I WOKE UP AS MY HOCKEY ALPHA'S GIRLFRIEND

Chapter 21

Mary

The laughter downstairs was beginning to irritate me. Emily's mother had finally returned from her shift, and judging from the noise, she, Dylan, and whoever else was down there had apparently discovered the greatest joke in werewolf history.

I wasn't laughing.

Tonight was supposed to be my night. For weeks, I had imagined this dinner. The Luna should have personally invited me. Ethan would be there. The most influential families in the pack would be there. Every person who mattered would be there.

Instead, Emily was wearing my dress, she was sitting beside Ethan, and she was smiling at people who were supposed to be smiling at me.

I buried my face deeper into the pillow. "This is so unfair."

The laughter downstairs grew louder. Even Emily's tiny house sounded happier than I was.

A knock landed on the door.

"Emily?" her mother called gently.

I pretended not to hear. But another knock followed.

"Sweetheart? Come downstairs. We're about to watch a movie."

I was not interested. What would they watch? Those empowering movies where omegas became a Luna?

She knocked again. "Emily?"

I let out an annoyed breath.

"I'm fine," I called back. "I'm just...not in the mood."

There was a brief silence. Then Dylan spoke. "Leave her, Mom. Emily's been acting weird all week."

Excuse me?

I wasn't weird. I was displaced.

Their footsteps finally faded. Only after the house became quiet did I finally unlock the bedroom door. If I stayed inside another minute, I was going to lose my mind.

The evening air was cool outside. I sat on the small porch steps and pulled out Emily's phone. Emily wasn't answering my calls. She was probably too busy smiling beside Ethan.

I clicked my tongue and opened social media instead. The first picture that appeared almost made me throw the phone.

Joye.

Next was Sasha.

Then Clara.

Pictures from the Luna's dinner filled my screen one after another.

There I was. Or rather… Emily, pretending to be me. She actually looked decent. The makeup artist had done a respectable job. And the blue gown suited my body perfectly, exactly as I knew it would.

She wasn't embarrassing me after least.

What annoyed me was the fact that nobody noticed that she wasn't me.

Not even the people who had practically watched me grow up.

Nobody could tell that the girl smiling in those photographs wasn't Mary Saint Laurent. I didn't even smile in pictures.

I slowly lowered the phone onto my lap.

"So that's all I am," I whispered.

A face.

Apparently, anyone could wear it. I leaned back and stared at the stars.Whenever life became overwhelming, I swam. Water always fixed everything. It cleared my thoughts and quieted the noise in my head. Unfortunately, Emily's neighborhood couldn't even afford matching fences, let alone private swimming pools.

I sighed.

"Being poor is exhausting."

"You know talking to yourself is usually the first warning sign."

I turned.

Col stood a few feet away with both hands tucked into his jacket pockets.

When had he gotten there?

He walked over and sat beside me. For a while, neither of us spoke. I simply swung my legs while staring into the darkness. Finally, he nudged my shoulder.

"Bad day, Poochie?"

I frowned immediately. "Don't ever call me that."

Despite myself, I laughed. Just a little.

"There she is," he said. "I was beginning to miss the girl who argues with everything."

"I don't argue."

"You literally just argued."

I rolled my eyes. He rested his elbows on his knees. "So...How's the project going?"

I shrugged. "I don't know."

His eyebrows rose like I had said something abominable. "What? That's your favorite topic. You love talking about your project, Emily.”

I looked away.

I was tired. Tired of chemistry. Tired of molecules. And tired of pretending Emily's life wasn't suffocating me.

"I don't want to think about chemistry tonight,” he said.

He studied me quietly for a moment. Then he said, "So what do you want?"

I didn't even think about the answer. "I want to swim."

"Swim? Tonight?"

I nodded. "I'm depressed."

"So swimming fixes depression?"

"It fixes mine."

He laughed softly. "I can arrange that. But mom's not going to allow it.”

"My mother must not know,” I told him. I was almost sixteen, I didn't need permission to go swimming.

Now he looked genuinely amused. "You want to sneak out?"

I shrugged. "What she doesn't know won't hurt her."

He stared at me for another second before shaking his head. "I have absolutely no idea who you've become, Em.”

Twenty minutes later we were driving through the quiet streets.

"Where are we going?" I asked him.

"It's a surprise,” he said.

"There aren't any swimming pools around here,” I pointed out. “I don't want a stream…I'll get infected.”

"There is a pool around,” he insisted.

A few minutes later I recognized where he was driving towards. I turned my head to face him.

"My school?"

He grinned. "It's the only swimming pool I can afford."

I laughed at the audacity. Col parked several meters away from the academy. Instead of using the main entrance, he led me through a narrow trail hidden behind the trees.

"I never knew this path existed,” I confessed to him.

"That's because you always use the front gate like a law-abiding student."

“You attended this school?” I asked.

He glanced at me. “Emily…you know that answer.

Oh, crap.

I stopped talking and focused on walking and appreciating the environment. Moonlight filtered through the branches, and the moon looked beautiful from under the branches…like it was caged. At one point, the trail narrowed so much that he reached back and took my hand.

We finally slipped through a small maintenance gate. And a few minutes later the school's swimming pool shimmered beneath the moonlight.

I smiled when I saw the clear water. "This is perfect."

I never thought seeing the school's pool would make me so excited. Life can be so humbling.

He sat beside the water. "So?"

I dipped my feet into the pool. The cool water wrapped around my ankles. Relief spread through me instantly.

"Come on," Col teased. "Don't tell me that's all the swimming you're doing."

He pulled his shirt over his head. Then kicked off his shoes, and his trousers.

Okay…

Wait a sec.

Emily had somehow managed to brother-zone this ridiculously handsome man. That should honestly qualify as a medical condition. And I know the name.

Crazy.

She was crazy.

Or maybe, she hadn't seen him shirtless by a pool.

He looked back as I stared at him shamelessly. "Coming?"

I stood.

"Well...I did come here to swim."

I peeled off my outer clothes until I was left in my bra and shorts before diving cleanly into the water. The moment I did, all the anger I had been feeling all day vanished. The cold wrapped around me and I laughed. A real laugh this time.

Col dove in after me. We raced from one end of the pool to the other, splashing each other like children. By the time we slowed down, we were floating quietly beneath the moon.

And Col looked unfairly handsome. Maybe it was the water. Maybe it was the moonlight. Maybe it was simply him.

I didn't know.

We drifted closer without realizing it.

Or maybe, we both realized it, but neither of us moved away. His eyes searched mine. Mine dropped briefly to his lips. The distance between us disappeared until I could feel his breath against my face. My heartbeat became louder than the water. He raised his hand and brushed the wet hair from my face and I could feel my heart racing. I could feel his eyes searching mine, like he was waiting for me to say, “go ahead.”

I didn't know who moved first. But my lips brushed his, and I was looking forward to kissing the handsome omega in the pool when a flashlight suddenly sliced across the pool.

"Who's there?!" a man's voice shouted. "Security!"

We broke apart, colliding against each other awkwardly.

"Run!" Col yelled.

We scrambled out of the pool, grabbed our clothes, and took off laughing. Neither of us stopped running until we reached his car. Both of us were breathless by the time we reached. We laughed so hard we could barely stand.

Col leaned against the car, shaking his head. "Tonight was absolutely insane,” he said, laughing.

"It was."

I looked away before he caught me smiling. "Don't get used to this side of me.”

He smiled. "I wasn't planning to."

Within me, I already knew I wanted another night like this.