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Patrick counts his blessings as often as he can. He needs to, so that he doesn’t forget how lucky he is.
He has two great kids, an amazing wife, he plays hockey for a living, and he’s part of one of the best packs this side of the Mississippi.
At the beginning, when he was first dating Abby, it was hard explaining the difference between humans and weres and friend dynamics. A close wolf friend is different than a close human friend, but a human pack member is the same as a wolf pack member.
The human guys on the team are still pack, until they decide to retire or get traded. Your pack alliance is to whomever you’re playing for. You don’t haveto be pack, of course, but being pack always makes things - smoother. Kinder. It’s hard to explain.
Abby, though - he met her and he knew that she was it, the one, and even though she wasn’t a wolf, she took to his family with ease, laughed when Chris shoved his nose in the bed of neck and shoulder and said she already smelled like their family pack.
She doesn’t care when Patrick stomps around the house when it’s the off-season, separated from his pack near the full moon, buries himself in a blanket that the entire team has slept on (they’ve done it for all the wolves, a blanket for each of them) and waits for the change, until he can slink back to Abby and let her coddle him.
She doesn’t care when he snaps at her, just stands her ground and stares him down, the alpha of their household. She learned it from Chris, of course, who told her that sometimes she would need to remind Patrick of what she was to him, and she took to it beautifully.
She’s the alpha when he’s home in Thunder Bay, but when he’s in Chicago, when he’s on the ice, in the locker room, on the road - that’s Jonny, and no one else.
Sure, Patrick’s a beta, but - being so far from his alpha during the summer makes them all needy and greedy for affection and praise. Everyone always makes it sound in the media like betas are easy to please, solid, but in reality betas are just as bad as omegas, but in different ways.
It’s all about pack dynamics, and Jonny has them all down pat.
As soon as they get a new player, Jonny asks them - do you want to be pack, or not? And they almost always say yes, even the humans, because being pack makes everything safe and good and warm. And then there’s the adjustment period, where they have to learn their place, but once that happens, it’s always amazing.
Even though Jonny wasn’t captain right away, Patrick could tell that he was alpha material. It was in the way he stood, the way he played, how he handled whatever was thrown at him. When he gets the captaincy, some of the guys are a little thrown off by it, but Patrick - he knows it’s going to be fine.
The first time he’s captain and alpha, some of the guys are a little resistant, but Patrick - shit, he crowds up against Jonny and shows his throat, whines a little when Jonny hesitates until Jonny scents him right, and Patrick can’t stop the shiver that slips down his spine.
Kaner’s next, but of course he makes it difficult, squawks and dances away and Jonny has to catch him, smoosh his face against Kaner’s throat because Kaner’s always fucking difficult. Patrick knows, though, because Kaner settles down next to him on the bench, and he smells warm and pleased and ready.
He calls Abby during a break in practice, that he’ll need to be with Jonny tonight, and she sounds - she sounds pleased about it, asks him if he’ll be happy with Jonny, and then asks to talk to him. He hands the phone off and Jonny listens, answers a few times, and then hands the phone back to him with a smile.
Abby tells him that she’s proud of him, and to be good for his alpha, and he preens a little because two rounds of praise feels especially nice.
When he goes home with Jonny and Kaner, Jonny lets them get burritos and nachos and beer for dinner, lets them lay all over him, wrap themselves up in his scent until they’re fucking stoned on it. Jonny doesn’t mind when they mouth their way up his throat, whining and begging.
When he sets his teeth into the nape of their necks, Patrick feels like he’s home, and no matter what, Jonny’s going to be his alpha, because he doesn’t ever want to be anywhere else.
They sleep curled up together, sprawled in Jonny’s bed. They’re sweaty and tangled around Jonny in the morning, but Jonny doesn’t make them get up right away. He curls an arm around each of them, his fingers rubbing their skin, like he’s trying to make sure that they smell like him.
Jonny grins when Kaner nudges his nose into the bottom of his jaw and then nips at it, growling weakly at Jonny like a pup would. He doesn’t react, lets Kaner try and push his buttons, and it makes Patrick smile against Jonny’s flank because normally Jonny would be swatting at Kaner by now, but now that he’s alpha, he knows that Kaner just wants the attention, but he doesn’t deserve it.
Eventually Kaner gets desperate, whining and crying like a pup, butting his head against Jonny’s chin and Patrick’s never seen him like this. Jonny sets his hand on Kaner’s head and Kaner settles almost immediately.
Kaner whimpers and when he looks at Patrick, his eyes are shining blue and blown wide, doped up on alpha-scent and touch. He reaches out for Patrick and Patrick meets him halfway, locking their fingers together to rest on Jonny’s chest.
He knows that for humans, this is - this could be really sexual, three naked, sweaty dudes in bed together, cuddling, touching and tasting, but this is normal for them. Does it become sex sometimes? Yeah, it does - and that’s okay, too.
Abby and Patrick have an understanding - if it’s pack, it’s okay. And he tells her, he always tells her, because it’s important that she knows what’s going on. But she gets it, that sometimes sex is an integral part of pack life. The only stipulation she has that if he wants a third - an omega - it has to go through her, first.
Of course it would - she’s the alpha.
(Patrick asked her if she wanted the bite, once, and she had snorted and told him not from either Aucoin or Lapointe, but he wonders if she would take it from Jonny.)
Patrick wiggles up a little to be eye-to-eye with Kaner, who smiles slowly. He can’t stop himself from bumping Jonny’s jaw with his forehead, smiling himself when Jonny presses a little kiss to his skin.
"Alpha?" Patrick asks.
"Yes," Jonny says, expecting a question, but Patrick just cuddles back down into the curve of Jonny’s arm and answers, "Okay."
Jonny lets them laze around for a little longer, petting up and down their arms, until his phone chirps.
He pats Patrick on the arm and shakes Kaner off his shoulder to crawl over Patrick to put on shorts, and announces that it’s time for breakfast and a workout.
Patrick never felt this comfortable with other alphas - maybe it’s just because it’s Jonny, serious on the outside and goofy on the inside. He’s not afraid to say that he loves Jonny - he does.
Jonny’s captain, Jonny’s alpha, and it’s good.
After the first cup run, Abby asks Jonny for the bite, and he gives it to her, and even though she’s older she blossoms under his tutelage; she’s an amazing alpha, taking care of him and their family. She knows that she’s secondary alpha, because Jonny is first, but she tells him it’s better that way - Jonny was born an alpha, and it was given to her.
Being a part of their pack is an honor, she says. Pack is family, and Pack is everything.