MY HOCKEY ALPHA MATE

Not anymore...

~Jasper~

‘Way to go, Jasper. What a fantastic relationship you have with our mate,’ Dax, my wolf, growled in my head as I made my way up to the locker room to change.

Coach Roman had sent the notification earlier: ‘Compulsory practice session after school today. No excuses, no exceptions. Miss and get benched.’ He had warned us, and right now, I wasn't in the best of moods. Dax should know that, but he was too angry at me to care.

I was in pain, too. I was at war with my brain, my gut, my body, and my sense of duty to my father, my Pack, and my team…all while Adeline still had no clue what she truly meant to me.

‘f*****g mark her, dude! Let's get this started. Mark her so everyone f*****g knows who she belongs to…especially that b***h, Camila!’

‘She's a b***h now, Dax?’ I countered, slightly shocked at the term my wolf was using for my girlfriend.

‘Ex-girlfriend, Jasper!’ Dax roared, the force of his presence in my mind made my jaw clench.

All eyes of my teammates snapped to me as I stepped foot into the locker room. I swallowed hard, forcing a tight smile before they would assume I was pissed at them.

‘I am looking for the right time to do it,’ I reasoned with my wolf, who was raging like a cornered animal in the back of my mind.

‘Like hell you are!’ he snapped back. I slammed my mind walls shut, he clearly needed time to chill, and I needed the space to breathe.

This was the torment I had been dealing with ever since I met Adeline in my literature class a week ago. Dax had been making my life a living hell with his relentless demands to mate and mark her.

Heck, I couldn't even remember how many times he had forced me to run to her window under the cover of night, just to be close enough to inhale that intoxicating scent of hers. It was the only thing keeping him sane, that, and a brutal spar with some of the pack warriors.

"Hey man, you good?" Logan, my best friend, asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied, stepping around him to get to my locker.

I dumped my school bag, wrenched open my side of the locker, and began hauling my gear out…my shoulder pads, skates, and jersey.

The number ‘17’ and my last name, ‘BECKHAM’ were printed boldly across the back.

The familiar choking smell of the locker room invaded my senses… a mix of after-school uniform sweat, stale adrenaline, and the tang of the ice rink just down the hall.

A few feet away, Dylan, Caleb, and Ben were messing around, talking and laughing loudly.

Logan leaned on the metal lockers, giving me a curious, assessing look.

"You sure you're good? You know you can talk to me, whatever it is going on with you these past few days. You've been grumpy, man. I won't lie, even the rest of the team has noticed. We need your head in this game this season. No flops."

"My head is a hundred percent in the game, Logan. You have nothing to worry about," I muttered, a rough, defensive edge slipped into my voice as I slammed my locker shut.

"Hey man, I didn't mean it like that," he said quickly, throwing his hands up in surrender, the movement caused his jersey to roll up, showing off the tattoo he’d gotten last summer during Alpha training.

"f**k, I know, bro. I'm sorry. Just been having a rough day," I sighed, running a hand over my face.

"Is it your girlfriend?" he asked.

"Who?"

The question slipped out of my mouth in a panic.

He raised his eyebrows in a silent question, and then it clicked.

Camila! To think it was Adeline…my human mate..who had flashed in my mind at the word girlfriend.

Because by right, that was what she was supposed to be to me by now. If she were a werewolf and not human, if she wasn't here for reasons I didn't even want to think about…

A wave of guilt clawed at my insides.

Adeline was innocent, she had just lost her parents, but my dad wanted it this way..to atone, or whatever the f**k he had told me.

"...Camila has been all over me since lunch, Jas. She's been asking after you, says you aren't picking up her calls," Logan continued, mercifully dragging me out of my dark spiral thoughts.

Before I could formulate an excuse, the locker room doors slammed open with a bang almost pulling the door off its hinges.

Camila strode in, looking like a war about to break. I caught sight of two of her followers…definitely not friends…hanging in the hallway outside as she barged in.

By right, she wasn't supposed to be in here, but ignoring boundaries was becoming her signature move since we started dating.

"What the hell, Jasper!" she shrieked, her face twisted in anger.

‘About time,’I thought.

I picked up my shoulder pads and focused on lacing my skates, completely ignoring her outburst, she doesn't get to talk to me in that tone. I wouldn't tolerate it.

"Jasper?" she called again, this time her voice dropped softer in a pleading tone.

I raised my gaze to her.

The entire locker room had freezed, some of the guys were still half-naked, clutching towels, just another glaring reason she shouldn't be in here.

I watched as she roved her eyes quickly over the room, taking in the state of some of their bodies, before snapping her attention back to me.

"Why have you been looking for me again?" I asked.

She had crossed a line today when she slapped Adeline, the disgust I felt for her in that moment had wiped away any lingering guilt over the breakup I had been planning.

Seeing her pour muck on Adeline, and then physically yank her school blazer…mistake or not…had made Dax want to rip her throat out.

I had barely managed to hold him back.

"I have been blowing up your phone, Jasper! My messages, didn't you see them? You didn't even come to my place last Friday like you usually do. I had to wait up for you all night feeling horny. What's going on, Jasper?"

Someone in the back whistled low at the word horny, and a ripple of laughter bloomed across the room, Camila didn't even blink, let alone blush. She was wild…things like public decency didn't phase her. Her lack of inhibitions was originally why I had started dating her, she had the s****l stamina to match my wolf's demands.

But that wasn't enough anymore.

"I have been busy," I replied flatly, grabbing my helmet from the bench.

"In fact, I have something important to say to you…"

"You've been busy?" she cut me off with shriek.

"So I am not important to you? I am your girlfriend, Jasper! Your f*****g girlfriend!"

"Not anymore." The words left my mouth coldy..

"What?" she breathed, Her voice was small, shocked.

The noise of the locker room died off now.

Logan stepped into my vision, tapping his hands on my shoulder pad.

"Hey man, take it easy…"

"I am serious," I restated, cutting Logan off and making sure the whole room heard me. I kept my eyes locked on Camila.

Different emotions flickered on her face…confusion, anger, panic…but the shock stayed there right in her eyes.

"I am done. We are over, Camila. You don't get to use that term with me anymore. You're not my girlfriend. We are done," I repeated, adding a cruel tone to my voice so she knows I am not bluffing...