Chapter 134: Gym Workout

Marina’s words hung in the air and it felt like the breath I had been holding had finally found a way out of my lungs.

My heart felt light. Very light. I looked at the hand that held mine and I looked at the warmth in my sister’s gaze.

"I don’t know what kind of person Reid McCoy is to you, Kain, but I like what I’m seeing." She said finally and squeezed my fingers one last time before getting up from the booth, smoothing down her blazer. "Well, I don’t want to keep my baby waiting. You guys can have whatever you want to eat. It’s on me."

​I watched my sister walk away, her figure moving gracefully through the diner toward the exit. I bit my bottom lip so hard I tasted copper, squeezing my fists tightly on top of my lap under the table.

​She didn’t scold me. She didn’t question me. She didn’t criticize my actions despite knowing we had to be careful. She was happy... for me.

I was so incredibly grateful for her words, but despite all of that, I was a coward.

​To the one person who loved and cared for me the most, I could not speak the words in my heart. I couldn’t open my mouth to say ’He knows, Marina. He found out by accident, we spent my heat together and then he marked me. He’s my Alpha now, so I’m not alone anymore.’ I could only sit there in silence and watch her leave.

​And she knew this as well. Marina knew words were not my strong suit. She knew it took a long, painful time for me to come to terms with confessing, admitting, and finally being ’true’ to myself, and that was exactly why she wasn’t forcing it out of me tonight.

​My sister really knew me the best.

​Beside me, the immense tension in Reid’s broad shoulders finally broke. He let out a long, slow breath, his large hand sliding over the table to cover my shaking fist, pulling me back to reality as the heavy scent of frozen pine wrapped around me like a protective shield.

...

​The drive back to the penthouse was wrapped in a heavy, suffocating silence. The emotional toll of the meeting with Marina, combined with the grueling hours at the convention center, completely sapped the remaining energy from my bones.

Before Reid even steered the car onto the downtown highway, my head lolled against the cool glass of the passenger window, and I slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep.

​I didn’t wake up until the sudden killing of the engine echoed through the quiet subterranean garage of the penthouse.

​I blinked heavily, my vision groggy as I shifted in the leather seat. Reid was sitting with his hands still resting on the steering wheel, his jaw tight as he stared at the concrete wall ahead. He turned his head, his grey eyes softening slightly when he saw me stirring.

​"Wake up, Cap. We’re home," Reid said softly, his large hand reaching over to gently shake my shoulder. He let out a low, slightly frustrated huff. "I wanted to just carry you up to the apartment, but I knew you’d bite my head off if a camera caught us and our pictures ended up trending on the forums again tomorrow morning."

​I swallowed hard, my throat dry as reality rushed back. He was right. The civilian accounts were already a disaster; if the media caught the star rookie carrying the Captain bridal-style into the elevator, the front page would explode.

​"Good call," I muttered, rubbing my face as I dragged myself out of the truck.

​Once we got inside the penthouse, I kicked off my shoes, took off my coat and slipped into the bedroom, the rigid defenses I had maintained all day finally collapsed.

I didn’t object when Reid pulled me flush against his chest in the dark, his large arms locking around my waist. He buried his face right in the crook of my neck, breathing in my orchid pheromones while his own thick, heavy waves of frozen pine completely blanketed my skin, anchoring my frantic mind until morning.

"It’s alright, Cap," he whispered. "It’s all going to be alright."

"Mm," I folded even more in his embrace and we fell asleep.

​Thursday arrived with the sharp, clinical sting of pre-game intensity.

​With the match against the Avalanche looming the next day, the coaching staff didn’t give us a second to breathe. We pulled through two hours of grueling, high-speed ice drills before the whistle finally blew, directing the team to the private gym facility for off-ice conditioning.

​I dropped onto a bench, my lungs burning as I took a heavy swig from my sports drink. I wiped the sweat from my eyes with a towel, my gaze instinctively wandering across the brightly lit gym floor.

​Reid was over at the squat rack. He was hitting his heavy sets, his massive frame completely focused. I found myself staring, my eyes tracking the raw, dangerous power radiating from him.

Every time he dropped into a clean-and-jerk, the heavy muscles in his back bunched and flexed violently against the sweat-soaked fabric of his training shirt.

His broad shoulders looked impossibly wide under the harsh gym lights, his veins standing out along his forearms as he locked the weighted bar over his head.

​There was such raw, effortless Alpha dominance in the way he moved that for a split second, I completely forgot I was his captain. I just admired him.

​"Wow, Cap," Peter’s voice suddenly broke through my thoughts, dripping with a massive, teasing grin. "You’re spending so much time looking at McCoy these days that I’m almost convinced to believe those rumors."

​My shoulders flinched, my eyes snapping away from the squat rack so fast I nearly gave myself whiplash.

​The rest of the locker room immediately caught on, breaking into loud, booming laughter. Miller leaned back against a leg press machine, chuckling loudly. "Yeah, you even played nursemaid for a week when he broke his ankle, and he did the same when you hurt your rib. You two definitely have something going on behind closed doors."

​"It’s definitely the enemies-to-lovers arc," Gerald chimed in from the back, howling with laughter as he tossed a lifting strap. "The internet called it, Cap!"

​I felt a furious, tight heat instantly rushing up my neck. My professional authority was being completely shredded by a bunch of boneheads. I slammed my water bottle down onto the bench with a sharp crack, my jaw locked as I glared at them.

​"If I hear one more word about that rumor, I’m going to make every single one of you skate laps until you puke your guts out on the ice tomorrow morning," I hissed, my voice dropping into a dangerous, authoritative growl. "I mean it. Move to your next station!"