Page 63 of Ice Wolf
I cringed as the team was pushed forward, already being hounded by dozens of reporters. No longer was their desperate need to take their five minutes of my time solely about the game. Tossing Lily my jersey had been easy. Then I’d fucking lost my mind and acted on a whim.
One that could cost me.
“Congratulations, buddy. I didn’t know you were a commitment kind of guy.” Eric snorted as he pounded me on the back.
“A fiancée, huh?” Pete wasn’t the only puck magnet tonight. While his words were coated in heavy sarcasm, he was enjoying the spotlight as much as the rest of the team.
The mob mentality continued as we were led from the arena toward the locker room, dozens of reporters in tow. I continued to glance over my shoulder searching for any sign that Lily had been led away from the chaos to the designated meeting spot. I’d sent several of the team’s security personnel to find her just in case she became the target of unwanted wrath.
Women could be so petty.
I gritted my teeth as I tried to drown out the noise. The questions were flying fast and furious.
“How long have you been dating?”
“When did you pop the question?”
“Was your proposal romantic?”
Suddenly, the huge win was taking a backseat to my fake engagement.
I lagged behind the rest of the team, still hounded but ignoring the reporters. My skin was crawling, the desire to taste the stunning woman crowding out the anger I’d felt at Rocco’s bullshit.
The longer I waited, the more I realized she wasn’t coming. Goddamn it. Well, I’d go to her damn apartment if necessary.Maybe I’d learn how to apologize. I turned, shaking my head when I felt his presence.
Rocco.
I could gather his stench from anywhere and it had little to do with his sweaty uniform.
He was another goddamn shifter. Right now, putting two of us anywhere close was bad news for the public.
Both our bodies had crackled with electricity from coming close to shifting.
The moment I jerked to face him, he was on me, trying to throw a punch. I caught his hand mid-action, twisting his arm at an angle that should have snapped his wrist.
It didn’t.
“You have a fiancée, you fuck?” Rocco hissed. The bastard was grinning even though he had to be in tremendous pain.
“This is between you and me.”
“Maybe I’ll find some time to sully her… reputation since you ain’t a real man.”
The bastard could have said anything in the world to me and eventually, I would have blown it off.
Not this time.
Why? Because he’d threatened my woman.
“You touch her, you die!” I smashed his head against the wall, creating a dent in the wallboard.
The gasps from others were ones of terror and shock.
He shoved me hard enough that my body was pitched back by ten or more feet. The good news was that the reporters had moved out of the way. The bad news was that they’d caught every frame of our fight, our inhuman fight. The videos would be all over the news.
That didn’t matter to either of us. Our hatred went way back.
I retaliated, tossing him up in the air like he was a rag doll. He came down hard, the brutal thud forcing silence in the entire corridor.
