Chapter 25 Kane
Kane
Sweat pours down my body as I click the treadmill up one more level and push myself harder. I’ve been running for half an hour, but I need even more to get Ollie and Timber out of my system.
Not that I want to, or that I can. During the day, all I can think about is seeing Ollie again and plotting a way to introduce her to Timber. Our date is coming soon, but I’m so impatient. I just want to see them together. I know they’re meant to be, and I’m here to make it happen.
At night, I dream about Timber, and now Ollie has entered them as well. She’s there on the ice, holding Timber as he bleeds out, either crying or staring or furious with me. In one dream, she screamed, ‘How could you?’, and I couldn’t even text her afterward because it hurt too much.
I don’t need them to be together for their happiness. It’s for me as well.
Which is why I work out like a crazy person until midnight every night, hoping that if I run myself into the ground, I’ll be so tired that I’ll stop dreaming, day and night. I used to party with the other players to wear myself out, but nothing is the same when Ollie and Timber aren't there.
Music blasts in my ears, my fists clench, my feet beat in a steady rhythm under me. I focus on the blank wall straight ahead and run to empty my mind.
My fitness watch vibrates, and I assume it’s my step counter telling me I’ve done my ten thousand. It’s only luck that I look up at my phone sitting on the shelf on my left and see it light up.
I gasp, suddenly losing my footing, stumbling forward, and slamming my hands on the handrails as I crash out. I punch the emergency stop and reach for my phone before the treadmill even reacts.
It’s there on the green background, her name pulses like a star in my gym.
Ollie.
My phone slips in my stupid, sweaty hands, clattering off the treadmill and falling to the floor. I cry out as I drop to my knees, fumbling around like Velma when she loses her glasses, crawling as fast as I can on the treadmill belt so I don’t slip off.
“Come on!” I shout at myself as I finally grab the phone, instantly swiping it, struggling like a trapped piece of airport luggage as I catch my breath.
“Oh, hey, what’s up? I’m just in the gym,” I try to say casually, but it comes out high-pitched because I’m struggling for my life on the slowing belt.
She’s quiet, and I panic as I keep crawling one-handed while pressing the phone to my ear, and I say the first thing that comes into my head.
“We could always do a video call so you can watch me work out?” I purr, trying to sound sexy before realizing I was acting like the biggest douchebag in the world.
Kill me now.
I give up, and the treadmill deposits me on the cold, padded floor like the sad package I am as it continues slowing down. I drop onto my back and lie there, looking up at the gray concrete ceiling of my basement, wondering if I should bother opening my mouth again.
Who says that to the person they’ve been waiting to talk to all week?
She’s still completely silent on the other end, which makes it even worse.
The seconds stretch on, and I think I’ve screwed it up already. Ollie won't be interested in a gym bro, if I even am one. Especially when I’m panting away like a moron, and she’s probably wondering if it's better to just hang up.
I force my breathing to calm down, and the silence ekes on. Tension grows as I begin to suspect this isn’t some call to see if I want to do something normal like grab a coffee or fuck in the park at night.
“Hey,” I say, sitting up as worry spikes through me. “Ollie? What’s wrong?”
She sucks in a breath, and my heart drops. The silence blooms between us again, and my throat goes tight.
“What do you need, Ollie? I’m right here.”
“Kane,” she whispers so softly my heart catches in my throat. I feel like I’m going to break. “Can you tell me a story?”
“Do you want to know all my dirty secrets? Or do you want your alpha to rock you to sleep?”
There’s more silence, and I sigh as I push my hand against my forehead. The next time they do a character bio for the team website, I’m adding ‘never knows when to shut the hell up’ to my list of unique skills.
“I can’t help if you don’t tell me what you want, sweetness.”
There’s a tiny noise at the end, and I hope it’s a moan, but her voice is too vulnerable.
I’ve been waxing lyrical since I met her about what an amazing alpha I’m going to be for her, and I’m failing at the first hurdle.
“I just want something to fill the space,” she murmurs, and my eyes shutter closed.
I’m a sick bastard for being happy that she’s hurting. Because she wouldn’t have called me if everything was hunky-dory. If she were fine, she’d just keep sending me those one-word replies, like they’re an obligation rather than something special, like they are for me.
But this is what I want: to hear my omega next to my ear. I can barely pick up her softest breaths, but it’s all I really need. For her to reach out, for her to be the one who wants to connect with me.
Every night when I have that dream about Timber, I ache for her. I want my omega by my side to say it’s okay to be so fucked up, and now she needs that from me.
And if that isn’t the best fucking feeling in the world, I don’t know what is.
So, I need to be her alpha.
My sweat is cooling, but I won’t move even if I start shivering in case I break the moment any more than I already have.
“Did you know my two front teeth are fake?” I ask.
More silence follows, but there’s a crinkle behind her, like she’s shifting around on something, before she finally replies.
“Are you joking?” she asks.
“Now, I wouldn’t lie to you. Seriously, you’ll never believe how I lost them.”
Shifting my hips on the padded floor, I lay my head on the end of the still treadmill belt, getting comfortable so I can talk to my omega.
It’s hard to keep my excitement out of my voice because my heart is dancing. I’ve pressed my phone so hard against my head that my ear is going numb. I just need to be close to her that badly.
“It was way back in first grade when we were playing tag. I was running around the park when I saw a cute pit bull. I love those beefy guys. And bang! I raced at full speed straight into a freaking tree. Can you believe it? If I’d been a beaver, I would have been safe, but my head was at just the right angle for both my teeth to pop out and stay stuck on the tree as I fell to the ground. ”
I wait to see if she’ll reply, but it’s a tough crowd.
