5. CHAPTER FOUR
The final strains of the United States national anthem filled the stadium, wrapping around me like a warm blanket as I stood at the top of the podium, a gold medal sitting heavy on my chest.
I could hardly believe that I’d actually made it and was resisting the urge to give myself a hard pinch on live television.
After edging out Brynn by six points thanks to my free skate, I’d watched my name catapult to the top of the pile and stay there. I’d nearly thrown up into several trash cans over the two hours of other skater’s performances, cursing my luck of drawing the first slot.
But none had outscored me, my short program bolstering me enough that only Brynn came even close.
Slanting a glance over at my best friend, a wave of relief washed over me when I saw that she was grinning and holding up her silver medal for the cameras.
She’d been the first to slam into me once the last scores were released, her happiness infectious as I’d tried to come to terms with the fact that I’d won a fucking gold medal.
All of the blood, sweat, and tears from the past four years and long before that had all come rushing in and everything had been a sort of blur after that.
They weren’t allowing family to meet us until after the ceremony, but I could see the outline of them in the shadows created by the spotlight. Even Aurelia had managed to come to the stadium this time, feeling secure because she was surrounded by her pack and loved ones.
It was absolutely surreal.
Barely remembering to wave and smile pretty for the cameras, I floated through the rest of the medal ceremony on cloud nine.
“Earth to Ciara,” Brynn’s voice cut through the haze as we walked down the carpet they’d laid out on the ice and back to the exit, applause filling our ears.
“Huh?” I asked stupidly, blinking at the shorter woman.
Brynn rolled her eyes and waved the little bouquet of flowers all medalists had been given in my face. “I asked how you’re feeling.”
“A bit like I’m in a simulation if I’m being honest,” I muttered as we greeted Eli at the exit and took a quick picture with him. “Like, somehow, I’m still asleep at the Olympic Village and this is all some kind of a fucked up dream.”
“Not a dream, my little medalists,” Eli practically sang. The usually brusque man was practically glowing with excitement. “You two have given me bragging rights for the next four years. I finally get to tell the Russians to go fuck themselves for thinking an American can’t coach figure skating.”
He did a little jig, clicking his heels as he turned to lead the way to our family.
I leaned over to whisper to Brynn. “All right, we’re definitely in a simulation,” I whispered loudly.
Brynn’s giggle was more of a snort as she gently nudged me with her shoulder. “If it is, then I don’t want to wake up. This is the nicest he’s been in a year!”
If Eli could hear our chatter he didn’t show it as he stepped into the little area our family was waiting in.
“What’d I tell ya, Mr. Stone? Two medals under your belt and more to come.” Eli shook Colt’s hand up-and-down so hard that the other man grimaced before quickly hiding it with his usual charming smile.
“I didn’t think you’d have any problems with these two, but I’m glad you’re happy Eli,” Colt told him, grinning at us from over the man’s shoulder.
“Happy? I’m fucking jazzed. I’m about to find the nearest pub and get hammered,” Eli replied and the group rumbled with laughter as the coach gave everyone a wave before heading off to do just that.
“He’s as fun as ever,” Aurelia’s voice came from behind Colt and the alpha stepped aside so we could see where she was sitting with Tobey on her lap.
Even a year and a half in it was still strange to look at the man in front of us and realize that he was both our boss and our brother-in-law.
When I saw him at the Complex he was the jet-setting billionaire that had decided to sell his very successful security company in order to support winter sports athletes.
But as soon as Aurelia came into his line of sight, the man melted like chocolate on a warm day.
Colt turned his attention away from us completely in order to lean down and drop a kiss on the top of her head and even further to press on to Tobey’s mop of blond curls.
“You should have seen him this morning, he was like a thundercloud. I thought he was going to start barking like a dog at the Swedes when they tried to horn in on our bench,” Brynn joked as Dutch swooped forward to pull her off of her feet.
Nash was still in the middle of a hockey match in a different stadium, but his burly counterpart was congratulating my best friend enough for the both of them.
I heard the squeal of my twin niece and nephew, but I didn’t get a chance to greet them because I was lifted off of my feet by an exuberant Maxim.
