So Pucking Perfect (League of Ice Kings: Port City Badgers #1)

Prologue

Rowan

Five Years Ago

Desperation didn’t even begin to describe the feelings and thoughts coursing through my body as I took another step closer to Coach Garrison’s office.

Desire was another one. Desire to stay on the team, desire to be a part of something for the first time in my life, and also desire for a certain coach who looked at me with narrowed eyes and disdain. Maybe desire?

Probably not desire.

It could be desire. I wasn’t hard to look at. Easy on the eyes was a phrase people had used to describe me.

I’d been told more than once in my life that I was a looker, an alpha catcher, a heartthrob.

My omega father once told me that I was going to have to beat the alphas off with a stick, and that all I needed to do was flash that pretty smile of mine and they’d fall to their knees to give me what I wanted.

Testing the theory was never high on my list of priorities.

Was I really going to start now? All because I wanted to be a part of a hockey team?

If my skills on the ice couldn’t keep me here, which clearly they weren’t going to, based on how badly I had done in tryouts, then I didn’t deserve to be on the team.

Using my looks to get what I wanted was an option… and a gamble.

Nerves had gotten the better of me during tryouts, and also, everyone on the ice was an alpha who were bigger, faster, and stronger than I was.

I was one of five omegas trying out for the college team.

The omegas had all been better than me. Likely only two of them were going to be placed on the team.

The rest were alphas. The rules said any designation could play on the team, but there was no escaping the reality that alphas were more athletically inclined.

If omegas wanted to play, they needed to work twice as hard.

Or do what I was doing right now.

In one last-ditch effort, I raised a hand and knocked on the coach’s office door.

Rumor had it Coach Garrison wasn’t going to be at the university for long.

Neither was I, if I didn’t convince him to let me stay.

My stomach turned. Was I really going to go through with this?

Was I truly this desperate to belong somewhere?

Fuck yes, I was. Besides, it should be easy, right?

This was what omegas did, some of them, according to the rumors and stereotypes that floated through the world.

I wouldn’t be the first omega to try and charm my way into someone’s bed for my own gain.

My stomach turned. I’d never gone to bed with someone before. Getting laid wasn’t high on my list of priorities either when I’d spent every day working to help provide for my family. Was I really going to give up my virginity so I could make it on to a hockey team?

“Come in,” Reid’s voice boomed through the air. Like it had while he’d been coaching me this past week. Something about him made me want to be better. Skate faster. Score more.

And also drop to my knees and be a good boy for him.

I hadn’t even realized I had actually knocked and now he was commanding me to come in. I pushed the door open and stepped inside. I neglected to wear my scent blockers like I was supposed to when walking around the college campus. Coach Garrison’s nostrils flared, and he looked up.

“Rowan,” he said. “The roster has been posted, maybe not publicly yet, but it’s been finalized. Nothing you say or do is going to change that now.”

This was my chance, my only chance. I attempted a flirty smile. My lips wobbled, but I rallied by leaning against the door, letting my shirt ride up and expose the skin of my stomach.

“Are you sure about that, Coach?” I said. I put my hand to the wall, leaning against it, like I’d seen done in movies. Did it work?

“I am.” Coach looked me up and down, his eyes narrowing. His breath hitched, and the scent of alpha pheromones filled the air. When I wore my scent blockers, I didn’t notice them. But now I did.

Fuck, they were intoxicating, and the longer I stood watching him, the thicker they became.

Got him.

I pushed the door closed with my foot and stepped farther into the office. The office was located in the locker room of the athletics complex. No one was around, since it was early on a Saturday morning. Hockey memorabilia from the university’s franchise filled the walls.

“I could be a really great asset to the team,” I said, putting as much flirtation into my voice as I could. So why did it squeak? Why did I waver? Maybe he didn’t notice.

Coach leaned back in his chair for a moment. It seemed like he was really considering what I was offering. Without putting the words out there, he shook his head.

“I knew I made the right decision when I cut you. You don’t have what it takes to be a hockey player. And if this is the kind of behavior you think is going to work in the world, you’ve got another thing coming, boy.”

His words were like a punch to the gut. I couldn’t give up now, though.

Without hockey, I had no reason to stay at college, and my alpha father said if I didn’t make the team, then there was no reason for me to be at college at all.

The money for my tuition could be used for other things, he’d said.

Never mind the fact that I was paying for it myself.

It wasn’t like I was using his money. Without his permission, I wouldn’t be able to stay there. I’d have to drop out.

I walked around the desk. If I didn’t make the team, I’d have to go home.

I couldn’t let that happen. I didn’t want to let that happen.

I put one hand on the armrest of the coach’s chair, leaning closer to him.

He had to scent me now. There was no way he could resist. I’d been told I was irresistible to alphas.

Maybe today wasn’t the day to test that theory.

“I’ll do anything, Coach,” I said. I didn’t really know what anything was, and in that moment, even if he took me up on it, I didn’t know what I would do.

Probably run screaming. I mean, in theory, I knew what I would have to do.

If he took me up on this offer, I’d be essentially prostituting myself out to him in order to be part of the team.

My gut clenched, and it became difficult to draw in a breath.

“Get out of my office, Rowan, and I’ll forget this ever happened. But if you don’t leave now, I will have to report you. You will be removed from this campus.”

I was going to be removed from campus either way.

“Prettier omegas than you have tried this same thing and failed. I’m not putting you on the team.” He didn’t even look me in the eye. He seemed to be focusing on the wall behind me, like he could see right through me. I wasn’t good enough for him to gaze upon.

His words were like a knife to the gut.

Fine. He didn’t desire me, but taking a dig at my looks—that was cheap.

I opened my mouth to… what? Argue? Try again? This wasn’t me. My actions weren’t the type of person I wanted to be. I didn’t deserve to be on the team. I’d been out-skilled in tryouts. I knew it. Coach knew it. And now I’d have to go home and quit school.

I backed away, embarrassment heating my cheeks and making my stomach turn.

I was going to vomit. I tried. I put in my last-ditch effort and failed, humiliated beyond belief.

Coach would probably tell his colleagues about this, and I would become the joke of campus overnight.

Not that it mattered—I hadn’t made the team.

I didn’t even need to look at the roster to know.

It was time to pack my things and return to my small town, and... and what? I had no future without the hockey team, without college. I ran from the room like the coward that I was.

I made it to the stairwell before my stomach fully revolted. I grabbed the nearest trash can and threw up.

Okay, so I definitely didn’t have what it took to be an omega who used his looks to get his way.

That much I knew. And now I knew I didn’t have what it took to be a college hockey player.

Fuck. I really needed to get out of here.

My hockey dreams were dead, my college dreams were dead, and that was just something I had to accept.