Page 96 of The Price of Ice

“Yeah?” he asked. “Let me find that one...”

By the time he’d asked about every single reproductive hormone Maslow had tested him for, he thought he’d made his point pretty comprehensively that he knew what the doctor was doing. Maslow actually had lost his cool and cut him off, telling him that he had to go and would be sending him the prescription.

Kallen put his phone down with a grin. He didn’t expect Maslow to be keen to call him for a check-in any time soon.

HE’D GONE BACK TO THEcafé where he’d left his friend in a daze.

“Wow,” Analisa told him when he flopped onto the chair by her side. “You look like shit. What happened?”

Kallen shook his head. “Nothing, just...”

“Okay, let me grab you a drink first.” She decided, standing up and heading for the counter.

She didn’t ask him what he wanted, and he didn’t care enough to chase her.

The cup clinked against the wooden table, making him blink back to the present. “Hot chocolate,” Analisa announced.

Kallen hesitated, fearing an ungodly amount of sugar, then brought it closer and took a cautious sip. It was a bit too hot still, but dark and creamy.

“Sugar free,” his friend told him then, eyebrow raised like she could see he’d doubted her.

“Thank you,” Kallen told her.

“Okay.” She retook her seat, starting to close her books and tidy up her pens. “So what gives? First you get all mysterious asking me if I can use lure, then you forget to answer me untilyou need a chaperone here.” She snapped her fingers, long ping nails moving dangerously fast. “Time to spill.”

He took another sip of his drink, buying himself time as well as a bit of energy. “Taylor wants me to try to teach other omegas how to use lure.”

“Um, what?” Analisa asked. “Teach them? Like, so you know how?”

“I... Yeah, I do. Or I guess I have a natural talent?” His hesitation irritated him at once. “No, I do. I could do it from the very first time. My... flatmate described it to me, and I just came up with a way to do it.”

Analisa, with instincts that would serve her well in court, latched onto precisely the wrong detail. “Your flatmate? Didn’t know you had a flatmate. Didn’t you make mad money? Why did you have to share?”

Kallen shrugged a little. “At first they put me with a family, an older teammate and his wife.” He very carefully did not look just in case her mind went to all the awkward places his own had done. “But Levy lived in the same building, and he had a two-bedroom flat, so I ended up... Well, he hurt his elbow, and I stayed with him for a while to help him out. And then...”

“You never moved out?” she guessed.

“Yeah.”

She made a low, thoughtful sound. “And this is Levy of the puppies, right?”

For a moment, Kallen had no idea what she was talking about. Then he remembered his friend had been fantasising about pets a few weeks back. He snorted. “Imaginary puppies. But sure, he’s sweet.”

“And he told you about lure?”

He nodded. “Yeah, he’d...” He scrubbed at his face. “I know it’s fucked up, the team dynamics, and I don’t want to—”

“Kallen,” she cut in. “Youlived through it; I can handle hearing it.”

Huffing, he turned his face to look out the window. He wasn’t sure he could handletellingher. When he’d lived through it, he’d felt like he had no choice. He’d had to push himself through to survive, but now... Now he just wished he could forget it all. Move on.

But of course, that would have meant moving on from Levy too. Walking away from even the chance of them.

It was such a small chance, impractical and absurd. He didn’t get why he couldn’t quite make himself give up on it.

Maybe this could be the test. If he could tell Analisa, and if she could see that Levy had done the best he could under the circumstances, then maybe... “He got assigned to my heat rota, but he told me he didn’t want to do it, that he’d pass.” He swallowed. “I asked... I asked him if he’d be there to help. Because the heat before that someone got rough with me.”

His friend let out a very unladylike growl.

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