Freedom – 3 – DarkJediQueen

Reading Time:
39 Minutes

“Your tests came back,” Yuna said as she sat down with her laptop at the table.

Breakfast was long done. Shane felt a little weird sitting with his parents right now. He and Ilya had been getting up later because they were pretty much just keeping active and had been out later, Shane showing Ilya around Ottawa and what other teenagers their age did. Which had been something that Shane had not been looking forward to because while he was a teenager, he didn’t really do that stuff too much. They had found a few things to do that had kept them out late, but Shane’s parents didn’t care because they could both get emancipation and be fine. Shane didn’t want to. He didn’t need his parents out of his life. He was safe now. He was always going to be safe with Ilya at his side.

Thankfully, the sex had slowed down to where it wasn’t them fucking in some way when they were behind closed doors anymore. It had been so mortifying to have to wash his bedding that much. His parents hadn’t said shit about it.

“How did I do?” Ilya asked.

“For the parts that were needed, you did just fine, with high marks in a few things. Others have been chalked up to the difference in education; the Canada stuff was good enough to pass.”

“That’s good,” Shane said. He looked at his mother to make sure that she wasn’t going to say something that would make Ilya feel like he was stupid.

“Honestly, most of Shane’s friends did worse than you,” Yuna said.

“Really?” David asked.

“Really. Shane, of course, did fine on his tests. You are approved to do the same track of school that I have Shane on, so we will work on getting you caught up to him today, unless you guys had other plans?”

“No, is fine,” Ilya said.

Shane nodded. They had planned on working on Shane’s schoolwork that day, but now they were going to be adding Ilya into it. It was usually Shane teaching himself stuff and asking his mom’s help when he was having issues; he usually did it in his bedroom, but he thought that maybe he and Ilya should stay in the kitchen or go to the living room for it. He didn’t want to have to explain to his mother that his work wasn’t done because he was sucking Ilya’s cock. The skin hunger had lapsed enough that they could be apart for a short time without going crazy, which was why they had waited to have Ilya get tested. It was going to be interesting to see what was going to happen in the coming time with Ilya learning with Shane. He was going to have to figure out what he was going to focus on for classes. Shane had focused on business for a few things that were added classes, and his mother had been happy. Shane had done it because of his plans for his future that were making sure that if his career in hockey were cut short for one reason or another, he would be fine as he went. He just wanted to play, but he knew that he might not always get to play. He had seen too many players hurt in ways that meant there was no career there anymore.

“Also, Ilya, when I get off work, we are going to the local car lot, and we are going to find you a car,” David said.

“You do not need to do that,” Ilya said.

“Nonsense, I know that you are allowing Shane to drive you around, but you need to be able to do things on your own without having to worry about driving Shane’s car and leaving him alone without a way to do something.”

“I cannot make you not do this, can I?” Ilya asked.

“No,” David said.

“Okay, fine.”

“You will get one of the ones that I pick out based on the safety features and how good it does in the snow. We haven’t had a big one yet this year, but the forecast over the next few weeks doesn’t look good. We will make sure to take you out and get you used to our roads. I know that you know how to drive in Russia, but that doesn’t mean that you know how our idiots drive in this weather.”

“And it’s very much the idiots that you need to worry about,” Yuna said when David paused in his speech.

“Totally,” Shane said. He reached over and laid his hand on Ilya’s thigh before he leaned over to kiss his cheek. He could feel how overwhelming this was for Ilya.

It was something that was hitting Ilya harder and harder right now. He hadn’t thought about the full aspects of what he was doing, that he would be subjecting himself to the whims of the family into which he bonded. That he would need to have them pay for everything. Have them do everything for him. Shane knew that he was a proud person. Not just like the whole Russian “hated to be made fun of” type of pride, but just that he could take care of himself. He had been taking care of himself using his father’s money. That he was now at the mercy of two strangers for all of his food and clothes had been a big thing.

Ilya was taking it with grace, which was good because Shane wasn’t sure what was going to end up happening with that. He felt like it was going to blow up at some point, but he wasn’t sure.

“We can do it before dinner; Yuna and Shane can join us after we pick a car for dinner out somewhere. It’s been a while since we have done a dinner out.”

“That sounds good.” Ilya laid his hand over Shane’s on his thigh, and he made sure that Shane could feel the emotions of happiness inside of him.

