“How many?” Watson asked me as Hazard and I strolled into the locker room.

“Eight,” I said. “Yeah?”

Hazard nodded. “Five local reporters, three from out of town.”

“They’re probably here for the Brass’s new lineup,” Watson said.

“Yeah,” Troiter added. “Dead Man drama is so who-the-fuck-cares now.”

“It was always who-the-fuck-cares,” Slade, the asshole, said.

Watson leaned forward to give him a high-five and Slade slapped his hand.

Slade fit in here like an egg in a carton. Just one more misfit on Misfit Island.

“Yeah, everyone wants to talk about Nowak’s fall from grace now. Bastard,” Jada said. “Hope we never see his face again.”

I thought we’d be seeing his face until the next exciting scandal rocked the league. Or at least until the league followed through with their investigation.

For his part, Nowak denied doing anything wrong and said the video had been altered. His story was pretty much what I’d expected: I’d been in cahoots with Slade, and it was all a plan to get him fired and for me to renege on the Dead Man.

My lawyer, a sharp woman who was the wife of someone my mom knew from work, told me to tell the press it wasn’t something I could comment on until the league finished looking into it.

So that’s what I did.

Hazard pulled off his T-shirt and sat on the bench, getting his gear together. The flash of my number on his shoulder still made me smile.

It wasn’t that the last two months with the Tide felt like a dream—because nightmare was a more appropriate description—but coming back here and having the team treat me like nothing had happened, nothing was different, made my time with the Tide feel fleeting.

The ties that had bonded me to the team as an alpha were completely gone now. Sometimes I thought I could catch a faint echo of a feeling from one of the players, but it was more memory than real.

Things like the tattoo on Hazard’s arm, the tattoo on mine, reminded me of the difference he carried now as compared to when he had first joined the team. I carried some differences too.

I was not the same man who had volunteered to protect my little brother. I was more. And it was time I stepped up and let the team know exactly where I stood.

“Look,” I stood in the center of the room, facing the benches. “I need to say something.”

The whole team was here, all in various states of dress. No one paused in their prep, but I had their attention. Thorn even turned down the music.

“Since this is my first game back with the team, I want you all to know that I am going to play my ass off out there. Tonight, and every night. Or day, you know, when we do day games.”

Someone snorted.

“You’re going to play your asses off too,” I went on. “And if you don’t, you’re not going to answer to Graves. You’re not going to answer to our captain, Lock. You’re not going to answer to Coach Clay.”

All eyes were on me now, narrowed, waiting.

“You’re going to answer to me.”

Silence.

“So, um…grr and rawr.” I curved my fingers into claws. “I’m the alpha of this team. I’m your alpha now.”

Blank looks. Finally Balstad spoke up. “Is this, uh…a wolf thing? Did I read about this in that vampire novel?”

“You know how to read?” Yoffie asked.

Humans.

I rolled my eyes. “It’s a second-marked thing, and a hockey thing. It’s a team thing because it will affect the team dynamics and it’s a…me thing.”

Lock, our captain, who was a fourth-marked jaguar shrugged. “We know.”

I swallowed a couple times to get my throat spitted up enough I could talk. “Know what?”

“We all know you’re the team alpha,” he said like it didn’t mean much to him. Which, fair point. Jaguar shifters didn’t follow the whole “pack” thing in general.

“So…that’s settled? Just…tell you what I want and you agree? I want a million dollars.”

Someone booed. A sock flew at my head.

“We all know you’re the heart of the team, Donuts,” Random said.

“Yeah,” one of the T’s, Tetreault, agreed. “We were dead without you, dude. Did you see our last three games? Even Thorn couldn’t save our asses.”

“Yours maybe,” the other T, Troiter, said. “Because of the size of it. As in it’s big, brother. You have a large ass.”

Tetreault threw a roll of tape at his face, the music cranked back up, and I was promptly ignored.

Except for the second-marked in the room. They were silent, watching me. One by one, they held eye contact with me, tipped their chins up, showing their necks, then slid their eyes to the side.

I nodded at each of them. So they knew I saw them. So they knew I would be there for them. The alpha of this team. The heart.

And that first thrum of lines reaching, connecting, growing, and knotting sang out in my mind, a shout, a victory cry, stronger than any tie I’d had with the Tide players. The whole of us, the all of us vibrated through my chest like a hundred instruments holding a single note, a thunderbolt of song.

Graves watched me. His eyes never wavered as I met his gaze. He tipped his chin a half-millimeter, barely a movement, really just an acknowledgment. And then he winked.

I laughed and shook my head.

Hazard looked my way and gave me a plain, happy smile.

And I knew I was home, and there was no place in the world I’d rather be.

There was, however, one more person I wanted to see.

I pulled out my phone, and sent a text to Netti.

Been thinking, I sent.

I only had to wait a second before she answered.

Is that what you’ve been doing? What about?

You.

Smooth.

I want to take you on a date. Netti Morandi, will you go out with me?

You still a hockey player?

Sometimes. When I’m on a date with you I’ll be something better.

What’s better than being a hockey player? Being an alpha?

No. Being your man.

She didn’t reply. Not for several long minutes. I chewed on a hangnail and waited.

Finally: Sweet save, Spark. Think you can follow through?

For you? Always.

The next text was a time and date. And a nice restaurant between Portland and Tacoma.

“Yes!” I yelled. I jumped up and started dancing, while the wolf in me howled.

“What is wrong with him?” Lock asked.

“I want a new alpha,” Troiter said. “This one’s broken.”

“I got a daaate! I got a daaate!” I crowed.

“Oh, god,” Slade said. “Poor woman.”

“Naw, buddy, she’s the richest in the world. She’s got me!”

Watson made a gagging sound and Slade mimed sticking his finger down his throat.

“Will you all knock it off,” Lock demanded. “Donuts. Sit the hell down. We have a game to play.”

I stopped mid-boogie, and dropped down on the bench. “Yes, Captain.” Since dancing was out, I started singing. “Hungry Like the Wolf” of course. Loudly, and off-key.

Everyone groaned and threw things at my head.

I couldn’t have been happier with this team, with myself, with my life.

And I would do everything in my power to make sure this feeling would never end.