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Beth

E very bone in my body ached.

It had been one of those never-ending days, and I was completely exhausted.

The ice rink may have been one of my favorite places, but after a day of teaching classes and the early morning shift at the coffee shop on campus, on top of taking every spare moment to finish classwork, I was totally run-down.

Sighing, I circled the rink, gliding along on my skates, letting my mind go blissfully quiet for a few minutes. The rink was empty, it was late, and I only had one private class left before I could go back to my dorm and collapse for the night.

Just one more year, and I would be free. After graduation, I would be able to work one job instead of two, and there would be no more exams. Though there would be plenty of spreadsheets. I was studying to become a financial planner and bookkeeper, so they were a necessary evil.

Every day, I reminded myself that my current level of stress was only temporary. As soon as I finished college, I’d rent a small apartment and live my life however the hell I wanted.

Maybe I would get a cat.

“Bethany!” A sweet child’s voice shouting from the other end of the rink pulled me out of my daydream.

Skidding to a halt, I twisted to look at the entryway to the rink.

Joey Noble was hands down one of my favorite students. At seven, almost eight years old, she was tall for her age and wore a pink leggings-and-sweater set with her little white ice skates, her dirty-blonde hair tied up in a haphazard bow.

“Hey!” I greeted her warmly as I skated over to the entrance. A wave of bubble gum hit my nose as she neared. The sweet, childhood scent immediately put a smile on my face.

“We match!” she declared excitedly, gesturing to my pink jacket.

“We do!” I agreed with an enthusiastic nod. “I wish I had cool pink leggings like yours, though.” I pouted.

Joey’s face broke out into a huge smile. “Daddy G got them for me!”

“Well, he has good taste.” I nodded seriously before looking behind her.

Gideon Noble stood a few feet behind her, watching us interact with a controlled, almost blank facial expression.

Wearing a fitted black coat that appeared tailored to his body and a tartan scarf, he looked downright edible.

His hair was dark, brushed back, and there were several gray strands peppered throughout.

It didn’t matter that he was probably a decade older than me.

Just the sight of him made my insides tingle in a way I was determined to ignore.

“H-hello, Mr. Noble,” I greeted him with a wave. I had to raise my voice because he was so far back.

“How many times do I have to ask you to call me Gideon?” he asked with a smile, shaking his head.

I shrugged. “Fine. Hello, Gideon .”

The use of his first name felt so personal…

I had no idea what was going on between us, but it had been going on for a while. He and the other members of his pack had been bringing Joey for skating lessons with me for almost two years. She had started in the under-six class and then moved on to private lessons.

A few months ago, I’d swallowed my pride and asked him for legal help. I had expected him to give me the card of a cheaper lawyer. What I hadn’t expected was for him to insist on being my legal counsel, even when I informed him it was for my friend Kennedy.

Ever since then, I had been hyperaware of him. The way he cared so sweetly for Joey, the growly tone when he asked if I was okay.

“Can we work on the spins today?” Joey asked excitedly as she took a step onto the ice.

I pursed my lips, as though I had to think hard about it. “I think we can do that!” I said, pleased at the way her face lit up.

“I’ll leave you ladies to it. I’ll be in my usual spot,” Gideon said, nodding to the small café that looked out over the ice.

On the weeks he brought Joey to her lesson, he would take his laptop and sit so he could also watch Joey.

It was sweet that, despite how much her fathers worked, they always made time for what Joey wanted.

I personally tried to forget that he was watching me, but my body was keenly aware of it.

“Okay, then, how about we get started?” I asked the beaming child as he walked away.

With a nod, she started to glide around the ice, warming up.

“How old were you when you started skating?” Joey asked as she skidded to a halt, stumbling slightly because she had been going a little too fast. I had told her before, but it had been years ago.

“Four!” I beamed. “My mom loved ice skating, and where I grew up in Nebraska had a large ice rink, so she took me every week and I fell in love with it.”

“That sounds nice,” Joey said as we circled the rink. I liked to take the first ten or so minutes every lesson to get the student acclimated to the ice. Even if they skated every week, going from land to ice was an adjustment.

“It was,” I agreed. “Now, how do you feel about practicing our two-foot spins today instead of the one-foot?”

Joey groaned, throwing her head back. The movement made her lose balance for a moment, but she quickly regained composure before giving me a long-suffering look.

“I suppose so,” she sighed, her adorable face far too serious.

An hour later, Joey was exhausted but grinning as we made our way off the ice.

“You’re doing so well.” I smiled as we took our skates off.

