2. Maverick
Chapter 2
T he ice crunches under my skates, the sound sharp and familiar. Jenson zips a pass across the rink, the puck skimming low over the ice. I catch it on my stick, feeling the satisfying thwack of the blade against the puck. The cold air bites at my cheeks, but I barely notice.
Leo skates backward in front of me, grinning like he's got all the time in the world.
"Seriously, dude? You're going to do that the whole time?" I shake my head, but I can't help grinning back.
He shrugs. "Been doing it since Peewee. Helps me read the play better."
I raise an eyebrow. "Show off." My breath puffs out in a white cloud.
Leo's smirk doesn't falter. "Like you're not trying to do the same."
I flick the puck back to him. He settles it, easy as breathing, and cuts a smooth arc. We're a well-oiled machine, the three of us. They call us the Gold Trio – the only Alphas on the team who are also a pack. The other Alphas all have their own packs, but it's just us three. Always has been.
Jenson's already moving in, picking up speed as he slices past Leo. He glances back at us. "Think the Vipers'll try that cheap crap again?"
"Does it matter?" I skate wide, matching his pace. "They can try. We'll smoke 'em."
Finn groans from the crease, leaning heavily on his stick as we loop around the net. He winces. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one eating slapshots."
Jenson circles in close, grinning. "Aw, come on, Finn. You're an Alpha. You've got reflexes for this."
Finn straightens up just enough to glare. "Keep talking, Jenson. I'll aim for your head next drill."
Coach's whistle cuts through the rink, sharp and loud. "Alpha line! Let's go! Marcus, Asher, Rhys—you're up on defense!"
I tap my stick against the ice as Leo and Jenson fall in line beside me. Across the rink, Marcus, Asher, and Rhys drop into position, sticks down, shoulders squared. They're good—big, solid Alphas who'll make us work for every shot. Liam and Blake, our other Alpha line mates, hang back by Finn, shifting on their skates, waiting for the play to unfold. Blake catches my eye and grins, tapping his stick against the boards in a steady rhythm.
Jenson taps his stick against mine. "Let's see if Finn can survive fifteen goals."
Leo's already skating backward again. "Make it twenty."
Finn groans loud enough for the whole rink to hear. "I hate all of you."
The puck drops, and we're moving. Jenson's stick snaps against it, tipping it back to me before Marcus can close in. I push off hard, cutting to the outside while Leo curls around behind me.
Marcus shouts, already moving to block my lane. "Watch left!"
Leo feeds the puck back my way just before Rhys angles in, but I flip it to Jenson instead. He's waiting in the slot, stick primed. Asher dives to block, but Jenson shifts and rips a shot high.
Finn gets his glove on it, barely, and the puck ricochets off his blocker with a loud thwack.
Jenson's already looping back, stick low. "Nice try!"
Asher grabs the rebound and tries to clear it, but Leo intercepts near the blue line, skating backward—again—and dumps it straight onto my stick.
Leo coasts toward the crease, grinning. "Finn looks tired."
Finn mutters, crouched low, pads square to the net. "Finn's ready to fight."
Jenson fakes another shot, dragging Finn right, and I slip in left. One quick redirect, and the puck smacks off the back of the net.
Finn groans, sagging into his pads. "You're kidding me."
Blake calls from the corner, laughing as he skates by. "Keep it up, Finn! Only fourteen more to go!"
Finn flips him off, halfhearted. "Not helping, Blake."
Leo swings behind the net, still skating backward like it's some personal challenge. Marcus and Rhys push in harder this time, driving me and Jenson toward the boards. I chip the puck up the glass, and Leo catches it clean, cutting back to center ice.
Jenson chirps at Marcus, speeding past him. "Man, you're slow!"
Marcus shoots back, eyes locked on Leo as he closes in. "Not slow enough to miss you getting steamrolled next drill."
Leo flips the puck straight into Jenson's path. Jenson snaps a shot before Rhys can block, and the puck rockets into the net, ringing off the crossbar.
Finn's stick clatters to the ice as he throws his blocker in the air. "Done! I'm done. Hazard pay or I'm out."
We're already laughing, circling back to center ice while Finn mutters into his glove. My jersey sticks to my back, sweat running down my temple, but I'm not tired. Not even close.
Asher swings by, bumping my shoulder with his. "You're cocky today."
"Always."
This is what it's about. The puck. The grind. The ice. The burn in my legs, the sting of the cold air in my lungs. The feeling of the pack at my back, knowing Jenson and Leo are always there.
Let the Vipers come. They won't know what hit 'em.
After another hour of drills, coach calls it a day, and we're off to the lockers. The scent of sweat and ice hangs heavy in the air as I unlace my skates, the familiar ache in my muscles a welcome reminder of a hard day's work. Taking off my gear, I head toward the showers, the hot water a welcome relief on my sore muscles.
Leo glances over at me as he runs soap over his hair, the scent of cloves and cinnamon filling the steamy air. He rinses it out, water cascading down his face. "What time will the movers be at our place? I still think it's stupid that we have to move."
I shrug, the warm water rinsing over my skin. I don't really care about moving; movers are taking care of it all, anyway. We don't have to pack or move it ourselves unless there's an item or two that we don't want them touching. "They should be there around three. So, we have to leave here, and one of us needs to meet them at the house, and another one of us has to meet them at the apartment. Nothing we can do about the landlord wanting to give the house to his kid. I would do the same thing if I were him."
Jenson comes over, the water dripping from his hair onto the tiled floor. "Yeah, but he could've given us more than thirty days' notice to turn around and find something else. Now we're stuck in that two-bedroom apartment, Mav doesn't even get his own room, and now we're stuck in a six-month lease."
