MY HOCKEY ALPHAS' SHARED OBSESSION

Chapter 5

WREN'S POV

"Pack law can wait," Roman said, not moving from in front of me. "This is not a conversation to have right now."

"It is exactly the conversation to have right now." Dax stepped onto the ice, and behind him, two more shapes emerged from the tunnel, Cassius silent as always, Finn limping slightly despite his ankle already looking healed.

"What is happening?" Finn asked, gold eyes sweeping the scene, landing on my kiss swollen mouth, then on Roman's bare chest, then on Dax's furious expression.

"Roman decided to claim her without asking the rest of us," Dax said flatly.

"I did not claim anyone," Roman said. "I kissed her. There's a difference."

"Not according to pack law, there isn't."

Cassius finally spoke, his voice low and rough from disuse. "Pack law also says the human gets a voice in this. Has anyone asked her what she wants?"

Every gold eye in the arena turned to me at once, and I felt heat rise up my neck that had nothing to do with attraction this time.

"I would like everyone to stop talking about me like I'm a trophy someone found under a Christmas tree," I said, standing up on legs that were not entirely steady. "I am not pack property. I am not anyone's claim. I get to decide who I want, if I want anyone at all."

Silence settled over the ice.

"She's right," Cassius said finally.

"Obviously she's right," Finn said, grinning despite the tension. "I like her already."

Roman's jaw tightened, though something like respect flickered behind the frustration in his eyes. "Fair enough. Nobody claims anything here without Wren's choice in it."

"Fine by me." Dax's eyes lingered on me, less angry now, something warmer creeping back in. "Doesn't mean I'm giving up my chance, though."

"Nobody said you had to," I said, surprising myself with how steady my voice came out.

"Can I ask something?" I said, looking between the four of them. "Is this normal? Four of you, all interested in the same person at once?"

"Not exactly common," Finn said. "But not unheard of either. Some bonds are strong enough that more than one wolf feels the pull."

"That sounds like a polite way of saying you all want the same thing and nobody wants to back down first."

Dax laughed, short and surprised. "She's not wrong."

"It isn't about wanting the same prize," Cassius said quietly, his eyes steady on mine. "It's about recognizing something rare when it walks into your life. That recognition doesn't always divide neatly between four people."

Roman turned to look at me fully. "You're taking this remarkably well for someone who just learned she works for four werewolves."

"I'm not taking it well. I'm barely holding it together." My hands were still shaking, adrenaline and something far more dangerous tangled together in my chest. "But screaming and running won't undo what I saw tonight, so I might as well ask questions instead."

"That's either very brave or very reckless," Finn said.

"Probably both," I admitted.

Ingrid's voice cut through the tension before anyone could answer, calling down from the tunnel entrance, sharp and urgent. "Roman. You need to see this."

Roman's whole posture shifted instantly, captain mode snapping back into place. "What is it?"

"Not here," Ingrid said, glancing at me with something unreadable in her expression. "Bring her too. She should probably see this as well, given the timing."

We followed Ingrid to the small office behind the medical bay, where a single monitor glowed in the dim room, paused on a grainy security clip.

"This came in an hour ago," Ingrid said. "From a contact who watches the hunter networks for us. I almost did not believe it myself."

She pressed play. The footage showed a hospital hallway, timestamped from over a year ago, a place I recognized instantly because I had walked those same halls a hundred times during my old job.

"That's my old hospital," I whispered, my chest going tight. "I worked that floor for two years."

"We know," Ingrid said softly. "That's why this matters."

"Keep watching," Ingrid said quietly.

The camera caught a man in scrubs pulling something from a supply cart, quick and deliberate, before slipping into a patient's room. My patient's room. The one I had lost. The one whose face still visited me some nights when I could not sleep.

"That's not possible," I said, my voice barely a whisper. "He died of cardiac arrest. Natural causes. I read the file myself."

"He died because someone made sure of it," Ingrid said gently. "That man in the footage works for the same hunter network that left the note under your windshield. We believe your patient was pack, Wren. Hidden well enough that even he might not have known what he truly was."

The room spun slightly. Roman's hand found my shoulder, steady and grounding, though nothing about what I was hearing felt steady at all.

"I need to sit down," I said, and Finn pulled a chair over before I finished the sentence, guiding me into it with more gentleness than I expected from someone who had been grinning like a kid an hour ago.

"Breathe," Roman said quietly. "Just breathe. We're right here."

"My whole life I thought he died because a machine failed, or because I was too slow, or because I missed something in his chart." My voice shook harder with every word. "You're telling me none of that was true. That someone walked into his room and made sure he never woke up, and I have spent a year blaming myself for something I never had any control over."

"You didn't fail him," Ingrid said firmly. "Nobody in this room believes that, and you shouldn't either."

"You're telling me," I said slowly, "that the patient I could not save was murdered. By the same people who left me a warning tonight."

"We believe so," Ingrid said. "Which means this is not the first time you have crossed paths with our world, whether you knew it or not."

Dax's jaw was tight, gold eyes flashing dangerously. "That means they've had eyes on her for over a year. Long before she ever walked into this building."

"That's not a coincidence," Finn said quietly. "Nothing about a hunter network is ever a coincidence."

"Then explain it to me," I said, my voice rising despite myself. "Because none of this makes sense. I applied for this job through a normal hiring process. Nobody handed it to me."

"Someone made sure the posting reached you," Cassius said. "Quietly. Carefully. We assumed it was luck at the time. I don't think any of us believe that anymore."

"Why?" My voice cracked on the single word. "Why would they be watching me at all?"

Nobody answered right away, and the silence stretched long enough that dread pooled cold and heavy in my stomach.

Finally, Roman spoke, his voice careful, like he already knew the answer would not land gently no matter how he delivered it.

"Because your patient wasn't just pack, Wren," he said quietly. "According to this file, he was your father."

The office went completely silent, four sets of gold eyes fixed on me, waiting for the words to land.

"That's not possible," I whispered. "My father died when I was three. Car accident. I have the certificate."

"Paperwork can be arranged," Ingrid said gently. "Especially when a family needs to disappear from a hunter's radar. I am sorry, Wren. I know this is not how anyone should learn something like this."

I stared at the frozen image on the screen, at a man I had spent a year trying to save without ever knowing his face belonged to mine.