Since she was my last student of the day, there was no point in remaining on the ice. Sitting beside Joey on the bench, I leaned down to untie my skates while also keeping an eye on her because all those laces could be difficult for children.

“Hey, munchkin, how’d your lesson go?” a warm voice said as they approached. A waft of fresh, salty air hit me before I could even glance up.

It wasn’t Gideon. I knew that scent far too well.

“Dad!” Joey happily greeted her father.

Glancing up, my eyes met those of Dr. Jensen Noble. My gaze darted over to the café, where Gideon was packing up his laptop.

So, they both had decided to pick up Joey.

All they needed was Cullen, and it would be a pack party.

Joey launched herself into Jensen’s arms, and he spun her around playfully. He was also much older than me, but that didn’t stop me from appreciating just how the muscles in his arms flexed as he swung Joey around.

He turned to me. “Beth, how are you?”

“I’m good, thank you.” I nodded, standing up. He was easily a foot taller than me, and without my skates on, I was extra small. I was an omega, and like most omegas, I was vertically challenged.

This close, his saltwater scent invaded my senses. Alphas smelled good; that was a given. Most of their aromas were pleasant, but there were always some outliers who smelled like dull printer toner or pencil lead. Pack Noble didn’t just smell pleasant.

Their scents were phenomenal.

The first time I met them, my brain had gone haywire, my entire body jolting in reaction. Even though I had been affected before, this reaction had been a whole new level. Every cell in my body had come alive, and my brain had been singularly focused on finding the source of that amazing smell.

When I’d realized that those said scents belonged to my student’s parents not long after, I had shrunk back.

It didn't matter how amazing they smelled and how my omega insisted I needed to know them. They were significantly older than me, and it was inappropriate to date the fathers of one of my students. I needed my job desperately. I couldn’t risk losing it by behaving inappropriately.

I was working two, sometimes three, jobs just to be able to afford my tuition because my fathers refused to support me through college—well, they insisted they would pay if I went to a local college and stayed home, but I didn’t want that.

Jensen was still wearing his scrubs, which shouldn’t have been so appealing, but it certainly did it for me.

“Pulling more ER shifts?” I asked casually, ignoring the way my throat tightened.

Jensen nodded as he took Joey’s backpack off her. “Yeah, they were short-staffed, so I decided to help. The Chargers aren’t too busy at the moment, so I thought why not?”

He had been the team doctor for the California Chargers NHL team for a few years. Even though that was a full-time job and he even had a few assistants, he sometimes pulled shifts at the local hospital. He also used to be an all-star hockey player—so an accomplished overachiever.

When I had asked him about why he still took ER shifts, he had insisted it helped keep him sharp as a doctor. On the team, he saw many of the same sorts of injuries, whereas the ER really tested him.

“Well, Joey has done amazing today.” I beamed.

“I wouldn’t expect any less,” he said, gazing down lovingly at his daughter.

Joey was the daughter of a pack, so one of the three men in the pack was her biological father, but packs tended to never check to see who was the one who contributed DNA.

My family had been much the same growing up, though I only had two fathers. Both alphas. My mother, an omega, had passed away when I was young. So that left me, my fathers, and my gaggle of alpha brothers.

Safe to say, it had been an extremely testosterone-filled house growing up.

That was probably part of the reason I had become so attached to Joey—she was the only girl in a house full of alpha males. I didn’t know the details, but early into her lessons I had asked a question about her mother. I think I had asked one of her fathers if Mom was going to pick her up any day.

They swiftly informed me that there was no mother in the picture and there hadn’t been for many years.

Since then, I hadn’t brought it up with Joey, but every now and again, she mentioned missing having a mom.

As Gideon came down the stairs and I said my goodbyes to Joey and Jensen until next week, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

I knew who it was, and I immediately didn’t want to answer it. It had been a long day, and I was already exhausted. I didn't have the energy to deal with my family.

With a sigh, I looked at the phone screen as a text came through from one of my dads.

Pa:

Hey, Bethy, are you able to make the chocolate fudge cake when you visit next?

Pa:

Your brothers mentioned they’ve been craving it.

There was a chocolate cake that our mother used to make that my fathers and brothers were obsessed with, and instead of learning to make the cake themselves, it was simply one of the many jobs they pushed onto me.

I didn’t answer. I simply stowed my phone in my pocket and looked up to where Joey was leaving the rink, turning back and waving goodbye at me. Waving back, I pasted a grin on my face.

My family could wait until later.

I had a date with a steaming bowl of mac and cheese and a good book.