Page 36 of Pucking the Enemy

“Like it or not, Duchess, we are family now. Family takes care of each other.”

“I didn’t think you’d want to be involved,” she admitted, pushing one of the veggie chips around. “I’ve been preparing to do this on my own.”

Cormac snorted. “Well, you can get that idea out of your head. You’re one of us now, like it or not.”

Hazel sighed. “There’s something else. One of the reasons I left the morning after my heat was because I realized you guys are members of the Avalon Knights.”

“Hell, yeah, we are.” I smirked.

“Don’t worry, we aren’t manwhores who are looking for puck bunnies,” Phillip assured her. “Eat,” he commanded gently.

Hazel took a bite of grilled cheese and slowly chewed as she thought over her words.

“Do you know number forty-one from the Hawks?” she asked.

I frowned. “That asshole, Sebastian Coombs? Yeah, we know. I’ve punched him on the ice once or twice. He’s an insufferable ass. The man is always surrounded by puck bunnies and the same omega that he doesn’t even bother to make it official with. What’s her name again?”

I had seen the omega from a distance once or twice. She was always near him, but he had never once officially dated her, at least that was the word online. Rumors about Sebastian stringing along a poor omega had been rife for years.

“Uhh… Roman?” Phillip gave me a pointed look.

“What?” I asked, distracted from my grumble. He nodded at Hazel with wide eyes, and I looked at her. She was biting her lip and looked unhappy.

Oh fuck.

“Are you the omega?” I asked, horrified.

“We’ve been best friends since childhood. I go to his games to support him. He isn’t stringing me along.” Her voice was testy.

Of all people to be her best friend, it had to be Sebastian Coombs? We had been enemies on the ice since our freshman year.

I had a distinct feeling that this was going to complicate matters. “Wait, is he the one who insinuated you were a whore?” I growled.

Fuck, no. He couldn’t be saying shit like that to my omega. I would pummel his face into the ice next time I saw him.

“As I have said multiple times, he was merely shocked at the news I was pregnant.” She shrugged, but I could tell that his words hurt her, all the same.

“You didn’t do a single thing wrong.”

“I decided to sleep with a random guy I met at a party and then ended up having a surprise heat and banging his entire pack.” She pouted.

“Yeah? And?” I asked. “You know omegas are meant to be with packs. It’s a freaking biological urge that can be damn hard to ignore. You were hit with a surprise heat that was stupidly strong, and even then, you were smart about what you did. You took photos of my ID and sent it to your friends—wait, you didn’t send a photo ID to him, did you ?”

Hazel shook her head. “I sent it to a group chat with my girlfriends. Sebastian tends to act funny if I go on a date.” She shrugged.

Rage simmered under my skin. I bet the fucker acted weird if she went on a date because he was most likely in love with her. Who wouldn’t have been in love with such a sweet, caring omega? She looked like sin and smelled freaking delicious.

“Good,” I said, pulling her closer. Picking up a carrot stick, I dipped it in the ranch and held it out for her to eat. For a moment, I worried that she was going to reject me, but my chest filled with pride as she opened her mouth and took the bite I offered.

There was something almost primal, innate, about getting the woman I had gotten pregnant to eat. Even though we had just found out she was pregnant, I was already excited at the prospect of going out in the early hours of the morning to hunt down various snacks to satisfy her cravings.

Hazel finished her food while we discussed more boring topics, like classes and the weather—we really discussed something as asinine as the weather. I wanted to talk about more serious things, like the baby, about her plans for birth, about our role in their life. But she was obviously becoming overwhelmed with the topic, so we backed off slowly and let her eat in peace.

“I need to get home,” Hazel finally said after finishing her food. “It’s getting late.”

“We can drive you back,” Phillip offered. He said it casually, but I could tell he just didn’t want the omega out of our sight.

She shook her head. “There’s no need. I booked a driver.”

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