Slick Handling

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

VAUGHN

“ C ’mon, just smell my ball sack.” Griffin is on the bench of the locker room, his cock cupped behind his hands, as his balls swing dangerously close to my face.

I can already smell him.

The sweat from hockey practice mixes with his normal scent of whiskey and spices. It should be way grosser, but he’s one of my pack mates and his scent has that feeling of home in it; even if it comes from his sack.

However, his balls dangling close enough to my lip to be a mustache is not what I want to see right now.

I escape by ducking under his leg.

He loses his balance, tumbling dramatically onto two of our teammates. They promptly drop him onto the floor as he sighs like they let him down.

“How the hell am I going to know if I have a yeast infection if no one will smell me and let me know?”

“Why would you even have a yeast infection? Isn’t that like a girl thing?” Joel, our right winger, makes the rookie mistake of engaging with him.

Something that Griffin buys right into.

“At that Sorority party on Saturday I made the mistake of sleeping with the-”

I tune him out as I get dressed.

My body aches from a grueling practice and my mind is going over the plays that Coach had me looking at before we hit the ice. I want to spend some time reviewing more video before the game on Friday. It will get my head clear and ready to play.

We’re facing Evansville University.

It’s a big deal this weekend since they’re our biggest rivals. The games always end with at least a couple of guys getting suspended for fighting, but we always play harder knowing that we were going up against them. Something about them just gives us that boost.

A clap of hands makes me look up from tying my shoes, and a groan leaves my lips without me meaning to do it.

Coach is standing there with the medical staff, which means I'm not getting the time to review videos like I want to, unless I delay my sleep tonight and study the video at the house.

Everyone in my pack plays hockey. So watching the video won’t be a studying tool for me, but a running commentary and people fighting over rewinding clips.

When I review tape, it’s to see how the other team interacts together so I know, when paired against different lines, what to anticipate. Griffin likes to watch tape of our own team, so he can find holes in our own plays to fix. McKinley checks to see how other teams score, and what part of his net is going to get the most action. Thankfully, Apollo isn’t on our team this year, because he needs a full picture of everything and can’t stop himself from explaining everything.

My pack may be good at hockey, but they are excellent at annoying me.

“Okay boys, we need to do some blood draws before the game. There was an incident last week, at another school, where a few Alphas went into ruts during the game. We need to make sure that we keep everyone safe out there.” The three Betas that are on the team all smile because they know they can just leave.

Lucky guys.

McKinley smiles at me, giving me a little wave as he slides on his jacket. His dark brown hair is still wet from the shower that he just took and he strokes at his beard. The one that was trimmed down from the trip to the barber shop he insisted he needed this morning. It had made him late for his first class, something Apollo would warn him about later.

Prick knows I want to watch the game tape tonight and now he was going to hog the TV.

Jokes on him.

As our goalie, he spends too much time looking at the other teams tapes to see what plays they use, and what tricks they might get up to. However, if I say it’s for the team, Griffin will side with me and we’ll have to watch what I want.

McKinley’s the Beta of our pack. The pack that we just formed Junior year and now in our Senior year, are really making plans for what our pack life is going to look like when we graduate.

Even though he’s a Beta, he’s built big. More lean muscle on his 6’3 frame than the bulk that some of the rest of us have. He says that it helps him move around better on the ice, but I think he just likes to stay pretty. Something that gets him attention from our other two pack Alphas.

We met during our Freshman year of college and he just clicked with me and the rest of the guys.

Our pack consists of three Alphas and one Beta.

There’s Griffin, who is the pack fuckboy and the Center of the line I’m Left Wing on. He’s been my best friend since Kindergarten when some kid tried to steal my lunch and Griff promptly pulled down his pants, and pissed on the kids leg.

He’s 6’2 and lies to every girl he meets and tells them he’s 6’4. I swear he gets the two inches from his hair that he obsesses over. Since he‘s loyal to a fault, I don’t call him out on it. Even if he is the short one.

The second Alpha of our pack is Apollo Mathers. He’s the lead Alpha and we go by his name for our pack name. He’s already graduated and plays defense for the Orion Otters, our city's professional hockey team.

We got lucky that he got drafted close, because he’s able to stay in our pack house instead of us having to commute further to school. He sort of paved the way for us to be noticed by a lot of scouts too.

At 6 '5 and 235 pounds, I’m fairly confident that no one is going to tell him no when he pulls the pack card when we announce our intentions for the draft. Some teams want to do backroom deals with players to go against league rules and change where people end up. Apollo would never want us all spread out. He believes in a pack being close and having each other to rely on.

McKinley and Griffin both already know that they want to go pro and be drafted. I do too, but I’m starting to get worried about not being good enough. Every game I play feels like another battle to make sure I’m noticed. Hockey has started being more about where I’m going to go and not about the game I once enjoyed playing.

Hopefully it’s just a phase.

“I need you guys to get your blood work then stick around to see who needs to get a rut blocker booster. The sooner we get this done the sooner you guys can leave.” He claps his hands again as we all start to form lines.

