Page 31 of Broken Ice
Emilio frowned and opened his mouth, but whatever he’d been about to say, he seemed to think better of it. His mouth clicked shut. Another sharp, weird nod.
“Alrighty. Bye.” Beau closed the door.
He shuffled to his bedroom. He was going to put the shirt away and return it later. He was—
He stuffed the piece of clothing against his face. Oh, Jesus Holy Christ, that smelt good.
He collapsed onto the bed. He managed to set an alarm for 11:25—it would give him enough time to be just slightly late—and then crawled under the sheets. The shirt remained firmly pressed into his mouth and nose.
Within seconds, he was dead to the world.
CHAPTER FIVE
Beau managed to return to his corporeal being in time to take a very thorough shower and drive to practice just over the speed limit. He would have been mostly on time if he hadn’t had to mourn the fact that he’d been stupid enough to not only sleep, but todroolon Emilio’s shirt, meaning its scent was now completely muddled.
Beau was fully aware that Emilio had given him the piece of clothing for hisnextheat so Beau didn’t annoy him and his Alpha instincts in the middle of the night again. Which meant that there was no feasible explanation for Beau to ask for another one in two weeks.
“Fuck,” Beau shouted. He was a fucking idiot.
He put the shirt in a Ziplock bag in a vain attempt to preserve it, but it was probably a lost cause.
Beau was tired, grumpy, and sore as he made it to the rink. Greg let him get checked up after practice, so Beau threw his gear on and made it to the ice just as the first drill started.
“Go warm up,” Phil, the training coach, said. Beau didn’t have the heart to tell him it was impossible to strain his muscles more than they already were, and followed the instructions.
Beau didn’t remember much of the practice, concentrating fully on putting one skate in front of the other and not dying in the process.
“You don’t look so good,” Don pointed out helpfully as they finally made it to the locker room.
“Thanks, Martin. Truly, your observations are invaluable,” Beau snarked.
Tinny frowned as he passed them. “Who the hell is Martin?”
Beau’s face lit up. “This dork’s real name is Martin,” he said cheerfully.
Don sighed. “No, it isn’t. It’s mymiddlename.”
Tinny cackled. “Martin? Bro, that doesn’t suit you at all.”
Beau managed to put the attention on Don for the next twenty minutes, successfully avoiding most inquiries about how run-down he appeared and no doubt smelt.
Pavel managed to sneak in there, though, sitting beside Beau, eyes round and concerned. “You okay?”
“Yep. Seriously, man, thanks for checking in, but this is just how it is.” Beau shrugged. He’d had to accept his new reality and wished his teammates would normalise it, too…even though hedidappreciate their concern.
“Okay.” Pavel lowered his voice. “Is everything okay with Emilio?”
Beau frowned, glancing at the Alpha in question. Emilio was talking with Pez, appearing completely normal. “Yeah? Why?”
“He was just…a little crazy this morning,” Pavel hedged.
“Crazy how?”
“Just. He was saying something about how I should have a key to your apartment in case something happened to you? Which,I mean, obviously I’d be happy to if you wanted that, but he was very intense about it.”
Beau winced.Oh, God. “Sorry. That’s totally my fault. I’ll talk to him.”
Pavel didn’t seem fully reassured, but he nodded.
