“Calm the hell down,” I hissed. “The last thing we need is you getting a fucking assault charge and ruining your career forever.” I shoved his shoulder until he paced to the other side of the room.

I sat back down, turning my body slightly so I could keep one eye on him. “With all due respect, Mr. Monderra, you don’t know shit about our relationship with Nova. And you don’t need to know. There's nothing in our contracts that dictates who we can and can’t date.”

“There is a clause about doing your best to maintain the reputation of the club,” Caitlyn countered.

I slid my eyes to her and curled my lip. “That would be relevant if we were out fucking hookers, or puck bunnies, or someone else’s wife. But we are all consenting adults, going into a relationship with full transparency, and just because it doesn’t look how you feel it should, doesn’t make it any less valid. If you want to make those kind of dictations, it won’t be long until you’re the owner of a team of desperate rejects who have nowhere else to go, because anyone with any skill will fuck off to some other team who isn’t meddling in their relationships, telling them what to do.”

Monderra looked at me, his eyes narrowed. He knew I’d walk if I didn't like what he said next. I might float around as a free agent for a while, but someone would pick me up eventually, scandal be damned.

Finally, he nodded. “Keep your noses clean and out of the papers until after the playoffs, or you’re out.”

River scoffed. “Good luck winning the Cup without us.”

Monderra looked at him, his face a mask. “None of you are irreplaceable—remember that.”

I stood, hustling River out the door before he got us both benched for the rest of the season. When I reached the threshold, I looked between Monderra and Caitlyn. “None of us asked for this. Our privacy was invaded. Our lives are under a fucking microscope. We could have gone our whole career without this ever being a problem. Maybe you should ask who wants to see the IceCaps getting screwed over in the court of public opinion, rather than trying to micromanage our relationships.”

I shut the door softly behind me and caught up to River, who was striding down the hallway like he’d happily rip the head off the next person who looked at him funny. We made it to the locker room, and luckily, most of the guys were out on the ice at practice. We’d missed most of it anyway, so fuck it, we could just go home.

Everyone with any brains vacated the room when River stormed in, picking up a hamper of dirty towels and throwing the whole thing at the opposite wall. “FUCK!”