I repeat it slowly, feeling the ugliness of it coat my tongue.
"Convenient. That is what you see friendship as? Convenience? He is your packmate, Rafe. He lives with you. He plays on your team. He defends your goal every single game. And you think he is just convenient?"
I shake my head, trying to keep the anger from spilling into my voice but feeling it bubble up despite my efforts.
"You are playing with his feelings, then. If that is genuinely what you think of him. Stringing along someone who clearly wants to belong in this pack just because it is easier than finding a real connection. That is cruel. That is not leadership. That is just selfishness."
"Why the fuck do you care?" He turns to face me fully, his gray eyes blazing. "What, you smitten for the fucker? That it?You have been here two days and you are already defending him like he is your mate?"
"Well, maybe I am smitten."
The words leave my mouth before my brain can catch them.
But I do not take them back.
"Maybe I am. What are you going to do about it?" I hold his glare, matching his intensity with my own. "Or is the real problem not Etienne at all? Is it Bastien? You into Bastien instead? Is that why his absence bothers you so much? Why every mention of his name makes you flinch?"
Rafe's entire body locks rigid.
"Shut your trap," he snarls, and for the first time since I have known him, the venom in his voice sounds less like aggression and more like a wound being pressed. "You do not know shit about Bastien. You do not know shit about this pack."
I smirk, not threatened by him in the slightest.
There it is. The nerve. The real one. Buried under all the bravado and the cruelty and the captain's armband. Bastien is not just his former packmate. Bastien is the absence that defines him.
I lower my voice, keeping my eyes forward on the far boards while my words land squarely on his exposed nerve.
"If you think Laurent is just a replacement for the man you actually respected, then go ahead. Keep thinking that way. But I have seen plenty of people just like you, Rafe. At the top of the world. Getting the girl. Getting the fans. Getting the idolization of their team and their coaches and everyone who watches them perform."
I pause, letting the silence sharpen my next sentence.
"And then losing it all because they played with people's feelings like those feelings did not cost anything. You are just as replaceable as you think Etienne is. Maybe more. And maybe you need to experience that firsthand before you realize thevillage you have around you. The people who lift you up every single day despite you being a douche who does not deserve half the loyalty they give you."
His throat bobs with a swallow he cannot hide.
"Why don't you stop being a preaching bitch," he grinds out, his voice raw, "and show me what you have got, NerdyMae. Before I get good old Bastien to come antagonize you himself."
I frown, my brows furrowing together, the mention of Bastien landing with a weight I cannot fully explain. Like a promise and a threat braided into one.
Who is Bastien to this pack? What happened between them that left this much damage behind? And why does Rafe use his name like a weapon against everyone, including himself?
"Ready!"
Coach Mercer's voice cracks across the rink, snapping the tension between us like a branch under pressure.
I exhale slowly, the cold air leaving my lips in a visible cloud that dissolves into the arena's chill.
My fingers flex around Cal's stick. My skates dig into the ice, blades biting into the surface with a precision that sends a familiar vibration up through my ankles and into my calves.
And my father's words echo through my mind.
Not the anger. Not the resentment. Not the years of bitterness I have accumulated since the day he agreed with my mother that I should leave.
Just his voice.
Low and tired and carrying more love than he knew how to properly express.
"You know I love you, Mae. And you may think I am agreeing with your Mom to punish you for being a late bloomer. But I want you away so you can find that spark in yourself again. Being here is not going to help you. So maybe being free to experience life will help you realize you are notsome helpless Omega who needs to rely on a bunch of men to chase her dreams."
