Page 58 of Vampire Pack

"Hey,” she said, answering immediately.

"Hey. Is she okay?”

"Yeah, we went home right away. She shifted and went for a run as soon as we were back. Wanted to be alone."

"Fuck. What did Hollis do?"

"I don't know. They were talking about dance, hockey, and athleticism. I thought she was going to channel her inner you and punch the guy."

"Hollis, though? Are you sure? He doesn't really do arguments." I glanced at King. He didn't look thrilled. The possibility of our packs having even more issues between them than they already did wasn't exactly promising.

"It was definitely him. Paige was doing most of the talking, from what I could tell. He looked kind of flustered. You know how she gets about that whole dance topic."

Yeah.

Soulmate University was big on sports and fine arts, but there were still some judgmental assholes who didn't think professional dance required as much athleticism as competitive sports.

Hollis wasn't one of them, though.

"Hollis respects dancers," King said.

"What?" Mallory asked.

"I'm putting you on speaker." I hit the button.

"Hollis respects dancers," King said. "His sister and her mate are professional ballroom dancers. They're all close. He probably just phrased something wrong. He's awkward around women he's attracted to. It’s been a problem since we were kids. Jude hasn't even managed to train him out of it."

There was a pause.

"You can't be serious," Mallory finally said. "Carmen?"

The more I thought about it, the more I remembered him hanging back during parties. Chilling with the mated guys on the team, when pretty much everyone else was off with the puck bunnies.

King and I never made it long at those parties.

If he saw me talking to another man, he brought me a drink, and they got the message. We usually left, after that. Quickly.

We'd both agreed not to fuck anyone else since nearly the beginning of our arrangement. And the way he attacked people who hurt me on the ice wasn't exactly subtle. Everyone who knew hockey had known that something was going on.

I probably should've predicted the fucking fan art.

And saved some of it to my phone.

"I've never seen Hollis talk to an unmated woman," I finally admitted.

"You were an unmated woman. A hot one," Mal pointed out.

"I told Hollis and Jude that Carmen was mine the day we met her," King said. "They weren't allowed to be attracted to her."

My head jerked sideways, and I stared at him. "You what?"

"I claimed you. To them."

"What about the rest of the team?"

"They smelled me on you a few days after we met. No other claiming required."

"Well, fuck." Mal sighed. "So you think Hollis just put his foot in his mouth?"