Chapter Forty-Seven
Carlos
“Carlos, congratulations on mating. I’m excited to meet them.” Tenzin appeared in the locker room as we got ready to go out on the ice, Clark right behind him.
Tenzin was the tallest guy on the team, even taller than Grif Graf, and had come to us from the Portland Sasquatches.
“Thanks. Did you enjoy spending time with your son?” I replied.
He looked around. “I did. Who’s the new forward? I admit, I’m sad we didn’t get Ellie.”
“Yeah, that would have been fucking fun.” But I’m sure it had a lot to do with money. Ellie was one of the top forwards in the PHL.
“Was that a serious option?” Anders eyebrows rose.
“Ellie thought she was, at least if they were considering a trade,” Tenzin replied with a shrug. “I hear they went with a free agent from overseas.”
It was too bad. The Sasquatches were getting itchy that they kept losing in the finals and itchy teams did stupid shit. She’d be an asset here.
“You know, I think I saw Ivan Ivanov talking to Coach. He’s that Russian guy who was terrorizing people at Worlds, isn’t he?” LeeAnn gossiped.
Dimitri gave her a look. “That is not terrorizing, that is called being Russian.”
“Do you know him?” Clark asked
Dimitri’s expression grew bland. “Do I know every hockey player in Russia? No. But yes, we have run across each other.”
Grif, Dean, and Jonas walked in.
“Where’s Lucky?” I looked around.
“He’s right here.” Dean pretended to take him off his shoulder and handed him to me.
I pet him and then I took a selfie and sent it to Fiona.
Me
Me and Lucky. Friends forever.
“Lucky, did you eat cheese again?” I asked as I let loose a big fart. Fiona made eggs and cheese for breakfast.
LeeAnn made a face. “Gross.”
I gave Lucky back and finished getting ready. Fiona sent me a picture of her in a pile of packages.
Fiona
Cute. Today’s task, going through all the things I ordered.
While I’d gotten my things yesterday, there still was a lot to put together in order to turn the townhouse into our home. It was daunting really, but Fiona was on it, for which I was grateful.
“How are things going?” Grif asked. “Especially going from living by yourself to being in a houseful.”
“It is a little bit of an adjustment. I keep having to remember to put pants on,” I admitted.
Dean laughed. “Just make them get used to no-pants Carlos. After all, our team got used to Nakey.”
Nakey threw a towel at Dean. “You all like seeing me naked.”
Our defender had earned that nickname because he liked to be naked all the time.
We finished getting ready and went out on the ice for practice. Tomorrow we had an away game.
A few new people were on the ice along with Coach Atkins and Coach Kirov, who was the goalie coach.
“Listen up. We have two new EBUGs who will be joining Arden, since Tyler and Gwen have both left us for professional teams.” Coach Kirov sniffed dramatically, but we all knew she had a huge soft spot for the EBUGs.
She told us a little bit about the new EBUGs, then added, “Be nice to them or I will tell Gwen on you, and she will hit you with her hockey stick the next time she sees you.”
We all chuckled because we could all see that.
“Welcome, EBUGs, please don’t bring animals to the rink. Especially random strays.” Coach Atkins rubbed the bridge of his nose.
The EBUGs looked a little perplexed. Honestly, I’d miss Gwen bringing random animals to the rink. Had the Tigres made that a rule yet?
“I’d also like to welcome our new forward, Ivan Ivanov, who comes to us from Russia,” Coach Atkins added.
“Do we have to be nice to him? Also, can he bring stray animals onto the rink?” Anders asked.
Coach Atkins just gave him a look. “Since Anders wants to be snarky, we’ll start with sprints. Now.”
We set off, skating across the ice, touching the line, and sprinting back. Coach liked to make us do this as punishment. When I’d gotten arrested, thanks to my ex, he had all of us doing this forever.
After a couple of minutes, he blew his whistle and had us start drills.
Every time there was a break, Ivanov tried to speak with Dimitri. Each time, Dimitri found very clever ways to not talk to him.
Interesting.
“Do you think they know each other?” Clark whispered to me. “I know he said they’d run across each other, but it looks like Ivanov really wants to talk to him. “
“Maybe they were rivals back in Russia?” I replied.
“Or lovers?” Grif added. “I’ve never known Dimitri to date or mention anyone, and I always sort of wondered if he left someone in Russia.”
I thought about that for a moment. “I don’t know.”
“Oh. Please remind me to give you the cake pops. It’s very important you get them so no one is sad,” Grif said.
I brightened. “Really? I thought that me and her brother mating would mean no cake pops for us ever. I mean, she did say so.”
Grif shook his head. “It’s fine. She’s been making spreadsheets for Hale.”
We finished up on the ice and then changed to go have a team meeting about the game tomorrow, and watch some videos of the opposing team.
