Page 97 of Puck My Life

I count the sets in my mind, the burn erasing the frustration I’m feeling. I don’t like change. Things should stay the same.Everythingshould stay the same. Our parties are great; everyone has fun. It’s simple, easy. It stopped feeling fun a long time ago, but it was a routine that I was familiar with.

On the ice, the only thing that matters is winning. So what if I get rowdy? So what if things go wrong and we end up in the penalty box? All that matters is the score at the end of the siren, right?

The coach likes to yell. You’d have to enjoy it if you sign up to be the coach of the Scented Scorpions.

I stop, letting the bar with its heavy weights rest. I lay there, staring up at the ceiling. Everything is different now.

What even happened?

Hook told us to grow up. We ignored her; we lived our lives dancing around, and then she was dating and leaving. Now she’s an omega with a heat coming.

Everything is changing.

She’s giving us no choice.

I love hockey, but she is family.

I sit up and reach for my towel. The assistant coach is prowling around, watching us. Our eyes collide, and I resist the urge to bare my teeth at him andsay something to turn his face the colour of a plum. He just looks at me like I’m a fuck up, like my quitting the work out session is typical and inevitable.

Why am I even trying?

Fuck this.

I stand up and take three steps to leave when I hear her voice in my head. Her disappointment is heavy in the air. I can see the way her eyes turn down, unable to look at me. In my head, she lays hundreds of meals in front of me, folds my washing and puts it where I can find it with the detergent I like. She doesn’t snoop, but I can find her scent on my pillow where she fluffed it just how I like and on my blanket where she tugged it up.

What is happening here?

I try to leave again, but, in my head, she smiles, her eyes glittering in the light, that dress hugging her like a second skin, dancing with me.

I hang my head, unable to move, glaring at the ground.

“Damn you, Vae.” I wipe down the machine, pick up my stuff, and go to the bike.

Several of the team look at me in surprise, but, thankfully, everyone leaves me alone, which just gets me to thinking, and I don’t like the way my thoughts are going.

This is a team, like our family, just bigger. This is what Vae keeps talking about. I need to…act like a pack with them. That’s what Marilyn wants, isn’t it?

I turn my head and look straight at Chase. He’s got an attitude, but don’t we all? His dirty blond hair is damp with sweat, and his muscles bulge from his exertion. I scowl even as I try to come up with something to say that won’t get us in a fight.

“What’s up?”

He looks the other way with dark brown eyes and then back at me with a dark scowl. “Are you insane? Since when do we talk, Katz?”

I shrug. “Trying something new.”

“Well, don’t.”

I snort out a short laugh. “Fine, you can tell her that.”

He hesitates. I don’t know who he’s thinking of, but he glances at me and scowls even harder. His mouth works and then, with a grunt, he speaks.

“Not much,” he says with difficulty.

“Good game on the weekend,” I offer desperately. Why is this so hard?

It would be easier if I wasn’t watching five of our teammates in the mirror staring at us with huge eyes.

“Yep.”