My Fake Mate, Hockey Captain, Is My Real Mate

4

POV: Conrad Volkov

The parchment sealed with our blood was still burning in my athletic jacket pocket.

I walked through the double doors of the Alpha Academy hockey rink with swift strides.

The smell of ice and old leather greeted me, but my scent—damn it all—could only register one thing.

The scent of Riley Megg.

A trail almost imperceptible to any ordinary wolf due to her status as a wolf-less Omega, but to my wolf, it felt like a brand made by a red-hot iron.

Pine, rain, and that human purity that had been tearing my nerves apart ever since I saw her in the cafeteria.

"Go to hell," I growled, addressing my own wolf, who was scratching at the walls of my mind, demanding that I turn around and claim her.

I entered the empty locker room, stripped off my jacket, and put on my skates with jerky movements.

My breathing was already a disaster.

The anxiety that the old Alphas used to talk about was suffocating me.

I grabbed my hockey stick and a black rubber puck, and stepped out onto the deserted ice rink.

I pushed off on the blades, slicing through the ice with wild speed.

My body moved on pure instinct.

I set the puck in motion, controlling it against the ice as I began my own game.

I planted myself a few meters from the opposing net and struck the puck with all the strength in my Alpha arms.

The rubber shattered the net of the opposite goal, embedding itself into the back wall.

Yet the exercise failed to erase the image of that wolf-less Omega.

"Her lip," I repeated to myself mentally, skating in circles. "That female wolf split her mouth with the force of a Beta wolf. I saw the blood. I saw the cut. And it closed in seconds."

My mind couldn't process it.

A wolf-less Omega shouldn't heal at that speed. Not even I, an Alpha of pure bloodline, healed a direct impact without partially shifting my wolf to channel lunar energy.

Riley Megg had no wolf.

She had no rank.

She was supposed to be a helpless outcast, yet her body concealed a strange vitality.

My wolf let out a howl of protest, rebelling against my doubts. The encounter in the cafeteria and the pact in the classroom hadn't been a game to him; they had been the recognition of the sacred bond.

She was my true mate.

Destiny had handed me the only woman capable of calming my wolf, but also the one who would destroy my standing if the Council ever discovered her lack of a wolf...

"I won't accept her," I hissed between my teeth, stopping in the center of the rink, resting both hands on the hockey stick while sweat ran down my forehead. "She's just my damn trick to keep them from taking my captaincy away."

I would use her to maintain control over my wolf, but my heart would remain under lock and key.

I spun on my heels and returned to the locker room, dragging my skates.

I took off my gloves and slammed them against the metal lockers with a dull thud.

"You're going to break the metal if you keep hitting it with that much force, bro," a measured voice echoed from the corner of the locker room.

Dean, my Beta and best friend, was sitting on a bench, taking off his massive goalie pads.

His gaze swept over my body, lingering on my clenched fists and my eyes, which I knew must still hold the bright blue of the wolf beneath the surface.

"Shut up, Dean," I spat, walking toward my locker to pull out a towel.

Dean stood up and suddenly sniffed the air, narrowing his eyes in a way that immediately put me on the defensive.

"By the Goddess," the Beta whispered, his eyes wide with astonishment. "Your scent... You don't reek of pure testosterone anymore, Conrad. It smells... like something sweet. Holy s**t, you found your Luna!"

I went completely rigid, keeping my back turned to him.

"Don't say stupid s**t," I hissed.

"I'm not stupid, I'm your Beta," Dean shot back, taking a step toward me. "That scent only appears when an Alpha recognizes his destined mate. Tell me, who is she?"

I ran the towel over the back of my neck, swallowing the lump of anxiety, and turned around slowly, holding his gaze.

"It's Riley," I blurted out, flatly.

"Riley?" he asked, bewildered. "Riley who? The daughter of the low-ranking Gamma from the border?"

"Riley Megg," I declared.

Dean blinked, completely stunned. He waited a few seconds, as if expecting me to pull myself together and tell him it was a joke.

"The wolf-less Omega?" His voice came out in a whisper laden with disbelief. "The girl who cleans tables at the campus cafe? The one living off a charity scholarship and whom the entire Alpha pavilion uses as a laughingstock? Are you telling me that almost-human girl is the future Luna of the Volkov pack?"

