Page 75 of Broken Ice
“This is so nice! But, uh, time to get back to it now. Let’s head down,” Beau blustered.
“Um…now?”
“Yeah! I’ve got…uh, I’ve got to talk to Pavel. So…” He managed to convince a befuddled Freddy to head to the locker room early, parting at the doors with a cheery, “Okay, thanks, see you later.”
Freddy seemed confused but waved goodbye.
Beau made his way into the locker room, happy to see it was mostly full already. He made his way to his stall, tripping Tinny on his way there, making him yelp loudly.
“Sorry,” Beau said innocently.
“You know we’reteammates, Beau. You’re not supposed to…” Tinny trailed off, face scrunched up. “You smell weird.”
Don scuffed Tinny on the back of the head. “Jesus, Tinny, how many fucking times…” He stopped talking too, staring at Beau. “Uhm. Are you…is that…”
Beau waited patiently for more to come, but Don was just blinking dumbly like he’d sparked a fuse. “Are we not finishing our sentences today, or…?”
“I just…I mean, Pav told me about Freddy, I just didn’t think…” More trailing off from Don.
Beau frowned, exasperated, but Pavel stepped in. “We just didn’t know you and Freddy had gotten to that level.” His voice was flat and media-ready, hiding something under the surface.
Level?Beau was about to ask, but something dawned on him.“I’m not, like, defecting from the pack, you know.”
The stiff lines of Pavel’s guarded face softened. “I know.”
“Okay, so.” He took the scarf off, stuffing it in his stall with Freddy’s other presents. “Don’t be weird about it.”
He turned just in time to see Emilio slipping out of the room. Beau was glad he, at least, wasn’t making a big deal about Beau having an Alpha friend scent him a little—and not even on purpose, at that.
Anyway, Freddy had said this was the last present. Unless the guy was planning on being bold enough to put a hand on Beau’s neck, this wasn’t going to be an issue again.
It was times like these that Beau realised he wasn’t the most socially adept at navigating his role as an Omega in a non-family pack. He wastrying, though, even as he stumbled his way forwards.
Practice that day was fucking awkward, though. He absolutely took back what he’d thought about Emilio taking it well. Everybody was acting fucking weird, but Emilio had been bled of all emotion, face and scent as stiff as stone, not ignoring Beau and yet not paying him even the slightest bit of attention, either.
Beau rushed through his shower, dressing quickly so he could ambush Emilio in the car park, only to notice the Alpha had already slipped away.
“Fuck,” Beau cursed, stumbling out of the locker room. Would it be too weird if he just showed up at Emilio’s house?
He stopped short as he spotted Emilio at the end of the hallway…with Freddy. They seemed deep in conversation. He couldn’t see Emilio’s face, but Freddy was smiling and nodding, cheeks red.
Beau hurried over, a weird feeling in his gut, as though he’d missed a step and was still falling, ground rushing up to meet him.
“Hey,” he said loudly, frowning as Emilio flinched at the sound of his voice.
By the time Emilio turned to look at him, his face was as flat as it had been all throughout practice.
Freddy gave him a dorky little wave. “Hey. I was waiting for you.”
“Oh. Well—”
Emilio cut in. “I need to head out. Congrats.”
“Thanks, man,” Freddy replied.
Beau glanced between the two of them, confused as to what the hell they were talking about but not wanting to get into it. “Actually, Emilio, I need to talk to you about something. Can we—”
“Not now,” Emilio said simply and then just walked away.
