A Boy Among Wolves

Chapter 15

Danny

"Hell yeah, Little man," I shout at Theo as he smashes the puck down the ice towards Bryce. He's our top scorer for this game.

Theo beams at me with his magical smile. He glides over to me and smacks my stick with his, "don't call me little man. You know It's not true."

"Oh," I say back quickly and watch Bryce slide the puck in the other net. "Someone's frisky today." 

Coach blows his whistle, signaling for us to do a quick line change.

As we rush the wall and I climb over after Theo and hear him say, "you know I need you to get into my empty net."

Just as he says it, one of the other players skates by us, and I know he heard it. The way he turned around to watch me climb over the wall...I know he heard it, but it could've meant anything.

"You need to keep it down when you're horny," I whisper as he pulls his helmet off and drinks from his water bottle. His hair is wet with sweat, but he looks fantastic.

He finishes his drink and passes it to me, "no one heard. plus, what else would that mean at a hockey game."

He's right.
I'm overthinking it.
I take a drink but causally side-eye the other guy.
He's watching us talk and smirking.

Fuck.......I'm not overthinking it.

I shake my head to clear my head and look back to the game. We're up 4 to 0. Last game of the night, so we're in the semi-finals tomorrow. I risk a quick glance at Theo as he cheers the team on. He looks adorable....with his rainbow tape on this stick. "Hey," I say into his ear. "Be careful out there, ok?"

He stands up with the rest of the first line as we prepare for another line change. "Don't worry," says Theo calmly. "I've survived worse than a bunch of hockey players."

He flashes me a smile as coach blows his whistle. I'm over the wall right behind Him, racing towards our goal, when I see that guy hopping his wall. I just need to keep him away from Theo for 7 minutes...or the next line change. "How hard can that be," I mumble to myself.

*****
It turns out that it's very hard. The other offense seems to have kicked it into high gear as they try and score on us.

They have no chance of winning unless Theo and I fuck it up. Hasn't happened yet, but here I am, pinned against the wall fighting to get the puck out.

I take my shot and pass it down the curve of the wall toward Bryce and Theo. Theo cradles it and drops it back to Bryce, who races off to the other end. Brenden and Kyle are in hot pursuit, breaking off from the mash-up with me on the wall.

Theo skates over to me as the asshole slams his shoulder into him. 

"Watch it, dickface,"says Theo with an angry tone. My man knows how to stand up for himself.

"You watch it. FAGGOT," shouts the other guy, and then he shoves Theo back. If he wasn't amazing on skates, he would've fallen, but he's ok.

I can hear my heart pounding in my ears as I rush over to them, but Bryce and Brenden are on me, holding me back. The refs are blowing their whistles, stopping the game.

"Say that again, asshole," shouts Theo getting up in his face and pulling his helmet off.

"Theo," I shout to get him to calm down. Only the asshole takes his chance now that he's distracted, and sucker punches him in the face. As he spins around and starts to fall, I see him reach out to catch himself, but we all hear the loud painful CRACK as he hits the ice.