Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 85616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
“We should go find our clothes,” Dylan said, smiling at me with an equal parts endearing and equal parts sexy grin. “Before a squirrel digs them up and makes a nest with them.”
“Don’t you have morning practice today?” I asked, remembering it was Thursday.
“No, not on weekends… oh fuck! Okay, yeah we need to get dressed. I thought today was Friday. Last night was Friday—oh whatever. Come on.” He started running toward the direction where we’d hidden our clothes. “I want to get on the ice with your cum dripping down my gear.”
I followed him with a cheeky smile all the way back to our hiding spot.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Screw Fate
DYLAN
“You seem overly happy,” Eli said as he taped his stick on the bench next to me. The locker room was loud tonight. It was our seventh game of the season. We were up with four wins and just two losses. I’d gotten a good amount of playtime, too, and could feel myself getting better and settling into my routine. I never really had the goal of jumping to the NHL—mainly because I felt good playing with my pack here—but that didn’t stop recruiters from reaching out to my manager about it.
Apparently the emails and call requests had doubled in the last two weeks.
That wasn’t all that had me on cloud nine, though. “I’m just a happy guy,” I said.
I’m just his good boy.
I chanced a fleeting glance toward Miles, who was across the locker room taping Emmy’s ankles.
“Uh huh,” Eli said. “I’ve seen that look, you know. I’ve felt it actually.”
Fucking hell. “Am I that obvious?” I asked in a near whisper. The room was loud with music blasting and guys chirping but instincts still had me keeping my voice low.
Miles had a meeting with Coach before the game. We hadn’t had a chance to talk between then and now, so I still wasn’t entirely sure that the wolf was out of the bag yet. Our full moon night happened almost a week ago and I still couldn’t stop thinking about it.
But had things somehow changed for Miles? What if he wasn’t even genuine that night? Just taken for a ride on the rush of a full moon shift…
“Kind of. But you were never good at acting.”
“Nope. Took a theatre class in college once and the teacher asked me if I had any other career goals in mind.”
Eli laughed at that. “I didn’t know you wanted to be an actor.”
“Yeah, because it died after that class freshman year.” I bent down to tie the laces of my skates. Even though Eli was a human, he was still part of my pack, and I knew I could trust him like a brother. “I think we’re fated, Eli.”
“I had a feeling.” He kept his response calm. No one would be able to pick up on what we were talking about underneath the pre-game chaos in the locker room.
“But it hasn’t been as easy as you and Gabe. He doesn’t feel it for some reason. Not the same way I do. And, fuck, it kind of fucks with my head.”
Eli paused from putting on his shoulder pads. “Really? He’s said that?”
“He has. We spent a full moon together last week, and that was great, but he said he’d tell the Coach about us and I don’t think that’s happened yet. It’s something else that kinda messes with me.” I shook my head, moving to tie the laces on my other skate. “I get the reasoning, it’s just not a great feeling.”
“Damn. I’m sorry, Dyl, that is a lot.”
“Don’t get me wrong, when it’s great it’s really fucking great. Like, I feel it down in my bones, I feel like we’re meant to be. But it does make me anxious that maybe I’m missing something. Maybe I’m wrong about us?”
“When I met Gabe,” Eli said, almost geared up, “I was just trying to find a pizza spot downtown when I bumped into him, and I remember feeling something different, but I didn’t feel that world-stopping sensation he described to me. And we’re still fated. I don’t have any doubt about that.”
I nodded before deciding to state the obvious. “You’re a human, though. He’s a shifter. He should have felt something.”
Eli didn’t have a counterargument to that. I started to get anxious. Not only did I have some pre-game jitters building up, but I was now back to spiraling about my relationship with Miles. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d say something he didn’t mean, and he had told me he loved me, but… it was the morning after a full moon. Emotions and sensations were at an all-time high.
I glanced where I thought Miles would be, but he had finished taping Emmy’s ankles and was now helping Gabe stretch. Our assistant coach hovered around him like a fly looking for a spot to land on the kitchen table. He had a folder in his hands, holding it so tight that I could see the edges of it crinkling. They stood near the door where an extra pair of security guards stood. Coach had become aware of the stalker threat and agreed to double the security budget so that we could all feel safe out on the rink.