Page 102 of The Price of Ice

“Will they take my word for it?”

Mr Evans tilted his head, but he met Kallen’s eyes easily. “Look, justice is a process so I would never make any promises. But there are several things that help our case; your youth and the vulnerability inherent in your position, like your mother mentioned. The fact that officially the video has been found by the police during another investigation and they will have approached you to testify. And well, the sympathy most people feel for someone who’s been abused. So we can say we are playing with a good handicap here, so to speak.”

Kallen huffed, shaking his head, and drained his remaining coffee for something to do with all the nervous energy. “I...” Heglanced at his mother, whose green eyes were fixed on him. She nodded. “Okay then,” he told Mr Evans. “Let’s do this.”

IT SEEMED IMPOSSIBLE, but life kept going. Mr Evans had told him quitting didn’t make sense at this stage, since if McKinley was convicted, there was a chance the White Cats would decide to back up their omega at long last to save face. Not to mention the fact that he could get paid until the start of the next season for the low price of keeping his mouth shut.

And there was one more thing Kallen hadn’t mentioned but couldn’t forget. If he didn’t quit, the White Cats couldn’t hire a new omega.

It wasn’t much, he knew. And it wasn’t his place. Like Taylor said, maybe there was some omega out there who could handle it. But most couldn’t, Kallen believed that much. Most would be destroyed by what he’d experienced.

They didn’t deserve that, and Kallen couldn’t see a way to make them believe they didn’t. It would require taking down the entire league, everything that governed the sport he loved, and all other sports too... It wasn’t something a single person could accomplish.

Maybe not even many people together.

But he could do this small thing, for a few months, maybe longer.

So he didn’t quit.

MAYBE HE WASN’T FAMOUSenough to get recognised everywhere, but he also wasn’t crazy enough to pick up a random guy in a club and make them sign one of those prewritten one-night-stand heat arrangements you got at thecopy store.

There were agencies that arranged sexual encounters between alphas and omegas in heat, which still meant a stranger but at least one who’d had a background check and even reviews. The fee wasn’t too outrageous, since it was a service intended for normal people and the agencies were highly regulated and could only charge for certain items. The paperwork he had to fill out with his preferences and limits was intimidating, and he ended up ticking the ‘no’ box for anything he couldn’t understand.

All he wanted was to get fucked without getting hurt. He didn’t have any great expectations of pleasure besides the relief of heat breaking, and even that felt like too much to ask. He wished he could talk to someone about this. Well, not someone, another omega. But Analisa was on the pill, which she said was the devil she knew, and he didn’t feel like he could ask how she dealt with it when she had to go off it every six months. Maybe she had an alpha at university she trusted.

He thought Brad, as a medical professional, might not be on it himself. But while their conversations sometimes went on for a bit, Kallen couldn’t imagine texting anyone about something like this. So he booked himself a hotel room, mid-range, but equipped for heat with snacks and drinks.

And then he booked himself two different alphas, one for Thursday and one for Friday. Calculating from his last disastrous heat in Jiro and assuming the pill hadn’t messed up his cycle, that should more or less work out. He wrote down their numbers on two separate pieces of paper, intent on only calling them from the landline.

His parents knew where he was, of course. And so did Analisa, sinceshewasn’t shy about asking questions when he’d said he couldn’t hang out. But he saw no reason to tell anyone else, and so of course Levy was still texting him.

It wasn’t like Kallen had much to do other than watch shitty television and wait for his body to demand something. Eitherfood or sex would do. He half wanted his heat to rise quickly so he could get over with.

[I found the FS website. Their graphics are terrible.] It took Kallen a moment to guess the abbreviation was forFair Sport. Was Levy trying to be discreet in case someone looked at his phone? The notion that an alpha could be worried was an odd one to him, but the way Levy had talked about the possibility of a better system had nothing of the purported alpha confidence.

[Um not to criticise!] came another message, timestamped two minutes later.

[Haven’t seen it,] Kallen explained. [Analisa read me what it says... Didn’t wanna look at it after that.]

[Oh, is she the one who told you about them? Makes sense if she is a law student.]

Kallen was rather surprised he remembered that. He huffed and got up to chug down some water. It would be so simple to talk about Analisa again, to keep this one secret from Levy. And he hadevery rightto do it, Mr Evans was his lawyer and what Kallen did and didn’t do to the White Cats was his business.

Levy probably wouldn’t even disagree. So why did it feel so wrong not to share it?

[It say alphas are welcome to meetings,] came the next message. [But pretty sure they’d kick my butt if I tried.]

[Like, not that I blame them.]

[You could call ahead,] Kallen found himself texting back. He wasn’t about to try toconvinceLevy, but he was all too aware that Levy probably didn’t have anyone to talk about this either. Maybe his parents, who’d apparently managed to raise their children to know how to use will and lure respectfully, would be understanding. But they wouldn’tunderstand.

[Oh FACEPALM EMOJI You are way too smart for me.]

[EYEROLL EMOJI Modesty doesn’t suit you.]

Levy had asked if he wanted to watch some telly together, but Kallen didn’t have his laptop with him, and he didn’t want to explain why or lie about it. Instead, they ended up playing Scrabble on a cranky app that kept making them stop for ads.

He was still laughing at Levy’s latest offering (Canoodle, using his original ‘noodle’) when he laid his head down on the pillow and became aware of the intensely floral scent of the detergent. He glanced down, confused because it hadn’t been that strong earlier and he’d been in enough hotel rooms to know it was unusual for them to use anything scented at all.

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