Page 40 of Broken Ice
It was after a win, and one of his teammates—Len—had wound an arm around Beau’s shoulders. Normal stuff. He had reeled Beau in, rubbing his cheek on Beau’s hair, and Beau had just started purring.
Len had shoved Beau away so suddenly that Beau had knocked into his stall, bumping his head painfully.
Len had looked horrified. Beau hadfelthorrified. Everybody had stared at them, and Beau had never felt like such a freak.
He hated feelingother. At that age, he didn’t want to be an individual. He didn’t want to be unique—except maybe in his hockey skill. He wanted to be part of the group.
Purring at a teammate was not the way to achieve that. A lot of Omegas—especially those that went on suppressants right away—didn’t even have the capability. There was literally no excuse for Beau being such a fucking sap.
It wasn’t that the guys had been mean about it. In fact, no one had spoken of the incident, which somehow made it worse. If they had chirped him about it, it might have felt normal. That they didn’t even dare do that?
It only highlighted how weird Beau’s behaviour had been.
Beau had vowed he’d cut the shit right out of himself. Every time he felt himself beginning to purr, he clamped down, cutting the noise off.
In ten years, he’d only let himself purr once—the day he was drafted, alone with his dad as he gave him a long, tight hug and said, “I’m proud of you, honey.”
He hadn’t been able to stop himself. For a blissful minute, he’d let himself have that. Let himself be who he was, fully.
In front of his dad, it was okay.
It was the rest of the world he refused to give in to.
Apparently, that fortitude was useless when faced with Emilio.
Beau felt the panic like a fog in the distance. He could see it rolling in across the hills, but it wasn’t touching him yet. He was still out in the sun, purring away.
He tried to surface enough to stop himself, but a new sound knocked the thought aside.
It was Emilio, rumbling in response, sound low and tender.
The breath was squeezed clean out of Beau. He fit his nose even more securely on Emilio’s scent gland, gulping in the thick waves of pheromones being emitted.
Beau let go, releasing every restraint and chafing tie he had on himself.
He’d never felt so complete.
***
Freddy the equipment guy was turning out to be a tiny bit weird.
They hung out a few more times, and there was always something a little bit…off. Beau couldn’t put his finger on it, but he always found himself slightly on guard around Freddy, a sort of strange intensity to the Alpha Beau couldn’t figure out.
And then there were the presents.
The first one was a fucking pebble.
“It’s from my hometown,” Freddy explained.
“Oh. Wow. I’ve never heard of anybody having rocks from where they grew up. But, I mean, it’s cool,” Beau said.
Freddy shrugged. “I like to think ahead.”
Beau nodded even as he wondered what the fuck that meant.
Whatever. Some people were a little eccentric. It was fine.
He put the pebble in his stall, where Freddy would be able to see it. As weird as Beau found the present, he didn’t want the guy to feel like Beau wasn’t appreciating it or something.
