Chapter Twenty-Six

The news broke mid-game.

Dan didn’t know until he left the ice after the third period. During the game he tried his best to keep his focus, taking every shift with Rafael and Alaric, neither of whom had mentioned anything about the press conference. A couple of other guys on the team had whispered and spoken amongst themselves, but there hadn’t been time for them to really get their heads around it before they had to take the ice.

The coaching staff had given him the customary pat to his shoulder and told him they wanted to see him keep his points up and that had been that. Dan hoped they kept any opinions about it to themselves, hoped that they wouldn’t let it affect the way they coached him.

Watching the rest of his teammates, Dan was impressed with Ian’s play, almost as if he were trying to make up for the news by drawing it onto him as well. When Dan nudged him during the first intermission, Ian shrugged.

“Maybe if I score loads of goals, they’ll wanna talk about me instead.”

Dan shook his head. “There’s a first time for everything, I suppose.”

Rafael grinned, fist bumping Dan. Even Alaric kicked Ian’s skate.

“Shut up,” Ian said good-naturedly.

“Dan.” Carry—Henry Carrigan—captain of the Hunters was hovering awkwardly a few steps away. Ian stiffened on the bench but Dan rolled his eyes. He didn’t need attack dogs, he needed people to act like it was no big deal. He couldn’t say that in front of Carry, though, so he just nodded.

“Yeah?”

“What you did was brave, man,” Carry said, holding up his gloved fist. Dan tapped it cautiously, not knowing how to respond. “A guy who plays like you can fuck whoever he wants, and I’d be happy to play with him.”

“Uh,” Dan said, the analogy not the best he’d heard, but he rolled with it. “Thanks.”

Carry left it at that, turning back to his stall, throwing a glare at the stares leveled at him.

“Much drama,” Ian said, letting out a breath.

“Stop looking at memes,” Dan said immediately. Helena was a bad influence if she was still sending him that stupid Shiba dog meme.

Ian shrugged and turned back to check the tape on his stick.

The locker room calmed down after that and Dan was able to focus back on the game. He knew the team would have found out via rumor and chatter from the front office. There was no way to keep every piece of information secret after all. Thankfully nobody on the opposing team seemed to know, which meant Dan was only checked as much as he usually was. There were the usual cussing and slurs, of course, but Dan had been ignoring them most of his life.

The game itself wasn’t terrible; the Hunters weren’t playing brilliantly, but somehow, they managed to scrape a win by the end of the third period. Dan was grateful for the chance to rest. He felt as if he’d been awake for days instead of just hours, and as they trooped into the locker room, feeling light because of the win, he couldn’t wait to change and get home. He would have to wait for Ian and Rafael, given they had all driven to the rink together.

As guys started changing and grabbing for their phones, Dan heard the first muttering and sighed. Rafael nudged him, raising his eyebrows pointedly. “It’s fine.”

“Uh-huh,” Rafael said. “They were going to find out eventually.”

The back of Dan’s neck prickled, and he tried not to look over his shoulder. It was better to keep it normal. Besides, it’s not as if he stared at all the guys when they started talking going out with ladies.

“Hope this doesn’t mean you’re gonna be checking me out,” one of the guys said. It was one of the veterans, Jacques Miliet.

Dan snorted. “You should be so lucky. You’re not that hot.”

There was an outraged noise from Jacques, but there was a chuckle around the room that put Dan at ease. Ian’s brow was furrowed in anger and Dan could see Rafael’s hands curling into fists. Dan appreciated the gestures, but he needed to stand up for himself. If the guys got it into their head that he needed other people to protect him, he’d never hear the end of it.

“If the rest of you have a problem with it,” Dan snapped, dragging his gaze over the rest of the room, noting which guys looked like they might cause shit. “You can shove it up your ass. What happens outside of this room is my business. If I wanted to fuck any of you, you’d already know about it. If I don’t, take that to mean I just don’t find you attractive.”

There was a murmur, some grumbles, and one of the rookies—Dan couldn’t remember his name, but he’d come from BC—sighed.

“Shame,” he said, mouth quirking up. “Was really hoping you’d ask me out.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Dan said. He was grinning, which was a bonus, and tried to stick with that happiness, aware that it wasn’t always going to be that way.

As players filtered out of the room, there were obvious signs that it wasn’t going to be smooth sailing. They outright ignored Dan as they left, but Dan didn’t figure it was a loss. If they couldn’t handle a guy being gay, that was on them.

“Fuck ‘em,” Alaric said, holding out his arm. He tugged Dan into a one-armed hug and then squeezed his shoulder. “Couldn’t imagine doing that when Luke and I played together. You got balls, kid.”

“I’m not a kid.”

“Please.” Alaric rolled his eyes. “You’re all kids.”

Dan watched him leave, absently wishing that everyone was as easy going. “That was fucking awful.”

