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)
“All right, so what happened?” Chris asked, pulling me out of my daydream.
I gave him the full rundown, keeping the parts about shifting and wolves quiet while we waited in line to order our sandwiches. He kept his expression pretty neutral even though I could tell he wanted to shake me by the shoulders and double-check that I wasn’t playing a prank on him.
“And you’re sure about this?” Chris said. We walked out to a quiet corner of the courtyard that looked out over a peaceful garden. I stared down a large bumblebee that seemed to be seconds away from flying over and attacking me. “Focus, Dyl, that bee isn’t going to bug you.”
“I see what you did there.”
“Huh? Oh,” Chris said with a laugh. “You’re something else.”
“I’m a love-struck cub is what I am, Chris. And it seems like I’m going to keep being one for the foreseeable future.”
“Maybe he was shy? Maybe that’s why he wanted to bolt?”
I cocked my head and slanted my lips. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s how the whole fated mates thing works.”
“To be fair, you didn’t know much about any of it until Gabe and Eli found each other. And even then, it’s still kind of a mystery to all of us.”
“It’s not a mystery to me, not anymore. The feeling is indescribable, Chris. Seeing him, smelling him, touching him… It was like figuring out how to bottle joy and ecstasy and passion all together and taking a double shot of it. Not even poppers feel like that. Fuck. I felt drunk. I still feel drunk. I would have pushed him down to the ground and had my way with him right there in the rain—and you know me, I like being in a comfortable environment for extracurricular activities. Preferably with good air conditioning and maybe a Tempur-Pedic mattress, but I’ll take a couch if I need to. Or a kitchen floor. Whatever.”
Chris laughed again. He took a bite of his brisket sandwich, wiping his lips with a napkin. He’d just gotten a buzz cut, which was a new style for him. It looked good even though it made us seem more like siblings than usual. “You are pretty picky about your setting. But also, with him being our trainer, doesn’t that make things more complicated?”
“Maybe, but if fate says it’s meant to be then who am I to argue?”
“True.” Chris leaned back in his chair, looking at me in the way only a best friend does when they’re trying to see through the smile. Chris was one of the first people I met when I was traded to the Bobcats. It was four years ago, during a time in my life where I felt like I’d been drifting and purposeless, lashing out and bitter about the cards life had dealt me by burning bridges and setting fire to my past. I broke up with a steady girlfriend, I gave up on the hopes of ever reuniting with my cousin—who’d been my best friend since we were kids and had been the one to introduce me to hockey in the first place—and I moved to Burlington with the mindset of “fuck everything and everyone.”
It wasn’t a healthy mindset to have. Thankfully my vice had been no-strings-attached sex and not something like hard drugs or bottles of alcohol. It allowed me to still be functional, albeit horny as fuck, but kept the self-destructive behavior to a minimum. At least in terms of my body—the jury was still out about my emotions. I was still a beast on the ice and, although I certainly wasn’t the smartest, I balanced that out with a heart of gold.
Chris seemed to have picked up on that from the day we met. After our first practice, he invited me over to his place for a chill evening of video games and pizza.
The rest was bro-bestie history.
“You’re, like, glowing,” Chris observed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you talk about someone like this. That’s how I know you’re not fucking with me.”
“I’m not, I’m really not. I don’t even know this man but it still feels like I can talk about him for hours. How crazy is that?”
“It’s crazy, but in a good way.”
I sighed and tensed as the bumblebee swooped in my direction before veering back toward a cluster of vibrant red roses. As scary as that damn buzzing bee the size of my fist was, I had a thought that was even more frightening. “Now I guess the real question is what if fate messed this up? What if this is somehow one-sided?”
Chris mulled over that for a moment, taking another bite of his sandwich, a sip of his water. I distracted myself from the anxiety by bouncing my leg under the table and gulping down some of my lemonade.