This wasn’t the worst thing that could happen, but Shane wondered if Ilya was going to protest getting one of the more expensive cars. Shane’s car was new; his parents had bought it for him when he passed his test because they wanted him to be able to go to practice on his own. There were some things that Shane and Ilya were going to do apart, but most of the things they were going to do were together. It made sense to have two cars, but Shane figured that Ilya was going to buy his own with his bonus when they signed with whatever team they signed with. Or maybe even have them get him a car. Things wouldn’t settle until they had their own money and didn’t need to rely on Shane’s parents, even if they weren’t the type to hold any of it over their heads.

Shane had planned on buying his parents a new place with his post-ELC contract. Before that, he needed to make sure that he was doing good with it. He had plans for his own cottage on the lake as well, so that was going to have to include Ilya in that, and maybe Ilya could buy their place wherever they lived when they signed on a team, and that would be a house each. They would, of course, buy things the other wanted as well, not just what they wanted. Shane didn’t have any cares about the house they lived in together after whatever apartment they were in for the start of the season, but he had a lot of ideas about what he wanted at the cottage.

“Go and start on your schoolwork, outside of your room,” Yuna said when they were done eating.

Shane had been eating without noticing it. He did that a lot because he was used to just shoving food in his mouth. His newer diet was helping him feel better. He didn’t stick to it a lot on the days when he didn’t have a game, but he didn’t go overboard. The plan had been developed with the nutritionist that his doctor had sent him to when it came to making sure that his body and his mind were both fed. When he ate like crap, he felt like crap, and he knew that his mind would suffer for it, and before this he needed to make sure that nothing happened that would show him off as a guide.

“Are you okay?” Shane asked when they went to their bedroom to get Shane’s books. They could use the same ones because the books were stupidly expensive, and his mother hadn’t minded buying them when he needed them, but there was no reason for two sets. They were not crazy enough to feel like they needed different ones.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Ilya said.

“You can put your foot down about the car,” Shane said as he wrapped his arms around Ilya and let his whole mind wrap around Ilya. Despite Ilya being a Guide, he responded best to Shane treating him like a Sentinel. He was even moving on the ice like one now, and it was terrifying and a lot exciting to see. It was the kind of thing that made him feel like he was going a bit crazy, to be honest. He was treating Ilya like a sentinel, which was good, but Ilya was wanting more from him like a sentinel would. Whatever they were doing, it was working because no one was trying to out them as anything but a Sentinel and Guide pair.

“Do you think that they will want us in the draft this year?” Ilya asked.

“We can’t be on a team until the season after the coming one,” Shane said. He hadn’t thought about that. They would both be eighteen, so there were no issues there. There were others in the draft class for that coming season that it didn’t make sense to want to have them in this one. Unless they wanted the optics of it. Their play was great when they had been on different teams playing for their countries. But this was different. It was the kind of thing that made Shane wonder if there was something else going on in Ilya’s mind.

“It’s not that I want the money early or anything, and I know that we would have to be careful, and I love your parents. They have been so good to me.”

“But you want something that you can call your own.”

“I want to move to the city where we are going to live as soon as possible as well. Make a life there so that when we start to play, things will settle for us. We can get to know the team.”

Shane could say that it didn’t matter to him, but it did. He just hadn’t been able to put into words what he was thinking when it came to this. He didn’t know if things were going to be like this forever or if it was because of his feeling like they were going to be found out. The draft would happen after Shane and Ilya graduated high school; they were not doing stuff with the other kids who were homeschooled for one reason or another. Just a simple dinner to celebrate it, unless Ilya wanted something bigger.

“We can talk about this more later if you want. Whatever you want. If that will make you feel better, let’s talk to the people who do it, and we will see what is going on. Usually the first couple of draft picks start to play right away, but we could easily see if the teams who get the first pick are the ones who might want us more than they want the people who are coming up next year. If that works for you.”

“Yes, let’s talk about it to the people who really matter in this, and then we will talk to your parents and see if they think the same as us,” Ilya said.

Shane nodded his head, and he pulled Ilya into a tighter hug again.

June 2009

Ilya looked at where Shane was, and he smiled at him before turning back to the couple who were talking to him. This was the small party that was being held to introduce Ilya and Shane to all of the staff for the Boston Raiders. It was supposed to be something smaller, but it had turned into something a little bigger, given that they had been gotten as a pair. Montreal was pissed off, but Ilya wasn’t.

Shane had been uncomfortable with a few people whom he had met at the combine that they had been at at the end before the draft. Given the nature of a Sentinel and Guide pair, while the first team to have the draft pick could get whoever they wanted, Ilya knew that if there was a bad reaction to part of the team or the staff, there would be a skipped pick. The normal teams didn’t really have that in their way of picking their draft picks because they didn’t have to deal with people with superior senses and the ability to kill with ease if they wanted.

