taking out anyone unfortunate enough to cross his path at the wrong time.
“Shifter Grove. It’s mostly a forest, yeah. Construction of an ice arena has started, but it won’t be ready for a while yet. So it’s damn fortunate that Wolf’s Eye Lake here is so perfect for our needs,” Coach said with a grin, turning to look at the lake one more time. “The rest of the team will fly out when the arena is ready, but we’re going to be staying right here, working on the ice. I have temporary housing set up for you. If anyone wants to buy a house, be my guest. If you want to play on this team, you better be ready to settle in for the long haul.”
Cannon’s stomach sank. The fact that the team was going to be moving out of Chicago had been known for a long time now, but the new location had been kept as a safely guarded secret. It didn’t take much to figure out that this was because of the usual nonsense in the National Shifter Hockey League, or NSHL, where promotional deals were huge and the amounts of money that kept flying around for deals like moving a whole top-tier team were astronomical.
Whoever had wanted them here had to have paid a hell of a price for them.
Shock settled over the group of nine men, silence ringing clear between them with only the sounds of the forest cutting in. Despite himself, Cannon caught himself whiffing at the air again, thinking how delicious it smelled and how much he just wanted to run in that forest. Something that was as far from his usual behavior as could be.
Slowly, a few glances were thrown around amongst the men, until finally Cannon sighed, shaking his head as most of them centered on him. What was he going to say? “Hell no, I won’t stay in the middle of nowhere, Idaho, with the best coach in the damn league, even if he thinks this is the best thing for me?” That wasn’t going to happen.
Weather though, he thought grimly, bending down to yank at the handle to the cargo areas below the bus, opening the first one up.
He grabbed two shovels and tossed one at the man closest to him, who happened to be Memphis, before slinging the other one over his shoulder and giving a winning grin to his team.
“Well then. Guess we’re the Shifter Grove Shovelers until someone comes up with something better,” he said, earning some low-murmured expletives and chuckles in response.
Cannon kept himself from glancing back at the hockey gear and his bags stored behind the brooms and shovels, willing himself not to feel the twinge of regret at getting uprooted to begin with. There was a new normal to deal with. One that apparently required a bunch of manual labor.
But if there was one thing Cannon Wright could be sure of, then it was the fact that his team would be right there with him. Feeling the pain and reaping the rewards. Nothing could keep a hockey bear down. At least not this one.
Though it would have been a hell of a lot sweeter if he just had some cell reception. How else could a bear be sure that the absolutely mesmerizing little creature he’d been talking to over SassyDate hadn’t sent him a message?
Goddamn Idaho.
CHAPTER TWO
Kimberley
PuckBear: Don’t lie, you know you want to
MontrealSabres4Life: I want to come down to Idaho to see some 2-bit team dawdle around on ice? You got some nerve, Pucky.
“Kimberley, are we boring you?” Stella Dremmel queried, one finely shaped brow arching quizzically as Kimberley scrambled to shove her phone under the table.
“No, Stella,” she answered, feeling just the lightest touch of a blush rising to her cheeks as the phone vibrated with a low buzzing noise in her hands.
“Wonderful. So you’ll be handling the Chicago game cancellation PR then. I don’t want to hear any complaining about it,” Stella said with a flourish as she waved her hand for the small public relations and media team of the Montreal Sabres to get out of her office, where they’d been gathering at a long table like beggars at an alms
“Shifter Grove. It’s mostly a forest, yeah. Construction of an ice arena has started, but it won’t be ready for a while yet. So it’s damn fortunate that Wolf’s Eye Lake here is so perfect for our needs,” Coach said with a grin, turning to look at the lake one more time. “The rest of the team will fly out when the arena is ready, but we’re going to be staying right here, working on the ice. I have temporary housing set up for you. If anyone wants to buy a house, be my guest. If you want to play on this team, you better be ready to settle in for the long haul.”
Cannon’s stomach sank. The fact that the team was going to be moving out of Chicago had been known for a long time now, but the new location had been kept as a safely guarded secret. It didn’t take much to figure out that this was because of the usual nonsense in the National Shifter Hockey League, or NSHL, where promotional deals were huge and the amounts of money that kept flying around for deals like moving a whole top-tier team were astronomical.
Whoever had wanted them here had to have paid a hell of a price for them.
Shock settled over the group of nine men, silence ringing clear between them with only the sounds of the forest cutting in. Despite himself, Cannon caught himself whiffing at the air again, thinking how delicious it smelled and how much he just wanted to run in that forest. Something that was as far from his usual behavior as could be.
Slowly, a few glances were thrown around amongst the men, until finally Cannon sighed, shaking his head as most of them centered on him. What was he going to say? “Hell no, I won’t stay in the middle of nowhere, Idaho, with the best coach in the damn league, even if he thinks this is the best thing for me?” That wasn’t going to happen.
Weather though, he thought grimly, bending down to yank at the handle to the cargo areas below the bus, opening the first one up.
He grabbed two shovels and tossed one at the man closest to him, who happened to be Memphis, before slinging the other one over his shoulder and giving a winning grin to his team.
“Well then. Guess we’re the Shifter Grove Shovelers until someone comes up with something better,” he said, earning some low-murmured expletives and chuckles in response.
Cannon kept himself from glancing back at the hockey gear and his bags stored behind the brooms and shovels, willing himself not to feel the twinge of regret at getting uprooted to begin with. There was a new normal to deal with. One that apparently required a bunch of manual labor.
But if there was one thing Cannon Wright could be sure of, then it was the fact that his team would be right there with him. Feeling the pain and reaping the rewards. Nothing could keep a hockey bear down. At least not this one.
Though it would have been a hell of a lot sweeter if he just had some cell reception. How else could a bear be sure that the absolutely mesmerizing little creature he’d been talking to over SassyDate hadn’t sent him a message?
Goddamn Idaho.
CHAPTER TWO
Kimberley
PuckBear: Don’t lie, you know you want to
MontrealSabres4Life: I want to come down to Idaho to see some 2-bit team dawdle around on ice? You got some nerve, Pucky.
“Kimberley, are we boring you?” Stella Dremmel queried, one finely shaped brow arching quizzically as Kimberley scrambled to shove her phone under the table.
“No, Stella,” she answered, feeling just the lightest touch of a blush rising to her cheeks as the phone vibrated with a low buzzing noise in her hands.
“Wonderful. So you’ll be handling the Chicago game cancellation PR then. I don’t want to hear any complaining about it,” Stella said with a flourish as she waved her hand for the small public relations and media team of the Montreal Sabres to get out of her office, where they’d been gathering at a long table like beggars at an alms
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