Finding the Forward, Part One (HockeyVerse)

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Dean

J ean-Paul skated up to me as we were about to start practice, expression worried. All around me, everyone was still riding the high from last night’s win.

“Dean, Grif’s in the locker room, and I don’t think he’s okay,” he told me quietly.

“Thanks, I’ll check on him.” I skated off, dread-balling in the pit of my belly. Was he sick? There’d been something off about him last night after we’d gotten home and gone to bed, but I couldn’t pinpoint it.

Carlos came over to me. “Did Grif and Verity break up? I saw him in the hallway muttering about being rejected and looking absolutely devastated. Sarah and Clark saw them fighting in the bleachers.”

“Not that I know of.” My stomach churned. I left the ice, letting Coach Kirov know I’d be right back. What? Did Grif and Verity have a fight?

I entered our locker room, which was now empty. Salty sadness and a rotten smell greeted me.

Shit, something had happened. Oh, I really hoped Verity didn’t break up with him.

“Grif?” I looked around, following the scent.

In the corner of the training room, I found Grif curled into a ball. He hadn’t changed for practice yet. My heart broke at the sight. It reminded me of when he’d presented and hid in the bathroom of our apartment, absolutely devastated, too ashamed to even tell me .

I took off my pads, glove, and blocker, and sat down on the floor with him. “Hey, Gumdrop, what happened?”

He gazed up at me, eyes red. “She rejected me. I… I thought we were it.”

“You mean you broke up? I’ll get my phone and we’ll call her. It must be a misunderstanding.” The bottom fell out of my stomach, and nausea rolled over me.

She couldn’t have broken up with him, with us, she just couldn’t. There had to be more to the story. Certainly, she wouldn’t reject him.

“No, she rejected me. Why won’t she bite me? Why am I not good enough for her?” A low omega whine, one of pain and sadness, filled the room.

My belly twisted at his words. Oh shit. No, this might not be a breakup at all.

I pushed aside the omega part of me that wanted to echo his statements. As far as my omega was concerned, Verity was taking far too much time, and it bordered on rejection.

“You’re absolutely good enough. She’s so excited about it. I’m a little jealous that you get to be first.” If only there was a cozier space for us. But it was what it was. I snuggled into him, careful since I still wore my skates. “What happened?”

Last I knew, he’d gone to sit with her in the stands.

“Why do we have to wait? We could go now. Call AJ to join us. And she said no. Why? Why doesn’t she want me? I want her so bad.” He whined again.

Fuck. I needed Jonas–or AJ. But I wasn’t about to leave Grif. Jonas’ phone was in his locker—as was mine.

Grif was completely in his head. He was clammy, eyes glassy, scent rotten. This was an omega trauma response. An enormous one.

How had this happened?

Later. Right now, I needed to take care of him. He was the most important person to me in the entire universe.

Things inside him had been waking. Still, we shouldn’t get all the way to a spiral just from her wanting to wait to bite him.

A spiral was the opposite of a heat spike. It was where omega hormones dropped to dangerously low levels. After Beau outed me, I’d spiraled so badly that I ended up in the hospital.

“I feel like that, too. I want her so bad. However, I understand her wanting to wait. It has nothing to do with us, I promise.” I nuzzled his neck, then bit down gently at the juncture of his neck and shoulder, trying to figure out how best to soothe him.

The first thing I needed to do was make him feel safe–and loved.

“Oh, yes, right there,” Grif sighed. “Please, bite me harder, Jellybean. I’m so tired of waiting.”

“Me, too.” It was a reckless statement. All the pheromones and scents he was putting out confused me.

I bit down again. Firmer this time.

“ We don’t have to wait.” He moaned and my cock sprang to attention.

No. We don’t. It would be so easy to break the skin and mark him, bond him, make him mine. That would fix things a little. My husband, my gumdrop, was my world. I’d wanted to bond with him for so long–and for him to bond me back.

Omega-omega bonds were more nuanced and intense than an alpha-omega bond. It was part of the reason why for so long we were told that omegas were too territorial for alphas to have more than one of us. It was just jealousy at how easy and pure our love could be for each other.

“Oh, yes, harder. Fuck, I love you, Jellybean.” His scent hit me in the face, mixing with mine in a potent cocktail of need and longing, no longer rotten but still bitter.

Still not quite omega, but stronger than usual.

Even though I should get him out of here, all I wanted was to suck his cock and bite him, then let him bite me as we fucked.

“I love you, Gumdrop. You’re my everything.” I straddled him, and kissed him like I was starving, something primal riding me.

Him. I wanted him. All of him. This was the one man I shouldn’t have to wait on.

Grif pulled me to him, claiming my mouth, his beard scratching my face in all the right ways.

My hand fumbled with his sweats and briefs. “You’re right. They might have to wait, but we don’t. I’ll bite you if you bite me.”

Springing his hard cock from his prison, I lowered my lips and licked the top of his cock, which dripped with pre-cum, sweeter than usual.

“Oh, fuck yeah,” he groaned. “That’s it. You’re always exactly what I need.”

I took his cock in my mouth and sucked it with abandon, trying to show him how safe he was with me, how loved he was with me.

That no matter what happened, he had me.

A moan escaped his lips. “That’s it, Jellybean. You suck me so good. I’m going to come.”

He came down my throat in a burst of salty sweetness. I sunk my teeth into his cock until a metallic taste filled my mouth, claiming him with my heart, my soul. Little flickers of him filled me up as the bond came to life, uniting us. His pleasure. His love.

It was always you.

Always.