MY STEPBROTHERS, MY MATES

The Hockey Announcement

CHAPTER EIGHT

JACE

I was still smiling when I pulled into the rink.

Violetta's face kept replaying in my head. The way her eyes had gone wide.

Kinda cute, I thought, holding my bag tighter as I headed towards the rink. Like a little teddy bear.

I shook my head and pushed through the rink entrance.

I wasn't even supposed to be here today. There'd been no scheduled practice. But Coach Renner had sent a message to the whole team an hour ago — Be at the rink, nine AM, don't be late — and when Renner said don't be late, he meant it in the way that made you not be late.

I spotted Alexander the moment I walked through the doors.

Alex was already on his feet, and as soon as he saw me, he crossed the distance between us in three strides and we met in the middle with a handshake that turned into a shoulder grip and a pat on the back that nearly knocked the air out of me.

"You know what this is about?" Alex asked, pulling back, brow furrowed.

I shook my head. "No idea."

"Nothing?"

"Renner doesn't explain himself before meetings. You know that."

Alex groaned and dropped back into his seat. "It's too early for a mystery."

I sat beside him and watched the rest of the team filter in through the entrance, ones and twos, until the last of them had trickled through the door and the benches were full. Renner appeared from the corridor beside the changing rooms almost immediately after, like he'd been waiting for exactly that moment.

He looked around at all of us and said, "On your feet."

Every groan in the room happened at exactly the same time.

"I said up," Renner yelled in his deep voice. "Move it."

The practice was punishment.

Not structured punishment. Renner never did anything without a reason, but this kind of session was one that made you wonder, around the forty-minute mark, whether the reason was that he hated us personally.

We did weighted drills on the straight line. Down and back, down and back, lungs burning and legs turning to concrete before the first rest.

Then lateral resistance work, each player pulling against a band while Renner walked the line and corrected our form with the specific tone of a man who had seen too many bad habits and was personally offended by all of them.

Then skating drills on the ice, full pace, edges sharp, Renner standing at the boards calling the changes before anyone had caught their breath from the last one.

By the time he called rest, my shirt was soaked through and my lungs were reminding me they were organs, not machines.

Alex appeared at my elbow, hands on his knees, breathing like a man reconsidering his life choices. "He wants to kill us," he managed between breaths. "That's what this is. He's finally decided to do it."

I straightened up and pressed the back of my wrist to my forehead. "Don't die yet. The season hasn't started."

"Easy for you to say, you're a freak of nature."

"Natural talent."

"Supernatural." Alex stood upright and rolled his neck. "You're telling me that didn't hurt?"

"Didn't say that."

Alex gave me a look. I almost smiled.

Alex had been beside me since our first year on the team... a defenseman to my forward, built like a wall and smart enough to read a play three moves before it happened. If I was the one who made things happen at the front, Alex was the reason things didn't fall apart at the back. On the ice we ran like a single system. Off it we were the same.

"Water?" Alex asked, already moving. "Before he decides we need more."

Renner gathered us at the benches when the last drill finished.

He stood in front of us with his arms crossed and looked around the group once and said, "Good work, boys." He paused. "Don't let it make you soft. Hockey isn't for the weak. Every session you skip, every rep you skip, shows up on the ice when it counts. Remember that."

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper.

"That being said." He let the pause sit. "Lunadora Academy has formally entered the inter-academy hockey championship."

The room exploded.

I was on my feet before I'd processed standing up. I yelled... properly yelled, not the controlled team-captain version of enthusiasm but the real thing, the kind that had been living in my chest since I first heard rumours about the entry two weeks ago.

Alex grabbed me by the shoulders and physically lifted me off the ground and turned us both in a full circle while the rest of the team lost their minds around us.

Renner was laughing. Actually laughing, which happened roughly once a season.

"That's the spirit," he called over the noise. "That's exactly the spirit. Channel that."

He waited until the volume came back down to something workable and then held up one hand.

"Now. We have work to do. Serious work. Jace, as captain, will be leading the bulk of the preparation. We need to look at our defensive line... There are gaps. We need to assess the other teams in the draw. We need to bring certain players up to a level they are not currently at before qualifying begins."

He looked around the group. "Today the news settles. But from tomorrow, we will practice."

He dismissed us.

The changing room was still loud. Everyone talking over everyone else, phones out, messages being sent. I sat at my locker and changed and pulled out my phone and opened PackLink; the academy's social platform, the one everyone used for everything from match updates to whatever else people posted at midnight.

And the team was already everywhere on it. Someone had posted a photo from practice. Someone else had screenshotted Renner's championship announcement message. Three separate posts in twenty minutes.

I scrolled through and laughed once at a photo Alex had managed to take of me mid-yell and posted with the caption Our captain is normal and composed at all times.

I typed back delete this and Alex replied with a string of laughing faces.

Jayden dropped onto the bench beside me while I was still on my phone. Jayden was a forward. He was very fast on the ice, absolutely convinced that every good idea he'd ever had was in fact an excellent idea.

He cleared his throat like he was about to make an announcement.

"So guys, I'm throwing a party," he said.

I looked up.

"At my place tonight." Jayden looked around at the remaining players and raised his voice. "And I was thinking we could use that to celebrate the news. So, everyone's coming."

A chorus of agreement came from the changing room.

Alex appeared from around the lockers, bag already on his shoulder, and looked at me with both eyebrows raised. "Are you coming?"

"No."

"Jace."

"I've got things."

"You've got nothing." Alex pulled his phone out and waggled it. "Also I may have already told a few of the omegas I've been talking to on PackLink. And I just pinged them that you'd be there." His eyes brightened immediately and he waved his phone in front of my face even though I couldn't see anything. "Surprisingly, some of them are very interested in meeting the captain personally."

I looked at him.

Alex spread his hands. "I was being a good friend."

"You were using my name without asking."

"To get you out of the house, which you need." Alex sat down beside me. "Come on. Jayden's got that collection of drinks you said you wanted to try last month and there will be good company. I can see it on your face."

I said nothing.

"Come on," Alex said again.

I locked my phone. Looked at Jayden across the room, who was already on PackLink presumably inviting the rest of the known world.

I looked back at Alex and sighed dramatically.

"Is that a yes?" Alex asked.

I grabbed my bag and stood up.

"Hell yes," I said. "Can't miss Jayden's collection and a good time with sweet omegas."

Alex punched the air.