“You did it!” he hollered in my ear loud enough to make it ring as he spun me around. “I thought I was going to shit a brick every time they announced a skater’s score. Please never pull the first slot ever again.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” I laughed. He was usually the calmer of the two, but you wouldn’t know it looking at him now.
The quintessential blue eyes that were a Peterson clan staple sparkled in the dim lighting as he gave my curly hair a ruffle.
“Lexei sends his love,” Maxim continued once he’d given me my space again and pulled Brynn in for a hug of her own. “I was so sure he was about to skip the Team USA semifinal game completely, but I think Nash talked him off of the ledge.”
“He’s lucky they didn’t chain him to the stadium,” Wilder called from the back of the group as he held up Birdy, who gave her mom a jaunty wave.
Alexei had begrudgingly accepted a position as one of the coaches for the Team USA ice hockey team after losing a coin toss with his brother. He’d resisted until Nash joined the team before giving in for the sake of his son-in-law.
Normally, they would have been able to watch the events anyway because figure skating and hockey rarely overlapped, but the schedule was different this time. Because Scotland was… lacking in any sort of ski slope, half of the games were going to be hosted in Switzerland once the ice sports finished up.
It made my head swim to think about the logistics of it and there was more than enough grumbling at the UK for bidding for the Olympics in the first place, but they’d somehow made it work.
But it also meant that a lot of ice events were going to be crammed into one, very short week.
“Should we head that way and then off to dinner after?” I asked, still basking in the afterglow of a victory I’d fought hard to win.
Five hours later, and I was deep in the feeling that was only being bolstered by the shot of whiskey still burning its way down my throat.
“Ack!” Nash groaned, wincing as the shot of vodka that Brynn had forced on him made his eyes water. “Why does it always have to be vodka? Why couldn’t it have been whiskey like the rest of you got?”
“Because you lost the bet,” Brynn’s voice was smug as she popped the little glass back onto the bar before pulling Nash in for a drunken kiss.
We’d been celebrating our wins from the day, though everyone else had long gone back to the Olympic Village for the night. That just left me fourth wheeling with some of my favorite people as Brynn and Dutch tag-teamed their packmate.
“But I told you that we weren’t going to make it through to the next round, angelface,” Nash grumbled as he slid his glass right next to hers. “So why did I lose the bet?”
Dutch slapped the alpha hard on the back. “Because you didn’t believe in yourself, laddie,” he said in the worst Scottish accent I’d ever heard.
“Yeah!” Brynn smacked the bar for another round of shots. “So, drink up!”
The three were clearly in a world of their own, enjoying their night off from the twins and letting loose.
It was hard to believe that four years ago Brynn and I had sat in a bar very similar to this on our own.
That was where she’d met the first alpha of her dreams.
And where she’d nearly died.
The memory left a sour taste in my mouth and I waved off another shot, my celebratory mood shifting into something more somber.
Everything had worked out in the end, and yet I still felt a swell of guilt every time I remembered it.
“Ceer, why do you look like you swallowed a lemon?” Brynn slurred as she was suddenly in my face and throwing her arms over my shoulders.
Looking over her head at her alphas, it was clear that they were about fifteen minutes away from heading back to their room in the Olympic village in order to either pass out or get up to something I’d rather not envision.
Giving my best friend a squeeze, I shook off the cobwebs of trauma that always seemed to linger in the back of my mind no matter how happy I was. “Just thinking about how early the start time is tomorrow,” I lied.
Though our events were now over, it just meant we were now free to go and support the rest of the athletes that called the Seattle Sports Complex their home. One of our curling teams made it through the semifinals and Christa, one of Aurelia’s alphas, would be trying her hand at making it through the first round of speed skating tomorrow.
“I don’t know why the finals for curling need to start at the asscrack of dawn,” Nash grumbled as he accepted a beer from Dutch, both clearly done with the hard liquor for the night.
“Nash!” Someone called in the crowd and we turned to find a tall man waving over the heads of people passing in front of him. In the dimness I could make out that he was an Asian man with high cheekbones and dark eyes that seemed to shift in color with the pulsing blue and purple lights of the club. And, I realized much to my delight, that he was also incredibly handsome. The kind of handsome that made people stop and turn as he passed with open mouths and hungry eyes.
