Page 2 of Full Body Hit, Part 2 (Alpha Omega Hockey #6)

CHASE

C hase tapped the screen of his phone and watched as it timed out into darkness. He woke it up again. Stared as it went to sleep.

For the last five days, Aunix had barely spoken to him.

Chase tried to strangle the thoughts that slithered through him—how Aunix was finally sick of him, how it had never been real to begin with. It was a shitty thing to believe after everything Aunix had done, how kind he’d been since the beginning.

And yet…Chase couldn’t fucking help it.

The thing was, Aunix had an explanation for the radio silence. He had a big project at work he had to concentrate on—he’d barely have time for anything more than sleep, he’d explained.

It was perfectly reasonable.

Chase didn’t believe him.

He’d thought it over a million times in the past three days, and he still couldn’t quite identify why .

Was it the lack of details? The abruptness?

There was just something so uncharacteristic about the way Aunix was handling the situation—how he hadn’t even responded to Chase’s good-night texts.

There was no good morning, no pictures, no nothing.

As much as Chase wanted to convince himself that Aunix truly was just working, something felt off.

At least he was home and away from Auston, who was a whole other kind of weird. Chase was still trying to process seeing him so vulnerable and open and…nice. It hadn’t been unpleasant, obviously, but it had made Chase feel raw somehow, skin scraped red, sensitive to the touch.

Sammy’s return had been a relief. He’d stayed at Chase’s for almost a week until Chase had been cleared for no-contact practice.

Sammy still insisted on driving him to the arena, though, dragging Noah along and booting him to the back seat as soon as they picked Chase up.

“You really don’t have to,” Chase protested, but Sammy waved him away, pointing to the front seat sternly.

Chase slid inside with an apologetic shrug at Noah. Noah just shrugged back.

He sighed as he clipped the seat belt, and Sammy jumped on it immediately.

“What’s wrong? Are you having symptoms again?”

Chase pinched the bridge of his nose. “No. Just didn’t sleep last night.”

Sammy narrowed his eyes, car still parked. “That can be a concussion sym—”

“It’s not. I’ve just been…Aunix is busy at work and hasn’t really been…we haven’t really talked in a few days.” Chase waved vaguely, a weak attempt at brushing it off.

Sammy saw right through him. “Oh, babe. If he’s busy—”

“I know.” Chase cut him off, not wanting to listen to a pep talk. “Really. Just…you know what I’m like.” A fucking neurotic mess.

Sammy put the car in drive. “We’ll keep your mind off it. Promise. Noah, tell Chase that thing you said yesterday about how the moon is bigger than Mercury.”

Noah groaned loudly, and Chase couldn’t help but laugh.

He had no idea what he’d do without them. Despite the exhaustion dragging him down, he was smiling by the time they got to the arena, still ribbing Noah about his dumb takes.

“Oh, my God.” Chase giggled. “Obviously the tides and moon are linked? Why would— ohmyGod .” Chase flinched violently as someone suddenly loomed over him.

“Whoa,” the looming creature said, and it was only then that Chase recognised Auston.

Chase pressed a hand over his heart, feeling it race behind his rib cage. “Holy hell. You scared me.”

Auston had his hands up as if he were about to get shot. “Sorry. I just—”

Sammy shouldered between them. “You just what?” he asked sweetly.

Chase shuddered at the tone. Sammy was terrifying when he pretended to be nice.

Auston took a step back. “Uh…just wanted to see how Chase was doing.”

Chase straightened. “Oh. Um. I’m fine. Thanks for, you know…” Taking care of me . The words were too awkward and vulnerable to voice.

“It wasn’t a problem. You’re sure you’re good to play, though?”

The tentative smile that had been on Chase’s face dropped right off.

Right. Auston was just checking to see if Chase would be a liability.

Sammy saved him from responding. “Are you a medic, now? Because that’s who cleared him.” Never mind that Sammy had been complaining about the concussion protocol not being careful enough just yesterday.

Auston backed up another foot. “I’m not…I was just…”

Sammy didn’t seem impressed. “ Mmhm .” It was amazing how much sarcasm he could pack into that noise.

Chase let himself be dragged away, protesting when he was out of Auston’s earshot. “Hey. He was really nice to me, you know. He took care of me, fed me, he—”

“Oh, he fed you?” Sammy repeated. “What a saint.”

“No, dude, he really was nice. He said sorry to me and everything.”

Sammy raised an eyebrow. “For what? Being a dick?”

“I honestly think those were his exact words.”

Sammy snorted. “Well, let’s see if he actually stops being one.”

From behind, Noah caught up with them. “Sammy, come on. Give the guy a break. Or at least the chance to see if he means it. He’s part of the team, whether you like it or not.”

