Page 61 of Wynter

“Amber told me.”

“Amber? How does she know?” I frown, my mind jumping to Julian. Did he somehow orchestrate all this? Or…

“Her sister told her.”

“Her sister?” I frown again, and then it hits me. Amber’s sister’s mate is Liam. The cop. Who was there at Bitchen’ Baubles when I met Xavi. And told him about Leith.

“Are you… upset?” I swallow hard.

“No, Wyn. I’m not.” Ghost cups my face—with his hands, not his magic. “You could have a thousand mates, and I wouldn’t care. So long as I still had you.”

The crowd erupts in another round of applause, and my cheeks flush.

“Can we start the game now?” one of the referees calls out.

I blush, Ghost grins, and the crowd laughs.

A fae frees up his seat so Ghost can sit with Xavi and me. And the moment the puck drops, it becomes clear that Leith is on top of his game, scoring goal after goal.

I watch him transform into a vamp and pick up speed as he skates across the ice. Then seamlessly shifts into a bee to slip around the Yellow Jacket who comes in to intercept. Then into a Yeti for some extra strength, and the puck hits the top bar and ricochets down into the net.

The crowd goes wild. The Yeti in the stands jumps to his feet, and with his helmet off I realize it’s the Yeti. The one Leith shifted into in the shed. My cheeks heat, but I know deep down that no matter who my chameleon looks like, it’s the guy beneath that I see. My sexy hockey-playing god. My mate.

Xavi, Ghost, and I go down to talk to him during the second intermission. We have a full thirty minutes, and the guys use the time to get to know each other… and flirt with me.

Leith casually plays with a strand of my hair. Xavi threads his fingers through mine. And Ghost touches my arm with his hand—and occasionally with his magic—as if making sure I’m real.

When the game resumes, the Blades take possession of the puck. And Leith shifts like a complete pro. Two seconds into a vampire here, one second as an ice block there. He scores. Over and over and over again. And though I’ve always watched hockey for the magic, this time I find myself watching it for the man on the ice.

He shifts into a bee. Gets shrunk by a witch. Gets hit with an invisibility spell. Shifts into a vampire and captures the puck so fast I barely keep him in sight. And with each new trick I see on the ice, the more I think about the thief. Who could be using any trick I’m seeing on the ice, or several at once.

But by the time the game ends—and we’re done cheering for the Blades, who win because Leith absolutely kills it—I realize three things. One, that Leith is absolutely amazing. Two, that the thief liked food. And three, I know exactly how to find out who it is.

“Where are you going, Wyn?” Ghost calls out as I jump to my feet and rush by him.

“I need to make a few calls,” I shout over the celebratory crowd. “And then, we’re going to catch a thief.”

Chapter Eighteen

Zoe

After the game, we pile into Ghost’s car—all except Xavi, who tells us he’ll walk—and head to O’Malley’s. A bunch of other players are already there, and we stop to chat with them until the ice block shifter arrives.

We choose a rounded booth by the bar and slide inside. Me in the middle, Ghost on my left, Xavi on my right, and Leith to his right.

A bunch of hockey players drop by while we wait for our food. Fans run over to get Leith’s autograph, or take selfies for Screech. But once our food arrives, we finally get some much-needed privacy, and I go over our thief-catching plan.

“Hey, not bad.” Xavi grins when I’m done. “I think that might actually work.”

“I know it will work,” Ghost tells him. “Because our Wyn’s brilliant.”

My cheeks flush as Leith raises his beer and the guys clink glasses, their heated gazes zeroed in on me.

Since all thief-catching will have to wait until tomorrow night, we stick around at the bar long after the other players leave. Ghost and I catch up and share slow, sweet kisses that I feel down to my toes. Xavi holds my hand, his fingers threaded through mine, and only lets me go when Leith asks him to switch seats. And then, my hockey player pulls me onto his lap, gives me a hard, rough kiss, and shifts into a bee. Then brags about bee control when he shifts back without getting squashed.

The guys spend a lot of time talking amongst themselves, too. They laugh, share stories, and slowly get to know one another. And the longer I watch them get along like this, the more warm and squishy I feel inside.

At one point, Leith and Xavi step out of the booth to chat by the bar while I tell Ghost about how I apprehended the vampire who made Snowball. The story involves using a round cage as a bowling ball and making the vamp face-plant in the middle of the lab… a story Ghost thoroughly enjoys.