Chapter 10
Rowan
My suit got hotter and hotter as the evening wore on. At this moment, I was supposed to be on the ice, waving to the crowd and firing off a t-shirt cannon. My limbs weren’t cooperating. My feet refusing to put themselves one in front of the other long enough to move.
During the first intermission, I did my routine as expected.
Then I spent the second period walking around the crowd, taking pictures with the fans.
The team was ahead by two, which was nice.
The crowd was electric when we were winning.
The noise echoed in my ears somehow sounding both too close and too loud, while also muffled like I was underwater.
I stank to high heaven and sweat was soaking into my costume. It would be impossible to get that smell out.
Thankfully, my two handlers realized my predicament.
I had given them a heads-up before the game started that my heat was coming on.
They both knew we would be lucky to get through the night without issue.
Unlike the marketing director, these two had a heart.
They helped me back into the locker room.
They couldn’t stay because they had work to do.
It was empty because everybody was playing the game.
I’d be safe until someone could help me home.
Still, we were up by at least two. Maybe they scored more, maybe they didn’t. It was hard to pay attention to the game when I could barely keep my eyes focused.
I removed my paws and tossed them into my locker.
I usually had a little more care with my costume, but today, I just needed it off of me.
My skates were difficult to work with. My fingers didn’t want to cooperate as I undid the laces.
I needed to get home. I needed to let Evan know that I was going to be holed up in my room.
Usually when I went into heat, he made himself scarce.
Not that he couldn’t control himself around me.
He just wanted to give me privacy. My vision grew foggy as I tried to get myself undressed.
Fuck, it was so hot. How was I ever going to get home?
I would have to call a driving service and demand an omega driver.
But how long would that take? I needed to get a hold of myself.
I couldn’t walk around this place like this.
There were too many alphas around, and even though I trusted them, it was likely that I would get in trouble for being around them.
Even though I’d tried to leave hours ago. Fucking marketing.
I made my way to the training room, where there was an ice bath.
I plopped myself down in it, letting the cold water wash over my body.
I planned to just stay there for a minute or two, but the next thing I knew, the team was in the locker room.
Their shouts of excitement echoed through the room.
We must’ve won. I hadn’t moved. Had I been in the ice bath for the entire third period?
Thankfully, I wasn’t naked, but it wasn’t as if I could climb out of the ice bath and walk around in my underwear.
Once the cold water wore off, my predicament would become very obvious to the room full of alphas.
Fuck.
I opened my mouth to call out for Evan or maybe Elliot, as an omega he would know how to help me. Coach’s face filled the doorway. His eyes widened when he saw me.
“Are you—?” His nostrils flared. Whatever remained of my suppressants had probably burned off, and by now I smelled like an omega in heat to anyone I came across.
“I’m sorry. I tried to get home.” My words slurred together. “I’ll—”
“You’re fine. Just…” He looked back toward the locker room. “Stay right there. I’ll get you a robe.”
My teeth chattered as if my body now realizing I was sitting in a vat of ice.
He said something to someone, but I couldn’t hear him.
Then he was in the room, closing the door behind him.
He helped me out of the ice bath. My teeth chattering, my body shaking from my heat or from the water.
I didn’t know. He wrapped the robe around me.
The softness against my skin had me shuddering.
“Are you all right?”
I shook my head. “I just need a ride home. I don’t want to bother you with all this.”
“Mario’s going to handle the team and the press. I’ll get you home.”
“Okay, I’m sorry.” Fuck. I’d made progress with Reid. He didn’t seem to think I was a fuck-up anymore, but this would probably change that.
He tucked his fingers under my chin and forced me to look at him.
“This is not your fault. You have nothing to be sorry for. That fucking director needs to have his ass fired for putting you in this position.”
“I could have not gone out there.”
“And what? Been fired for it? Your performance was great tonight. No one knew what you were suffering through, but now you’re paying for it. Come on.”
I didn’t know exactly where we were going. All I knew was that I trusted Reid. Being alone with an alpha during my heat was dangerous, yet I trusted him more than anyone. More than Evan even, and Evan was my closest friend.
Reid helped me into the back seat of his car, and I lay myself down on the cool leather. The cold water had worn off, and I was burning up.
“Do you have some place you want me to take you?”
“With you,” I said, then I shook my head. “No, fuck, that’s not what I—home. Home is fine.”
“What about Evan? Does he help you through your heats?”
“No. We’re just friends,” I said, fighting through the shivers that rocked through my body. I refused to let my hand drift down to my hard cock. I wanted. Oh, how I wanted.
“My place is closer. Let’s get you into a bed.”
I groaned at that. A bed was exactly where I wanted to be. And he was the alpha I wanted to be with. I just hoped I didn’t say those words out loud.
“Do you have anything you can take? I grabbed your bag from your locker.”
“Yes, I have my heat kit inside. There should be plenty of medicine to help me through the worst of it, since I won’t have an alpha.
” I hated the whine that entered my voice.
I’d never had an alpha help me through my heats, but I’d heard that it would significantly shorten them.
With an alpha it would last a day at most. But without one, I would be in agony for forty-eight hours or more, and it would take me several days to recover.
It would be quicker if I had an alpha to help me through it.
The right alpha could bring a heat from forty-eight hours down to sixteen.
That was why mated or married omegas had an easier time getting jobs.
They didn’t need as much time off for their heats.
“You’re going to be safe with me, Rowan. I promise.”
“Thank you,” I said, and my eyes drifted closed.