“Wiz, I thought you weren’t coming out tonight!” Nash hollered and left us behind to wrap an affectionate arm around the other man’s neck as the two play-wrestled for a moment before rejoining our little group.
“Guys, this is the kickass defenseman I was telling you about—the one Colt’s had his eye on since we got here,” Nash said, gesturing at the man with his beer. “This is Jae-Sun Park, but everyone calls him Wiz because this asshole makes some crazy magic happen on the ice.”
The man’s cheeks dimpled as he grinned at Nash and shook his head. It was obvious that he was sober standing next to the taller, more tipsy alpha that still had him in half of a headlock.
“It’s so nice to finally meet you!” Brynn’s smile was wide as she held her hand out to the man for a handshake. “I’m Brynn, and this is Dutch.”
Dutch gave the man a single nod, his eyes on the handshake and I could almost hear the territorial thoughts rattling around in his head as he watched the man touch his omega.
The alpha was generally pretty calm about everything, but when it came to Brynn he had a bit of a possessive streak.
“And this,” Brynn said, letting go of the man’s hand and turning to me, “is my best friend and sister, Ciara.”
Now that I was getting a better look at him, my buzzed brain’s first thoughts were: oh, man, he’s adorable.
Wiz blinked with surprise before the dimple reappeared again just for my viewing pleasure. “Why thank you, I don’t hear that one a lot.”
Apparently I’d had more to drink than I’d originally thought, because my thoughts seemed to be leaking freely from my mouth. Just grand.
“Sorry,” I apologized sheepishly as I ignored Dutch’s annoying guffaw from behind me. Holding my hand out to him I hoped I looked normal and not like a complete loon to the man. “I’m normally a bit more smooth when I find someone attractive.”
Wiz slipped his hand into mine and I was pleased to find it warm and dry as he shook it. “I won’t hold it against you because it’s usually me who’s the one to put my foot in my mouth when it comes to flirting with a pretty woman—especially one who just won a gold medal—congrats on that by the way.”
My instincts purred with pleasure at that and I found myself forgetting all about the three people still watching our interaction with keen interest. He was an alpha, I could tell by the way he carried himself and the faintest scent of cloves that hovered about the confusing cacophony of other scents in the club.
Underneath the dark jacket he was wearing I could see that he was of a slender build, but if he played hockey I had a feeling that the muscles underneath would be rock hard.
It wouldn’t be the first time I’d slept with a hockey player—though I usually made a point not to. I was still dealing with the fallout of sleeping with one of the Seattle Stallions players at the dads’ wedding last year. Richter still showed up to far too many of my practices to try and entice me into dating him even though I’d been clear that I wasn’t looking for anything more than sex that night. Not that I could remember the sex. Tequila was a hell of a liquor.
It wouldn’t have mattered even if I had remembered it, though. I didn’t do relationships and all of the hockey players seemed to reek of a desire for commitment driven by the pair of assholes who wore their obsession with Brynn on their sleeve. Cute for everyone else, a nightmare for me who ran away from commitment like a teenage babysitter running away from a slasher in a horror movie.
But maybe the man in front of me would be okay with that. Everything about him from the dimple in his cheek to the silky swoop of dark hair made me want to climb him like a tree and nest in his branches like a very proprietorial squirrel.
“Well, far be it for me to not let you put your foot in your mouth, though I have a few ideas of what else you could put in your mouth instead.” My lashes fluttered as we stared at each other and it pleased the fuck out of me when I saw his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallowed, his dark eyes wide and his cheeks flushed.
“There she goes,” I heard Brynn whisper-shout to Dutch as she leaned against him with bleary eyes.
“Weren’t you three about to head out?” I asked pointedly, glancing meaningfully at the alpha who now had my full attention.
Nash frowned, clearly not getting the hint. “No? Why would we? Wiz just got here.”
“You’re right we were just going!” Brynn cut him off quickly, giving her alpha a gentle shove.
“But—” Nash started to argue but paused when Brynn stood on her tip toes and whispered something in his ear. I watched the alpha’s eyes shift and darken before he jerked his head at Dutch. “I guess I was wrong, we are heading out. Wiz, I’ll catch up with you tomorrow during curling? Colt wants to talk to you and you’re not gonna want to miss that.”
