by N. J. Lysk
“What?”
“You said they wanted us to come, what do you want?”
“I... I mean...” Keenan stuttered to a stop. “They’ll be weird,” he admitted, hunching over a little.
Carry tugged at his sleeve. “You said they were okay with us dating.”
“Yes, but they gotta be, don’t they?” Keenan asked bitterly. “I mean, I’m an adult and it’s my decision, all they can do is support me.”
The notion of parents who would keep their opinion on their children’s lives to themselves out of respect was appealing, if hard to truly believe.
“Didn’t your father tell you he was proud of you for speaking out?” he checked.
“Yes, but that’s... that’s public, a job, or something. This...” His shields were just open enough that Carry could have tugged at them. He didn’t. Keenan had a right to show him only as much as he wanted, no matter how difficult Carry found it to have this conversation with only half his senses. “They are bonded,” Keenan added as if that explained everything.
“And they are happy,” Carry surmised, everything he’d heard of Keenan’s parents indicated as much. “So you think they will only accept you can be happy the same way they are?”
“I...” Keenan’s eyes flickered up and then away.
“Or maybe you think you can only be happy the same way they are,” Carry suggested.
He thought he managed to keep his voice even, but it didn’t matter, Keenan jumped.
“No!” He reached for Carry’s hand, confident enough to touch him without asking. “I am happy. I just don’t want... I don’t want other people looking at us and trying to understand. Because they won’t. They’ll think... I don’t know, that we’re confused or something, or just not brave enough to go through with it.”
“Keenan,” Carry said tiredly. “I don’t mind meeting your parents, but we should do it when you’re ready.”
“And you are?” Keenan demanded almost angrily.
Carry shrugged. “I don’t care what someone I’ve never met thinks about me or my relationship. You love them and your dad sounds alright, so I hope I’ll like them, but...” He swallowed, trying to think of how to phrase, then huffed and opened his shields. “I care about what you think, and you clearly don’t want to do it. So don’t. Talk to them first or... Or not. Whatever you want.”
“Are you... Are you ever going to tell your parents?”
“When I have to,” Carry admitted, then, feeling the sourness in Keenan’s scent, quickly added, “It’s not about you, they’re just... We don’t get on, Keenan. They don’t like hockey and I don’t like business or parties or charities. And they won’t just support me, they’ll try and talk me into doing what they want for me. It’s easier not to say anything.”
Keenan was quiet for a long moment. “You do like charities. One, at least,” he pointed out.
Carry frowned, then snorted. “I don’t see my mother campaigning for omega rights.”
“Why not? Sandra joined up, didn’t she?”
“Sandra... My mother helps charities to feel good about herself, okay? And to look good to her friends, too. Sandra actually wants to help. So unless omega rights become all the vogue...”
“Mmm... Maybe we could work on that.”
Carry snorted. “Sure, tell Vithusha that’s the next project; making omega rights cool—I’m dying to see you sell that,” he told him flatly.
It was, in fact, also true. He’d have loved to see Keenan talk someone into it and once he’d said it, he remembered the fans in the stands and the comments in the forums. Not all the reactions were positive, of course, but there were plenty of people who’d already agreed and who had decided to say it aloud because their hockey star had done it first.
It was a good start.
IT WAS RIDICULOUS TO be this nervous.
But Carry couldn’t help it; he felt like he was about to audition for something. Not that Vithusha and her people could afford to be picky about who they allowed to help them. Keenan and Ukazu might have raised omega rights from the bottom of lost causes into a somewhat edgy reformist movement—at least among sport fans—but Carry did not imagine they had droves of people offering their time and resources.
She fit the stereotype of an alpha woman well—tall and big, her dark mane cut short except for a lock left long on one side. But it was her scent that caught Carry’s attention first, it was green tea and honey—quite appealing, really, but not... He didn’t think they would be compatible. She grinned up at him as they approached.
