Page 6 of Full Body Hit, Part 1 (Alpha Omega Hockey #5)
“You’re so fucking annoying. I’m. Fine .”
There was a rustling at the end of the line, a, “Put it on speaker,” and then Chin-Sun’s voice loud and clear. “Hey, Aus. Nice for Your Highness to call us.”
Auston covered his eyes with the palm of his hand. Was his headache getting worse? Because it felt like it was getting worse. “Hey, Chin-Sun. Nice of you to hijack the private phone call with my best friend.”
“Aw,” Chin-Sun cooed. “He called you his best friend.”
“That’s because he doesn’t have any other friends,” Mark reasoned.
“Okay. I’m hanging up now.”
The other end of the line filled with laughter. “No, no, we’re just teasing. You know we love you to death,” Chin-Sun promised.
Auston grumbled under his breath.
“Seriously, though,” Mark said, voice sobering. “How’re you holding up? How’s the new team?”
Auston sighed. “It’s fine, I guess. They’re…young. It’s kind of annoying.”
Chin-Sun piped up. “I feel like you’d be a great veteran presence in the room.”
“Jeez, what are you, a reporter? Veteran presence in the room . Where the hell did you get that?”
“She’s been reading every article about you,” Mark whispered.
A twinge went through Auston’s core, heart squeezing. “Chin-Sun…”
Chin-Sun snorted. “I kind of missed you, shut up. What have you been up to? Are you dating anyone?”
Auston loved Chin-Sun to death, but she asked him that question every few months. “Let’s not get into that again.”
“I’m not getting into anything! I just think that it would do you good to have someone with you.”
Mark hummed in agreement. “You need to get laid, bro.”
A slap sounded over the phone. “Not just that. I mean, like…Aus, we all know that you’re an absolute softy underneath all that grr . You need someone to pamper. It’ll do you good—trust your fellow Alpha.”
“And where exactly am I supposed to find that?” Auston complained. Was he supposed to go to a bar and pick up and, what? Fall in love?
“ Uhm , online? Like every other person on Earth?”
Auston blinked. He honestly hadn’t even considered that, but…it wasn’t that bad of an idea. It seemed low-energy—he didn’t have to meet up if he didn’t want to. Could sext a little, get off, and get out.
Mark and Chin-Sun obviously read his silence correctly because Mark murmured, “He’s thinking about it.”
Auston rolled his eyes. “I’ll think about it.”
“ Yay ,” Chin-Sun cheered as Mark said, “Let’s meet up this weekend. No more hiding.”
“Fine,” Auston capitulated. There was a smile on his face, bones feeling lighter for the first time in weeks.
Maybe this whole ‘having friends to talk to’ thing wasn’t so bad.
***
Training camp mercifully ended, bringing on the beginning of preseason. Apparently, the kid had done pretty well and was put on the first line to start off with.
Not that Chase would stay there—the point of the preseason was to test all the potential rookies out and see who got to stay in the show.
Chase seemed happy, though. Didn’t smell like anything in particular, which meant he was either masking his happiness—and who the fuck did that?
—or he wasn’t actually grateful for the opportunity.
He was making a show of it, though, bouncing around the room, red lips pulled into a wide smile, light-brown hair flopping.
But Auston wasn’t so far gone into his issues that he would rain on Chase’s parade.
Honestly, he had bigger problems to deal with, like the fact that for the first time since he was a rookie, he was fucking nervous for the preseason.
The games didn’t bring any points that would get them into the playoffs—there was no real reason to feel like his skin was gonna crawl right off—but ever since his operation, he had this persistent fear that his body would give in on him.
That he’d skate out under the lights and collapse, showing the world he just wasn’t good enough anymore.
Obviously, that didn’t happen. His legs worked, his heart pumped sure and steady.
That didn’t mean the game went well.
They were down by two at the end of the first, and Auston had done fuck all to help with that. The coach switched up the lines at the start of the second, putting the kid as his centre—which was fucking insulting— Auston was a goddamn centre—but whatever.
They managed to get some time in the offensive zone, corralling the Quebec Foreurs around their net.
Cold air filled Auston’s lungs, a chant swelling in the crowd, a distant noise.
The puck hit his stick with a satisfying thwack from the blue line, and he rimmed it around the boards.
One of the Foreurs chased after it, but Chase got to it first, blocking the opposing player out with his body, a sweet back-and-forth move teasing the puck away from the opposition.
