CLAIMED BY THE ALPHA PRINCE

ONE: AXEL ‘You might be the alpha prince, Axel, but rules are rules. The alpha who has the strongest mate will be crowned the alpha king. That's the rule of the pack.’ ‘You’re 18, and you still haven't found your fated mate. As if that isn't enough, your wolf has refused to mark all the mates the council chose for you. We can't keep protecting you anymore, Axel. We were loyal to your father because he was the best king we've ever had, but if you can't walk in his footsteps, we'll have to side with the alpha that can make a good king.” My strategies ran more volatile the more I remembered the words of the council, uttered to me multiple times and in different meetings over the past couple of months. I glided faster on the ring, and a sudden hit from me earned us another goal. My teammates erupted into cheers as they crowded around me and hugged me. That was my second goal of the evening. We were winning, but my insides felt like they were rotting. I was the alpha prince by birth. I should have the right to the throne after my father, but in Wolfspire, you just don't get the right to become king by birthright alone. You have to work hard for it. Part of that hard work was having a mate and marking her by 18. That'd get you into the race to become the alpha king. My 18th birthday was a month ago, and I was still without a mate. The only reason why I was still considered for the race was that my father was the previous king, and that was why I got a three-month ultimatum. I've already lost a month of that, and I still haven't found my mate. The council had tried their best to keep me in the race. They've compiled lists of eligible shewolves for me to choose as my mate. Having a chosen mate instead of a fated mate would affect my rankings, but it was better than nothing at all. But then, my wolf, ever stubborn and obstinate, refused to mark any of them. Five marking ceremonies, and he couldn't mark any of them. I was losing his credibility faster than light. ‘It's black magic, Axel. I know a powerful sorceress who can fake a mate bond between you and any shewolf of our choosing. She'll manipulate your wolf into marking her, too. That's the only way for you to stay in the race as the alpha prince. You can't lose what my brother fought so hard for over some stupid pack laws, Axel. And no one needs to know about the black magic. It'll be our little secret.’ That was the solution my uncle and the acting beta of Wolfspire suggested to me. I knew he had my best intentions at heart and had practically raised me after I lost my parents years ago, but it was a suggestion I couldn't heed. Black magic was forbidden. It could mean death for me if I were ever caught. And besides, I wanted to know what it felt like to have a fated mate, too. I wanted to experience that special bond that was ordained by the moon goddess herself. I grew up watching my parents love themselves to death because they were fated mates, and I wanted something like that. The whistle went off, and the game paused because it was our recess period. My teammates gathered around, cheering and praising me as I led them to another historical win, but I could hardly feel their excitement. It felt like everyone around, especially the audience on the bleachers, could tell that I was a failure. That I didn't have a mate and my wolf was refusing to mark any of the chosen ones. I kicked at the ice on my way back to the lockers, and I ignored the searing pain that instantly spread from my feet to my body. I ignored my teammates hollering at me, too, and just before I could get to the lockers, my wolf rattled in my chest. And before I heard her voice, I already knew she was the one. Amerie f*****g Hart. She was the biggest torn in my flesh, probably even bigger than the whole mate nightmare. She was the stray human student on a welfare scholarship to Wolfspire Academy, but unlike most humans who respected wolves, steered clear of their paths, and respected royalty because they recognized that they were superior to their lot, Amerie was different. She refused to remain in her lane as a human girl. She refused to treat werewolves as superior. In fact, she has made it her mission to prove that she is more worthy than all of us combined. That was why she pushed me to the second position the minute she transferred to our school. That was why she dared to run against me for the position of the student president. She f*****g won and made herself the first human student president in the history of Wolfspire Academy. God! How much I hated her. I hated her even more this morning after we were handed our mathematics script and she got a point higher than I did. The freaking nerve of that human girl. I abandoned my walk to the locker room and made my way to where her angry voice was coming from. And the more I walked towards her, the more my wolf rattled. She was the only one capable of making him rattle this much out of anger and disdain. “You guys are not barbarians, you hear me?” she thundered, “you're not barbarians, so you're not going to act like one. Just because you belong to the almighty hockey team doesn't give you the right to break rules and turn the school into some sort of immoral ground.” “What’s going on here?” I asked immediately, and I found her disciplining three of my junior teammates, whom I'm certain were guilty of whatever she accused them of, but who didn't look the least bit apologetic about it. She didn't look at me, which irked me even further. "Captain Vaughn, if your teammates break another school's rules once again, especially during a hockey game, the student council is going to suspend the entire roster.” The crowd around us stopped in surprise at the tone she used for me, while my anger spiked. “Mind your tone, Hart.” “You're in charge of the team,” she continued speaking as if she didn't hear me, “and since you're unable to get them to act properly even though I've warned you repeatedly over the immoral and disgusting things your teammates are doing, it's only fair that the whole team shares the punishment.” “Come on, prude,” one of my delinquent teammates replied, tone lewd as he raked his eyes over her body, “it's not disgusting. It's just s*x. You'll know that if you allow someone to bend you over and f**k that virginity out of you.” The other two snickered while the crowd around us chuckled. Amerie didn't look the least bit disturbed by his statement. She only pushed her glasses up from the bridge of her nose. My anger took a whole different direction as I turned to the i***t teammate. “You'll be suspended from the team till you…” “That's it, Captain Vaughn. I guess the hockey team needs to be punished for all the atrocities they commit during your seasons.” She opened the tiny note in her hand and wrote in it. She tore it and slammed the disciplinary note on my chest while my wolf rattled more at the brief contact of her finger against my thick vest.