“Hey, Keenan.” Her eyes flickered to the other alpha, easy and friendly, but she didn’t get to her feet, like they were familiar enough with each other to be able to ignore such things.
“Hey, V,” Keenan replied from next to Carry.
Carry didn’t look at him but he didn’t miss how his scent, muted but there, was salty and sunny. It wasn’t like he’d imagined Keenan would try to make a claim, but he was surprised to realise it wasn’t even a struggle for him. Maybe it was because they weren’t bonded, so Keenan didn’t think of him as... He cut the thought off, flinching at the notion. He wasn’t in bloody heat; he had no excuse to be thinking of himself as something to be possessed.
And then she spoke to Carry, both protocol and manners be damned, “Thanks for the tip about Blassic.”
Carry glanced around, but in truth, she hadn’t said anything incriminating. “Sure,” he agreed. “It’s nice to meet you at last.” His mother would have been proud of the segue, he thought.
Vithusha simply seemed amused. “You want a drink? I got a tablet here.”
“Lager, please,” Keenan said.
Carry glanced at him, smiling a little because it was what he always ordered and accidentally caught sight of the Vithusha’s echoing smile. He knew she and Keenan were friends, but it still surprised him to realise she knew this about him.
It was just the kind of gesture Keenan would have—remembering someone’s choice of drink, and it made him brave enough to ask, “Do they have any sake?”
“Mmm...” She glanced down, scrolling. “Yeah, something called Junmai-shu. Is that good?”
“Good enough,” Carry told her. He hadn’t drunk Japanese wine in ages—but nothing could make him sad now, fuck sense memory.
“Okay, two sakes,” she decided, clicking away. “I’ll trust you on this, Johnson.”
The use of his last name was unexpected in this context, but he didn’t mind. He liked how casual she was about protocol while paying attention to his opinion. She hadn’t asked what he wanted to be called, true, but her choice wasn’t thoughtless either—informal, but respectful of the fact that they were strangers.
Keenan took a seat across from her and Carry squeezed in next to him in the booth, unconsciously relaxing against his side. Vithusha’s scent went a little flowery at that and Carry glanced up to catch her smile.
She shrugged and raised her hands. “You’re cute together,” she told him, eyes flickering to Keenan again to include him. “And I’m glad I no longer have to put up with Keenan’s mooning.”
“Hey!” Keenan complained, jerking a little. “We came to talk about changing the world, not my mooning.”
Carry laughed—now that they were together, he was pretty sure he was allowed to enjoy Keenan’s obvious crush. “Don’t tease him,” he told Vithusha. “He’s a sensitive soul.”
“Oh, I know,” she replied with a grin. “Total bleeding heart, that’s why you guys are here. Your boy is a superhero in... well, skates, I suppose.”
“He is,” Carry said simply, no longer joking. “He also had this idea of making omega rights trendy to get more people to support them.”
“That was your idea,” Keenan pointed out.
Carry waved that away. “Whatever, I thought we could look at other civil rights movements. Not just the obvious ones from ages ago like sex and race equality, but stuff like the reform in the way cattle is raised. I mean, they got scientists to grow
meat in a vat! Compared to that, what’s a bit more research into hormonal treatments to allow omegas to control their heat cycles and therefore be able to make legally binding decisions at all times?”
He stopped, realising Vithusha was staring at him, he was about to try and clarify when her mouth stretched into a grin not far from madness. “That’s brilliant,” she said, voice growing higher in pitch. “Oh, gods above and below, I should have been recruiting you, shouldn’t I?”
Keenan chuckled quietly next to him as Carry swallowed and looked down at his hands on the table. Just then a waiter arrived with their drinks and he gratefully took a sip of his wine, shoulders relaxing a little.
“Don’t scare the newbie,” Keenan told Vithusha.
Carry was about to object when she did it for him, “Don’t be an idiot, he’s not a newbie. He’s been thinking about this for ages; he just never got the chance to do anything about it. Right, Johnson?”