“My mom literally took a photo of it and still has it hanging in our house. I mean, yeah, my dads were there to clean me up and take me to ER and whatever, but she was more interested in getting a selfie with my freaking teeth.”
Ollie’s still silent, but I’ve found my stride now.
There’s more crinkling behind her, and I want to imagine she’s lying down somewhere comfy.
I’ve thought about what her nest would be like, and all I can see is her punk aesthetic.
I’ll have to wait until she trusts me enough to show me her real nest.
I’ll have to apologize to my mom for sharing that story before she’s even met my omega.
“Yeah, I had fake teeth until I was fifteen, but it wasn’t like I could hide it.
I had to take them out every time I put my mouth guard in when I was playing because one time I swallowed them mid-game and they had to give me the Heimlich to get them out of my throat.
Imagine being seven and the coach is doing that not just in front of the whole team, but the guys we were playing, and everyone’s parents?
” I’m making it a touch more dramatic, but I want her to be more curious about how lame I was as a kid, rather than my skit on the treadmill.
“Oh man, they bullied me so hard. Christmas was the worst, you know? All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth,” I sing to her, and I catch her quiet sigh.
“I was easy pickings. Why do you think I became so handsome? It was revenge, dear Watson. I was never going to let them get away with that! I had to be so hot that the ground burned up as I walked.”
Her tiny chuckle is the best gift I’ve ever had, and I carry right on.
The smile on my face keeps growing as I spew out nonsense.
I’ve been waiting for this for years. I don’t just want to eat her out when she’s horny, though that’s great, too.
If I’m going to be her alpha, I have to be trustworthy, someone she can rely on, someone who doesn’t brag about how many Ks they can run in an hour.
If she needs a rock to lean on, I’ll be her mountain as long as we can be a pack in the end.
“Plus, the school I went to is a pipeline for the NHL. Half the guys go out to farm teams, but anyone from Missouri who’s in the big leagues knows about my teeth.
I’m going to have to protect you when you come to our games, and my old teammates start talking trash.
But you don’t need to worry, these two beauties are welded in there permanently now.
So it doesn’t matter how hard you kiss me, they won’t budge.
That’s me giving you free rein to go as hard as you want. ”
“How kind of you,” she says sarcastically, and my heart stops, because she sounds like my Ollie. So I must be making a difference somehow.
“You know you can do whatever you want and whenever. I’m always going to be in your corner,” I say softly. I told her when I first met her that if I ever found my omega, I was all in. I’d fall in love with her and get to know her afterward. And I meant it.
But I need her to be with Timber as well. I’m not so noble that I won’t stretch the truth or push them both to get them together. As long as she believes me now, when she needs comfort the most, that’s what matters.
She stays quiet, and it’s killing me. I want to be beside her so I can hold her and tell her that, whatever it is, it’s okay.
“How far do you think is too far?” she asks quietly, and I go still. It’s my chance to get her to open up to me, but I have to take it seriously and not drop the ball like I did with Timber.
I draw in a slow breath, thinking of the best way to get her to talk.
“Is it hurting anyone?” I ask.
“Probably,” she says after a beat.
“Do you want to hurt them?”
“No. Definitely not.”
“Then can you stop?”
The silence comes again, and I suspect I know what she’s talking about.
It’s exactly like me to put my foot in it, no matter how hard I try not to, but I’m so desperate for her to share herself with me that I keep bulldozing ahead.
“Will you tell me what happened, sweetness?” I ask.
“Is that my new nickname now? Can’t you think of anything better?”
“Are you saying you hate it?”
There’s a small chuckle, and it’s like a firework goes off inside me because she has to be smiling, so it means I’m not a complete failure.
She goes quiet again, and the tension builds between us.
“I’m going to take that as a no, alright?
You’ve got five seconds to tell me to never call you that again.
Five. Four. Three…” I pause, giving her a chance because her replies have been so stilted since she phoned.
“Twoooooo. One?” Still nothing. My grin is wide in my voice as I carry on.
“Okay, sweetness, you better be ready. I might end up saying it more than ‘Ollie’ because you’re just so delectable. Now I need to think of one for myself.”
“You’re not meant to choose your own nickname,” she says.
“Oh, really? I didn’t know there was a rule. Because I quite like ‘Hot Cock’ or ‘Spotted Dick’ or anything that says how amazing my piece is.”
“I’m not calling you either of those when I haven’t touched your cock,” she says, and I hope she’s pouting.
“Well, we’d better get a move on with that,” I hum.
More silence hovers, and I squeeze my eyes. I’ve messed it up, pushed her too far. I switched back to flirt mode and forgot I didn’t want to be ‘that guy’.
Yeah, maybe we exchanged more licks than words, but I want her to be as all in as I am. So, I quickly change the topic.
“Hey, do you want to hear about the time I got caught jerking off in a cow barn when I was seventeen?” A grin splits my face because I know she’s going to love this one.
The silence won’t leave, but I can feel the tension has eased. She doesn’t speak, so I take it as my cue to go on.
“Okay, so, I walked in on one of my mom’s friends using the bathroom during a dinner party and—”
“What!?” she gasps, and I burst out laughing.
I don’t care that we have practice tomorrow. I’ll stay on the phone with her forever if she asks. She needs me, and I can finally do something about the deep ache that’s haunted me since we met.