It took a few seconds for Ilya to notice that Shane had slipped away from the couple who had been talking to him, and then he was slipping his arm through Ilya’s. They had both hit one of the last growth spurts they were going to have that was big enough. They were close to the same height, but Ilya was still broader, which was just fine with him. He knew that Shane loved it as well. He was one who just loved to be held.

“What kind of house are you looking for?” the woman who Ilya was talking to asked.

“We aren’t sure yet, nor where we want to move to. We will be moving to Boston as soon as we can, which means finding a place.”

“Why so soon?” the man asked.

“I want to make sure that we find the best place for us, and we want to learn the city and the flow of it before we start. We have a lot of brand deals that my mother is putting together for us, and we will be busy as we work on settling the last of the bond,” Shane said.

“And I feel like I need to be in the city,” Ilya said.

“Do you dislike Ottawa that much?” the woman asked, making a face that said she didn’t like him saying that.

Ilya knew that some normal people didn’t understand the drive to make sure that you were in the right place, to have a good life going. No, he didn’t hate Ottawa. “No, no. I love Ottawa. I love the place so much. I’ve been happier there than I was in Ottawa; some of that could be that Shane loves Ottawa so much, but I do love it. I feel settled there, but I’m ready to start a life with Shane and me, and it makes no sense to wait a year before we move away. Most kids in America and Canada who are going off to college get their time away from the parents started with the first year unless they are going local and staying home. There is also the fact that bonded pairs chafe under the rules of having to follow rules set by others when it comes to their own space.”

“Your parents are strict?” the man asked as he looked over at where Shane’s parents were.

“No, they are really good at understanding we are eighteen and are a bonded pair. It’s just that we are also just very much wanting to not have to worry about waking them up when they work the next day.”

“Wake them…oh,” the woman said. She laughed a little bit and squeezed her husband’s arm.

“Roz!” a voice called out.

Shane turned his head to look at who yelled out. The part of the team that was there, which was the other two draft picks that had been made by the team, were waving them over. Ilya knew that they had been trying to subtly get his attention, but he had been having a good conversation until this point.

“They want us again,” Shane said.

Ilya smiled at the pair he had been talking to, and then he turned him and Shane to face the rest of the team. Everyone was dressed up, not tuxedo-dressed up, but Shane was in a shirt that was too much and not enough at the same time. Ilya wanted to lick him all over, which would have to wait until they got back to the hotel room. They were in a single room this time, close to where Shane’s parents were, but they did not share a wall. The room they were in had soundproofing that had proven to not disturb the others around them, as Shane had done nothing but moan and scream the night before from being on Ilya’s cock nearly half of the evening, as he had been unable to rest when they had been getting ready for bed, so Ilya had made sure that he was going to get to sleep.

“Hey, we are slipping away. Got any gear with you?” Marleau asked as he looked around the room. It was all suits left and those who wanted pictures with the rookies.

“In the car,” Shane said.

Ilya wasn’t sure where that was going, but he didn’t know if he ever wanted to know in the end beyond just agreeing to what they wanted.

“In your car or in your parents’ car?” Marleau asked.

“Our car. They rented us our own car,” Shane said.

“Good. Good. Then you can drive a couple of us with you.”

“Where?” Ilya asked. He didn’t like going to some random-ass place.

“There is a rink near here, and we have time rented out. It’s a tradition for us all to get on the ice in our fancy gear and see how we all do.”

Ilya could get down for that, but he didn’t want to push Shane into something like that. He didn’t know what he was going to end up getting to have going on with that. “Shane?”

“Sure, we can do that, but I will be texting Mom that we are going out with the team.”

Then they were slipping out. There were a few of the upper management of the team who just laughed and shook their heads at them.

By the time that they figured out who was riding with whom, half an hour had gone by with a lot of fights happening. It ended up with four rookies that were at the event all going in the same car, which was probably for the best. Ilya let Shane drive because he liked to drive more than Ilya did. Ilya liked driving fast, and that wasn’t something he could do here.

Over the last seven months his life had changed a lot. Ilya wasn’t sure that he really cared how much it changed, but he felt freer, and it wasn’t just the bond with Shane. He hadn’t been slapped or called lazy at all. His father mistook his silence for laziness instead of, like, his brother talking back. There had been only a single letter sent from his father to the Canadian government Sentinel and Guide entity that had made its way to Yuna, and she had asked Ilya when he wanted it. He had told her to read it and tell him if he needed to read it.