Sammy’s only reply was a roll of his eyes.

Auston, however, didn’t appear to be done.

It was nice to be on the ice, even if it was just practice. Chase had missed a game the previous night and would probably miss at least two more before he was fully cleared, but he knew he was lucky to be in skates so quickly.

The boys were happy for him too, jostling him as they waited for the first drill to begin. Noah skated at him rapidly, slowing at the very last moment to bump his shoulder.

Chase flopped against the boards dramatically, picking himself up to return the favour when Noah was yanked away from him suddenly.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” a voice said, a clap of thunder.

It was so distorted with an Alpha growl that Chase almost didn’t recognise it as Auston’s, but it was definitely him, hand fisted in Noah’s practice jersey, eyes glaring down at him.

“Um…” Chase tried to intervene, but Auston wasn’t done.

“He’s no-contact . He has a fucking concussion. You can’t—”

Noah pressed Auston away. “Dude, I barely touched him. We were just playing around.”

Chase nodded. “He didn’t hit me. I was just joking.”

Auston’s burning gaze landed on him, and Chase couldn’t help but freeze-up at being caught in that predator glow.

A second passed. Two. Three.

A violent shiver passed through Auston, and he let Noah go.

“Shit. Sorry. Just…be careful,” he grunted at Noah, skating away as if he hadn’t just freaked out over nothing.

Noah and Chase glanced at each other, Noah wrinkling his nose dramatically. “What the hell was that? Jesus Christ, I’ve never smelt him like that.”

Chase nodded quickly, hoping his obliviousness wasn’t obvious. “Yeah, I have no idea.”

If Chase had more energy, he’d be worried about the way Auston stared at him for the next couple of hours. As it was, it took everything in him to just make it through practice.

Turned out you were supposed to get more than an hour of sleep to function properly as an athlete.

He had to sit in his stall after practice, head hanging, sweat cooling on his skin.

Rest wasn’t in the cards for him, though. A shadow blanketed him.

Chase looked up, not even surprised it was Auston. “What—”

“You shouldn’t be on the ice,” Auston bit out. “Concussions aren’t something you can just walk off. If you’re still having symptoms—”

“Oh my God,” Chase burst out, getting to his feet. “I don’t have any symptoms, Jesus Christ.”

“Yes, you do. You’re all pinched up, you’re exhausted, you—”

Chase’s whole body tensed up, muscles trembling.

Who the hell did Auston think he was? Just because they’d spent a few days together didn’t mean he got to baby him like some overbearing, condescending parent.

“I didn’t sleep well last night,” Chase cut in. “ Not because I have a concussion. I just have shit going on, okay? Not that I have to explain myself to you. You’re not my coach. You’re not my dad.”

Auston’s face twisted weirdly at the last comment, but Sammy was already there, forcing him to back up.

“Are you done?” Sammy asked sarcastically.

Auston apparently was, walking away in a huff.

Jesus . What a nightmare of a day .

It was pure relief as Chase finally made it home alone, not even having the energy to go to Sammy and Noah’s.

He grabbed Joey from his bed and went straight to his nest, shuffling around restlessly in the blankets until he forced himself to settle.

God, he was so tired.

He clung to Joey with one arm while he slipped his phone out of the mess of soft things. He opened his thread with Aunix, scrolling up to reread the last message two days ago. He wondered if—

“ Ah! ” Chase yelped as the phone began buzzing, almost flinging the thing away. He peered at the screen as his heart raced, but it was an unknown number.

He hit decline, pushing away the bitter disappointment at it not being Aunix.

A second later, though, the same number lit up the screen. Chase hesitated a beat before answering.

“Hello?”

“Chase?”

The room spun, a moment of vertigo, but, no. That wasn’t Aunix. The cadence was similar, but the voice was all wrong. “Auston?”

“Yeah, hey.”

Chase had to take a moment to process that. “Uhm, hi?”

“Sorry. I asked Jimmy for your number. Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

“Uhm…no. But, like. Can this wait until tomorrow?” The last thing he wanted to do right then was have another argument with Auston.

“Well—look. I just wanted to apologise for earlier. I know I was acting like a controlling dick, but I’m just…worried. I’ve seen a lot of guys come back early from concussions, and it’s fucked them up for life. I just didn’t want that happening to you.”

Auston had made him feel a lot of things in the past few months, but this was the most stunned Chase had been since meeting him. “Oh. That’s…thanks.”

There was a beat of silence. “I’m not trying to be difficult, but…you’re really okay?”

Again, vertigo hit Chase between the eyes.

For an instant, Auston had sounded exactly like Aunix.