Page 22 of Full Body Hit, Part 1 (Alpha Omega Hockey #5)

In the grand scheme of things, maybe it was a good thing Auston was such an asshole. It had allowed Chase to find something better—someone who actually saw and liked him for who he was.

“Sorry,” he blurted, interrupting the Alpha. “I think I’m gonna go home.”

The Alpha blinked.

Beside Chase, Sammy sat up straight from where he’d been cuddling up to the other guy. “What? You’re leaving? We just got here!”

That was just blatantly untrue. Chase shrugged.

“Nooo.” He turned to the two Alphas. “Sorry, it was nice meeting you, but I’m gonna get a drink of water for my friend.”

Sammy herded Chase away, obvious in his lie since they were leaving the bar behind.

Chase protested, “You didn’t have to do that. Go back, I’ll just—”

“No, dude, I wanna hang out with you. Seriously. I wasn’t gonna go home with that guy anyway. It’s just fun to flirt sometimes.”

“I can flirt with my daddy,” Chase grumbled.

Sammy halted them in place a few feet from their teammates, almost making Chase trip in the process. Sammy didn’t seem to care. “Your what ?”

Chase scrunched up his face. “What?”

“Did you just say…” Sammy lowered his voice. “ Daddy? ”

It was a wonder Chase didn’t pass out, what with how every drop of blood rushed to his face. “I didn’t say that,” Chase replied quickly, but it was too late. The grin on Sammy’s face was malevolent .

“Oh. My. God.”

Chase tried to pull away, but Sammy just grabbed him again.

“No, no, I’m sorry, I’m not laughing or anything! Just…oh, my gosh. That suits you so much. I’m so jealous.”

Chase, who had been about to protest the first statement, snapped his mouth shut. “Jealous?”

“ Uhm , yeah? That’s so cute that you call him Daddy. What does he call you?”

How did so many of his conversations with Sammy end up with Chase having revealed much more than he meant to, with no way to stop? “Uh…baby?”

Sammy tilted his head back and made a dolphin-like sound.

Chase looked at him in alarm. “What the hell was that?”

“I cannot believe you haven’t told me this before. Does he buy you things?”

Chase’s face must have done something because Sammy seemed delighted , eyes practically sparkling.

“ Urgh , I love that for you.”

“Can we sit down? This conversation is over.”

“Meanie.” Sammy pouted but acquiesced, making space beside Noah, who was predictably surly like he always was when Sammy flirted with someone else.

“What,” Noah asked. “You guys strike out?”

Sammy snorted. “As if. Chase just wasn’t feeling it.”

That did not please Noah at all, his face darkening, mouth moving like he was muttering something to himself, incomprehensible under the music.

Jimmy leaned forward, the beer in his hand tipping precariously. “Damn, Chase, that guy not your type? He was a knockout.”

“You go flirt with him then,” Chase retorted, making the guys chortle.

“I mean, not quite my type either. What kind of Alpha do you go for?”

Chase wrinkled his nose. “I dunno. Just. Someone who makes me feel safe, I guess.”

There was a moment of silence. “Damn, okay, I was gonna chirp you, but that’s pretty legit.”

Chase rolled his eyes and then dared a peek at Auston, sitting right across the table from him.

The Alpha was looking at him, dark eyes like they had been melted out of shadows, gaze hot to the touch. There was a dip at the side of his mouth that meant he was serious but not annoyed—Chase had seen that face on TV enough to be able to categorise a lot of Auston’s expressions.

Chase snapped his attention away, fumbling to his feet to get another drink instead.

It was only when he was approaching the bar that he remembered he’d told the Alpha he’d been talking to that he was going home. The guy was still there, and Chase froze on the spot, too embarrassed to get caught out and questioned.

He didn’t get a chance to dwell on it, though, a body suddenly pushing him from the back and crowding him into the wooden edge of the bar.

“Hey!” he protested, turning around to see it was none other than Auston doing the manhandling.

“You get lost? Or did you just want to stand there so people trip over you?” Auston drawled.

God, he was so fucking annoying. “You didn’t have to push me.”

And there went Auston again, lifting a sarcastic eyebrow. Chase wanted to rip both of them off his dumb, handsome face.

“Get off me, will you?” Chase complained, heart still making a racket in his chest, leaving him all jittery and shivery.

Auston stepped away, but barely, the heat of him still swallowing Chase up. “Sorry I interrupted you drooling over that guy.”

Chase took a second to catch up, bristling when he did. “ Drooling? ”

Auston shrugged. “No?”

Chase was going to grind his molars into dust if his jaw got any tenser. “And what if I was? Not your business, is it?”

