Page 5 of Rock Pucking Bottom

Hell, it keeps happening.

I never should have moved to Vancouver without a work visa lined up. The stupid things we did for love. At least, the lying bastard was out of my life and I had a paid house through the year. Only good thing about his guilt over being caught for having two wives was the fact I didn't have to worry about a place to live or at least until my visa ran out, then I'd have to move back to the states in a rush.

It was so hard to get experience when you aren't allowed to work. Thank God, the addiction community had given me a work around. I led several support groups and even helped mentor people who were new to the recovery process.

Looking up at my watch, I realized I'd have to get ready for the group over at the Lutheran church in about an hour, but until then, it meant working on my job applications. I need to find something. I started looking at some of the bigger corporations since they all seemed to have wellness programs.

I just needed someone to give me a job, so I didn't have to return home empty-handed.

Chapter 6

Eoghan

I'dbeeninVancouverfor three days and I was so tightly wound. Deep down, I knew that part of it was the fact that the full moon was three days away.

The fact that I felt so out of place here didn't help a damn thing.

My pack wasn't around me. I didn't know how lone wolves could handle it. I felt so isolated and exposed.

Getting back to my apartment, I noticed there were two bottles of whiskey: a bottle of Jameson and one of the Balvenie sitting on my counter. I didn't remember picking it up. Then I saw the note attached to it.

Welcome to the team!

Happy to have you aboard. Nice to have you here. I figured I would get you one of the best Irish whiskeys I know and my favorite one since you got a great Irish name.

Carter Carmichael.

There was something about the note that grated on my nerves. Probably because I didn't reach out to new team members by leaving gifts at their house. Instead, that's something that I had Dino do for me. I would just tour them around and help them around the rink. Outside of the rink, I kept my circle tighter.

Since I had little else at my new place, I cracked the Jameson bottle open and took a swig.

The amber liquid burned my throat some, but I loved how it tasted. Since I still had some time before practice, I took another gulp.

As the alcohol coursed through my system, I realized the loud ambient noise from outside dimmed and so did my nerves.

My phone dinged to let me know my car was here to pick me up for the arena. I set the bottle onto the side table in the hallway, and I realized that I drank half of it.

In the back of my mind, I shouldn't have drunk so much before practice. Even if it numbed shit, but it was too late now to do anything about it. Thankfully, my metabolism was jacked so I shouldn't appear drunk to anyone else. But I was not drunk. I was just comfortably numb.

I locked up and headed straight to the town car parked in front of my place.

Practice with the Legacy felt so different from the ones held by the Wild.

Practice was open to the media. That was such a big no-no for the Wild. Mainly because our practices could get unpredictable and there seemed to be growing pains here and there when working with other types of shifters. At least on the werewolf side of things, we worked well together even if they came from one of the international packs (which was a miracle after the whole kidnapping debacle). Just by allowing media allowed for so much more noise and chatter. At least the alcohol turned that chatter more to a hum in the air.

Only downside to the alcohol, I felt a little flat-footed. Everything was a smidge slower. Unlike so many of my buddies on the Wild, I didn't have to worry about controlling my wolf while I played since I didn't have any werewolf traits that tried to come out when I played. I was just insanely focused on hockey.

It also didn't help that we were doing a bag skate today. Normally, I enjoyed skating like this, but bag skates sucked ass when I was trying to learn a new system and get some chemistry with my new linemates.

Even though it was lots of suicides and skating, the team leaders emerged. Spencer Suzuki, Carter Carmichael, and Scuba. Those three were so damn quick when they were coming back and forth. But more importantly, they were talkative and always trying to keep people's spirits up.

After doing the dash from blue line to red line back to blue line to the center line and back to the blue line, then to the far red line only to return to the blue line and dash to the far blue line for the fifteenth time; I was about to hurl all my cookies. Carmichael came up to me and put a hand on my back and said, "Don't tell me you're winded."

I panted, trying to keep my stomach out of my lungs.

"Not winded. Just guilty. That bottle you left for me was really tasty, and I had one glass too many. Won't do that again."

Although there was a niggling thought that I might want to quiet everything before a big game. I just never would drink before another bag skate. I don’t know this coach yet and if he announces them, so I was going to avoid drinking before practice.

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