26. Time to Talk
Chapter Twenty-Six
Time to Talk
MILES
I sat across from Emmy inside a packed and loud sports bar. The team had come to celebrate, but I came to chug a few drinks and try to piece together what the hell had happened tonight.
“All right,” Emmy said, leaning forward. “Tell me everything.”
“I have no fucking idea.”
But I tried. I told Emmy everything. I started at the end—just like Dyl had taught me—and worked my way back, trying to see a way I could salvage this.
Shock was the only thing I had felt for the entirety of tonight’s game. Disappointment and hurt started to seep in toward the end, but a cold and numbing shock was predominant.
I replayed everything that I’d done and said over the last few days.
Trying to figure out where I went wrong.
What had I done to push Dylan away? I told him I loved him, I spent a full moon with him, I was honest with him about the fated connection…
and there. Like manipulating a patient’s sprained leg to figure out where exactly the damage had been done.
That singular thought sent a shockwave of pain through me.
His fear stemmed from the truth. The alternative would have been to lie to him, but I just couldn’t do that.
Maybe I should have explained more clearly to him that I thought I had felt that fated pull when we ran under the light of the full moon, but he would just think I was saying that to salvage whatever I could between us.
And if he did believe me then he’d just chalk it up to our emotions being heightened because of the shift.
Thankfully there were no players that needed my attention once the final buzzer rang through the arena.
I wasn’t sure about the other team, though.
The game had been brutal tonight and mostly because of the aggressive plays Dylan pulled off on the ice.
Coach had to call him back after the second time he almost started a full-on brawl out there.
“What the fuck’s gotten into you tonight?” Coach shouted as Dylan jumped over the wall and took his spot on the bench, only a couple of feet away from me.
“Just in a mood,” Dylan said from under his helmet. He wouldn’t even look in my direction. I’d been so used to the glances we’d steal toward each other during the games. Even when he was playing, he’d sometimes look over at me and wink before focusing and making a shot or stealing the puck.
Not tonight. He was as icy as the surface he skated across.
I wrapped up my explanation to Emmy. He kept his expression neutral, only a couple of twitches near his square jaw that gave away his surprise. “I don’t know what to do.”
Emmy gave me a look of sympathy. The same kind of expression he’d give me when I’d come to him for advice when we were younger and I had messed something up.
When I had gotten a disappointing grade on an exam, when I made my father upset after he found me sneaking out for a party, when I had to break up with my first girlfriend.
Emmet was always there to hear me out and offer some advice.
It was no wonder he’d become alpha of the Burlington pack.
He was a smart, compassionate leader, even when we were just kids.
“It’s tough, I can see both sides here.”
I winced. I was hoping for a more definitive “do this” or “Dyl would appreciate that.”
“But you said you felt a fated pull the other night? During the full moon?”
“Yes. I just wonder if that’ll be enough to get him back.”
“I think you need to tell him. And you need to talk to Coach about it, too. I agree, it’s tricky.
But if you really love him, you’ve got to show it.
Dylan is a special guy. I think we all know that.
He’s soft-hearted and he’s also super empathetic, and that can make him feel a lot of things that he hides behind jokes or a smile.
But he’s probably hurting, maybe he’s been hurting, and tonight was just that breaking point. I don’t think it’s irreparable though.”
Emmy shifted in his booth. We were in the back corner near the beer taps at the bar. Our booth was a two-seater and most of it was blocked from view by a large wooden column that was covered in signed and pinned dollar bills.
He was right, of course. Dylan had likely been covering his heart for a while now.
Even though I thought I’d been making progress in showing him I was just as in it as he was, there were still cracks forming in the foundation.
All stemming from me not feeling the fated mate connection at first sight.
But if I told him about the other night… if I disclosed our relationship to the team… then maybe that would be enough to get him back?
“And,” Emmy said, his voice dropping so that I had to lean in to hear him over the loud hip-hop song playing. “As alpha, I approve of you two. You’re welcome into the pack, so long as you would like to join.”
It was something I’d been wanting to bring up to him.
