Page 94 of Break The Ice

Wren keeps a hand on my thigh, a steady support.

“You’re a good alpha, Raider Raines.”

I close my eyes and tilt my head toward him. “So are you.”

He brushes his fingertips along my jaw before urging me to turn towards him. I love this alpha, and I have since the moment I met him all those years ago, playing for a rival team.

I remember the flirtatious rage and excitement that would race through my bloodstream at the thought of seeing him.

I remember being slammed into the boards by him and wishing everyone and everything would disappear and leave us alone.

I remember touching his hand to congratulate him on his win and feeling an electric zing that wrecked me as I watched him skate out of my life.

I lived for our games.

Where we’d meet on the ice as enemies.

And then he walked into my clubroom, my team, my life. He put on the Greene Demon jumper, and I knew without a doubt I wasn’t going to let him leave. I wrangled it to have him sent to live with us, and I made sure that the team knew he was off limits.

I staked my claim, but I was getting nowhere until she came along and tipped our world upside down.

“You’re really going to retire?” I whisper.

Wren nods, those steel-grey eyes seeing too much. He always has. “Yeah, it’s time, and I don’t want to be apart from you, Kit, and Callan, and Ryann, if she stays.”

I press my lips to his jaw and lift a hand to his shoulder, pulling him into me.

“This is us, forever,” I whisper. “I’m not going to let anyone fuck it up.”

Wren chuckles. “Let's eat, then, and plan.”

I don’t know what it is about food, but it has a way of turning everything on its head.

Ryann sits back, full, her eyes distant, and purses her lips.

“What?” Kit asks and nudges her. The two of them are sitting side-by-side on the floor. Kit is sipping at his soda and watching her.

“If I refuse to go anywhere, he’s going to get frustrated and make a mistake. He likes the chase, the game, right?”

While this was my train of thought, hearing her say it makes me feel gross.

“I want you to do one thing for me, no, two,” Ryann says, looking at each of us in turn.

“What?” Callan asks before one of us can promise her the world.

“I want you to promise that if something should happen, something bad, I want you to remember the good times and not dwell. Don’t linger in regrets and what ifs. Just remember the good times we had.”

I swallow hard and put down my last half-eaten piece of pizza.

“That’s not going to happen.”

She flashes me a smile. “I know, but just in case.”

“And what is the other thing?” Callan asks quickly.

“I want you to get a tracker, and either put it on me or hide it on my person.”

I blink several times, but it’s a good idea. It’s a great idea. But then the fear slams into me, making it hard to breathe. The thought of her being in a position where we need to find her scares the shit out of me.

---