The only part that Ilya had cared about in the letter was where his father had told him that all his things had been destroyed; only Ilya knew that they had not. His father hadn’t realized that the things he really cared about had gone with him to Canada, and the rest had been gotten out as soon as Sveta had realized what his plan was. Sveta’s father wasn’t nearly as horrible as Ilya’s was and paid to have the things come with Sveta to Boston. Which had been a big shock that she had settled there only for Ilya and Shane to be drafted there. There was so much going on right now that Ilya had told her to keep the items. He would get them when they found a house that they liked. Ilya’s singing bonus was going to the house that they were going to buy, and then Shane’s was going to start the process to get them a cottage on the lake where they could have their time alone. The cottage idea had been something that Ilya loved. He had been to the Hollander family cottage a few times, and it was nice, but it wasn’t nearly big enough for them to want to be there long-term. So they were going to make their own.

The rink was pretty fancy, and it was very much used for a lot of things because of the way it was shaped. The rink was fine, but there was a lot of stand space that Ilya wasn’t sure was needed if this was just a place to be rented out.

The older players were already on the ice by the time that they were ready to go. Ilya had made sure that Shane took his time getting to the rink by having the GPS on his phone take them the long way.

“Get lost?” Marleau asked.

“Nah, we wanted to see the scenery,” Shane said as he stepped onto the ice.

“So, this is a game with no boarding, and checking will only be enough to disrupt, not put someone on the ground. Accidents happen; we know that. Just don’t hit at full power. You will be benched for the rest of the game if you trip someone, so don’t do that shit.”

There were sticks that were lined up on the far side, looking like generic sticks, but they were already taped, which was good. They headed over to pick them up. Ilya didn’t like the brand, but this seemed like something of a bonding time more than anything else. SO he didn’t really care about it.

“Marleau and Connors, you do the honors,” the captain of the team called out.

Ilya wasn’t sure he liked the wicked look that went over Marleau’s face.

“Rozanov,” Marleau called out.

“Hollander,” Connors said.

“Fucking evil man,” someone else called out.

Shane skated over to Connors, and Ilya followed and did the same for Marleau. It was going to be interesting, but he didn’t think that they had really thought this through. The other two rookies were split as well. It was going to be interesting to see what happened with this game. Ilya figured that there was one thing that the team was not betting on; it was that Ilya and Shane would be that competitive with each other. They were both the first draft picks, which was fine. It was the way that bonded pairs went. There was no first and second when it came to that. They were wanted and they were snagged. It was good.

They just didn’t plan on them being as competitive as they were. This was a test to see how the rookies did on the ice since all four of the top four draft picks for the team were going to be on the ice this coming season. The others were going to college and other teams that would help them get where they needed to go. It was rare for that many to go straight to the team, but there was an issue with a group of the older team leaving to settle down and not be on the road. The retirees for the SHL usually left before the normal counterparts did, and that was fine. It was perfectly fine because there was no reason to even wait to the retirement age since they could do a lot of other things and usually came back to the same team in a coaching or other staff capacity.

There was no reason to hold back in this game, and they didn’t. No time was kept, and the score was kept by someone sitting on the sidelines who was injured from the end of last season and wasn’t allowed on the ice just yet. They went until someone called it because they couldn’t keep on going, which was not Shane or Ilya.

“What were the face-off percentages?” Marleau asked the player on the sidelines.

“Literally half and half. Same with their goals and assists,” the player said.

Ilya knew that he needed to learn the names of the team, but he didn’t want to do that yet; he would focus on that when they were actually going to be on the team. A year from then. They would be there to usher in the next class of draftees and then play with them. It was going to be a lot of fun to do that. Shane knew all of the players; he had looked at every single team that they had any chance of being drafted to. Though, he knew the stats for most of the players in the league who were worth remembering anything about. Shane’s hockey IQ was unrivaled when it came to anyone else alive, except for maybe his mother. She was at the current time acting as their agent and would be helping them find someone else to take that over, and then she was going to work with just their brand deals because those were taking off. Ilya knew that there would be local places that wanted them now that they were committed to Boston. Ilya’s story was a big draw, but Shane wasn’t too far behind because he was fucking pretty.

“You two were fucking beasts,” Connors said. He was leaning over and panting like he was having issues breathing. “If you two were not bonded and went to two different teams in the normal leagues, you would have fucking been rivals that didn’t stop. Constant fight at the top for everything.”

