to find my tape in the jumble of things covering the bottom.
“Fuck, where’s that damn tape!? I had it somewhere here,” I muttered as I shoved my first pair of gloves aside. I’d kept these in my locker for as long as I remembered, and gave them a little kiss before each game. I swore they were single-handedly responsible for any time I scored a goal.
Bo snorted.
“Here.” He grabbed a fresh roll from the neat stash he kept on the top shelf of his own locker and held it out to me. “You should clean this up before the Viking sees.”
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” Our captain was a saint, but he wouldn’t hesitate to make me skate extra laps if he saw that I’d relapsed into locker chaos again.I had no idea why, but no matter how much I vowed to keep my locker in order, it always ended up a mess.
God, the state of my childhood bedroom had driven my mom mad.
Old habits die hard.
“Is everything okay?” Bo’s deep voice cut into my thoughts.
“What? Yeah, I was just somewhere else.” I took the tape from him and focused on prepping my stick. The only time I was able to focus was when I had laced up and ice was under my blades. That was when my brain finally shut up and I was one hundred percentthere.
“What a surprise,” he deadpanned as he stripped comfortably to put on his gear. Judging by the way our Danish captain Arne handled nudity, Bo getting naked as if it was the most normal thing in the world was a Scandinavian thing. I mean, you eventually got over any lingering prudishness when team mates casually stripping and communal showers were a regular part of your day job.
“Fuck off,” I huffed as I finished taping my stick. “What about you? You okay?”
“Oh yes, the usual.” Bo pulled his tight compression shirt over his head and gazed down at me. I wasn’t tiny by human standards but next to a Forest Troll even Nik, the tallest human on our team, looked a bit like a twink.
The “twink” had just entered the locker room, a takeaway cup in his hand, and scowled as if someone had done him a personal wrong before his first sip of coffee.
“Morning, Nik,” I trilled because I knew it riled him up when someone dared to be in a good mood this early in the morning.
He just grunted and did his breathing exercise. In, three, four, out, five, six. It was hilarious to watch.
“Who shat on your parade, Thor?” Bo asked with the innocence of a non-native speaker who kept messing up idioms.
Even Guns, our goalie, chuckled. He was half dressed; his bare chest exposed thick muscles with expertly done tattoos and his lucky charm, a key on a silver chain nobody ever dared to enquire about.
“It’s ‘rained,’ Bo,” I informed my friend.
“Well, I’m just saying.” He waved a broad green hand at our German team mate. “Thor doesn’t look like it onlyrained.”
Guns finished dressing and left, shaking his head about Bo and Nik as he walked past on his skates.
They bickered while I laced up and finished putting on my gear and training jersey and were still going as the three of us hit the ice.
Arne and a couple of others were already warming up.
I took off up the rink to get away from the two dumbasses who were almost brawling.
“Everyone shut up for ten seconds so I can think,” Arne finally shut them down with a pointed look.
They loved each other, really, but Bo just had way too much fun getting under Nik’s skin.
“Nate, take the inside lane,” our captain called out, and Leo and I rotated. I was faced with a green mountain of a D-man who gave me a wide grin as he blocked my path. “Bo, don’t crush him. Just give him some pressure.” I passed back to Leo. “Bo,gentlepressure—not homicide,” Arne called in an exasperated voice, and Bo backed off me, well, a bit, at least.
