Page 2 of The Price of Ice

Chapter 1

Back in juniors, things had been different. Of course, he’d been having sex since the first time he’d gone into heat. No one was going to be precious about an omega planning to become mated to a team being a virgin, but for his first time, it’d been just his captain.

Robert had been only a year older than him and in retrospect, he hadn’t known what he was doing. When Kallen’s roommate had found him feverish and glassy eyed in their shared living room, he’d called Robert at once. And Robert had come, just like their legal arrangement dictated he should. Kallen still remembered the embarrassment of having to have his parents sign off on it because he’d been underage, but it wasn’t like biology would wait for him to be able to legally vote or drink, was it? Omegas went into heat for the first time as teenagers, and either they were kept safely home by their parents, or they came to an arrangement with an alpha to help them through it. Since Kallen had moved hours away from his parents’ home to attend a school where he could breathe, eat and dream hockey, it had to be the second.

And Robert had been inexperienced, but he’d been kind. He’d kissed Kallen against the sofa cushions, biting at his lips and rubbing himself against him to mark him with his scent. Kallen had melted under his hands, showing his neck and spreading his legs, moaning and shamelessly begging.

The memory was a bit hazy, but he remembered he’d found it difficult when Robert had tugged at his wet hole and juststarted pushing inside—a battle raging in him between the part that wanted to be fucked into the ground and the part that hurt because he’d never had anything inside but his own fingers.

It'd got better soon enough, his body adapting like biology intended and Robert kissing his cheeks and telling him how good he was being and then blessedly coming inside him. For a little bit, the heat had abated. The second time—from behind—had been better, faster and harder and exactly what he needed.

Those six months of messing around with Robert, both when he was in heat and not, were some of the sweetest of his life; he’d had hockey and a friend who took care of him and blew his mind with his cock. What else could he have asked for?

Robert had graduated, though, and Kallen’s coach had transferred the arrangement to the next team captain, which made perfect sense, of course. College teams weren’t permanent enough to have an omega of their own, but it wasn’t like Kallen could have got a boyfriend or something, was it? He was there to focus on hockey, and if he needed sex to get through his heats, the team would provide that as well. He hadn’t liked Mark that much; the guy had been too serious, and even in bed, his focus had been on getting the job done. But he’d never hurt Kallen or even disrespected him. Heat was pleasurable, and once Kallen had learned that it wouldn’t be like with Robert and he had to stretch himself ahead of time, the only possible issue had been sorted.

It’d been a valuable lesson on how different alphas could be from each other, really. Nowadays, when he felt heat coming, he knew he had to prepare himself for the alphas. They were his teammates, but Robert had given him the wrong idea being so tender; they were all there to do a job, and Kallen’s job was to be open enough to let them do theirs.

THEY’D LEFT HIM WATERand power bars on the bedside table, and he devoured them without leaving the nest of blankets. Even then, it wasn’t enough, and he fumbled for the phone to call for room service. It was the kind of things an alpha would do for their omega after heat broke, but it wasn’t their fault that Kallen’s body had had such shitty timing. He couldn’t expect them to miss the game to make sure he ate.

It still felt shitty, everything in him yearning for a warm body to curl up against, someone to touch him and ground him. But he managed to drag himself out of bed to open the door, and the beta who’d brought the food left the tray on the table without looking at him. Management had probably warned the hotel, he thought, and kept his own gaze averted. He hoped the beta couldn’t smell what had happened in the room a few hours ago.

Not that he had any reason to be ashamed. After all, he was serving his team, wasn’t he? They were helping him through his heat and by sharing him; it created a sense of community that would have been hard for a group of strangers to form on such short acquaintance.

He just had to remind himself of what his dad had told him; that even if he couldn’t be on the ice tonight, he was still helping them win.

That night they didn’t and when he found out in the morning after missing the live game, Kallen felt so guilty he ended up throwing up the little breakfast he’d eaten. At least no one else knew, but the shame was all the worse for being private. What kind of omega didn’t care enough about his team to stay up and watch them when they went out onto the ice forhim?

Coaches always told you that one man didn’t win or lose a game, but he still wondered if this counted. Could they somehow sense that he’d fallen asleep on the job?

“YOU OKAY?”

He blinked at Levy Pollock, sitting by his side at lunch. After his heat, all he’d wanted was to go home and lick his metaphorical wounds—not to have to look any of his teammates in the face after what he’d done. But they had another game tonight. He was still a little sore, even more than usual thanks to Yrovsky, but when the trainers had checked in, he’d told them he could play, and they’d taken him at his word. “Tired,” he said, shrugging.

The shoulder squeeze startled him a little and he looked up to see the young alpha was smiling encouragingly at him. “We’ll get them tonight,” he declared, and he sounded like he believed it too.

Kallen found his own lips twitching upwards, like he’d really been worried about the game. Even though he was one of the only guys about Kallen’s own age, he didn’t know Levy very well. Mostly because the guy seemed to be everyone’s best friend, always chatting with different people, and Kallen... Well, Kallen wasn’t like that. But it was easy to be a little more sociable when invited to by such a ridiculous grin. “Yeah,” he agreed. “We’ll massacre them.”

That got him a laugh out of Levy. “Whoa, dude!”

“What are you rookies gossiping about?” Vandy leaned in to ask from behind, rubbing at both their heads. Levy shoved back at him with a well-placed elbow, already smoothing down his dark curls. Kallen didn’t bother, he needed the contact a lot more than he wanted to look neat, really. Besides, his own dark blond hair was always messy and the less he gave the impression it bothered him, the less likely he was to tempt the goalie to keep doing it.

“An old man like you wouldn’t get it,” he sassed back, shocking them both into guffaws.

This was team, he remembered, this was what made everything worth it. And theyweregoing to win.

THE TIGERS DIDN’T SEEthem coming, and they couldn’t stop them. Kallen felt like he’d swallowed the sun, flying down the ice, connecting pass after pass with his line. They’d put Levy with him and that just made it more fun; Levy was the only other young player in the team getting considerable ice time—as well he should, because he wasamazing.

Yrovsky gave him a dirty smile from the bench, “You good, little one?” and the implication was clear, but Kallen nodded and kept reaching for the water like he’d meant to. This had nothing to do with heat, it’d been two days. He was just good at hockey and he was good with this line.

They won 5-1 and the Tiger fans werenothappy with them, booing and even growling. It was their territory, and the Cats had humiliated them, but nothing could penetrate the joy rushing through Kallen’s veins as his team lifted him above their heads to celebrate.

HE ENDED UP SITTINGwith Levy on the plane home, sharing earphones and watching a weird Japanese cooking show on Levy’s tablet. Kallen wasn’t quite following, so it wasn’t that surprising he fell asleep halfway through. He was only surprised to wake up to realise he’d slobbered all over his teammate’s shoulder.

But Levy hadn’t even teased him about it, laughing at his blushing face. “As long as you keep playing like that, Guin, you can keep your shoulder privileges.”

EVEN THOUGH HE’D HADsex with every man in the room, Kallen didn’t think twice about walking out of the shower naked, head buried in his towel as he tried to get his hair dry enough not to drip all over the rest of him. The contract was very clear, when he was in heat, some of his teammates would help him through it. It was a pleasure for them, naturally. But the rest of the time they had no more right to touch him than anyone else.

So, the hands sneaking around his waist and dragging him against a muscular torso made him startle and try to jerk away. “Wha—”

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