Page 16

I was taking it as a good omen that no one killed anyone else on the drive to the pack house. There was a lot of glaring and growling, but I ignored it and breathed through my continuously growing heat pangs. At least I got a distraction from that when Tiergan offered to stop by a local bakery for their world famous cinnamon buns. The sweet treats took my focus off my Omega urges for a few minutes.

The house was five minutes away from the center of Winnipeg in a quiet suburb. It was a simply adorned blue Victorian with three stories. The yard was neat and everything about it was unassuming. Not at all what I imagined a house with five guys living in it would be like.

A light misty rain had settled over us, and Alderic popped an umbrella to walk me the twenty feet to the front porch. Maddox carried my overnight bag and Kane unlocked the front door, holding it open for me. “Welcome to our home.”

I flashed him a smile and tried not to keep eye contact with him too long. I’d done naughty things with Casimir and Maddox, but of all the Alphas, it was Kane who made my Omega instincts go so insane that I just wanted to fall at his feet and beg for his attention. I hated it.

The mudroom had a big open closet full of coats, hats, gloves, and shoes. I slipped off my coat and breathed in the combined scents of the pack. The mix of them was thick and rich and so very male, and fuck me, it smelled so good that a bit of tension drained from my shoulders.

No, no. Bad. Eww, boys. Cooties.

I’d been determined not to find a nest. I didn’t want anything that might tie me to Winnipeg, but something in me was wanting to nestle down here. It might be too dramatic if I ran out of the house screaming though.

From the entry, we stepped into a modernly decorated living room. It wasn’t large, but there was a sleek black fireplace and an L-shaped couch with a Manitoba Rampage blanket and throw pillows. A black rug with gold accents sat on the hardwood floor in front of the fireplace, and wilderness photos decorated the walls.

“The dining room is there.” Tiergan motioned to a dining room with a natural wood table and benches that looked like it would seat ten Alphas. “The door on the other side leads into the kitchen. The bedrooms are on the upper two floors, and the game room and work-out space is in the basement. Did you want to go up or down?”

“Where’s the beer can couch, the big spool table, and your hockey stick collection?” I peeked into the kitchen with its gray marbled counters and huge island topped with a big bowl of fruit for color. Was this a model house for a real estate agent? This was way too neat to belong to five single young men.

“The what?” Kane blinked as all the Alphas looked absolutely bewildered.

Alderic was the only one who laughed. “I know plenty of guys who have places exactly like that. Ewan and I even had a wooden spool in our apartment when we first moved to the city. I was glad to get rid of it. My decorating style is more classic modern than… frat house.”

“I remember the spool.” Tiergan chuckled. “We do have several hockey sticks in the basement, but the only one on display is my stick signed by Martin Brodeur.”

“Greatest goalie of all time.” The fact I knew who the player was made Tiergan’s face light up and my heat flared at his pleasure.

So downstairs to a game and work-out room, or upstairs to the bedrooms. Thinking of bedrooms put a certain tension in me I wanted to avoid, but with my slick starting to flow again, it might be the best area to find a place where I could get some privacy.

“Let’s go up since there are no spools to be seen.”

Each of the guys vied to be closest to me as we moved through the house. On one hand, I was flattered that they all wanted to be near me. I’d always imagined having a big group of Alphas vying for my attention and how sexy it would be to have my pick of them. Yet it was actually stressful because I wanted to please them all. How did Nicolette and Callista handle their Alphas without big fights breaking out?

Kane flicked on a light for the hall when we came up to the second floor. There was a bathroom at the end of the hall with two small rooms on the left and a decent sized room on the right. Time to play the game of whose room was whose.

The first of the small rooms was tidy with a twin bed with a quilted headboard and matching dresser. A desk with a computer and a full bookshelf were tucked into a corner. Blues and gray made the room a comforting place. I didn’t need to smell the pine and peppermint to know it was Alderic’s. I grinned at him. “Nice room.”

The bigger room had a cozy country feeling with an old-fashioned cherry wood bedroom set. A few shirts draped over a recliner and a sock stuck out from under the bed. One wall had several photos, and I recognized a few as downtown Winnipeg. Most were wilderness pictures like the ones downstairs. The scent had something male and earthy about it with a hint of citrus.

