“But—”
“No.” Tanner holds up his hand. “Focus on the ice. That’s all that matters right now.”
Easy for him to say. He’s never scented Raven, and he gets all his sexual needs met with Orion. It’s different for them. That one brief hit of her scent at our high school graduation party was enough to re-wire my brain chemistry. I haven’t been able to get hard for anyone else since. I’ve tried reaching out to her, apologizing, but none of her old contact info works, and she never responds to my messages over social media.
But she’s here now. Okay, fine, nothere. She’s at the other Olympic Village, five hours away in Milan where the figure skating competitions are being held. She’s close, but just out of reach.
How did I not realize she was competing? Oh yeah,Tanner banned us from social media for the past six months because we needed tofocus. I knew they were letting omegas in this year, but it never crossed my mind that one of those omegas could be Raven. Tanner handles all our publicity and social media accounts, while the rest of us spend all our time practicing, training, and working second jobs. The world doesn’t exactly value curling teams.
But as our pack lead, our Team Captain, and The Manager of All, Tanner dictates every move, controls every bit of information. And I’ve let him, because I believed he had our best interests at heart. God knows I’m not organized enough to do it myself.
But not telling me myscent matchis here in Italy—when he knows how hard I’ve tried to contact her—isn’t in my best interest. He’s never liked Raven. He did this on purpose. The more I think about it, the more my blood boils. All he’s ever cared about is Orion and winning the gold.
“You fucking knew, and you didn’t want us to find out.” I circle the counter and close in on him. “Why don’t you want us to be happy? You never wanted me to make things right with her. What do you have against her anyway?” I shove him. His back hits the counter, and he steps to the side, holding up his hands. Before I think better of it, I throw a punch. He ducks, and I hit the bill of his hat, sending it flying. “You were gonna keep me from my mate all for a fucking chunk of metal!”
“Hey! Slow down. I’m not gonna keep you from anyone. I just don’t think this is the time.” He steps back, but there’s nowhere to go. “Did you forget shehatesus?”
“She doesn’t hateme,” Rhodes mutters unhelpfully. The beta didn’t join our pack until after high school, sohe’s never met Raven—though he’s heard about her plenty.
I pause, fist in the air.She hates us.All the times I ran my mouth about her, all the times I excluded her or looked down on her, every moment we interacted negatively runs through my mind at once. I was such an asshole. My hand drops to my side. Fuck.
I always planned on tracking her down once we got through the Olympics, but now she’s right here within reach. And she probably wants nothing to do with me.
Orion comes up behind me and sets a hand on my shoulder, a heavy weight that’s both irritating and comforting at the same time. He’s always been the peacemaker of the group.
“Look,” Orion says, “we all know how much you want to apologize and win her over, but maybe Tanner’s right. The last thing she needs when she’s trying to focus on the Olympics is for the guys who teased her incessantly in high school to show up and throw off her game.”
I let out a slow breath and step back. “Fine. But the second she’s done competing. I’m finding her. Even if we still have games to play.”
I don’t give any of them a chance to argue before I storm back down the hall and lock myself in the bedroom with my phone. To hell with Tanner’s rules about social media. I’m gonna learn everything I can about Raven Novak and exactly when she’s competing. I might not be able to talk to her yet, but I can still start winning her over, and I sure as hell am gonna be in the stands cheering her on when she skates. She deserves that much and a lot more.
5
TANNER
Fog curls from my lips as I exhale, breathing out my tension to focus on this next throw. As the skip, I’m throwing last, so it all falls on me.
Team Austria has done an unfortunately excellent job keeping the score close all game, and right now, they’ll win this end if I can’t knock them out. This shot will make or break us. And I’m not ready.
Normally, when I’m out here on the ice, I can let go of everything. No matter how stressed I am, the moment my hand touches that rock it all gets quiet. But today, my focus is off, my head filled with what’ll happen if we lose.
And with Raven.
RavenfuckingNovak. The omega I tortured for years in high school. We were all little shits, cocky bastards that thought we were on top of the world. I’ve succeeded in blocking her from my mind for the past few years, but Vann’s outburst broke the dam, causing the guilt, the memories, the loss to come flooding back. The party… That kiss…
Shit, I need to focus.
I glance at my teammates, noting the signal Orion gives me from the other side of the ice. That’s usually my spot, but as the vice-skip, he takes over when it’s my turn to throw.
Austria has two guards blocking the center and three in the house. I’ll have to throw a double takeout shot and come from the outside. And I’ll need it to wind up closer to the button than their stones.
People don’t realize how much strategy there is to curling. There’s a lot more to it than just sliding a rock at a bullseye. Those of us truly familiar with the game call it chess on ice.
Because of the scoring, I don’t have to get this stone in the button, I just have to make sure it’s closer to the center than the other team’s stones. The only team to score is the one with a stone closest to the middle. If they win the end, and they’ve got more rocks closer to the button, they’ll get points for each of those, too. Austria has three in the house right now. We don’t have any, but we only need one point to win the game, so all I need is to win this end, and the game is ours.
Right, that’s all. No pressure or anything.
Orion points his broom, showing me the angle I need to come in. It’s gonna be a tough throw. More than tough, damn near impossible.