“Cheer up, man,” Rafael said, shrugging into his jacket. “At least Chris is fielding calls and not your mom.”

Dan shuddered at the thought. “Thanks for that.”

Ian checked his phone, smile evidence of texts from Helena. “Come on losers. Gotta get you home so I can get some.”

“Don’t be disgusting,” Dan said, wrinkling his nose. His own phone had blown up during the game, so he turned it off with a sense of relief, determined not to turn it on until he was home and in bed. He really didn’t want to deal with anything until he’d had a good night’s rest.

Ian stuck up his middle finger as he opened the car, Dan slipping into the backseat. “Helena is perfect.”

“She’s all right,” Dan allowed. “Or she would be if she didn’t insist on talking to me through my dog.”

“She did love Bear,” Ian said absently. “I might have to kidnap him.”

“Over my dead body.” Dan had brought Bear with him from DC and he’d be damned if anyone took him away. “Which is not an invitation.”

Ian made a sad noise but grinned through the mirror at Dan as he started the car. Rafael’s head was tipped against the window and Dan would have thought him asleep if not for the light of his phone.

“Kayla says congrats,” Rafael said with a snort. “Wants to know what she should tell reporters.”

“She’ll tell them to fuck off no matter what I say,” Dan told him, sighing when he saw Rafael’s fingers tap out a reply. “Ignore her outrage, she knows she would.”

Kayla was the best person to face the press. When news of her move to Detroit had come out, and she had been adamant her mother would never manage her career again, Kayla had smiled sweetly in the face of questioning and doubt, and told everyone, with a middle-finger salute, to fuck off out of her business.

Dan didn’t quite have the same panache for being dismissive, always worried about what people thought of him, but he could appreciate the way she behaved now that he was facing it to himself.

Rafael tapped his foot against the floor. “Apparently your mom is kicking up a fuss in the media and claims she didn’t know you’d left the agency.”

“Of fucking course,” Ian muttered.

“Whatever she wants to say,” Dan said, tired of his mother’s manipulations. “I’m sure the only reason she didn’t cry on camera was that it would ruin her stoic image.”

It felt disingenuous to say about his own mother, but she really had pulled their relationship as tight as it would go. Dan didn’t have the energy or wish to see it continue.

Dan’s was the first apartment on the route. Rafael lived between both Dan and Ian, and he was grateful to be out of the car, no matter how supportive both were being. “Bear awaits.”

“Give him a kiss for Helena,” Ian said, with an annoying grin.

“Tell her to come give him a kiss herself.” Dan waved at Rafael through the window and then paused. “Thanks, guys.”

“Fuck off, Dan,” Ian said with sincerity. “I’m your brother.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rafael agreed. “And I’m your loser best friend.”

“I’m clearly his best friend, as his brother,” Ian replied.

Dan left them to argue about which of them was his actual best friend, wondering what he did to deserve such idiots for family. As he tugged his keys out of his bag, he could hear Bear scrabbling on the other side whining. It had been longer than he usually liked to leave him, but Helena had a game and Dan hadn’t trusted anyone else in his home.

“Hey boy.” He bent down as Bear lunged, tail wagging and licking sloppily at Dan’s face. “Come on, in.”

Bear trotted eagerly to the kitchen, heading straight for his bowl. As Dan went through the routine of feeding and watering his dog, making sure everything was locked and then heading into his bedroom, he let out a groan of satisfaction as he fell face-first onto the bed, shoving his hands under the pillows.

It was so comfortable he didn’t want to move.

Unfortunately, the real world wasn’t going to wait for Dan to have a night’s sleep, especially not if Dan wanted a quiet life from his siblings, so he leaned over the bed, dug his phone out of his bag. Waiting for it to boot up, he rolled over onto his back, startled by the door opening. Bear slunk into the room, leaping up onto the bed and stretching out next to Dan. He always seemed to know when Dan needed him close, and Dan curled his fingers in the soft red fur, burying his face in Bear’s neck and looking at his phone out of the corner of his eye.

“This sucks, boy,” he said.

The messages were thick and fast, more alerts from the media than he knew what to do with, and phone calls from numbers he didn’t recognize.

Chris: I’ll field calls. Don’t answer ANYTHING, not from family or friends. I’ll deal with it.

Helena: LOVE YOU DAN. YOU’VE GOT THIS.

Polly: Fuck you, loser. You should have told me! Congrats.

Max: DAN YOU DID IT. SO PROUD. Mom’s gonna Freak

Kayla: Mom’s definitely gonna freak. She called me. NOT HAPPY.

Max: Ignore her. She’s just jealous Dan’s not her baby anymore.

Kayla: You’re our baby, Max.

Max: FUCK. YOU.

Bobby.

Dan froze, eyes widening at the name on the message. Bobby had replied. Heart hammering in his chest, Dan opened it.

Bobby: I told you to take control of your career, but I didn’t tell you to do THIS.