Page 17

The words come out before I can censor them, crude and deliberately provocative.

The kind of shit I'd say to get under anyone's skin.

But as soon as they leave my mouth, something hot and ugly coils in my stomach at the thought of Darren with some random alpha.

Some stranger touching him, tasting him…

No. Fuck that. Not going there.

Darren's face darkens, fury flashing in his eyes. But there's another emotion there too. A flicker of guilt that tells me I've hit closer to the mark than I intended.

"You're on a hookup app," I realize, the words flat with disbelief. "You're actually looking to meet someone."

I hate myself for feeling betrayed.

"It's none of your fucking business." His voice drops, dangerous and low.

"Like hell it isn't." The words come out harsher than I meant them to. I force a laugh to cover it. "Our newly presented omega cruising for strange in a city where nobody knows what he is? That's everyone's business."

His phone buzzes again, screen lighting up in his pocket. I move before thinking, lightning-quick across the table, snatching it before he can react.

"Zayn!" He lunges for it, but I twist away, holding it out of reach. "Give that back or I swear to God?—"

"Just checking if I need to vet your suitors," I taunt, dancing backward out of the booth. "Someone's got to look out for your virtue."

More like punch the teeth out of any asshole who tries to touch him.

The screen's still lit with a notification. Not Tinder or Grindr like I expected, but some app called Beyond Bonds. A message preview shows a text from someone simply labeled Blind Match.

Holy shit. He's actually doing this.

I don't get to see more because Darren's on his feet now, closing the distance between us with dangerous intent. "Give. It. Back."

"Problem?" Jax materializes beside us, captain's instincts kicking in at the first sign of tension.

"No problem," I say smoothly, still holding the phone above my head like we're in grade school. "Just discovered our boy Darren's secret life as a dating app Romeo."

“Zayn.” Jax's voice carries that warning tone he uses when I'm pushing limits. “Give him his phone.”

He's putting on a good act, but I can smell the way his scent sharpens. Can tell the thought of anyone else touching Darren is pissing him off as much as it is me, whether I want to admit it or not.

"After I've made sure he's not setting himself up with some alpha predator," I counter, swiping to unlock the screen. To my surprise, it opens. No password. Amateur hour. "Beyond Bonds? Sounds like a shitty movie."

Darren lunges again, this time catching my wrist in a grip tight enough to bruise. "You're an asshole, Copeland."

"Always have been." I manage to hold the phone up with my other hand, the app open now. "Let's see who's got our omega all hot and bothered, shall we?"

The words die in my throat as I scan the messages. Not what I expected. Not at all.

"What the fuck, Malloy?"

By now, the commotion has drawn everyone's attention. The rest of the pack gathers around us, confusion and concern evident on their faces. Aidan hovers at the edge, looking worried. Dmitri stands like a massive stone gargoyle behind Jax, his expression unreadable.

Darren uses my moment of surprise to snatch his phone back, shoving it deep in his pocket. "Happy now? Got your show?"

"What's going on?" Aidan asks, looking between us.

"Nothing," Darren snaps. "Just Zayn being his usual charming self."

"Darren's been shopping for dates on some app," I announce, the bourbon making me reckless. "But not with alphas. With female betas."

The silence that follows is deafening. Everyone staring at Darren with varying degrees of confusion and... is that hurt? We're all so fucking pathetic.

Me included.

"Is that true?" Jax asks finally, his voice deceptively free of emotion.

Darren looks trapped, cornered. For a second I think he might deny it or tell us all to fuck off again. Instead, his shoulders slump slightly. "Yeah. So what? Since when does a guy have to fill out a form to report a hookup? But it's not for me. Not just for me."

"What are you talking about?" Aidan's question comes out quiet, almost wounded.

"What do you think?" Darren's laugh holds zero humor. "Look around you. Look at how you're all staring at me right now. Like I'm a fucking puzzle you can't figure out. Or worse, like a pack of dogs waiting for a slab of meat to drop. The last Cheeto in the bag. The?—"

"Okay, we get it," Jax says, wincing. "So we've been a little… distracted lately. You could have just said something."

"Said what, stop staring at my ass?" he challenges. "Dude, do you have any idea how fucking awkward this is for me?"

No one speaks. Because what can we say? He's not wrong.

"I need someone else in the mix," he continues, words clipped and confident. "Someone to take the heat off me. Literally."

"You can't be serious," I find my voice again. "You're bringing in some random woman to what, distract us? So we'll stop looking at you like you're an omega?"

