Page 44 of Loving Ladybug: Part One
He was a kappa, which would make things interesting. I’d played with a kappa on the Sasquatches. Well, we’d thought Ellie was a kappa until she came out as a gamma in support of Grif Graf last season. She was still as chaotic as fuck, and I’d miss her.
Carlos looked me up and down. “Mariquita.” He gave her a look. “You failed to say your friend Tens is theYeti.”
A large Russian guy with piercing blue eyes and messy dark hair joined us. Also shirtless, he had a couple of tattoos. Arms crossed over his chest, the alpha blatantly sized me up, eyes squinting slightly. He was shorter than me by a few inches, but imposing.
Yes, Dimitri Belikov, alpha defender. I’d been trying to learn the roster, but I already knew of many of them from when the Sasquatches had played the Knights in the championship finals.
“Tenzin. Nice to meet you.” I nodded.
“This is Tens. Nia’s over there.” Gwen waved to a muscular brown-skinned woman on the bike, her dark hair in Bantu knots.
“Hey, Tens.” Her eyebrows rose as she waved. She was one of their forwards.
“Bozh’ya Korovka, you should return him to where you found him before the Sasquatches get mad. He’s not a racoon in a bucket.” Amusement tinged Dimitri’s Russian accent, his face remaining in an almost-scowl.
“Raccoon in a bucket?” Yes, she was a firecracker, wasn’t she?
“That was one time.” Her eyes rolled.
“You came onto the ice with a cat in your shirt,” Carlos teased.
“Don’t forget the puppy,” Nia said. “Seriously, she walked into the locker room holding a lost puppy. Pupper says hi by the way.”
“Nia and her pack kept the puppy Gwen found when she couldn’t find the owner,” Carlos explained.
“It wasn’t a cat. It was a babytigerthe zoo lost.” Dimitri’s arms remained crossed, looking like an unwelcoming wall, except for the slight fondness in his gaze. Like she was an annoying little sister he cared about.
Gwen huffed. “Looked like a kitten to me when I climbed up during a storm to get him out of the tree, and the zoo was happy I returned him. He’s aminitiger and I would have made a great tiger mom.” She looked around. “Carlos, is Lucky around or is he still with Grif? I never thought to ask you earlier.”
Lucky?
Carlos grinned. “Oh, I stole Lucky from the wedding. He’s staying with me while they’re traveling. Grif hasn’t even noticed. Lucky likes to stay home and play with my nephews a lot. But I brought him today. Right now he’s napping on the yoga ball.”
“Oh, there he is. I’ll pet him later. I could use some cat snuggles,” she replied.
There was nothing on the yoga ball. My eyebrows rose. “Lucky is a pet?”
“Lucky is Grif Graf’s imaginary cat,” Dimitri replied.
What?
Gwen giggled. “It’s sort of a joke. Just don’t sit on him or feed him cheese and you’re fine.”
Well, then. Cooter and I did make up a wife.
“We’re getting a Yeti.” Dimitri’s gaze focused on me again. “Vickers and Yeti. Good choices. We’ll have powerful defenses.”
I’d seen that in the sports news. The Knights had traded another one of their defenders for Shawn Vickers. I knew him a little. He’d played for the Sharks.
Nia looked over. “Oh, shit. Welcome.”
“It’s not common knowledge, but yes.” It was a little strange and uncomfortable. Meeting new teammates always was.
Gwen shot Dimitri a smug look. “See, we get to keep him.”
“Fine. Let’s workout,” Dimitri huffed in fond annoyance.
Yes, Gwen was the little sister of the team, clearly.
