Page 38 of The Price of Ice

His teammate was waiting for him downstairs when he arrived. “Hi...”

“The numbering system is confusing,” he explained, already turning around. “My brothers are in,” he added with a grimace. “Just ignore anything stupid they say, yeah? They used to play, and they got hit in the head a lot.”

Benny’s brothers were both alphas. They were also both white, which meant they were half-brothers. They had the same omega, of course. Probably Alexei Ariak, who’d been an enforcer for the White Cat’s over thirty years earlier. Kallen didn’t know how many kids he’d had, and he hoped he didn’t find out. Statistics were bad enough.

They both got up to greet Kallen, shaking his hand and complimenting him on his play. Naturally, they all watched every single one of the White Cats’ games.

“So gonna keep up that streak of yours?” Matty asked him, chewing on some artificially yellow snacks Kallen couldn’t even identify. He’d quit that shit as a teenager and he didn’t miss it, but Benny’s eyes kept straying to the unhealthy side of the coffee table. It must have been tough to live with people who weren’t hockey players and indulged like this, Kallen thought.

He shrugged. “Gonna keep showing up and doing my best,” he told Matty.

The alpha laughed, shaking his head at him. “Cool as a cucumber, aren’t you?”

“We gonna play?” Kallen asked him instead of replying. He didn’t want to be rude, but he didn’t have any reason to let these strangers interrogate him, whatever claims to being basically family they liked to make.

Playing video games had passed a few hours, anyway. He’d stuck to water and lemonade despite all the beer they’d offered him. Benny was alright, but Benny was letting both Matty and Chase walk all over him, so Kallen wasn’t going to count on him for anything more than this. Once they forgot the power games and focused on the video games instead, it was even fun.

Then he’d gone to the toilet and overheard them asking Benny if he had a crush on him. His teammate denied it, but his voice was going high and he was obviously upset. His brothers must have known it, but despite being older than Benny, they apparently weren’t mature enough to know when enough was enough.

Kallen sighed, and let himself linger in the corridor a moment longer. Then he took a deep calming breath and stepped back into the living room. He didn’t say a word, justlet himself stand there, facing the three alphas who’d suddenly turned his way, completely silent.

“Benny, wanna come to mine?” he asked, and he wasn’t actually pulling, not anymore.

It wasn’t like Benny needed enticement when he was being treated like this in his own home. His teammate scrambled to his feet. “Yeah, yeah I— For sure.”

Chase attempted to say goodbye. “Nice meeting you, Guin. Come around anytime.”

Kallen thought about responding, something innocuous. He’d been doing it all his life, so what was once more? They were dicks, but they were probably harmless. And then he thought about the way they’d all stopped.Fuck it, he thought. Hewasn’tgoing to come around ever again, so why pretend?

They left without speaking another word.

“I’M SORRY,” BENNY BLURTEDout the moment they got out into the streets below. “I shouldn’t have—”

“Moved in with them?” Kallen guessed, way too sharply. He didn’tknowBenny, he reminded himself. And it was none of his business if his brothers were bullies, or...

But Benny laughed, staring at him. “You were... The balls in you, Guin.”

Kallen kept walking. “I am not coming back,” he said at last. “So I don’t care what they think. But you...” He shrugged, leaving it there in case Benny wanted to pick it up.

It seemed he wouldn’t, but then, so low Kallen instinctively turned to try to catch his words, Benny asked, “You heard them, didn’t you?”

“Sure, they were being dicks to you.”

Benny’s head was so low he looked shorter than Kallen when he had a good five inches on him. He didn’t mean to do it, buthe found himself stopping and reaching to grab hold of Benny’s elbow. “Hey.”

“I should have defended you,” Benny said, and his eyes were full of pain. “I’m just—”

Kallen turned to face him fully. “You should have defendedyourself. I was fine.”

Benny shook his head. “They were being disrespectful. They owe you— They are supposed to respect you. You’re the White Cats’ omega. Like our Dad was,” he added.

Fuck, Kallen thought, if there was one topic hedidn’tfeel up to discussing. “Benny,” he said gently, and reached with his other hand to cup the other man’s face. Except Benny stumbled back like he’d slapped him instead.

“I...” He looked like a rabbit in the headlights, like he was scared ofKallen. And it was so odd to see an alpha acting like that, a big hulking man who could take being hit with a puck without even stopping, that for the first time Kallenlooked at him.

Benny Ariak was an alpha, he looked like one too, but he didn’tbehavelike one. Kallen had assumed he was being deferential to their older teammates, and that he was polite and even nice to Kallen because he’d been brought up in the Den where omegas abounded. But Matty and Chase pretty much proved that theory not wrong, but basically impossible.

“It’s okay,” he said, hands raised between them. Benny still looked ready to bolt, so very slowly Kallen lowered his own shoulders and let the oasis expand inside himself, like a breath of fresh air sweeping away the tension that had somehow come up between them. “You wanna get something to eat?” he offered, not actively pulling, just showing what he was.

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