"That's exactly what I'm doing." He meets my eyes, challenge written in every line of his face. "We may be a pack, but I am not your fucking omega. I'm your teammate who happens to have a fucked-up biology, and I need you all to remember that."

"This isn't the time to be introducing someone new into our dynamic," Jax says, ever the voice of reason. "We're still adjusting to?—"

"This is exactly the time," Darren cuts him off. "Before things get any weirder than they already are. Before you all start thinking I'm suddenly yours to protect, or claim, or whatever the fuck goes on in your knothead alpha brains."

The accusation lands hard. Because again, he's not wrong. Not entirely.

"And what happens when your suppressants wear off?" I challenge, anger rising to cover the sting of his words.

"Yeah, Darren," Aidan says quietly. "You think you can just throw a female beta at us and pretend this isn't happening?"

"When you go into heat?" I challenge. "You think having some strange beta around is going to solve that problem?"

Uncertainty flickers across his face. Maybe fear. "I'll deal with that when it happens."

"How far have you taken this plan?" Dmitri speaks for the first time, his accent thicker than usual. A sign he's not as calm as he appears.

Darren hesitates, then straightens, defiance in every line of his body. "I got us a date. When we get back home. Before the Vancouver game."

"You what?" Aidan's voice cracks slightly.

"A date," Darren repeats.

"You mean a groupie," I scoff. "That's exactly what we need. Some fan thinking she's gonna get a sweet spot as the new pack pet."

"She's not a groupie," Darren says calmly. "In fact, she has no idea who we are, or even that we play. I kept the profile intentionally vague."

"So you're bringing a random into our mess?" I laugh incredulously. "That's even worse. Great plan, Malloy. What could possibly go wrong?"

"Less than keeping things as they are," he fires back. "Watching the way you four pull punches in practice, letting me win battles I should have had to fight for? Even Aidan's 'accidentally' missing saves when I shoot during practice?—"

"I don't do that," Aidan protests, but the flush creeping up his neck says otherwise. I've seen it myself.

"You do," Darren insists. "You all do. And I'm fuckin' tired of being treated like your damsel in distress."

"So your solution is to drag some unsuspecting woman into our fucked-up pack dynamic?" I shake my head.

"My solution is to get you assholes laid so you stop looking at me like the last ham at the market," he counters.

I scoff. "Who even is this person? Do you know anything about her other than the fact that she knows shit about us?"

Darren shifts, that uncertainty flashing across his face again. "It's a blind date. The app matches based on compatibility or whatever."

We all stare at him, momentarily speechless.

"A blind date ," I echo in disbelief. "You're bringing a complete stranger—who could be anyone, by the way—into our lives because you can't handle the fact that you're an omega now?"

"Zayn," Jax's warning is sharper this time.

"No, let him talk," Darren says, folding his arms across his chest. "Let's hear what the great Zayn Copeland thinks I should do instead.

Keep pretending nothing's changed? Let you all walk on eggshells around me?

Or maybe I should just retire, move to a nice quiet omega community somewhere and learn to knit? "

The bitterness in his voice catches me off guard. There's real pain there, raw and exposed in a way Darren never allows himself to be. I'm not sure what to do with it.

"I think you're trying to outrun something you can't escape," I say, the words coming out more honest than I intended. "And you're going to get hurt. Maybe bring down the rest of us with you. Better to face the truth now than on the ice."

"Take your 'truth' and shove it up your ass," Darren snarls. "I know what I'm doing."

"Oh, clearly." I roll my eyes.

"When is this date?" Jax asks, cutting through the awkwardness with practical questions as usual.

"Friday. Couple days before the game." Darren's defiance hasn't faded. "And I want all of you to be there, and on good behavior, because this is the only chance any you have of getting any for the foreseeable future."

A growl wells up in my chest, but he has a point. We've all always had our flings outside the pack. Dmitri and I have shared a woman once or twice, usually groupies after a game, but the second we realized we had an omega in our midst, that all changed.

Even for me.

Even if he has no interest in letting any of us touch him, the pack became closed the second Darren presented as an omega. It's not something we've talked about, just an unspoken understanding that passed between us.

"Good luck with that," I mutter, eyeing Aidan who looks like someone just kicked his puppy.

"Is that all?" Darren asks, glancing around the circle of shocked teammates. "Because I'd like to get back to celebrating our win without a pack intervention."

"This conversation isn't over," Jax says quietly. "But for now, yes, let's table it."

The team disperses slowly, breaking into smaller groups that immediately start buzzing with low conversation. I know exactly what they're discussing. The same thing I'm thinking about. What fresh hell is Darren going to bring down on us with this blind date stunt?