I looked back at Tiergan. “I like the pictures.”

“Thanks. I love being out in the woods and taking photos. Manitoba is a great place to get outdoors and go on adventures.”

I didn’t know what sort of adventures could be had in Manitoba, but his photos were gorgeous.

The third room was much more what I expected a single guy’s room to look like. Clothes strewn everywhere, unmade bed, empty energy drink bottles, and a grease dotted pizza box. It wasn’t a pleasant smell coming from it, and the chaos of it spoke to me only one name. “Ewan’s room?”

“Yeah, sorry you had to see that.” Alderic shut the door and gave me an apologetic look.

“More sorry for any girl that Ewan brings home.” I laughed, hoping to break some of the tension between the men and distract myself from my stupid heat.

We made our way up to the third floor. There was a room on either side and a bathroom at the end of the corridor lined with a few tall leafy palm plants. The room on the left was dark, but a massive bed sat at one end of the room and a weight bench at the other. The walls were a hunter green and only a few pictures of sled dogs hung from them. The masculine scent was heavy with oakmoss and sandalwood laced with smoky rum. It was deep and alluring and very Maddox.

I could imagine him throwing me on that big bed and driving into me…

Nearly gasping, I forced myself away and looked into the final room. The scent hit me before my eyes adjusted to see anything. Cedarwood and molasses curled around me, luring me into the bedroom. The overall tone of the scent bellowed Alpha male, and even though I realized this last room could only be Kane’s before I went to it, the smell of him would have immediately given it away.

Dark wood slanted diagonally on the back wall where the king sized bed sat. It was plush with a thick black comforter and several pillows of varying shades of brown to almost gold. A snowboard was propped up in one corner and a series of three hockey jerseys with his name on them were framed on the wall near the closet. A thick fur rug was on the floor at the end of the bed and a pair of cushioned slippers sat on it.

Slippers. My body was trembling from my heat, but all I could think about was that I didn’t peg Kane as someone who wore slippers.

The guys were silent. Were they waiting for me to pick a room to nest in? I couldn’t just pick a room. If I picked one over the others, there would be hurt feelings. Panic chewed at the edges of my already frayed self control.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. I hurried into the hall and to the bathroom. “I need to use the little girl’s room! Well, not that there are any girls in this house to make it a girl bathroom, but yeah…”

I closed the door swiftly behind me and leaned against it. That was pathetic.

There was a light knock on the door. “Kienna,” Alderic said my name softly. “We’re going down to the kitchen to get drinks and order food. Anything you need? Did you want pizza?”

“I’ll come down when I’m done. Pizza sounds good. Thank you. No olives though.”

At least the guys were giving me some space. Space to choose, I knew, but I had a few minutes to compose myself.

I splashed my face with cold water and trickled some down onto my chest. Nothing was helping with my heat. I didn’t feel the Omega call to nest in any room, if there was even such a thing. How did an Omega choose a place to nest? All the guys’ rooms smelled good, except for Ewan’s, but other than being filthy, he was the only pack member I hadn’t been drawn to.

Nesting just had to happen naturally, right? I couldn’t force it. Maybe the pack house wasn’t the place for me. But what if that place was my own room back on the west coast?

Fixing my hair and trying not to look like I’d run a marathon, I exited the bathroom and started toward the stairs. I froze when I heard shouting from below.

“I can’t believe you guys left the press conference for a chick!” Not one of the Alphas. Was that Ewan? “And Al, you didn’t even show up at all. What the fuck?”

“Kienna needed us.” Tiergan grunted.

“So what? What was another hour? The coach was pissed. I had to carry the whole conference myself since the entire fucking first line was playing maid to a stupid Omega!”

“We’ll make it up to him. Kienna’s important to us.” Kane’s voice was loud but he wasn’t yelling.

“Important as your careers? Important as the team?” Ewan yelled back. “You’re the captain, Kane. What does that say to the team when you up and leave them for a girl? Plus you all left me there. I had to grab a ride home with Thompson. How do you think it makes me feel to be left out of pack business?”

Alderic replied with quiet words I couldn’t quite pick up, but his cousin—who was rightfully angry—cut him off.