Ivanov cornered Dimitri and said something in Russian. Dimitri walked away. Ivanov put a hand on his shoulder. Dimitri turned to him, scowled and said something else.
With a heavy sigh, Ivanov added something. Dimitri growled and the two of them started to argue loudly. Ivonov snapped at him. Dimitri pushed him and shouted back.
Wow, I wished I knew Russian.
“Break it up. Now.” Coach Atkin stood there, looking unamused.
Dimitri took a step back
“Belikov, that’s not how things work here and you know it.” Coach narrowed his eyes at Dimitri, then turned to Ivanov. “No fighting with your teammates.”
“I know you hate me, but I expected better of you,” Dimitri said to Ivan in English. Giving him a hard glance, he stalked off, knocking Ivan with his shoulder as he went towards the big room, where we had our meetings.
Ivanov looked… wounded as he muttered something quietly in Russian.
Yeah, I didn’t get the idea that they hated each other at all.
At lunch, I went through the buffet in our dining room. This was also a hangout room with ping pong, air hockey, and a TV. A bunch of photos hung on the walls of noted players, including one that had a necklace made of noodles on it, which was some kind of special goalie thing.
I piled my plate with chicken, beef, shrimp, rice, and beans, then grabbed a slice of cake, and a soda, then headed to our usual table, Anders, Clark, and Grif following.
Chef had all sorts of fajitas for us today, which seemed an easy way to satisfy all the different dietary requirements for the team. Each designation had different nutritional needs. Like kappas needed more caffeine and sugar than other designations.
Before I could wave Dimitri over, Ivanov sat down with us.
“Is this where the forwards sit?” he asked, accent much thicker than Dimitri’s.
“You can sit wherever you want. I’m Grif, that’s Clark, Anders, and Carlos,” Grif introduced.
“Yes, I know the Grif Graf. You are the standard to which forwards are held,” Ivanov said solemnly. He looked around. “I do not see the Ladybug. Her videos are amusing.”
Gwen made videos of herself figure skating with hockey equipment.
“Gwen, Ladybug, has a new team, she’s a Tigre now,” Clark said proudly.
“My cousin says she’s doing great,” I added.
“You know, I think you live in my building. You moved in yesterday?” Clark asked.
“I live in a building with many hockey players. But I have not met anyone other than the bald one with the baby.” Ivanov nodded.
Vickers, probably. One of our defenders.
“Tenzin and I both live there, but we’re about to move out. We just bought a place,” Clark replied. “Anders lives there, too. As does Castle, she’s another forward.” He looked at me. “How’s your place coming along? Moving in and remodeling our place seems daunting.”
“Honestly, it’s going great. But then I have an omega who can shop at a speed I can’t fathom and has the ability to bring in people for the world’s fastest remodels,” I replied.
“We have a few of them if you need recs,” Grif replied.
“Oh, you all have packs?” Ivanov looked sad.
“I have a pack. Carlos is forming his pack, and Clark’s in a serious relationship with Ladybug and Tenzin–who’s that really tall defender,” Grif replied.
“Ah, the Yeti. I am familiar.” Ivanov nodded.
Wow, had he studied our team, or were some of the Knights just famous in Russia?
“I don’t have a pack.” Anders shrugged. He fucked a lot of betas. I wasn’t sure if he was still with his on-again-off-again girlfriend who lived in Sweden.
“Did you bring anyone over with you from Russia?” Clark added.
“I do have someone who's not here.” His shoulders fell in defeat.
Probably travel visas or something. One of the good things about Gwen being on the road was that it gave the team a hot minute to work out her permission to work in Mexico.
Vickers sat down and joined us. “Ivan, my man, we’re probably going to Tito’s in a little bit. It’s the bar we go to. You should come. Carlos, I don’t think I ever told you congratulations. That one with the dark hair. Woo wee.”
“Hale is hot,” I agreed.
“I was actually talking about the Irish one. I couldn’t understand a word she was saying to my wife at the brunch, but it all sounded pretty.” Vickers shoveled food in his face, the light gleaming off his brown, bald head. He was a defender.
Fiona sent me a picture of a very impressive stack of pillows. I sent her a picture of my food.
Grif looked at my phone. “Is Hale under those pillows?”
“I think he is.” I squinted. Yes, yes he was.
“I think I should like to go to the bar,” Ivan stated. He glanced at Dimitri who was sitting with Jonas, Nakey, Pauley, Castle, and Nia.
“Wow, we’re all sitting somewhere different today.” Dean flopped down with us, giving Grif a kiss.
“Are you going to have a party when you’re moved in, Carlos?” Anders asked us.
“I will have to ask Fiona,” I replied.
“That is the right answer,” Vickers said. “Welcome to the mate life.”
Indeed. Maybe I should get them rings after practice.
“Gwen will want to have a party, but ours probably won’t be until off-season,” Clark added.