Wiz’s eyes crinkled in the corner as he grinned at the trio. “Sounds good, man, have a good night.”
“Oh, I will,” Nash called cheekily over his shoulder as the three disappeared into the crowd.
“Well, they’re definitely getting a noise complaint tonight,” I said dryly as we watched them go.
Wiz’s chuckle was warm as it reached my ears. I very nearly giggled at the sound, and I never giggled.
“He talked about her every chance he got this week to the point it was making some of the other guys annoyed.” I felt his hand on the small of my back as he gently turned us toward the bar and signaled for one of the bartenders.
I liked the way his hand felt, and I could help but wonder how it would feel against my bare skin instead.
It had been a while since I’d been so attracted to someone so quickly—four years actually. Most people I slept with these days were a welcome distraction between my time on the ice and the yawning abyss of anxiety and memories that seemed to haunt me any chance they got. Nothing more, and nothing less.
But my instincts were hopping up and down now like a kid in a candy shop as we accepted a pint from the bored looking bartender and made our way over to a quiet corner where the thud of music wasn’t as loud.
“And did it make you annoyed too? To hear about Brynn all the time?” I asked once we’d settled together in a booth.
Wiz shook his head with a huff of laughter. “Not in the slightest. It was kind of nice to hear about to be honest. Most of the guys on the team are on the younger side so they’ve spent the past few days sleeping with anything that fluttered eyelashes at them. I’m closer in age to Nash so we kind of gravitated toward each other.”
“That was the correct answer,” I told him with play-curtness as I sipped on my drink, relishing the taste of a good Irish red ale. “Brynn has been my best friend since I was eleven years old, so if you didn’t like him talking about her I’m afraid I’d have to make you sit by yourself tonight.”
“Well we can’t have that,” Wiz said, ducking his head so that our eyes were level. He really was handsome, so much so that even eye contact was making my heart flutter like I was some kind of schoolgirl instead of the twenty-six-year-old woman that I actually was. “How would I be able to charm you if I was sitting by myself?”
The purr rattling in my chest was thankfully drowned out by the music, but my smile couldn’t be covered in the same way. “Are you this flirty with all of the women you meet?”
Wiz shrugged a shoulder. “I think I’m just very good at matching people’s energy. Besides, I’m not the one who blurted about how handsome I am a few minutes ago, am I?”
A surprised laugh bubbled out of me. “You really do match energy, don’t you? Well, match this then.”
Leaning forward I pressed my lips to his, slow and languid and waited for his response.
I’d been right about the level of instant attraction I was feeling for the other alpha. Tingles of it sparkled between us as he cupped my face in his hands and dragged me across the bench to him.
The scent of cloves was even stronger now and it filled my nose as he gave my bottom lip a nip. I could also taste the beer we’d been drinking on his lips as our tongues danced together and it made my head feel even fuzzier than the alcohol did.
After a few agonizingly wonderful seconds, he pulled away. “Well? Did I pass muster, gorgeous?”
I nodded, a bit speechless as I took another long pull of my drink and eyed the doors on the other side of the club. We couldn’t go back to my room as I was sharing with my stepsister Penelope who was probably already fast asleep. That complicated things, but I wondered what Wiz’s roommate situation was like.
“Where do you normally play hockey?” I asked absentmindedly as my brain tried to work out a solution that would get me into the man’s pants the fastest.
“I’ve been playing for the Kansas City Rockets for the past five years, but it’s starting to sound like I’ll be in your neck of the woods this upcoming season,” Wiz said, his fingers fiddling with the strap of the black dress I was wearing.
I blinked, my mental calculations coming to an abrupt halt. “Come again? You’re going to come to the Stallions?”
“Yeah, Colt Stone saw me play in one of the earlier rounds and wants to make a trade,” Wiz explained with a grin. “I’m from Washington actually, so it’s what I’ve been angling for since I started playing professionally, my mom will be thrilled.”
His words were like a bucket of ice water being dumped over my head, immediately checking the swell of lust that had been steadily forming since we’d kissed.
If he was coming to Washington, would he be okay with just a one night stand? Definitely not after talking about the other players who were sleeping around at the Olympics.