“Who says we are not going to keep that going? We are two very competitive fuckers,” Ilya said.

“I vote now that they cannot be allowed to do this,” someone called out from where they were lying on the ice, getting their suit soaked.

“Why not?” Shane asked.

“You will kill us all with this fucking foreplay, that’s why,” Marleau said.

“You can’t stop us from making our own bets on shit,” Ilya said.

Shane skated over to Ilya, and he wrapped his arm around him.

“I protest this. Can we give one of them back and make Montreal take them? Then we would only have to deal with this a few times a year,” Connors said.

Ilya heard a lot of laughter from the rest of the team, and he settled on maybe he could trust them with him and Shane, not the whole truth of who they were, but everything else. With their friendship, their happiness. Maybe he could relax a little and let his guard down, let people into his life.

“I heard this was where the party was,” a voice called out.

Ilya turned his head to look at Sveta. He didn’t know what to do. He wanted to skate over there to hug her, but he was sweaty and he smelled like so many people. They had clothes in the car to change into, but they needed to shower as well. He didn’t know if this place had showers. Would they have to get into the rental smelling like this?

“This is a closed event,” Marleau said, and he skated over to put himself between Sveta and the rest of the team. Like a guard dog, and they couldn’t all do a lot of damage with just their bodies; forget the sticks in their hands and the knives on their feet.

“Is it? All of the Boston Raiders are here, and it’s not an open event, shocker,” Sveta said.

“Be nice,” Shane said.

Ilya turned to look at him, and he knew that he had talked about Sveta, but they had plans to meet with her the day after this event since they had just gotten into town in time to get to the event due to David’s work and other things.

“Why must I be the nice one, Shane Hollander?” Sveta asked with a grin.

Shane skated past Marleau, and he patted him on the shoulder as he did, and then he opened the boards for Sveta to step onto the ice.

“Because otherwise these guys might want to take you home.”

“I’m not hearing a downside.” Sveta pulled Shane into a hug at the same time she said it.

“Friend of yours, Hollzy?” Connors asked.

“It’s the first time meeting her in person. She’s been texting me, though. This is Ilya’s best friend from Russia who moved to Boston before we were drafted here,” Shane said. He turned around and looked at Ilya with a shit-eating grin on his face. “Surprise!”

Ilya felt it. The way that the rest of the team was a little freaked out at what Shane had done. Despite being Sentinels for the most part, they still thought for some reason that Ilya and Shane were not exactly getting it on. Ilya wasn’t sure how they couldn’t smell it. Yes, they smelled like each other, but there was the scent of their come on each other that was unmistakable unless they were slobs that jerked off in bed and went to sleep beside each other without cleaning up. Ilya had noticed it when the team had been introduced to them before they were drafted and a few other times they had met up since then until the party. Shane wasn’t really in the place to just have Ilya kissing on him all the time, but maybe something was going to have to be done soon.

A lot of the gossip Ilya would never know about from before he had moved here. Before he had become Shane’s Sentinel to the world. He would never hear that stuff because none of them were going to say it, but maybe he could talk to someone from the team about it. He didn’t want to be blindsided by a chirp on the ice because he knew that if they were on different lines, that meant that there could be things said on the ice that he didn’t hear. The crowds and the sounds of the active game hid a lot of things, even from Sentinels. It would be a whole thing that Ilya was going to have to get use to hiding.

Things settled down, and Ilya spent time with Sveta as she met the rest of the team they would be joining in a year. For now, they would be working on finding a place to live and making sure that they were settled in the life.

September 2010

Shane shifted on his feet, and he looked at where the cashier was trying to get the lady to just stop. The lady had a whole cart, and she went through every single item as it was scanned, what the price was, what the price would be with the discount, and if the lady had a coupon, she wanted it scanned then. Shane didn’t blame the cashier. The manager had come out a few times, looked at the line forming and then at the single cashier in the place before he went back to his office.

“I’m going to say something,” Ilya said

“Ilya, no.” Shane reached out to grab his arm, but Ilya just kept on moving. He knocked on the office door, and the manager stepped out, looking like he was doing anything but working in there. The flush on his face was enough to tell Shane what he thought the guy was doing. That was fucking disgusting. Yeah, it would be fine to do it, but not where one worked and not instead of like actually doing their job.

The way that Ilya’s back stiffened told Shane that he also knew exactly what the guy was doing. The line was now halfway down an aisle, making those waiting in line have to move to allow people to access items on the shelves.