"She isn't anyone's Luna, Dean," I cut him off in a sharp voice, digging my fingers into the edge of the locker. "And watch your damn mouth before I rip your fangs out."

"Conrad, get a grip," Dean insisted, agitated. "If your father finds out about this, he'll destroy you. The Council won't accept a wolf-less Luna. It's an insult to the pureblood line. They'll strip you of your right to the throne!"

"Enough! She doesn't know anything," I snapped, dropping my voice to a dangerously husky tone. "She has no wolf, so her senses are completely dormant. She can't smell the bond. To her, I'm just the arrogant asshole on the hockey team."

"And you plan to leave things like that? You have to reject her!"

"No... We signed a blood pact ten minutes ago," I confessed, pulling the parchment from my pocket and tossing it onto the wooden bench.

"A deal?" Dean narrowed his eyes, picking up the parchment to read it.

"She's going to pretend to be my mate in front of the pack this season. She'll calm me down before every game."

Dean stared at the bloodmarks on the paper, shaking his head with a mix of admiration and terror.

"You're playing with sacred fire, bro," the Beta whispered. "Using the mate bond as a political alibi... is absolute f*****g madness. She doesn't have a wolf... everyone will know it's a lie."

"Nobody will know... We'll apply scent masking," I declared, feeling my stomach turn as I recalled it. "I'll have to rub against her before every game."

Dean let out a low whistle, looking at me as if I had lost my mind.

"You're putting yourself through torture, bro," Dean warned seriously. "Rubbing against your true mate without being able to claim her... that's going to drive your wolf insane. You're exposing yourself to the very destructive frenzy you're trying to avoid for the games."

"I can control it," I shot back, though inside, my wolf roared in disagreement.

"Oh yeah? And what makes you so sure a simple Omega can handle the pressure of your aura without bowing down?" Dean questioned. "The wolf-less are usually fragile."

"That's the thing, Dean. Riley isn't fragile," I blurted out, taking a step toward him and dropping my voice. "In the cafeteria, a Beta female landed a smack on her with pure strength. She split her mouth. I saw the deep cut and the blood running."

"And? A Beta female would have sent her to the infirmary with a fractured jaw," Dean deduced.

"The wound disappeared, Dean," I declared, locking my gaze onto his. "It closed up completely in five seconds, right before my eyes, without leaving a single mark. She tried to hide it, dodged my questions, and got defensive."

Dean went mute. His face shifted from skepticism to absolute shock.

"That's... genetically impossible," the Beta articulated, bewildered. "A wolf-less Omega doesn't have rapid healing. Not even a pure Alpha heals at that speed without a partial shift. Are you sure about what you saw, Conrad?"

"I know what I saw," I affirmed firmly. "I don't know what the hell she is, but her presence stops my wolf, and her body conceals a power that makes no sense. That's why I need you to execute the first clause right now, Dean. Access the Medical Consortium system through your hacking network. Freeze Arthur Megg's debt and wipe the eviction order from my father's records."

Dean nodded slowly, still disturbed by the revelation of Riley's healing. He walked to his locker and pulled out his laptop.

"Consider it done," he said, opening the device and typing rapidly. "But be careful. If that girl is hiding a nature of that magnitude and finds out you're using her as a political shield... she won't forgive you. And an Alpha rejected by his own mate is doomed to madness."

"She will never know," I declared, standing up to head toward the showers. "And I'm not going to fall for an Omega, whatever she may be."

I walked into the shower area, letting the ice-cold water hit my body.

I closed my eyes, but the darkness only returned the image of her perfect lip, and the scent of rain that had remained clinging to my skin.

Dean typed one last command from the locker room, but an alert chime interrupted the quiet.

"Conrad," Dean called out, his tone shifting completely, losing all composure. "You need to see this. I just accessed Arthur Megg's medical file to freeze the debt."

"What is it?" I asked from the shower, turning off the tap and tying a towel around my waist as I walked out.

Dean turned the computer screen toward me.

"The eviction order and the shutdown of the lunar chamber weren't signed by your father," Dean revealed, pointing to the system's lines of code. "Someone used the Supreme Alpha's credentials, but the action originated from an external academy account. Someone paid a massive bribe to force Arthur Megg's death from the inside..."

My blood ran cold.

I stared at the screen, feeling my wolf awaken with a renewed fury.