Carry swallowed, then actually drank some more.
Neither of them tried to demand an answer, even though both of them could have. Before Keenan, he’d been wary around alphas, but it was like his body had forgotten to be afraid and now... Well, now he was with his boyfriend and his friend, who thought his ideas were brilliant and that he was a secret revolutionary.
“Not that long,” he said in the end. “I... I tried not to, it was too frustrating to imagine how...” He shrugged. “But I think maybe I was still doing it, like, on the back of my mind, because... Yeah, it’s pretty easy for me to come up with ideas for this.”
“Well, either way, you’re a genius,” Vithusha said before Keenan could say anything.
Carry pressed closer to him, a little uncomfortable with the praise. It didn’t occur to him that Keenan might need some reassurance after all until the alpha leaned closer, brushing his lips against Carry’s hair discreetly enough in the dark bar. He smelled salty and greasy, mouth-watering in a way that wasn’t quite happiness.
He felt Keenan’s hand find his knee and squeeze. “I’ve been telling him,” he told Vithusha and Carry’s brain suddenly deciphered the scent: Pride.
“Well,” Vithusha said, grinning. “I’m not sure about this wine, Johnson, but you’re free for a couple of months, aren’t you? What do you say, want to join a revolution?”
Carry stared at her, half of him wondering if the words were real, if any of it could be; the team who’d taken him to the Finals, their support on and off the ice, and the man pressed to his side—quiet when Carry was asked a question but indubitably ready to step forward if Carry asked.
It wasn’t a fair world, but those didn’t seem to exist... Yet.
And no one could claim that Cartwright Johnson didn’t relish a challenge.
“Count me in,” he said as the scent of the ocean overwhelmed that of spilled alcohol and sweaty bodies. Under the table, he found Keenan’s hand and squeezed it hard.
He meant to hold on.
[End of “Cracking Ice”]
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED this story, the “Rules to Break” universe isn’t quite over and Keenan and Carry’s revolution has a lot of ground to cover. To find out about other books in the series and check out cut-scenes, go to www.njlysk.com
Notes:
I started this on November 2015 when I was reading a fuckton of hockey fanfic (Without going into my pairing of choice, I’ll say half of it ended up in douchebagland in RL) and I still remember writing that first line. For a while I was hooked on Carry and Keenan, but then as the world and the characters emerged, I got stuck for the first time. In February 2016, I started sharing it online in a fandom archive that accepted original fiction... and wow, people liked it! Up until that point, I’d not have much in the way of a response to my writing—unless you count my classmates fascination with my fifteen-year-old telekinetic prodigy—and it unstuck me fast. I got excited about the characters again and started pounding away at it... And then I got stuck again. This story has been in my head for four years, I have taken it to work conferences for the boring speeches, I have taken it to Italy on holidays (twice), to hospital rooms and trains... we can say it’s been a trip in all senses of the word!
Thank you to all the people who commented and squealed through the years, making me feel famous and talented and just joyful, thanks to everyone who’s reviewed or commented, emailed me about typos, beta-read, reminded me of switched surnames (;p) or liked on FB. It’s my greatest pleasure to share these people in my head with you.
Special thanks go to Alna & María Escalante for literal years of cheerleading, and to my beta team: Elouise East, Ash Knight, Susan Socci, AJ Bixler and Gema Cela Rodríguez
Although “Cracking Ice” is a standalone novel, there will be more novels in the “Rules to Break” series, some of which will deal with the civil rights movements in which Keenan and Carry get involved.
For more information, visit the “Rules to Break” page on my website. You can read Thomas’s and Uri’s book already, it’s called “Not Destiny”. And if there’s anyone you got fond of, please let me know, our imagination is the limit!
