Page 125 of Ice Wolf
While the game had been tough, it all boiled down to the last shot. I was skating well, gliding on the ice. Owning it. I shot the puck to my right wing and Mark moved swiftly toward the goal, at the last minute passing it off to me.
My teammates were working well.
The goal was in sight.
Everything was going perfectly.
Until the right defenseman came at me from nowhere. I’d been tripped a half dozen times, but not so intentionally. I went down. Hard. Skidding across the ice.
Whistles blew. The crowd roared in anger.
Anger boiled through me and as soon as my body stopped skidding, I scrambled to my feet, almost stumbling as a jolt of pain pounded the left side of me.
The bastard Gators player grinned at me. He’d done it on purpose of course to break my momentum. I flung myself forward, caught by two of my teammates while the referee was debating punishment.
“Don’t do it, man. He’s not worth it,” Eric hissed.
“Yeah, just shake it off. Let’s just make the goal so we can get the fuck out of here,” Pete said as he glared in the defenseman’s direction.
I sucked in my breath, snarling at him. But I was prepared to walk away and would have if the asshole hadn’t shot me the middle finger.
With tremendous force, I shoved Eric and Pete out of my way and skating with a fire burning deep within in the man’s direction. Just as I was about to throw a punch, another commotion broke out.
But this time from the stands.
I glanced around me, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Then the Jumbotron highlighted someone in the stands. What the hell?
“What is she doing?” Eric asked, complete amusement in his voice.
Blinking, I stared at the face of my beautiful fiancée as she argued with the ref. How she’d gotten his attention, I might never know, but she was berating him with style. Her expression was fierce and she was waving her arms in fury.
“She’s pissed because the ref issued a minor penalty.” Pete was clearly impressed.
So was I.
I skated closer, homing in on what was being said over the screams and whistles. Maybe my extra senses were truly kicking in since she’d come into my life.
“Can you hear anything?” Eric asked.
“She’s arguing that what the defenseman did was egregious enough there should be a misconduct penalty, and the guy should be tossed from the game completely.”
“Holy crap. Is the ref allowing her to show him something on her phone?”
Carl, our captain, had skated to our group. “Isn’t that your fiancée?”
“Yep. She knew the ref couldn’t see what happened. My guess is she took a video.”
“What happened to the ones in the arena?” Pete tossed out.
“Who knows, but look at the guy and look at her face. Would ya?” I was practically beaming as I watched her berating the ref. That would either get her a luxury box for life or kicked out permanently. But it was a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
As soon as the ref turned around, the crowd quieted.
Seconds later, we were still in shock.
“She managed to get the defenseman kicked out,” Eric said, shaking his head. “That lady deserves a bottle of champagne. Now, let’s win this damn game.”
“Woot. Woot. Woot!” I threw my fist in the air as I skated around the perimeter of the ice.
