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Dark roads were suddenly bright as we entered the city. Driving into Winnipeg, it felt desolate, like it’s in the middle of nowhere, but as we headed downtown, it sparkled with life. Excitement leapt out of exhaustion, and I grinned to myself, happy to be home.

Not to just be home, but home with a semi-final victory.

To top it off, I had a shutout the last game. The Rockford Warriors didn’t get a single shot past me. This past season had been the most spectacular one of my life, and with my team beside me, I didn’t doubt we could take it all the way to win the Calder Cup.

Kane nudged me from the seat beside mine. “What are you smiling about?”

He asked that and he was grinning himself. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe still feeling the high of how we fucking blew Rockford out of the arena!” I laughed as we whooped and fist-bumped, and the rest of the team on the bus answered back with their own hollers. Settling back into my seat, I eyed the domed roof of the Bell Arena through the buildings in the distance. “I need at least one more shutout. We have to take Chicago down in the first games.”

“We’ll whip those fuckers’ asses.” Kane bobbed his head and clenched his jaw, the lights from downtown catching on his white blond hair and making it gold. The Chicago Flurry was our team’s rival, and usually they dominated our division. This year we had a phenomenal team and only had five losses all season. A lot of that was thanks to my best friend and team captain who sat beside me.

I fist-bumped him again, but I didn’t say anything. One of our team’s goalies was out with a broken wrist, so it was me and the newbie. Clint was good, but wouldn’t be able to stand against Chicago’s aggressive offense. That meant everything was riding on me.

“You’ve got this.” This was why Kane was not only our team captain, but our pack’s leader. He knew each of us, and he never failed to build us up. The teams I’d been on in the past, I’d always been the lone wolf goalie. Yet with these guys, I had a pack. I wasn’t alone. No matter how much my instinct was to take everything on to my shoulders.

When we pulled up to the arena, our coach was fast off the bus and inside. Usually we’d just get dropped off by the bus and go home after an away game, but tonight we had to meet the Manitoba Rampage’s new owner. It was unusual for a team to trade hands in the middle of a season, but the previous owner had recently passed on. He’d been a good guy, but he’d been just the financial support. This new owner supposedly had been in the American Hockey League himself years ago, but since I didn’t recognize his name—Dirk or Kirk or something—he hadn’t made it big.

Kane slipped out before me, and a couple of the guys followed him, chatting about hitting a bar tonight. It wasn’t really my thing, even though I’d go just to bond with the pack. I waited until half the guys had gotten off before I grabbed my backpack and exited down the stairs.

Though it was late April, the night still had a chill. Yet I could smell a hint of green in the air. I was the only one on the team actually from Winnipeg, and I knew the city’s moods like my own.

Ewan Cyr leapt off the stairs behind me and onto my back. I braced myself, easily carrying his lighter weight. “Yeah, Hall! Best goalie ever!”

I grinned, too much on a high to care he was shouting in my ear. “That mean you’re buying my drinks tonight?”

“Maybe.” Ewan laughed and gave me a light shove as he let me go. “Only if you’re drinking a small one.”

“I’m buying the first round.” Alderic Fournier—our team’s left wing to Ewan’s right—hopped down the last stair and fist-bumped us all. “Except for you, cousin. You always pick the most expensive shit to rot your gut.”

Ewan lifted his chin and smirked. “Whatever. I just have a cultured palette.”

“No one would ever call you cultured, Cyr.” Maddox Moreau snorted as he thumped down the stairs. Easily the biggest guy on the team, he towered over us all.

The only other player close to his size silently exited the bus behind him and shouldered past Ewan without saying a word to any of us as he marched into the arena. Casimir Velky might have been a fantastic defenseman, but he was an asshole. Our first line made up our pack minus Casimir. He and Maddox were great in their positions, but not only did Casimir rub me the wrong way, he butted heads with Kane about most everything.

Ewan flipped him off behind his back.

“Inside, everyone!” Kane yelled, leading the way into the building. “Time to meet the new boss man.”

Alderic hefted his pack and walked beside me. “I heard this new guy played when he was young. Maybe he’ll be much more hands on than Mr. Thomson.”

“Maybe.” I didn’t know how I felt about that. Our coach, Kevin McCarthy, was top-notch, and helped get us this far this season. I didn’t want some self important investor thinking he knew hockey better than any of us coming in and screwing that up. We all needed to be focused on the game to beat Chicago.

“Hopefully he can at least convince the city to put more money into the arena. The changing rooms haven’t been redone since the nineteen-eighties. I swear I can hear the ghosts of The Tragically Hip playing in there sometimes,” Alderic huffed. Always with the music references.

“The Hip are still alive, you know.” I shot him a sideways look.

He laughed. “You know what I mean. The place needs it.”