The kid slid it to Andreev, their own defenceman, who was waiting on the left side of the offensive zone. The Foreurs swayed closer, and Auston saw the play—
The kid had moved just west of the goal. Andreev would poke it to him, and all Chase had to do was slide it to Auston, who had settled on the other side of the blue paint—the goalie was pressed against the left pole, so if they were quick enough, Auston could get the shot off before he slid over.
Andreev skated a few steps back with the puck, drawing the Foreurs nearer. He waited for the lane to open, sliding it to Chase, and there, he just had to—
Instead of finding Auston, the idiot tried to put it in himself. The goalie was ready, obviously , the play had been taking place on that side, so the puck just bounced off his chest and he pounced on it, killing the play.
The whistle sounded.
Auston huffed, making his way to the bench for a line change, sidling up to Chase as he went.
Yep, no change in scent. The kid was so focused keeping a tap on it, he wasn’t even concentrating. That, or Chase didn’t even care about the bad play.
“What the fuck was that? Don’t you know how to pass the puck?” he grumbled.
“I-I thought I could make it,” the kid defended, but his scent remained flat and unaffected.
Auston’s blood heated up, jaw tensing. These fucking young players—why even get into the game if they didn’t care ?
Chase was shifted off Auston’s line, and the game picked up. Auston managed an assist during the power play, and then Sammy punted one in from Noah’s feed in the third.
They lost by one, but at least they’d gotten their shit together after the first period.
Noah stood in the middle of the room, just east of their team logo stamped on the floor—some guys were superstitious about stepping on it. “Good try, boys, almost made the comeback. I think we still deserve a drink or two after that.”
Cheers sounded from some of the guys. Noah grinned, going around clapping people on their shoulders.
Auston sat on the bench in his stall for a minute, taking the scene in. People appeared in good spirits despite the loss, the room stinking like Alpha and a little like the three Omegas on the team, except Chase.
He glanced at the kid. He was nodding at something Sammy was saying, mouth arched down, eyes squinting like he was hurting or something.
Auston took a deep, subtle breath. The smell of someone injured was usually pungent, and Auston had a pretty good nose, but there was nothing detectable in the air.
He shrugged it off. Not his circus, not his monkeys.
Auston forced himself to go out to the bar with the rest of the team despite his body screaming at him to go home, sit on his couch, have a beer, watch something, and then go to bed when the remnants of adrenaline had washed through him.
Instead, he was stuck in a too-loud, too-dim bar with gleaming countertops and lights shaped like insects for some fucking reason. The servers were wearing bright-purple uniforms, which looked so ridiculous Auston almost gave up on the spot.
“Damn, this place is sweet,” one of the wannabe-rookies said.
Auston reminded himself that turning around and leaving without a word would be detrimental to the bonds he was trying to build with his new team.
Even though they were a bunch of idiots.
Was he old? Or was this place shit? He honestly couldn’t tell anymore.
His old captain instincts flared to life as he saw all the underage rookies light up with the possibility of getting drunk. He corralled all of them to a table before he could even grab a drink.
“Two drinks each and no shots,” he ordered, fishing out his wallet. He pointed at the more responsible of the lot. “You’re in charge of ordering the drinks. You can open a tab with my card—return it immediately. Got it?”
The bushy-tailed kid nodded, taking the card.
Auston supervised just enough to make sure they weren’t going to immediately go wild and left them to it.
He sat at the next table beside Noah, who was staring at the bar with the surliest expression Auston had seen on him yet. Auston followed his gaze, realising what the problem was when he spotted Sammy and Chase at the bar, Sammy clearly flirting with a large Alpha beside him.
Auston sighed. God, this was such a young team—even the captain was stumbling along.
“You could go over and talk to him,” Auston suggested.
Noah flinched slightly. “Huh?”
“The thing with Sammy. Just go over and hang out with him if you don’t have the balls to make a move.”
Noah choked on his spit. “I—move? Why would I—”
“Save it, Cap. The crush is visible from space. If you don’t wanna do something about it, don’t ruin the friendship by staying on the sidelines and getting all bitter.” He pushed Noah almost off his chair. “Go. Hang out. Don’t get in your own head.”
Noah stood up, swaying in place for a moment before straightening up and taking a step towards the bar. He paused, though, looking back at Auston. “ Uhm …thanks. And, uhm …I’m not really that obvious, am I?”
Auston rolled his eyes and shooed him away.
It was only when he made sure that everybody was settled with ridiculously-coloured drinks and not getting too wasted that Auston went to the bar.