Just because Emmy was my best friend and was the alpha didn’t mean it would be a guaranteed invite into the pack.
He’d have to think I would fit in well with the rest of the group.
I’d already hung out with them all a couple times now and I found myself growing closer and closer to them.
I had inside jokes with Yuni and would talk flowers with Raquel and would tease Soren at his terrible plays in Monopoly.
When it wasn’t game night, it would be night runs through the woods in our wolf forms, howling and playing and darting through the trees.
It was the type of thing I had never experienced before.
This familial sense of belonging with people who weren’t blood-related to me.
Becoming part of a pack hadn’t been on my radar until arriving in Burlington. I’d been fine living on my own—at least, I thought I’d been fine. Only after meeting the pack, getting to know them, having them get to know me, did I realize that I just couldn’t want something I didn’t know existed.
Now I did. And I had been thinking more and more about it. “I’d like that. I’d love it.”
“Good.” Emmy smiled wide, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Now you just have to fix things with Dylan.”
“There you guys are!” I looked to my left toward the familiar voice.
Macie bounced on the balls of her feet and waved, a hard seltzer in her other hand.
“Congratulations on the win.” She didn’t even bother asking about joining her brother and me.
She squeezed onto the sliver of booth next to me.
I moved over so that my shoulder pressed up against the wall so I could give her some space. She wiggled toward me.
“I’m back in love with hockey.” She had the same eyes as Emmy’s. Bright green and slightly broody, but would always light up whenever they were super happy. “Speaking of loveee, are you and Dylan okay?”
My face cracked with surprise. “You know too?”
“I mean, it’s pretty obvious. I’ve seen you guys all flirty at Emmy’s house. And I notice how he always sits next to you during a game when he’s on the bench.” She shrugged and took a sip of her watermelon seltzer. “Plus, I just overheard Emmy. Your voice carries.”
Emmy didn’t typically blush but his cheeks reddened. He winced and said, “Sorry.”
“It’s fine. You’re both like family to me. It’s okay.”
Macie put a hand to her chest before moving it to my leg.
“That’s so sweet.” She quickly moved her hand off, grabbing her drink.
“We match,” I said, noting her bracelet and holding mine out.
It was fine if she knew about Dylan and me, but that didn’t mean I wanted to dive back into it all for her.
She really was like a little sister to me.
I’d seen her grow up, was at her house when she and her friends were together for their high school prom, took a couple family vacations with them to a cabin in North Carolina.
She was younger and more innocent than Emmy—even though she was a full-grown twenty-three-year-old woman—so I didn’t want to talk about my problematic love life with her right now.
“Oh this?” She gave the golden bracelet a twirl before moving her hand under the table, blocking it from view. “It’s from a jeweler friend of mine. When I picked up the one Emmy ordered for you, I liked it so much that I got one for myself.”
“Nice,” I said, smiling. “If it’s got your stamp of approval then I know for sure it’s stylish.”
“It is. I see it on a ton of influencers now. I think we started the trend.” She bumped me with a shoulder.
She was close enough that I could not only smell her strawberry perfume but also the spearmint gum she chewed on mixed with the watermelon seltzer she sipped on.
She played with her car keys on the table.
I was going to comment on how it was a Toyota—which she had relentlessly teased her brother for getting as his first car instead of a Mercedes—but she cut me off with another question.
“Back to you and Dyl, are things okay? Rocky?”
Damn. She wasn’t going to let it go. She was just as hard-headed about things as her older brother. Emmy gave his sister a look but she shrugged it off.
“We just need to have a talk. That’s all.”
Her smile flickered for a brief moment. Eli and Gabe stood nearby at the bar, joined by Chris.
I heard him order three Fireball shots. My entire body shook.
I wasn’t sure how the hockey guys drank so much and still kept their bodies in perfect shape.
And it wasn’t just the shifters either, so it couldn’t be pinned solely on our genetics.
Also, Dylan was usually Chris’ shadow if the two were in the same room. If he wasn’t at the bar then he likely headed directly home after the game.