Sad as it was, I did. The Bell Arena hadn’t been updated in decades, and it showed more and more each year. I grew up coming to see games here, and it looked the same twenty years ago when I was three as it did now. If we had an arena like Chicago….

The fucking Flurry.

A modern arena wasn’t going to help them win the playoffs. This was our year.

We dropped our stuff off in the locker room, and Ewan laid an arm across my shoulder and Alderic’s. “The Barstool tonight, boys. That’s where we’re headed. Alderic said he’s buying the first round and Moreau is buying the next.”

“Whatever.” Maddox rolled his eyes, but he didn’t say no. He was the quietest member of our pack, but he was also the most generous.

I gave Maddox a fist-bump and walked into the hall. “Anyone hear anything else about the new owner? Mirk?”

“It’s Marcos Birk.” Kane joined us and gave us a look to remind us not to forget the name. “He’s the brother of that ex-governor on the west coast who was involved in that big scandal. Shot up the downtown of an Oregon city, kidnapped his own daughter, and a whole lot of other shit before he was shot by the bodyguards he hired to protect his daughter.”

“I remember that.” Ewan nodded. “Fucking politicians.”

That didn’t bode well. I shouldn’t judge the guy based on his family, but damn. That was fucked up. At least he wasn’t the serial killer that had been terrorizing Manitoba. It had been the biggest news these past few years, but I was going to make sure our team stole all the headlines with our league win.

We passed windows that looked out onto the rink. The zamboni was slowly going along the ice, leaving a steaming trail in its wake. A desire for a clean slate. That’s what I hope the new owner brought with him.

“If I was him, I’d want far away from that mess. And Winnipeg is pretty far away from most everything.” Alderic joked, waving to the zamboni driver, and got a laugh from everyone except me. I didn’t want Birk to bring any of that drama to my team or my hometown. While I knew I’d get signed on to a team in the NHL at the end of this season, and it wouldn’t be the Winnipeg Jets since they didn’t have spots for our whole pack, my heart would always be here.

We filed down the hall toward the executive lounge where the coach and owner usually talked business with us. I worked my jaw from side to side as I chewed on the new information. It didn’t matter who owned the team. I wasn’t going to let him or any of the mess he brought deter us from a victory. We were too close to the Calder Cup. I’d wanted to win it since I first picked up a hockey stick, and as the senior goalie, it was on me to get us there.

As we neared the lounge, I spotted the coach exit his office at the other end of the hall. A tall man in a dark blue suit followed. Salt and pepper hair, wide shoulders but lean build. An Alpha too. I could tell by the way he held himself. Interesting. Teams limited the number of Alphas on the rooster because we tended to want to lead. We were unusual in that all our Alphas were together on the first line, except for Alderic and Ewan who were Betas. Four in one line was typically a recipe for disaster, but since we bonded as a pack and Kane was our leader, we worked more effectively together than any other team in the league. Even with Casimir—who wasn’t part of our pack—on defense with Maddox.

Maybe Birk would be sympathetic to us Alphas, or maybe he would try to be more of a dominating prick. It could go either way.

I noticed Kane and Maddox in front of me were staring at the new owner, too, as everyone else entered the lounge. Ewan hollered something about breaking into the closed bar, but as I was about to go into the room to tell him to stay away from the booze, my feet locked in place as a third person exited the office.

Bubble gum pink. That’s the first thing that registered in my mind. Her hair as bright as the phlox in the spring.

And it framed the most beautiful face I’d ever seen.

Every muscle in my body was rigid, and my cock was fast on its way to being so as well. Half hidden behind Birk, she crossed her arms and frowned. My heart hammered. This girl should not ever be unhappy. Fuck, I needed to take her in my arms and kiss her until joy bloomed on her face. I desperately had to see her smile.

Birk turned and said something to her. She held her chin high, not backing down from the Alpha looming over her. Was she his mate? No, too young. She had to be a little younger than me.

She was wearing a big puffy dove gray winter coat which hung open, giving me a brief flash of her bright golden yellow sweater that matched the embroidery on her black boots. The brilliant color made her seem even more magical, having cast a spell over me. If she was coming to the meeting, fuck, there would be no way I’d be able to concentrate on anything Birk said. My dick ached, it was so hard.

My nostrils quivered, making me breathe in deep. I couldn’t smell her from this distance, but at the same time, my body reacted like I could. In front of me, Kane and Maddox were frozen as they watched the owner and his… daughter? The age difference was right, and there was a resemblance in their facial features.

“Come on, Dad. This is ridiculous.” Her exasperated voice rolled down the hall.

Oh fuck, the new owner’s daughter was an Omega, and my Alpha instincts demanded I go over there to take what was mine.

Nope. It would be the end of my career if I ever considered such a thing.

I spun around and almost slammed into Casimir. He stood staring at the Omega too and didn’t even blink at me.

Shit. Each Alpha on our team had locked on to the girl as his target. If any of us even said a word to her, we were fucked.