“No! You don’t get to tell me to calm the fuck down. You guys bailed out on your team. You’re always saying how hockey is life and the pack is the most important thing, but ever since that bitch came into our lives, it’s all about her.”

That was cruel, and I inwardly cringed. But he had a point. I was a distraction to what they loved.

Someone or someones growled, and another of the guys hissed out some words.

“What the fuck is Velky doing in our house? Are you guys all buddy-buddy with him now? He’s the weak link in our front line. You all always say it.”

“Shut the fuck up, Ewan.” Kane snarled and the walls seemed to vibrate with his deep Alpha voice.

Then there was chaos. Shouting over shouting. Something that sounded like a plate smashed to the floor.

They were fighting about me. I’d come along and now their pack was in disarray. Not just the pack, but their team was being let down. Yeah, I believed everyone made their own choices. The guys chose to come to me instead of staying at the arena, but I was still the reason.

I should have been long gone from Winnipeg. Nicolette should be lounging on her boat drinking virgin cocktails and her telling me all her erotic adventures with her pack.

The best thing I could do was walk down the stairs and out the front door. I did not want to be the thing that ruined these guys’ lives. They’d be miserable and so would I.

There was stomping on the stairs and more yelling, particularly from Ewan. He, Kane, and Alderic shouted back and forth in French. Were they coming up here? I didn’t want to fight with Ewan. He didn’t like me at all, and he also had the right of it.

I glanced back and forth between Kane’s and Maddox’s rooms. Again, I didn’t want to pick one. That’s when I noticed the partially hidden half door behind one of the plants. A small door that blended into the panels.

Rushing over, I pushed the palm out of the way and opened it. A stale smell washed over me but it faded quickly to be replaced by a more subtle sweet wood. I flicked on the flashlight on my cell and walked in, closing the door behind me. Oak beams lined the ceiling and a round window brought in moonlight at the far end of what I could only assume was an attic.

Old furniture was piled up along the sides. Maybe stuff that was here decades by the layer of dust on them. Chests sat at the back with cardboard boxes and plastic storage bins closer to the door. Old hockey sticks and other forgotten winter sports equipment were stacked in the corner nearest to the door.

This was when a horror movie really started to get good. The thought made me smile. I wasn’t scared of a dark room. It was too chilly for spiders to be skittering around, and despite all the haunted tours and few ghost hunting escapades I’d been on, the supernatural never made itself known to me if it did indeed exist. If there was a ghost, that would be an amazing adventure.

I walked silently in and let my eyes adjust to the dim light. Peeking into a couple of boxes, I found old blankets with hockey team logos on them. I drew one out with the local NHL team name and wrapped it around me. Tiergan’s scent embraced me as well, chasing away my cold shivers.

Opening another container, I grinned at the Rampage merchandise. Hats, pennants, scarves, cups, and underneath, old jerseys with the guys’ names on them. Moreau, Fournier, and Hall. I ignored Cyr but didn’t find one with Shaw on it. Each of the jerseys were ones worn by them as I could tell by their lingering scents.

I filled my arms with the jerseys before I even thought about what I was doing. Wandering in farther, I giggled to discover bins with Christmas decorations. How festive was the pack? I opened one to find it was mostly a tangle of lights. Good luck to whoever had to unravel that. There was also a fuzzy Santa hat with the fragrance of molasses and cedar which smacked into me.

Kane wore a Santa hat? It went along with the slippers mystery.

The hat went right onto my head. Why, I didn’t know, but it calmed me and the tightness of my heat pangs eased. My limbs felt suddenly heavy with exhaustion as I yawned.

I cleared off a parlor chair near the window and curled up. It creaked a little, but it was not as loud as the wind which was picking up outside. The attic didn’t have heat like the rest of the house, but it didn’t matter. I was snug, warm, and cozy.

I’d have a quick nap so I would have more energy to deal with my heat pains and then leave. They didn’t need me in their lives. I just fucked everything up. People always accused me of being a troublemaker, and maybe that’s all I was. Tears burned my eyes.

They were better off without me.

My head drooped as sleep swiftly took over me before I could start to cry. Just a little nap.