This is what it feels like when we're whole.
For the first time since I'd laced up a pair of skates after Bodie's death, I remembered how much I adored being on the ice.
We won the game, and the locker room was bedlam afterward, with shouting and squirting of water bottles. Angelo wrapped an arm around me and said how well I’d done. Kai pulled off his mask and congratulated me as I reciprocated. The guy was human, so I had no idea how he’d pulled that feat off.
There was one message on the phone from Thorne.
You were incredible.
Those three words that had me puffing out my chest. But as my fated mate, I wished he’d said that after we’d been intimate and mated.
Thorne was outside the locker room waiting for me when I emerged. As he often did, he had his hands in his pockets. My fated mate might not have been in love with me, but he watched my game and he didn’t leave with the other fans. He wanted to see me. At least I hoped he did and that he didn’t have a crush on Kai.
“I may not understand all the rules, which is odd considering I work here, but you were fast out there. Rupert messaged saying he watched the game.”
Wishing I could kiss him right there in the corridor, I held back because my teammates were filing out. Thorne and I had shared one kiss, but we hadn't defined our relationship, and we certainly weren’t displaying our feelings in public.
Perhaps my expression gave too much away because Thorne dropped his gaze and studied the floor that needed mopping.
“You know Rupert is with his grandparents.”
I braced myself for bad news, as in my nephew liked hockey but was more a fan of Angelo than me.
“Mmmm.”
He brushed a thread off my jacket.“If you’d like to, you could come to my place instead of heading home.”
What? Had I just heard him correctly? Did he invite me to his empty house late in the evening where it’d be just the two of us?
“Ummm, yes, I’d like to, no, love to. I’ll be there.”
That was too much talking, but my brain wasn’t computing that we were going to be alone and might possibly get naked.
There were spots of pink on Thorne’s cheeks as he told me to follow him home.
I grabbed my gear bag and followed him out of the arena. The adrenaline that had been pumping through me for three periods hadn't faded, and now it spiked again. I placed the bag in front of me to hide my arousal.
My wolf tucked himself away, understanding this was my time and not his.
Thorne walked ahead of me to his car and glanced back. He was checking that I was still there. And I was.