The manager shut the door, and Ilya just shook his head before he turned to head back to the line.

“Thanks for trying,” someone in the line said.

Then there was a man coming from the back. He stormed up to a register, looked at the line, and then at the cashier, who was still dealing with the lady.

“Okay, so this is going to be orderly, and you are going to do what I say. I will take those who are paying by cards and have under ten items. Once I get them shuffled through, I’ll just take those with cards. I will tell you when that happens. I cannot take cash because this register is not set up with it and that’s locked in the office.”

Shane and Ilya had a cart full of stuff, and they were paying by card, but that didn’t mean that they were going to go to that line. Still, at least some of them could get out of there soon.

Before the guy could start to ring up the first person who joined his line, the doors opened, and it took a few seconds for Shane’s brain to realize that the store was being robbed. He had no idea why the fuck they would rob a grocery store when it was just ten in the morning. Yeah, it had been open long enough for a good bit of people to go through, but most of them paid by card these days, and there was just a single register.

More people kept on coming in until there were ten of them there. All of them had guns, and they looked like they were going to mean business. Shane gripped the handle on the cart hard, and Ilya wrapped his arms around him from behind.

“Do we have any bonded pairs in here beyond the two hockey stars?”

Shane wondered how the fuck they knew them. The commercial they had filmed hadn’t even come out yet. There was a lot of talk about them but not that much since they weren’t playing. So the person had to be a hockey fan, which was fine, but Shane didn’t like it. He really didn’t like it. He just sighed and waited for what was going to come next. It wasn’t like he was trained in that kind of shit. Yeah, he could defend himself, but there were too many armed people, and he wasn’t sure that he could take them all out because while he was good at hockey, he just wasn’t that strong of a Guide. He might be able to work with Ilya, and they could do it if they could talk to each other.

No other couple in the store raised a hand.

“Okay, do we have any bonded in here who are alone?”

A woman raised her hand at the back of the line, and then there was a guy who did it from where that person was shopping. The store was big enough that there were people who were in the store that didn’t realize what was going on.

“And are there any who are unbonded or latent?”

A guy raised his hand.

“Which are you?”

“Latent,” the guy said, his voice breaking, and he sounded like he was going to pass out soon.

“All of you over to the side, where you will be under three guns at all points. If you start to come online, you are going to tell us, or we are going to shoot you. Do you get it?”

Shane left the cart, and he walked over to where they were directed. They were arranged in a way that the armed person wanted, and then they were just left to be under guard.

Five of the people started to head through the store, and they started to bring people back under guard, getting them down on the ground in the group of normal people, or in the case of a pair of girls, putting them with Shane, Ilya, and the others who were Sentinels and Guides. There was something going on between Ilya and another of the people from the one bonded pair, and Shane knew that they were going to do something.

Then the bond flared up like Ilya was trying to get him aroused, but there was a sense of urgency. Shane closed his eyes, and he let himself get washed up in Ilya’s feelings. There were things that they could push to each other to tell them what they wanted. It was hard to think about like this because Shane was worried about someone getting shot.

The two men who were the ringleaders seemed to be paying more attention to the group of people who were clearing the store than anyone else.

“Hey, the office manager is in this office jerking off,” Ilya said.

The two ringleaders turned to look at him.

“What?” one of them said; his accent was easy to place as very, very Montreal. What the fuck were they doing in Boston?

“I tried to get him to help with the line, and I could smell it. It’s like he jerks off in that office all day long.”

“If you are fucking with me, I’m shooting him,” the guy said as he pointed his gun at Shane.

“I’m not fucking with you. I only fuck him.”

“Ilya,” Shane hissed, but he knew that this was part of getting the robbers focused on him. Their plan was still weird. Why a grocery store? It wasn’t like there was a lot of merchandise that would get them money anywhere else. There were not enough people to get the food out of there. There was not a lot of cash on hand. It was just fucking strange.

The guy kicked the door down and the man inside screamed.

“What the fuck, your store is getting robbed and you are watching porn?”

There was a shuffle, and then the manager was pulled out; he was still zipping his pants. The guy put him on a bench and used zip ties to tie him there.

“Fucking disgusting,” the guy said.

The manager was crying and looked like he was going to start to freak the fuck out. Shane wondered if the guy was always like that. He seemed to be weak in a lot of ways, and given that the look of him was pretty weak as well, Shane wondered how he had gotten to be manager; maybe he was trading favors with whoever did the hiring.