Auston snorted. “Guess not. Not like you’re gonna get into trouble, anyway,” he said, and somehow, he made it sound like an insult.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. Just that you don’t get around much, do you?”

Chase gaped. Was there such a thing as anti-slut-shaming? Virgin shaming? Rizzless shaming?

Was Auston saying that he didn’t have to worry about Chase getting into trouble because no one wanted to fuck him anyway?

“I’ll have you know,” Chase grit out, swaying forward, way more tipsy than he’d felt a few minutes ago, “that plenty of people want to fuck me.”

The surprise on Auston’s face was like a little treat just for Chase.

“I’m a great fuck,” Chase insisted.

Auston waved a hand in front of Chase’s face like he wanted to cover his mouth. “Jesus, keep it down.”

“No, I will not keep it down. I’m, like, extremely fuckable. Really cool people want to fuck me, so…take that.”

“Okay, Christ, whatever you say.”

Chase huffed. “Dick. Just because you think I’m unattractive…” he muttered.

“I never said that,” Auston protested.

“Yeah, you did, you liar. You were like, oh, of course you’ll never get into trouble what with nobody wanting you ever.”

“I did not say that.”

“Yes, you did.”

“No, I—”

The bartender took the opportunity to interrupt the squabble. “Can I get you guys anything?”

“Yes,” Chase said, leaning over the bar and ordering the cocktail he wanted. Auston, the boring asshole, ordered another beer.

“All I meant,” Auston started up again once the bartender moved away. “Was that I don’t see you going off with people, that’s all.”

Chase wrinkled his nose. Why had Auston even noticed that? “Whatever,” he said, annoyed, and then even more irritated when Auston paid for both of their drinks. He grabbed his and turned around, but Auston was still close, almost chest to chest.

Chase was suddenly taken over by the sense-memory of Auston’s scent, the one Chase had breathed in after presenting.

If Chase had the ability to smell pheromones, he’d be swallowed up by that smell now, smoky and thick and intimate. He swayed in place, looking up at Auston’s serious face.

God, Chase hated him. He just wanted to—

He stumbled away, heading towards their table, drunk and annoyed and a little wet.

He sipped on his drink half-heartedly. Honestly, he just wanted to go home and talk to Aunix.

He needed to stop thinking about Auston. As long as the Alpha stayed away from Chase, so would he.

He was in a strange mood when he got home. He changed into the pyjamas Aunix had gotten him and slipped under the sheets, holding his phone tightly.

He wanted to talk to Aunix. Hear his voice.

Not have to type everything out. He hadn’t approached the subject because he was scared his voice was recognisable, that Aunix, even if he didn’t watch hockey, would hear it somehow and know it was little, faulty Chase that he was wooing, not whatever his daddy imagined him to be.

He’d found the perfect voice distortion app, though. He fumbled through it, reading out the passages it showed him until the app had a sample of his voice. He heard back the altered one—it sounded kind of like him, but not enough to be recognisable.

He set it up so it was always running when Lookr was being used so that he could make phone calls or send videos while it changed his voice.

He switched to Lookr, thumb hovering over the mike icon. He could feel his cheeks pink up, chest feeling all squirmy like he was about to do a presentation in class.

This was so dumb. It wasn’t even his voice. Aunix wasn’t going to hate it.

He swiped on the icon, starting the voice memo.

“Hey, Daddy. I, uhm …had a pretty good night. Work went well. Went out with my coworkers to a bar, but I was thinking about you constantly…still am, honestly. Anyway, I don’t have anything to say, really. Just that. I really like you. Really, really like you. Anyway…hope you’ve had a good night.”

He finished the recording and it sent automatically.

Chase groaned. ‘I really, really like you’? He was such a dork.

He plugged his charger into the phone, wrapped himself up in his sheets, and prayed for sleep.

***

The combination of alcohol and embarrassment had Chase sleeping fitfully. He got out of bed practically with the sun, eyes gritty from the exhaustion.

He showered the gunk of the previous night off his skin, putting on something comfortable and making himself a strong cup of coffee before looking at his phone.

A zip of electricity ran across his spine at the notification on his screen—something was waiting for him at his PO box.

He felt ten times more awake as he poured his coffee into a travel mug and skipped to his car. He could easily walk to his destination, but knowing Aunix, he’d need the car to haul the gift home.

Chase was not disappointed. It took two workers to get the huge box into his trunk, and then him and the doorman to get it into the elevator and up to his apartment.

He stood in his living room after, sans coffee or coffee mug, staring at the slightly battered cardboard box in front of him.