“I need to use the restroom,” I mumbled and abruptly stood from the booth.
Wiz’s dark brows drew together with confusion. “Are you all right?”
I nodded, swallowing hard on my internal panic. “Peachy. I’ll be right back.”
Ducking through the crowd, I was suddenly grateful that the entrance to the public restroom was outside rather than in the club. It would make my escape that much easier.
You can’t keep doing this, a little voice in my head whispered as I stepped into the bathroom and stared at myself in the mirror.
My brown cheeks were dusky with the flush of all of the alcohol I consumed tonight and my pupils were still blown from the kiss that had made my toes curl.
Just because he’s going to be coming to Seattle doesn’t mean he’d want a relationship,the voice continued, almost mockingly. Besides, you can’t be afraid of all relationships forever. It’s getting really old at this point.
I ignored the voice, shoving it into the back of my mind as I splashed cold water on my neck and shoulders.
Standing up straight I locked eyes with myself in the mirror. “You’re going to go in there and tell him that you’re going back to our hotel for the night. It’s the polite thing to do,” I said, pointing at the bitch who looked far too weak to be me.
The alpha part of me didn’t like that, my instincts were still screaming for some kind of release and they wanted the handsome man in the back of the club to be the one to do it.
Shaking the instincts away I stepped back onto the sidewalk, fully intending to go back into the club and tell Wiz I couldn’t do anything more with him tonight.
“Ciara?” a familiar voice called and my entire body stiffened at the sound of it.
The last time I’d heard that voice had been the phone conversation I’d had with him three years ago. One that had sealed my resolve to never be in a relationship or, hell, to even sleep with someone more than a handful of times.
I had a feeling that he’d be here. It was always his goal to go to the Olympics, telling me all about it when our legs were tangled together after a bout of lovemaking that still popped up in my dreams every once in a while.
The desire to pretend like I hadn’t heard him and hurry back into the club nearly won out, but knowing the owner of the voice, he’d probably just follow me inside.
Turning, I found Leith Dougall standing on the sidewalk, flanked by two men. One of which, I realized, I already knew.
Artem, the male figure skater from earlier, had one hand tucked into Leith’s elbow and the other gripping the handle of a golden retriever’s harness. He was glancing between the two of us, his blue eyes squinting at me.
“Leith, do you know her?” the third man asked, his lips pulling down into a frown as he stared at me.
Leith looked exactly the same as he had four years ago. Red beard neatly trimmed while his similarly fiery hair was pulled back into a messy bun. I could still remember how silky it had felt sliding in between my fingers and my fingers twitched as we stared at one another.
Leith’s green eyes turned away from me to the man who’d spoken. “She’s the one I told you about, Enz—the one I knew before I met you and Artie.”
The man’s dark eyebrows shot up and both he and Artem looked at me with a different sort of understanding, the kind that made gooseflesh prickle along my skin. It was clear that Leith had told both of them all about the three months that we’d spent together.
Panic rattled in my chest and I took a step back away from them.
“Ciara wait—” Leith began and reached out with his free hand, as if to stop me.
“Sorry, I’ve got someone waiting for me,” I blurted and turned on one of my very tall heels, ducking back into the noise of the club with a ragged gasp.
I’d been planning to tell Wiz that we couldn’t sleep together tonight. But as I pushed back through the crowd which had begun to pulse with the level of reckless drunkenness that meant that things would start going wild very soon, I changed my mind.
I needed something to help me forget about the redheaded alpha outside and the way that he’d nearly made me give in to him and do something I swore I never would do.
The only thing that had saved me from making a big mistake and flying back to Scotland to see him was that he had stopped calling me and I finally understood why now.
Wiz was still nursing his nearly empty beer when I returned to the table, a perturbed frown on his face.
“Hey, you left pretty abruptly back there—” he began, but I cut him off with a kiss, curling my fingers in the rough denim of his jacket.
“Do you want to go somewhere else?” I asked, my voice low when I finally pulled away.
Wiz’s dark eyes seemed to shift from confusion to lust and I could feel the purr rattling in his chest against my fingertips.
“Sure,” he said, threading his fingers through mine. “Let’s go.”