I roll my eyes as I rinse off. "Stop being so dramatic. You both know that in a year we'll be able to afford a mansion if we want it. We're just saving up now while we have the chance to. Once we earn the Alpha Cup, there will be major teams wanting to scoop us up and pay us ten times what we're making now. Besides, we can get a three-bedroom again in six months, or if we find something sooner, we can eat the fees to break our lease. It's not that big of a deal."
Jenson slaps me on the back as he takes my place under the spray, not wanting to wait for one of the other ones to heat up. "I commend you for taking one for the team and being an all-star pack leader and giving up a room."
Grabbing a towel, I shake the water from my head, the droplets scattering across the room. I grin, spraying our other teammates as I wrap it around my waist. "Stop being so dramatic. It's not the first time I've had to sleep in the living room. I hope it's the last, but we'll have to see how this year pans out for that."
Heading out, I don't give him another chance to talk about the small apartment we're moving into. In my book, it's worth it to save a couple hundred on rent. The more we save toward a house, the better one we'll be able to buy. Then we'll no longer be sinking money into rent, but a mortgage that can at least turn into equity.
I dress in a pair of old jeans and a beat-up Led Zeppelin shirt I've had since I was thirteen. The graphic on it is so faded, no one could tell what band it's supposed to be, but I don't care. I will have this shirt until it falls apart; it's my go-to moving outfit, even though I don't plan to move anything myself this time. The last thing one of us needs is to hurt something while moving when we just started the season. I'm not ruining my chances to be scouted by a better-paying team, if I can help it.
The Maten Iron Wolves have been great and all. With us on the team, there's a chance at the Alpha Cup at the end of the year, but they aren't one of the popular teams right now, so the funds are less than what they would be if we were on the Berllow Vipers or the cream of the crop: the Heathstead Bears. Those guys are always getting sponsorships and cameos.
If we want to have a life after we get too old for hockey, that is the team we want to get on, so the sponsorships and acting roles continue after and turn into something we can make another career out of.
Rhys laughs as he walks by me to his locker. "Dude, I can see your skin through the fibers of that shirt. How old is that thing?"
I toss my towel at his head. "Your mother wasn't complaining when she took it off me last night."
His face falls as he looks over at me. "She's dead."
My heart plummets into my stomach. Ah shit.
A grin then tugs at his lips. "I'm just joking. She's not in the picture, so I don't give a shit what she did with you last night. But you ain't going to pick up any Omegas looking like you can't afford new clothes. I damn well know that you can afford more than that with the money you three make as our top players."
I can't make that much more than him, not with the budget that the Iron Wolves have. With bills, we're only putting away a couple hundred a month between the three of us, and every cent counts in this economy.
Leo comes out of the showers, using a hand towel to squeeze the water out of his precious, long blond hair. I swear, one day he's going to have his hair insured, he loves it that much. "Mav is too much of a penny pincher to ever spend money on new clothes unless there's a damn good reason for it. I don't think he would even do it for a date."
I stay silent. He's not wrong; she would have to be a pretty special Omega to make me want to buy new clothes to wear in front of her.
Finn opens his locker from down the row, looking a little lost. "How does that work with you guys? Dating? Since you're a pack and all. Do you, like, share your chicks? I mean, how do you even find an Omega for a pack? I just presented, and I haven't found anyone yet, let alone two other Alphas to be a pack with."
Jenson comes to his locker opposite mine. "If we're scent-matched, we would share her and be cool with it. But finding scent-matched Omegas is like winning the lottery. And with all the scent suppressant products they have to use today, she could walk on by us, and we'd have no fucking clue."
Finn frowns as his brows knit together in confusion. "But don't you guys sleep with chicks all the time? What do non-scent-matched Omegas smell like to you?"
I shrug. "They aren't unappealing if you want a hookup, but unless they're in a heat, they aren't going to drive you wild. From what I hear, scent-matched Omegas will smell like the best thing in the world, even if they're sick. But, again, we're unlikely to find that in our lifetime with the small ratio of Omegas to Alphas, so most of us just take what we can get. If we ever want to have kids, there's always dating services for Omegas that want to settle down and don't care if we're compatible."
Finn continues to look constipated as he pulls a shirt over his short, brown hair. "But wouldn't that suck? I heard on a documentary that Alpha and Omega bonds are supposed to transcend heaven or some shit. But then I thought about how hard it must be to find an Omega for myself, let alone a whole pack to be with."
Jenson laughs. "Oh, there's some out there that will gladly take the Alpha dick, but you have to find the ones that like the pain of being stretched and locked, and those are too kinky for me."
The whole locker room laughs. I shake my head. "They aren't that bad; it's just the clingy ones you have to be careful of. My Uncle Roland had a hook-up, not even a girlfriend, and he got lucky and his pack found their Omega the same year."
I grab my phone and shove it into my pocket. "Needless to say, she didn't let him go without a restraining order and them moving states twice to get her to stop threatening my aunt's life. Some of them think they can get around the bond, but it just doesn't work like that. Once you find a compatible Omega, there's no more dating or searching because everyone else will gross you out. At least, that's what he and his pack mates used to tell me and my brother."
Asher grabs his ass. "I have zero desire to ever sleep with another Alpha." He tilts his head to the side. "Well, maybe a female Alpha, if I'm drunk and they're hot."
We all laugh again, and I motion to Jenson and Leo that we need to get going or the movers will be waiting on us. They nod, and after quick goodbyes to the team and promises to see them in the morning for practice, we head out. I just hope this move will go easily enough that we can chill in the evening. Maybe have some friends over and relax.