Ruts are common in sports with Alphas.

That rough and aggressive energy that fills us when we’re on the ice can trick our bodies. Most guys have one or two ruts a season, since Coach doesn’t want all of them blocked. He thinks it will mess with our bodies too much.

I’ve already been blocked twice this year.

The first time was during the summer camp we had been forced to go to for a few weeks at the start of June.

I was in a bad mood because my parents had started to talk about getting a divorce; which was stressful since I was supposed to be home with them enjoying my time off from school. They insisted that things were being worked out, but something wasn’t sitting right in my stomach. The fact my girlfriend had also started acting strange didn’t help things.

The second time was at the start of the season.

I had broken up with my long term girlfriend, Terry. My parents were going through with the divorce, after a summer that made things worse. Moving into a new house with my pack was supposed to be exciting but ended up stressing me out endlessly. It was as if everything that made me happy was all wrong.

Terry and I met Freshman year, at a mixer hosted for new student athletes. She played volleyball and was tall and gorgeous. Her brown hair and pretty silver eyes were stunning.

I thought she would be it for me, but the guys started talking about getting an Omega in a couple years. An Omega would be the center of our pack and calm down a lot of the stress that we carried. It also helped with the ruts; Omega’s going into heat could trigger a rut or at least help work out a lot of those hormones. Since we all played sports this would be a huge deal.

It made sense.

So, I went to Terry and talked to her about joining our pack. We would still be in our relationship, and if we chose, we could be in a relationship with an Omega too. McKinley even talked to her, he explained how Betas could balance out the pack with their even heads. Alphas and Omegas could be more crazy with their instincts. He painted her a picture that made it so Terry felt like she would be the bond holding everything together.

We were going to be happy.

Until she told me she was pregnant, and I knew it wasn’t mine. Every time we had been together I had worn a condom, and I never knotted her.

That’s when she let me know she had slept with my father.

So my emotions were a little out of whack at the start of the season and I had almost fallen into a rut.

Now, it was the start of October and I was feeling pretty balanced as they took my blood, and slid a sample into the machine. It would read my levels and then I could be on my way.

“Vaughn,” the team doctor looked at me and I frowned. “You’re going to go into rut in the next day. I recommend messaging your teachers for any course work and getting back home to make sure you’re in a place you feel comfortable.

A rut?

Again ?

My ruts had never been this often. Maybe because I was getting laid regularly and now I was on a dry spell this was happening. But it had only been two months. How could this happen?

Coach squeezed my shoulder, nodding his head to get me moving along. He followed me back to the locker room as I gathered up my stuff in a daze.

“You’re a great player and you need to listen to your body. A lot has happened to you lately and it’s okay to just let yourself feel whatever you have to feel. Maybe you need this rut to get over whatever is bothering you. Maybe you need to go through this to make your decision if you’re entering the draft or not.” He was using his dad voice on me. The voice that let me know I wasn’t coming back here for a few days.

A mandatory three days for ruts because the aggression could sometimes cause fights between teammates.

“Take the time, son.” He walked out just as Griffin walked in, rubbing his ass through his gray sweatpants.

“Honestly, who thought that a shot to the ass was going to make a rut better? If anything I feel way more aggressive now.” Griffin stopped as he saw me sitting in my locker, my things at my feet.

I could feel the aggression now. Pumping through my veins as my fingers pushed into my hair tugging at the roots. A growl of frustration rolled off my lips as he dropped down beside me, throwing his arm over my back.

He has no sense of self preservation.

“Hey, c’mon V. Let's get home and get you in bed. I bet if we bother him enough, Apollo will make those smoothies you like. I won’t even complain and let you pick the mango flavor even though strawberry is superior.” He nudges me gently, speaking to me softly because he knows I didn’t get a booster. That I can’t play the game with my team.

I need to play. I need to move my body and get some of the aggression out of me because now it’s bubbling up to the surface and I feel like I’m losing my mind.

Griffin gets us standing, making me hold my things as his arm stays slung around me, holding me close as we walk to our place. It’s only about a ten minute walk and it’s cool enough that I shouldn’t be running hot. Now that I know my rut is coming it’s like my body is giving itself permission to give in to its base desires.

I groan, tugging at my hoodie as we move into the old Victorian that Apollo is footing the bill for.

It’s our first pack house and he wanted us to be close to school so we didn’t slip with our studies. He doesn’t care that he has to drive a half hour to get to practice. No, he’s a good Alpha lead who thinks about his pack first.

“Let's get you to bed. Good job taking off your shoes, buddy.” Griffin is talking to me like I’m a child and it makes me snarl at him despite the fact I know he is just trying to keep me calm, “Why don’t you take a cool shower and get into bed. I’ll turn on the central AC so you can get comfortable.” His lips kiss my temple that’s probably slick with sweat.

He is trying to watch out for me. He’s my best friend. He just wants to make sure that I’m fine.

My vision is a little hazy as I stumble into my room and finally let myself lose a little bit of control. Finally giving myself permission to unmask and let my feelings ride out however they want to.

Finally, freedom.