Page 44 of The Price of Ice

That startled him into looking up. “What?”

“Like, not literally.” He shrugged. “But I used what you taught me. Lure. And... It was...” He swallowed past the lump in his throat. “It was more than okay.”

His face was burning and the silence that followed his admission felt like it would suffocate him, but when he made to pull back, Levy’s grip tightened on his hand. “No, I...” The alpha’s voice was rough. “I’m glad,” he said, and there was force behind it. Kallen didn’t think he meant it, but he thought hewantedto mean it. “That’s how it should be, heat is supposed to be a pleasure, not...”

Kallen shrugged a little. It was true, of course, only if it had been up to him, it wouldn’t have been a pleasure he’d share with the likes of O’Malley and Kennington.

"Okay,” he said at last out of desperation. “Let’s just get out of here, I’m hungry.”

It wasn’t true right then, he was more likely to throw up than eat, but it seemed like a good excuse to end the conversation before it went anywhere even more awkward.

KALLEN PUT SOME MUSICon the drive home and Levy sorted out dinner, which they ate with a film on. There wasn't much else to do with the odd tension between them but ignore it, was there? Hockey came first for them both, after all, and hockey demanded Kallen fuck other men—no matter how little he or Levy liked it.

Not that it actually counted as him fuckingothermen when Levy hadn’t even tried to go there with him.

But Kallen was too smart to ask questions whose answers he was pretty sure he wouldn’t like. As long as they didn’t try to disassemble the whole thing, their... friendship worked. They had fun together in all the ways they could, and when they touched, it was theirs, even if Kallen couldn’t promise anything else.

It would have been stupid to waste those moments of joy wishing for the impossible. Or fearing what hadn’t come yet.

Chapter 17

This time around, his heat was unlikely to coincide with any games. A not insignificant blessing since he didn’t want to risk it interfering with his streak. But it would be in the arena’s heat room, which was making him apprehensive as fuck. Besides Johnson, it was once again McKinley’s go. Technically, the captain was the most trustworthy player in the team, or at least Management thought so, but if he wastheirman, it pretty much guaranteed he wasn’tKallen’s, didn’t it? And if he tried to lure him into slowing down and the Ice Cap didn’t approve... Well, he’d be in trouble. So he’d already decided to let his captain do what he wanted with him and hope he’d leave afterwards so Kallen could...

Fuck, so he could try and use this new lure thing on Johnson of all people. Johnson was nice enough, not the brightest of guys, but he’d seemed genuinely happy to invite Kallen into his home and drive him to the stadium every day before Kallen had bought his own car. And even if Levy was letting him stay at his place at the moment, he officially still lived with Johnson. That wasn’t in his contract, he was sure, but that didn’t mean Management would like it if he said he wanted to move somewhere else, that they wouldn’t get suspicious, or at least look at him as more of a risk if he did.

They couldn’t trade him, but that didn’t mean they had to keep him on the active roster either.

He hadn’t spared a thought to the last guy in his heat rota until Marc Alexei—twenty-eight, defenceman, not the chattiest—showed up first to his hotel room and walked right into him, diving in for a kiss. Kallen gasped into his mouth, clutching at the alpha’s thick arms and before he knew it, he was flat on the bed.

Alexei was heavy on top of him, and shoving his erection against Kallen’s thigh and Kallen was shuddering and melting back as his heat suddenly spiked, alpha pheromones hitting him straight in the hindbrain. He whimpered, tugging at Alexei’s clothes. He needed...

The laugh went off like cymbals in the room, and atop him, Alexei stilled.

“Getting started without us, Alex?” McKinley asked in a tone that would have earned him his nickname all over again in a heartbeat.

The defenceman scrambled off Kallen and turned to face the two other alphas, both older than him and therefore his hierarchical superiors. He looked at the ground like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, leaving Kallen’s naked body completely exposed to their gazes.

Johnson met his eyes and Kallen immediately broke it, curling onto his side, face burning. He hadn’t done anything wrong, he knew that, but the tension in the room was unbearable.

“Sorry, captain,” Alexei was saying. “Got caught up.”

“Mmm... See that it doesn’t happen again.” And with that, he was striding up to the bed, tugging Kallen flat on his back again and bending over to claim his own kiss, so deep Kallen was forced to breathe through his nose. It wasn’t long before McKinley’s hands on his hips guided him to turn and get on all fours, exposing his arse. This was easier, familiar. But his captain didn’t spread him and spear him as usual, instead he lingered, squeezing his arse cheeks with what Kallen guessed was appreciation. When he squirmed at the way it tugged onhis wet hole, McKinley laughed. “Oh, you want it, Guin?” He bumped his crotch against Kallen’s arse. “No, youneed it, don’t you?”

He tried to speak, but his throat was seizing. It was way too hot in the Heat room, even though he’d set the temperature lower than was normally comfortable. He did need it, and they all knew it. His arms were shaking as McKinley ran his hands up his back, then back down his thighs and buttocks, never getting close to his hole.What was he doing? Was this a punishment? Kallen hadn’t known who was at the door, and he was in heat, he couldn’t—

“You were gonna give Alexei what’s mine?” McKinley murmured into his ear, suddenly he was wrapped around Kallen’s back. It would have been great, except that he was fully clothed and Kallen desperately needed skin. His scent was telling Kallen’s body that what it needed was coming, but he wasn’t getting it, not even the little relief skin-on-skin contact would have provided.

He shook his head, desperate.

“Greedy,” the alpha said reprovingly. “Maybe you should get nothing.”

Kallen cried out in distress and tried to turn around. He wasn’t sure to what purpose, but McKinley’s hands tightened and his voice grew angrier. “Stay.”

The intensity of the order felt like a blow to the head, and Kallen’s elbows gave up on him as he collapsed forward, barely managing to keep his nose and mouth from ending up against the bedding.

“It seems to me you have forgotten your place, Guin,” his captain said. He was calm again or appeared so. Of course, he was famous for destroying people on the ice with that same attitude.

If he’d been able to speak, he’d have begged, but while McKinley played with him, heat had kept on rising. He was trembling, and much too disoriented for words, and he’d been told to stay. So all he could do was exactly that as McKinley shoved three fingers into his hole hard. He keened, pleasure mixing with the pain of the sudden penetration. He’d stretched himself, but he’d tightened up again with all the threats, his body wanting to protect him.

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