Chapter 24
MILES
Caelia looks nervously around the public ice skating rink as she laces up. There are a few other people around, mostly college kids here to kill some time since the school is close by.
“Baby, you don’t have to do this,” I remind her, debating if I want to put my skates on.
“I do,” she grumbles, making sure her skates are comfortable.
I know she skates like a dream because I’ve seen her glide across the ice before. Levon blows out a breath as he puts on his skates and stands, holding out his hand to Caelia.
“Miles can stew in worry, while I get you all to myself,” he decides, attempting to go the lighthearted route. “Ready?
“Yes,” she says, standing. They walk over to the edge of the ice and push off onto it. Once she gets moving, I see that she easily acclimates to the amount of people around.
“She’s good,” Santo says, getting comfortable on the bench. “I’d say that you shouldn’t push it if more people come, but for now she’s okay.“
“My concern is this game Marilyn is organizing,” I mutter, pulling off my shoes to change into my skates. The three of us have our own, and Caelia made certain to pack hers when we went by her house.
“It’s not optimal, but Caelia can bow out,” he says.
“Caelia!” Levon shouts, laughing as she skates away from him to turn and twist on the ice. Damn, she really was practically born on this ice.
“Look at that,” I snort. “She’s a competitive little shit.”
Santo smirks, watching her as he shrugs. “Then I guess we need to figure out if she can play a game with all that entails,” he says.
“It’s not going to be as violent as one of our games,” I say quickly. “There’s no way Marilyn would want someone to get hurt. Our players are fucking huge, and could squish Caelia.”
“True, and Marilyn has her work cut out for her with a lot of the team,” Santo says. “They’re either confirmed playboys or really fucking picky. What? I hear a lot in the locker room.”
Snorting, I put on my skates and lace them up as I roll my eyes. “I’m sure that Marilyn has a plan for this. I bet it’ll be mixed teams, and she’ll enlist some of the women’s hockey players too. Again, it’ll be a lot more friendly than some of our games.”
“So no checking into the boards?” Santo asks.
“Not a chance,” I confirm. “You need body weight and strength to be able to check someone. I’ll get the full rules from her and tell Marilyn that this will hinge on if we play or not.”
“Are you going to be okay?” Santo asks, watching as I stand.
“I can skate and play a low stress game,” I admit. “The wear and tear of a hockey season is well outside of my ability now.”
“Do you miss it?” he asks, wincing at how invasive that question is. “I worry about Levon and injuries sometimes.”
“Some days, being able to coach helps me miss it less,” I say. “I’ve watched the tape on the game where I was injured more often than I’d like to admit, and it was sloppy defense that caused it. Since I am very conscious of that, I push my guys to protect each other on the ice.”
“It’s not just on the ice,” Santo blurts out. “They respect what you teach them, and I’ve watched them defend each other off the ice too. Even when they think they hate each other.”
“Well, that’s something,” I chuckle. “At least they listen.”
Moving over to the ice, I time it so I’m beside Caelia when I push off onto it.
“Hey, slow poke,” she teases, turning around in a circle.
“I see you’re not rusty at all,” I laugh.
“You should see my slap shot,” she shrugs. “It used to be amazing, but I haven’t played in longer than I’m willing to admit.”
“Do you want to skip the charity game?” I ask, sobering. “I just wish I could wrangle playing with puppies with Levon at the shelter instead.”
“I haven’t decided yet,” she says honestly, taking my hand.
Levon catches up to us and grabs her other hand, allowing us to buffer Caelia from people.
“Decided what?” he asks.
“Skating at the game,” she replies.
“I want to know the rules and set up before we decide,” he says. “I don’t want any surprises.”
“I was just talking about this with Santo,” I admit. “So we’ll table this until I can get answers from Marilyn.”
“On a positive note, Human Resources took the news well that my pack has grown,” Levon snorts. “I swear, I think Marilyn told Elsie before I did yesterday.”
“As long as it’s not going to cause any issues,” Caelia says nervously.
“They have more to worry about than us. People who are actual troublemakers on the team,” I say. “While I ride my players hard, they still do stupid shit.”
Levon’s cheeks go red as he shrugs. “Sometimes, we forget about consequences in the heat of the moment.”
“Mmhmm,” I grunt, smirking. “You’re getting better about it.”
“I think I’m going to focus on my ‘how to’ instruction classes for now,” Caelia says. “It’s hard to think about looking for another job when I don’t know what I want to do.”
“Take all the time you need,” Levon says easily. I know he doesn’t think she needs to work, but Caelia doesn’t like to be idle. “What do you like to do outside of video editing?”
“I occasionally read tarot cards and I used to love to draw,” she says. “I don’t think either can be monetised though.”
“It doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy it,” Levon shrugs. “Lean into what you love to do, and the rest will happen. I know you keep saying that you want to bring in money, but you’ve been on the go for weeks. Take a breath, Baby Girl.”
“That’s the equivalent of telling someone to touch grass,” Caelia giggles.
