Page 33 of The Price of Ice

"Thanks," Kallen told him, feeling a little high. He was more tired than he should have been, although it was difficult to tell if it was the three previous games catching up with him or his current physiological state. The second goal startled him into looking up at the beginning of the third. He'd lost time, but he couldn't have said how much, and he realised that he couldn't stay until the end. He got up, ignoring the curious looks, and made his way to the changing room. A cold shower was in order if he wanted to make it to postgame.

Not to play, that was out of the question, but just to find out the results before he got a taxi back to their hotel.

WHEN HE'D RETURNEDto the bench in street clothes, he'd seen Coach clock him, but other than a nod, no one acknowledged he was acting strangely. It wasn't like the whole team didn't know his heat cycle. He realised he'd not even thought about following protocol and letting someone know his heat was rising. He'd never needed to excuse himself from agame, and he worried about them thinking he wasn't serious if he prioritised himself.

But he'd played even knowing his heat was coming, right up to the point where he'd known he was fading and couldn't have done them any good. It couldn't have been anyone else's decision but his own, and so he'd made it.

So when the time ran out with the score 2-1 in their favour, he stood up and went to grab his bag from where he'd left it ready on the locker room bench.

The taxi driver was a beta like he'd requested on the app, so he could just let his head loll back on the seat and feel his muscles growing looser by the minute. It wasn't too far from being drunk, or post-orgasmic.

"We are here," the woman told him, and he opened his eyes enough to get out of the car. She actually waited for him to enter the hotel before driving away. Betas weren’t sensitive to heat pheromones, but maybe she could tell he was tired. He should give her a good review later.

FOOD HAD HELPED SETTLEhim some, like some of his body's attention had been deviated towards digestion. But even so, as soon as he'd washed his hands, he'd dropped his clothes at the foot of the bed and positioned himself to get two fingers into his hole. They went in easy through the slickness he found there.

Damn, it felt so good, although not as good as... Well, a cock. And if he was thinking of a specific one, it was just because it was the last one he'd seen. He tried to focus on the ones he could actually have.

O’Malley was older, which meant he had precedence in the team’s hierarchy. But if Kennington was happy to challenge men a decade his seniors, four years weren’t going to stop him. Benny was technically second in age, but given their little fumbling chatin the plane, Kallen wasn’t counting on him being ready to stand up to anyone.

He texted Management as soon as he finished stretching himself, feeling a little warm but not overwhelmed yet. The timing of the first round was the only one he could control and by God he would. He’d done pretty well, he was growing loose and heady, drunk in the hormones, but he wasn’t too gone yet by the time the alphas knocked. He wanted to get fucked, but he didn’tneedit yet.

The courtesy was a good sign, polite given that they had a copy of his keycard. Benny was the one holding it, he noted absently, which was one point in the goalie’s favour.

“Eager, are we?” Kennington asked him, smirking as he approached the bed where Kallen was lying down, eyes raking over his bare form.

Normally, he’d have lowered his gaze and hoped for the best, and maybe it was his last time with Levy on the phone or knowing about lure, because he raised his chin instead. “Depends, you any good?”

Kennington actually growled, and in that moment, O’Malley stepped forward, patting the other alpha on the back and getting between him and Kallen. “I am,” he claimed.

And Kallen nearly rolled his eyes at him. He was going to get murdered, was what he was. It came easily from there. “Mmm... Well, it was a pretty pass you gave me,” he acknowledged. “Come here.” He didn’t do it consciously, but he could feel that he was pulling as he did.Had he been doing it all along?he wondered. Except probably he hadn’t because he’d been taught to shut his mouth and hide his feelings.

And he’d have remembered this rush of satisfaction if he had. Like the world was expanding. No, likehewas, that calm inside spreading like water, soft and malleable but unstoppable.

O’Malley went to him eagerly and when Kallen reached for him and dragged him into a kiss, he returned it enthusiastically, fucking his mouth like a very unsubtle prelude. Kallen sucked on his tongue, clutching at his shoulders and moaning into it, skin starting to fizzle. Not just satisfaction, butrightness. Like he was meant to do this, to make his desires perfectly clear and have them satisfied.

Oh, but he was going to get fuckedgoodtonight.

When he leaned back, O’Malley kept going, nuzzling at his jaw and biting his ear, but Kallen braced his knees and pushed him back, breaking the contact and offering a smile in apology. “You’re not the only one with something to prove,” he told O’Malley, whose look of desperate lust turned into a smirk he directed very helpfully towards Kennington where he still stood only a few steps away.

Kallen raised an eyebrow at the defenceman. “Are you any good with your mouth, Kennington?” he asked, and let himself fall backwards onto the bed, spreading his legs so his meaning was unmistakeable.

No alpha had put his mouth to his cock before Levy, and even the memory of it had him twitching. But some went wild for the taste and scent of omega slick and had penetrated him with their tongues before they’d done it with their cocks.

He had no idea if Kennington was the type, and really, Kallen would have rather got fucked. But while he burned from it, it felt different this time, like he could stand amidst the flames without being consumed.

If anyone was going to lose control, it would not be him, or at least it would not be him first. And while an omega couldn’t establish dominance, hecoulddo this. Benny had been right about one thing; it’d always been meant to be a service they performed for his sake, not the other way around.

So it only made sense that he guide them, didn’t it?

Kennington hadn’t moved. Kallen didn’t either, instead he sought that quiet oasis inside himself, settling further into it like it was a feather bed.

The other man let out a loud breath and stumbled forward. He fell to his knees at the foot of the bed, all resistance forgotten and took hold of Kallen’s knees, hooking them over his own shoulders to bend him into the appropriate position. Kallen shivered as his cheeks were spread, tugging at his needy hole. Allowing his head to fall back fell dangerously indulgent, but then Kennington’s mouth got to where he was wet, licking up his taint and making him shudder.

He squirmed, cock rubbing against his own belly. “Inside,” he tried to demand, but it came out like a whine, too desperate.

It was too late to take it back, the alpha buried his face deeper, fingers tugging Kallen’s hole open and then his tongue was in him, strong and solid and wet, probably with his own slick but it didn’t really matter because it felt... “More—” The word broke in his mouth as his hips arched into the next jab of that clever tongue, and he had to bite his own to keep from screaming as it curled upwards exactly where he wanted it.

After that, he couldn’t speak. His heat rose until he was drowning in lava and everything lost focus except for the feeling of tongue and fingers going into the centre of him, again and again.