Page 21 of Knot Dead Yet

“Get off him, Mad. We’re going to find Kienna. Come on, Ewan. We’ll deal with him later.” Kane didn’t bark at me or try to yank me off Casimir. I stopped punching, my chest heaving with each breath. He skated to the exit and twisted to point at Casimir. “You, stay here. We don’t want you upsetting Kienna any more than you already have.”

“For fuck’s sake. Fighting is more fun than dealing with a crying girl,” Ewan grumbled and skated toward the door with Kane. His voice echoed in the arena as he left the ice. “Girls cry. It’s their thing, you know.”

A girl who was loved and treated well wouldn’t cry. Even I knew that. And Kienna didn’t strike me as someone who cried easily. So whatever Casimir did, it was bad.

I pushed him against the boards again and moved back. My pack was gone, and while that wouldn’t stop me, I ached to go comfort Kienna too. Casimir wasn’t going anywhere. I could bash his head in later. Tiergan was right: Kienna was more important than anything else.

Casimir straightened, and I braced for him to ram into me, but he didn’t move from his spot against the boards. “You know, you’ll only upset Kienna more fighting me.”

“Shut up!” I snarled, picking up my gloves and stick. “You lied to her, made her cry.”

He let out a long exhale and shook his head. “I never lied to her. I think maybe she was surprised seeing me. She’s distressed that she found out I’m on the team. Herfather’steam. And after last night, I understand why.”

After last night? Kienna had been with my pack last night… until we dropped her off at the hotel. I scowled at the thought, wanting to smash my stick over his head.

“But I’ll make it right,” Casimir continued. “I will do the honorable thing and ask her father to court her.”

“You stay away from her.” I forced myself to skate toward the door or else I would kill the guy. All his snooty talk about doing the right thing; always thinking he knows best. He didn’t know. Not one bit. Kienna belonged to me. I felt it down to my very bones. She belonged to our pack. Some packs shared, and I loved mine like brothers. We would make her life the best one ever. “Kienna ran from you. She doesn’t want you. She’s ours, and if you do anything to fuck that up, you won’t live to see another day.”

I slammed my stick against the boards to make sure he got my point. He didn’t flinch, only stared. Fucker thought he was so tough.

Back to the locker room, I threw my stuff down and untied my skates. Casimir was nothing. I needed to focus on Kienna. She was somewhere, crying and needing our pack to comfort her. And I needed to be the one who did it.

As fast as I could, I threw off my skates and slammed my feet into my runners. Kienna had run from the lounge, so I’d start there. No. Kane would have thought to do that. If they were on that side of the arena, I’d go to the other.

I jogged, listening for Kienna and trying to catch her scent. Problem was that the arena sat over nineteen thousand people. It was a huge place with all sorts of other rooms in the back halls. Plus there were workers everywhere prepping for usto host Chicago in a few days. Concessions and meeting rooms. None of them had a hint of her delicious scent.

Would she have gotten in her car and left? If I went out into the lot… Wait. She didn’t have a car after last night. She had to still be here. I had to find her!

Kienna was upset. She would want a private place where she’d think no one would find her. The quietest spot. So not up here. Too much noise with all the people.

I took off running and thundered down the first set of stairs I could find. Storage, maintenance, steam tunnels. A quarter of the way around, her scent hooked me. Sweet and floral and so very much Kienna.

I ran into the garage where the zambonis were stored. The arena had three, but only one fancy one done up with logos from sponsors. The door to the outside sat open, but Kienna’s scent led me in the opposite direction.

One of the drivers popped out from around a machine and shouted something to me. Yeah, this area was off-limits. I didn’t give a fuck.

I exited through the other side of the garage back into the lower corridor. Kienna’s rich perfume was stronger. I raised my nose, inhaling and tracking it to its source. One of the fluorescent hallway lights flickered.

To my left, a door sat cracked open. The sound of sniffling broke my heart.

I burst in and barely gave my eyes a second to adjust to the unlit room. It was filled with boxes with merchandise for Winnipeg’s NHL team. Kienna sat on two boxes near the rear of the room, wiping her eyes.

There was no thought to it. I rushed forward and wrapped my arms around her. She made a little surprised noise and went stiff, but after a few seconds, she went limp against me and pressed her head against my chest.

I didn’t say anything. I never knew what to say to people. All I could do was be there and let her know she wasn’t alone.

Kienna clung to the front of my jersey. I didn’t know if she was still crying or not, but her breaths were quietly quick and jagged, and she trembled. I nuzzled her head, coating my face in her scent. A few strands of pink hair tickled my nose, but I didn’t stop.

Her brightly colored hair had been what had first drawn me to her. I liked a wild side in girls. Not that I’d had many girlfriends in my life. Two, actually, and only because they used me to get to other members of my pack. I was either too quiet or too intense, or quietly intense as Alderic liked to say, and that scared girls off. But Kienna hadn’t run from me. In fact, she had snuggled up to me, and my heart felt like it might explode.

A low purr softly rumbled in my chest. I let it soothe both of us.

After a few minutes, maybe longer, but way too soon, Kienna eased back and wiped her cheeks before giving me a small smile. Her eyes were so bright even in the dim light. “Thank you. I needed a hug.”

Not even winning the Calder Cup would ever feel this good.

“Anything you need, I’m your guy.” And I meant it. All she would have to do is say the word.

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