AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Mo leannan, you looked wonderful out there,” I murmured into his ear, pleased when he shivered against me at the rumble in my voice. “You are doing great under these circumstances.”
Relief seemed to ebb out of Artie as he melted into me and sighed. “Thank you for coming so quickly, I’m afraid I was about to lose it.”
“Is Enzo about to go on a rampage to get here?” I asked, only able to feel a breath of the other alpha’s emotions through our bonds that tethered us to Artie which told me that he was blocking me specifically.
Artie shook his head and leaned back, his blue eyes squinting as he took in my face. “No, I managed to rein myself in before he took a swan dive from the BBC booth to get here—but why are you still here? Don’t you need to go and get ready for your own event?”
Truthfully, I did. My curling team’s patience was already wearing thin with me due to the past six months of missing practices because of Artie’s medical stuff. I knew they were trying to be understanding, but it also wasn’t as if we were friends. The center in Edinburgh that we trained at had paired the four of us up in hopes of creating a medal-worthy team.
Connor, one of the guys on the team, had joked that they were trying to create the curling equivalent of One Direction. The only problem was that we were four burly Scottish men and were much fatter than any of those waifish boys could ever be.
Even though we got along well, I had a feeling that after these Olympics I’d be given my walking papers and they would try to find a new fourth member. Did that make me the Zayn of the group? I wasn’t sure.
“I do, but I’ve got a bit of time to spend with you until your score comes out,” I lied, thankful that the ice rink where curling was taking place was right next door.
Artie could feel my lie through the bond and his lips pursed together so tightly that I was afraid all of the blood would drain from them.
“Don’t you start, mo leannan,” I scolded, dropping down to press a surreptitious kiss to his lips, gently moving mine against his until he relaxed again. “You are my priority, remember?”
“I don’t want to wreck your Olympic experience.” Artie reached up to cup my face in his hands, his fingers tracing the line of my beard. “It’s your first time as an athlete after all.”
It had been my dream to go to the Olympics, and the stands of the curling event were packed with a bunch of redheaded Dougalls who’d made the trek down from the highlands to watch me.
“I hate to break up a sweet moment,” Mama Burt said, cutting in between us and waving a hand and effectively ending our staring match. “But Artie’s score is up.”
Artie jumped and leaned around me to peer at the screen, his excited face quickly pinching together. “I can’t read it, Leith?”
“I got you,” I said and turned to look up at the screen. It took me a moment to register what I was seeing before a surprised guffaw barked out of me and I lifted Artie up off the ground. “Ninety-six, I knew you could do it!”
“Of course he did,” Mama Burt said, sounding a bit miffed at my words. “I’m his coach after all! That’ll get him in at least the running for that medal. He’ll need to keep it up for the free skate though.”
Neither of us were listening to the woman as she continued to talk about things Artie needed to be aware of for the next section. Artie’s laugh was breathy as he let me spin him around before he gave my shoulder a couple of smacks. “Leith, too much, I’m about to hurl.”
“Sorry.” I put him firmly back on the ground again, keeping my hands on his waist until I was sure he was steady.
The loudspeaker crackled to life as they announced that the women’s singles were going to get started and that the first skater needed to make their way to the holding area. One glance at the clock on the wall told me that it was also time for me to leave or risk missing my own event entirely.
Dragging Artie in for one more restless kiss, I pressed my forehead against his. “I’ll be back after, but congratulations, mo leannan, you are an inspiration and ridiculously adorable to boot.”
Artie’s grin was wide. “Love you,” he murmured as I pulled away, our fingers curling around each other until the last possible second.
I caught his words with my free hand and pressed them to my heart. A corny gesture to be sure, but it was ours.
With one last look at my flushed omega’s face, I turned to hurry back through the crowd. If I ran, I’d make it with a few minutes to spare, so I had my head down and my face stern as I barreled through the groups of figure skaters.
It was amazing how so many people would part like the red sea for an angry-looking Scotsman, but I stopped when someone said a name I hadn’t heard in a long time.
“Do you think Ciara’s nervous?” a feminine voice asked and I whirled around to find the source of it.
A small redheaded woman was dressed in a silver figure skating outfit and she was talking to a burly blond-haired man as he helped her braid her fiery locks.
“I dunno, she seemed fine when we left the village this morning,” the man responded gruffly with the shrug of one beefy shoulder. His eyes were on me, clocking that I seemed to be paying attention to their conversation.
The woman, an omega I surmised based on his overprotective attitude, just shook her head. “But Nash said she seemed off.”
“And Nash spent the entire night with a pair of three-year-olds going through sleep regression, sweetness.”
“So? I’m just worried. I want her to get the gold this time and I don’t know what’ll happen if she doesn’t. She’s been working her ass off for it for four years.” The woman’s pink lips pulled down into a deep frown.
