Chapter 8: Chapter 8

The cameras swung in my direction immediately. I smiled and covered my hands over my lips. And for one second, it did not feel fake at all.

People stared. Some waved and some confirmed the rumors.

After the final buzzer the crowd spilled onto the concourse outside. I waited by the boards the way McCall had told me to, visible, in position, ready for the photographs.

Hunter came off the ice still in his gear, sweaty and bright eyed the way athletes looked right after a win.

He walked straight to me and without a word he pulled me into a hug.

It was for the cameras, I knew that. And I had to say that he would fit for any acting role.

His arms were heavy and warm around my shoulders and he smelled like ice and sweat and a very powerful alpha scent. So warm that it made me shiver.

I stood very still inside that hug.

"You came." He said quietly into my hair.

"Uhm, uh.... I told you I would." I said.

He held on for one second longer than the cameras needed. Then he let go.

And I stood there in the cold rink pretending that my hands were not trembling.

I was almost at the exit when someone fell into step beside me. I knew before I looked.

That Sunday morning feeling but this time, it was uncomfortable for me because of the cameras.

"You okay?" Asher asked softly.

I kept walking. "I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

"I'm just cold."

He was quiet for a moment. We walked side by side through the thinning crowd, not touching, not looking at each other.

"You smiled at him...." He said. "....when he pointed at you."

"I'm his girlfriend." I said.

"I know."

There was silence.

We reached the door and I stopped and turned to face him.

"Asher." I said carefully. "I'm sorry.... We can't keep doing this."

"Doing what?"

"This." I gestured between us. "The hallway. The puck. Walking me out. You cannot keep showing up like this."

He looked at me for a long quiet moment.

"Okay." He said simply.

I blinked.

"I heard you." He held my gaze. "I just want you to know something first."

I waited.

"You can always look for me."

He pushed the door open and held it for me.

I blinked again as I walked through without another word but my face was burning the whole way home.

I went to Mr McCall's office the next morning before first period.

I did not tell anyone or ask for permission. I just went.

His assistant looked up from her desk when I walked in, surprised in the way people always were when I did something they did not expect from me.

"I need five minutes with Mr McCall," I said.

She opened her mouth.

"Please...." I added. "It will not take long."

She picked up the phone.

Mr McCall was sitting behind his desk when I walked in. His jacket was on the back of his chair and his sleeves were rolled up. He looked like a man who had already had three meetings before eight in the morning.

He looked at me the way he always did. Like he was calculating something.

"Miss Whitman." he said. "I don't recall scheduling this meeting."

"You didn't." I sat down across from him without being invited. "I have a condition to add to the contract."

He leaned back slowly. "The contract is already signed."

"I know." I held his gaze. "But I am the one showing up to games and standing in front of cameras and smiling for photographs that go on the internet with my name attached to them." I put my hands flat on the desk. "So I have one condition."

He said nothing. I kept going.

"Hunter's teammates, his staff, anyone connected to his public image cannot mock my body in any way. Not at games, not at public events and not online. And if it happens, Hunter addresses it publicly within twenty four hours."

McCall looked at me for a long moment. The office was very quiet.

"That's it?" He said.

"That's it."

He picked up his pen, pulled the contract file from the drawer beside him and found the last page.

He wrote it in himself, in his own handwriting, in the margin. Then he signed beside it and pushed it across the desk to me.

I signed. He took it back and closed the file.

"Anything else?" He asked.

"No." I stood up and picked up my bag. "Thank you Mr McCall."

I walked out. His assistant watched me go.

I did not look back.

The school day passed the way school days did.

I sat in my usual spot at lunch. That was when the new girl appeared.

She came through the courtyard doors like she had always known where they were, which was strange because I had never seen her before in my life.

She was pretty in a way that did not require any effort. Dark skin, naturally long hair pulled up loosely, big green eyes and a uniform that somehow looked like she had styled it herself.

She looked around the courtyard once. Then she walked directly to me and sat down.

I stared at her, food in my mouth.

"Hi." She said, opening her lunch box. "I'm Zara. We have third period together. You sit two rows ahead of me."

"I.... I am?" I asked slowly, confused. "You're new."

"I moved here two weeks ago." She bit into an apple.

"My dad just bought the Harrington building on Fifth."

The Harrington building was the tallest building in town. Everyone knew it.

I looked at her more carefully, chewing.

She looked back at me without any of the calculation I was used to seeing in people's eyes when they decided to talk to me.

"You're Taylor Whitman." She said. "Hunter Nightclaw's girlfriend.”