At Blackridge High, only two things matter...your bloodline and your ranking on the ice. No one holds more power than Alpha Cassian Draven, captain of the school’s elite hockey team, the Blackridge Wolves. He wears jersey number 9...the mark of a born Alpha, a leader, and someone no one dares challenge. And then there’s Aria Vale...a quiet, scrawny omega with no pack, no friends, and no voice in a world that only listens to strength. Her life already sucks. When Cassian’s father threatens to strip him of his future Alpha title unless he settles down with a mate, he panics. He needs someone unthreatening, easy to control, and forgettable...someone like Aria. So he makes her a deal: Pretend to be my mate for three months. You get protection. I get my father off my back. No one finds out it's fake. Aria agrees, thinking it can’t get worse than being the school’s laughingstock. But pretending to be Cassian Draven’s mate comes with strings: sitting in the Alpha section, wearing his mark, facing his jealous admirers... and acting like she belongs beside him. But somewhere between fake hand-holding and forced cuddling at pack events, the lines begin to blur. And Cassian starts to see her...not as weak, not as a joke...but as his. The weak omega and the golden Alpha were never supposed to cross paths, let alone fall for each other. But when secrets about Aria’s past emerge...secrets that could rewrite the balance of power at Blackridge...Cassian will have to decide: Is he still faking it? Or has the Alpha who wears number 9 finally found his true mate?