"You what?" Aidan's voice cracks slightly.
"A date," Darren repeats.
"You mean a groupie," I scoff. "That's exactly what we need. Some fan thinking she's gonna get a sweet spot as the new pack pet."
"She's not a groupie," Darren says calmly. "In fact, she has no idea who we are, or even that we play. I kept the profile intentionally vague."
"So you're bringing a random into our mess?" I laugh incredulously. "That's even worse. Great plan, Malloy. What could possibly go wrong?"
"Less than keeping things as they are," he fires back. "Watching the way you four pull punches in practice, letting me win battles I should have had to fight for? Even Aidan's 'accidentally' missing saves when I shoot during practice?—"
"I don't do that," Aidan protests, but the flush creeping up his neck says otherwise. I've seen it myself.
"You do," Darren insists. "You all do. And I'm fuckin' tired of being treated like your damsel in distress."
"So your solution is to drag some unsuspecting woman into our fucked-up pack dynamic?" I shake my head.
"My solution is to get you assholes laid so you stop looking at me like the last ham at the market," he counters.
I scoff. "Who even is this person? Do you knowanythingabout her other than the fact that she knows shit about us?"
Darren shifts, that uncertainty flashing across his face again. "It's a blind date. The app matches based on compatibility or whatever."
We all stare at him, momentarily speechless.
"Ablind date," I echo in disbelief. "You're bringing a complete stranger—who could be anyone, by the way—into our lives because you can't handle the fact that you're an omega now?"
"Zayn," Jax's warning is sharper this time.
"No, let him talk," Darren says, folding his arms across his chest. "Let's hear what the great Zayn Copeland thinks I should do instead. Keep pretending nothing's changed? Let you all walk on eggshells around me? Or maybe I should just retire, move to a nice quiet omega community somewhere and learn to knit?"
The bitterness in his voice catches me off guard. There's real pain there, raw and exposed in a way Darren never allows himself to be. I'm not sure what to do with it.
"I think you're trying to outrun something you can't escape," I say, the words coming out more honest than I intended. "And you're going to get hurt. Maybe bring down the rest of us with you. Better to face the truth now than on the ice."
"Take your 'truth' and shove it up your ass," Darren snarls. "I know what I'm doing."
"Oh, clearly." I roll my eyes.
"When is this date?" Jax asks, cutting through the awkwardness with practical questions as usual.
"Friday. Couple days before the game." Darren's defiance hasn't faded. "And I want all of you to be there, and on good behavior, because this is the only chance any you have of getting any for the foreseeable future."
A growl wells up in my chest, but he has a point. We've all always had our flings outside the pack. Dmitri and I have shared a woman once or twice, usually groupies after a game, but the second we realized we had an omega in our midst, that all changed.
Even for me.
Even if he has no interest in letting any of us touch him, the pack became closed the second Darren presented as an omega. It's not something we've talked about, just an unspoken understanding that passed between us.
"Good luck with that," I mutter, eyeing Aidan who looks like someone just kicked his puppy.
"Is that all?" Darren asks, glancing around the circle of shocked teammates. "Because I'd like to get back to celebrating our win without a pack intervention."
"This conversation isn't over," Jax says quietly. "But for now, yes, let's table it."
The team disperses slowly, breaking into smaller groups that immediately start buzzing with low conversation. I know exactly what they're discussing. The same thing I'm thinking about. What fresh hell is Darren going to bring down on us with this blind date stunt?
Chapter