Eyes widening, he shakes his head. “Well, that’s not what I meant. How can you quiet the noise in your head if you’re continually feeding it?”
“That’s very wise,” I say. “I have a feeling there are things in Caelia’s mind that she’s drowning out on purpose. Am I wrong?”
“You’re not,” she replies. “There’s a lot that I worry about when I’m not staying busy, and then I begin to overthink everything. Other times, I’ll get pissed off over imaginary things that only happen in my head. My brain is weird.”
“I’m perfectly happy to keep you out of trouble with orgasms,” Levon suggests.
“How could I pass that up?” she giggles.
“That wasn’t very enthusiastic,” he says, tickling her side.
“Help!” she squeals as I shake my head.
“You’re going to fall on your cute little ass,” I admonish, grinning.
“Blasphemy,” she says, letting Levon kiss her lips.
“On a scale of one to ten, how sore are you after three days of sex?” he asks.
“One,” she admits. “It’s been a few days, and I think my body enjoys your knots too much to be out of commission for long.”
“Good to know,” I rumble, enjoying the way she shivers. “I think our experiment is a success. I propose lunch and then afternoon fucking before practice. All in favor?”
Caelia’s laughter as Levon yells in agreement will never get old.
CAELIA
I’m up in the stands today with a sketch book and a pencil, leaning into Levon’s suggestion as they practice. I have my earbuds in to listen to music as I watch them, my hand moving over the paper like we’re old friends.
The Scented Scorpions is made up of great players who know they’re talented. This is true of most Knotty Pucker teams, but my dad trains the ego out of his players. They rise and fall together.
Due to this, the Scorpions make dumb fucking mistakes. Rolling my eyes, I glance down at my sketch pad to find that I’ve been drawing Levon in full hockey gear. God, this alpha is beautiful.
His hair sticks out a little from under his helmet, his eyes are mischievous and calculating, and just looking at it makes me shiver with want.
Nope. I will not get turned on over a drawing in the practice hockey rink. Absolutely not.
Turning the page to a blank sheet of paper, I sigh, thoroughly exasperated at how much I adore my alphas. It’s like they stole my heart when I wasn’t looking, but I don’t mind.
A shrill whistle breaks through my music and I pull out my earbud to hear what’s going on.
“Again!” Miles calls out.
I watch as he has them run sprints, and I take note of the ones that may be slower due to some kind of injury.
“Caelia,” Santo says gently, pulling my attention to him as he sits beside me.
“Hey,” I smile, leaning against him for a moment. My alpha wraps his arm around me to keep me there, and I refuse to move.
“See anything interesting?” he teases me.
“I do, but it’s not my place to comment on it,” I say.
“Woah, I wasn’t expecting you to say that. Your place is with me, which means I want you to spill all the tea,” he says, making me grin.
Santo enjoys gossip, and I love it.
“I was just noticing how in certain drills, a few players are favoring their body, and it’s affecting performance,” I explain carefully.
“Well, since this is my forte, tell me everything,” Santo says enthusiastically.
So I do, and make myself a note to censor myself less around my alphas.
“Damn, girl,” he grins, having stolen a sheet of my sketch pad to take notes. “Friedrick is an asshole, but you have a knack for finding out the issues in a team and dissecting them. Don't get me wrong, I think it’s incredible.”
“My dad was always sitting next to me at practices to ask for my advice,” I say, blushing. “He said that a fresh pair of eyes was worth a thousand tired ones.”
“He’s right,” Santo says, nodding. “I have Miles’ keys to take you to lunch. He left them with me in case one of us got hungry since we all came together.”
“Let me guess, you're hungry?” I ask. I am too, and I readily pack up my things into my bag.
“Starved,” he confirms. “I’ll text him so he won’t worry.”
As I stand, Miles turns as if he can feel me. I twirl my finger in the air to tell him that I’m leaving and his gaze flicks to Santo before he nods. He even goes as far to point two fingers to his eyes and then back to Santo.
Snorting, Santo nods in his direction, watching as Miles turns back to the ice.
“He’s in full coach mode,” Santo chuckles, stealing my bag from me to pull onto his shoulder. “Babe, how do you haul all of this around?”
“I usually bring a backpack, but I didn’t think about it today.”
“Well, I think I’m going to treat you to a full body massage tonight,” he says, winking at me.
“Is it considered rude to ask my alpha if there will be a happy ending?” I giggle.
“For you? Never rude.”
“Good,” I say, our pinkies linking as we leave.
“I always doubt there’s anything professional about how I feel about you,” he says.
“I’d hope not.”
The gorgeous weather that we’ve been having is actually holding, and I’m excited to thaw out as we walk outside. Pulling off my sweatshirt, I sigh happily as the sunlight hits my face. Sometimes, I feel like a plant that just needs a little more light and water. It’s also not as humid here.
“Do you think Miles would miss us if we had a quickie after lunch?” Santo muses.
“Why do you think it would be quick?” I tease him.
“True,” he grunts, sweeping me off my feet to make a run for the SUV.
I don’t think walking is in the cards for me around my alphas. I don’t mind at all.