Recommendations
(or how I totally name secondary characters after writers & characters I love)
Skam – Sven’s children are named after my two favourites from this show, Noora and Isaak (although to be fair, Sven would need a dozen children for me to actually include all the amazing characters in it. Also, the show is Norwegian and Sven is Swedish, but I thought the names could be close enough to borrow in terms of language).
Check Please! By Ngozi Ukazu – Such a good comic about an openly gay baking-crazy southern gentleman going to college and joining the hockey team and making all the friends—including the dreamy captain of said hockey team, the son of a famous hockey star whose own career kind of floundered when he had a mental breakdown due to the pressure. Diverse and sweet and so cute AND free (although you can also get the actual books).
The Foxhole Court series, by Nora Sakavic – I fell into this series almost by accident... which is to say a friend gave me book one at 1am and because I’m a born sceptic I assumed I wouldn’t like it anyway and ended up staying awake until 5am to finish. Then it turned out book 2 and book 3 had been taken down to be rewritten for publication (this was originally an online story) and I spent the next 3 years in agony-ecstasy... which pretty much describes these books for me. They are the ultimate sports book and feature a made up sport that is so well described I actually enjoyed the games—if my hockey matches are at all interesting, it’s probably Nora I should credit... because I also read these books 3 times each. Serious warnings for graphic violence and people being really fucked in the head but if you are okay with that, fly, don’t run! The Wilde Füchse are the German team in Cracking Ice as a bit of an in-joke since German is the language the main couple speaks in this series and their team is called The Foxes ;p The first e-book is free, but save up a weekend to read the whole series!
Cossette Pontmercy – The Les Miserables lady (if she had taken her beau’s last name, which as a rule I find problematic for women to do but in the world of Cracking Ice people exchange last names ala Ursula Le Guin, so it’s totally cool.) Also, it’s got ‘mercy’ in it, which seemed appropriate. In this case, I have to recommend “World Ain’t Ready”, which is a Les Mis fanfic set in modern US where a boy asks another to fake date him for social justice—yeah, it’s that tropey and also a lot deeper. One day I hope to see WAR turned into an original novel, but in the meantime, it’s fanfic so it’s free on the internetz!
Self-driving cars are already a reality. And so are hoverboards.
Not Destiny
An alpha who won't dominate
A beta who won't surrender
A passion that...
breaks all the rules.
Thomas knows that as a beta he cannot expect to recognize his soulmate. He’s no monk, but he’s too busy with his hockey career and helping make his sisters' lives with his overbearing parents a little easier.
/> Uriel is an alpha but he knows he cannot bear the responsibility of bonding an omega. He has his work as a lawyer and also volunteers at an orphanage trying to help the children there any way he can. He’s dated, but he is not willing to enter the kind of relationship an omega expects and betas never believe he will stay.
Except that betas cannot tell if someone is an alpha... And Uriel has no reason to mention it to a one-night-stand. But the fire between them might not be fated, but it's undeniable, and neither can stop at just once.
Are they brave enough to defy the world's expectations and strong enough to overcome the limitations of their own biology?
"Not Destiny" is a standalone A/B/O romance with a side of hockey and courtrooms and a sprinkle of social justice.
Just so you know:
The “Rules to Break” series takes place in an alternate universe where Alpha/Beta/Omega biology is the standard for humans. A few things have changed as a consequence of this, such as gender roles and civil rights in general.
Some other things are different by random chance, such as the usage of what we know as the Jewish calendar (2018 = 5779), the non-occurrence of War World II and the development of cleaner energy by a European Union that united sooner and with less actual barriers.
Also, British public transport is not only green but works despite the diverse weather patterns (I know this might be the one thing that you cannot believe, but bear with me, I wrote half of this in delayed trains).
Instead of Latin, French or English, sign language caught on as an international language in Europe early in the middle ages—not from deaf communities but from Christian monks who’d sworn vows of silence but needed to communicate nonetheless. It was later taken to the colonies during the European invasions of America, Africa and Oceania.