Brothers?
I tap the link. The photo shows two teenagers on a large backyard rink. One is unmistakably Thane, but younger, lankier.
And beside him...
Even as a teenager, Wraith towers over Thane, bigger than most fully grown alphas. His hands are shoved in the front pocket of his black sweatshirt and his head is turned away slightly from the camera instead of making eye contact with it. He’s wearing a black gaiter over his lower face as usual.
"Thane Belmont with foster brother who would later become known only as 'Wraith' in the NHL."
Fuck. Whatever happened to Wraith must have happened when he was just a kid. I close the article, swallowing past the lump in my throat.
I search for Whiskey next. This one brings up colorful headlines that are a welcome distraction from the clenching in my chest.
Marine Turned Hockey Star Dominates the Ice.
New Fan Favorite Brings Texas-Sized Personality to Michigan.
Record Set for Penalty Minutes While Maintaining Top Scoring Position.
The photos show a broad, burly alpha who appears to be in his mid-twenties, built like a grizzly bear with messy chestnut hair and warm honey-brown eyes. He's smiling in every shot, a cocky grin that borders on arrogant. Okay…morethan borders on arrogant. But there's something genuinely warm in his eyes that makes him seem more playful than anything else.
I scroll further to find a series of tweets from fans describing encounters with him. Signing autographs for hours after games,picking up tabs for veterans at restaurants, carrying an elderly woman's groceries six blocks to her apartment during a blizzard. Shirtless, too, his skin flushed pink from the cold because he’d given her his coat and his jersey.
Plague is next. Fewer personal articles, more stats and analysis of his aggressive yet controlled playing style. The photos show a strikingly handsome man with long black hair pulled back into a low ponytail, pale blue eyes, and bronze skin. In almost every public photo, he's wearing a black surgical mask, but not all of them.
There isn’t much on Plague at all. He has basically no presence online. But several articles mention his intelligence. Fluent in Arabic, English, French, and Russian. Partial completion of medical school prior to becoming a hockey star.
I keep scrolling.
There isso muchfanart of Plague and Whiskey.
Plague and Whiskey making out in the locker room. Whiskey pinning Plague against the boards surrounding the rink. A few where it's the other way around, too. Entire Pinterest boards full of photo compilations, collages, and drawings of them in every position imaginable that make my face heat up.
Are the fans just shipping them? Or are they actually together? It would make the situation slightly less nerve-racking if I'm bonded to this entire pack and they'renotall fixated on me at the same time.
And it's admittedly kind of hot.
I scroll through a few more photos of the Ghosts, noting the dynamics between them in team shots. The way they positionthemselves around each other, the subtle signs of their bond. Wraith is on the outside for the most part, although they seem to be making an effort to include him.
None of these alphas give me the instant knot of dread in my stomach that Wade did from the first moment, even though I ignored it back then.
I set my phone aside. I'm getting ahead of myself.
Wayahead.
Before I do anything else, I need to talk to Wraith when he comes back.
Chapter
Twenty-Five
THANE
Seven fucking hours of damage control, circular conversations with management, and outright lying to protect my brother. My shoulders ache from the tension of sitting through meeting after meeting, explaining things away without ever giving a straight answer.
The underground parking garage is mercifully empty when I finally make my way down. My head is killing me and the last thing I need is to run into someone who wants to talk to me. And the one person I actuallywantto talk to is still AWOL.
The pack bond between Wraith and me is usually a steady, reassuring presence in my chest. Lately, it feels… stretched. Dangerously thin. And it’s draining what little energy I have left. It's happened before when he withdraws, but never like this.