A shout from the back of the store had the two ringleaders heading that way, and then it was just all of them with the three guys.

“Shane, you can take one of them, right?”

Shane nodded. He shifted to get into a pose that would allow him to strike as soon as he could. Then there were a few seconds where it was just silence. The guys didn’t have their fingers near the triggers, which was good because if they did, this could go wrong. He got ready, and then when he felt the push from Ilya, he struck. He put a fist into the guy in front of him’s stomach, and then as he caught the gun, he punched him in the face. The guy went down hard and was out like a light. Ilya and the Sentinel from the bonded pair did the same with their guys. Then the Guide from the pair took the guns from them and started to break them down and pull out the bullets to make sure that it would be hard to just pick them up and put them back together.

Then they went hunting.

Shane could feel the four people who were still looking for any stragglers, and then there were the three who were dealing with the kid and mother who were freaking out. Shane hoped that the kid wasn’t shot to make him quiet. He knew that they needed to take care of the four who were out and about before they did anything. Two of them were together, and the other two were alone.

“You take the two?” Ilya asked.

Shane nodded. He was good at sneaking up on people. He had learned that while they had been living in Boston over the last year. They had gotten the needed papers to allow it to happen but went back to Ottawa more than enough to make the people who watched that stuff happen.

The two of them were eating candy. Shane focused on them, and he felt the happiness they were feeling at being able to eat the candy. He had no idea what the fuck was wrong with them, but then they were robbing a grocery store that wasn’t even that good. It was just close to where Shane and Ilya lived, and the food was good enough. It was always fucking slow. He could see where the guns were lying on the shelf, and he really thought that these two were idiots. He heard a small scuffle, and he attacked before his two figured themselves out. He lashed out with his fist to the one and his mind to the other. It was something that he had been taught over the last year. He knew that on the ice he couldn’t use his gifts, which was fine because Shane wanted to play good fucking hockey. He wanted to do that and never have to worry about defending himself with his gifts. Ilya would give anyone who hurt him without a reason a reason to fucking get scared as hell. They practiced with a lot of people, and most of them were very normal, but it was enough to keep them sharp on the ice. They spent a lot of time in Canada with the national team as well, which helped a lot to make sure that they were still going to be at the level needed.

Then there was the training; they did so much training with a lot of others. It was summer, so they were training with the people who they were going to be playing with as well, those who lived in Boston all the time and didn’t go home during the summers.

Shane checked that the two men were out cold but not dead, and he moved toward where he could feel Ilya. They all three met up again and then headed for there; the kid was still having issues. The lone Sentinel moved off on his own to come up a different way, and they were lucky that the area that this was happening at was going to block them from being seen as they came up on them. Shane knew that these three had their fingers on the triggers. They would have to be careful as fuck.

“I’m going to help you,” Ilya said.

It was their sentence that meant that Ilya was going to act like the Sentinel that he passed himself off as but was going to use his Guide gifts to make sure that these three were out. Shane knew that he was going to have to overwhelm them all three at the same time, and with Ilya going behind and making sure, they could do it. Ilya’s Guide gifts were just a little different from Shane’s, but he was good at it. Shane taught him the stuff he learned in his lessons. There was nothing that they didn’t share when it came to what they learned. Even if Ilya’s Guide gifts were pushing him to act like a Sentinel, to hide it. Even his senses were ramped up higher than what they should be all because of his psionics.

One of the ringleaders started to turn around, and Shane went after him first, and then he jumped to the other two at the same time, all of them dropping with ease. The Sentinel came over and took the guns, and he worked on tying the guys up. Shane reached out with his mind to make sure that all of them were out fucking cold. The Guide had called the cops, and they were waiting on them to arrive. It shouldn’t take much longer.

“Can you guys help drag them away?” the Sentinel asked.

“Why do you ask that?” Ilya asked.

“I mean, you are…you don’t act like a normal bonded pair.”

“We are hockey players. We could bench you,” Ilya said.

“Ah, so that wasn’t a joke. Okay. Um, let’s get them over there and then we can go back after the others.”

They had all ten of the robbers in a grouping by the time that the SWAT team came in the doors, guns raised and in a wide arc that got bigger as more of them came inside. Shane stayed behind Ilya, and they stood there with their hands up.

“Who did this?”

“We did,” the Sentinel said. “Um, Army Major Reynolds and my Guide, Sarah Reynolds. Then these two behind me.”

Shane waved a little when the guy who spoke looked at them. Then he jerked back.

“Rozanov and Hollander?”

“That’s us. You are welcome,” Ilya said.

Shane reacted before he could think better of it, and he slapped Ilya on the side.

“Yeah, that’s them all right. Okay, everyone outside. Why is he tied to the bench?”

“Don’t let him up yet. I want to file a complaint on him,” Ilya said.

“Why?”

Ilya didn’t answer until everyone else was out of the store except for the four of them who had worked on getting everyone free.

“He was jerking off in his office. One of these fuckers actually broke down the door, and I’m pretty sure he saw his cock out. The porn he was watching is probably still playing in there.”

One of the SWAT officers actually went to the door and looked inside and jerked back in shock before looking back at the lead. Then he nodded toward it. The lead looked at Ilya for a second before heading toward the door.

“That’s fucking…Okay, he’s staying there. Get someone from the child crimes unit here and make sure that no one touches that beyond someone pausing it. I want to make sure it’s not lost or something. Do you know which one saw it?”

“This one,” Shane said as he pointed at the one ringleader whom he remembered being the one to go into the room.

“Okay, we will get your statements and take care of things. There are officers waiting outside. Don’t split up, please. We don’t need someone yelling at us for pulling apart bonded pairs.”

It was hours later that they were able to leave, which had been a curse because the food that they had in the cart was pretty much spoiled. They had been fed, though. Been allowed to order food over the phone to be delivered to them. They were not treated like they were weird for what they had done. The crash had started as soon as they were allowed to be taken home. They had planned to walk home with the groceries, as they didn’t live that far from the store and it was a nice day. They allowed an officer to take them home, though, just to get through the media circus. Shane had texted Marleau at one point to get the Raiders aware of what was going on, just in case there was something they needed to deal with.

“We are going to be in the news,” Shane said when they got behind the door of their house and he locked the door. The buffering system kicked in as soon as Ilya turned it on. Something they did as soon as they were in the door. They turned it off when they were not home so that if their alarm was tripped, the cops could hear what was going on inside of there.

“We are. The Raiders will handle most of it. They will get us to email them something, and then we will just have a parrot that all the time.”

“I…didn’t even feel scared,” Shane said.

Ilya pulled him close and wrapped his arm around him. It felt so good to be in his arms like this. Shane turned his head to press it to Ilya’s throat. They were good like this, just alone and happy to be together. They didn’t have a lot of time to be together, but they had more over the last while because they were getting closer to the start of the season, so things that were not hockey just fell off. Their brand deals were done until they had time to add in more or something else like that. During the season, the bruises that they acquired made it harder but not impossible to be made up to cover the bruises. So the ones that needed more than just their face to be visible were going to wait until summer, and then the ones that needed just the face would be slipped in when they had their little precious time on long stretches home.

“I know you didn’t. I didn’t either. It was just the idea to protect. I get why some Sentinels are driven into the military and the police, but that has never been something that even was close to something I wanted,” Ilya said.

Shane hummed, and he just stood there with Ilya wrapped around him. Thankfully, they didn’t have to worry about Shane’s parents because while they were waiting to be allowed out, Shane had called and talked to his father, who was going to be the one to deal with his mother. Shane loved her, but she still wasn’t the best at trusting it when Shane said that he was fine. She didn’t let things go until she was satisfied, which was good when it came to making sure that Shane was treated fairly as a child, but it was less so when she just didn’t trust that Shane knew what he needed. He was her only child; he knew that it was hard to let go, even if she thought that he had a big strong Sentinel who was taking care of him.

“Are you sure that you are good?” Ilya asked.

Shane huffed and he pushed back out of Ilya’s arms before moving to press him to the wall. “I’m not a wilting flower,” Shane said.

Ilya huffed, and he brought his hands up to cup Shane’s cheeks. “No, but you also punched several people, and they weren’t even chirping stupid shit at you.”

Shane laughed, and he realized that it was what Ilya was aiming for. Ilya knew the best way to get him out of his head when he needed a little bit of a break and didn’t know how to do it. Just like Shane knew when to get Ilya out of his head. There were a lot of things that they were fucking good at; they needed to figure out the best way to do things when they were on the road. The good news was they would be rooming alone; most of the team would, but some of the unbonded Sentinels would very much be sharing a room because they were good at that. It allowed them to rest as well.

“I’m going to make a smoothie; do you want one?”

“Fruit?” Ilya asked.

“Of course. I’ll bring it to you if you want to find something to watch.”

Ilya kissed him again before letting him go. It was going to be hectic for a while; they might as well settle down into what little calm they had before it really blew up.