Disakiti Suami Mandul, Dicintai Agen Rahasia

June's POV

Who says an Omega can't make it to the team?

I walked into the training session amidst the stares of my teammates but there was one out of the crowd that was utterly disgusted.

"This is the joke, right?" Ronan Callahan didn't even look at me when he said it. He looked at Coach Renner instead, like I was a scheduling error someone needed to fix.

"June Hale." Renner's voice stayed level. "She's the first omega drafted into the league. She's here."

"She's here." Ronan finally turned, and I got the full six-foot-four assessment, top to bottom, unimpressed. "She's five foot nothing." He yelled.

"Five six." I corrected and he glared at me and I smiled back. I was here to stay and there was nothing he was going to do about it.

"She'll last one shift against real contact." He snorted. “Are you willing to risk the success of the team because of an Omega?”

"I'm standing right here."

"I'm aware." He didn't even blink. "It doesn't change the math. Omega on the ice is a liability. The league let this through for the headline, not because it's smart hockey."

Something in my chest went hot and I snapped at him. "Since you're so big on trash talk, how about I show you exactly how smart it is on the rink. Right now."

"June—" Renner started but Ronan cut him off.

"No, I'd love to see this." Ronan's mouth curved, not friendly. "Educational, probably."

"Both of you, enough." Renner yelled at both of us. "We're running a scrimmage at twenty. You want to settle something, settle it there, inside the actual rules, not in my locker room."

I didn't look away from Ronan. "Twenty minutes big boy and I'll put you in your place."

"Counting down." He replied. “And I'll swish you like a bug.”

Twenty minutes later, I was all geared up and ready to hit the rink.

I felt good on the ice from the first shift. The clean strides, clean passes, a give-and-go with my winger that split their defense wide open on the first rush.

Ronan hung back, watching more than engaging, which somehow annoyed me more than if he'd come at me directly.

Second period, I finally broke away, puck on my stick, nothing but open ice and the goalie between me and a shot I already knew was going in.

“Time to put an end to this nonsense.” I positioned my stick, ready to score and before I could make sense of what was going on, I felt a shoulder in my ribs.

The ice came up fast before my whole body slammed the boards hard enough that the sound cracked through the empty rink like a gunshot. Everything went white for one long second, my breath gone and ears ringing.

“Fuck!” I cursed under my breath as the pain shot through my body. I stayed still for about a minute until it subsided and I forced myself to get up.

The rink had gone quiet, a handful of teammates frozen mid-stride, and I caught the exact moment Ronan's face shifted from satisfaction into something closer to alarm, like he hadn't actually expected me to move again this quickly.

"Okay." My voice came out rough, but steady. "So that's how you're going to play?"

"June, that's enough for today—" Renner started toward me.

"I'm fine." I rolled my shoulder, testing it. The pain was bearable. I skated back toward the center, past Ronan, close enough to make sure he heard every word. "It's going to take a lot more than that to keep me down, Captain."

He didn't say anything. I didn't wait for him to.

The puck dropped again two minutes later, and I scored on the next rush, nothing lucky about it, and skated the celebration lap slower than I needed to, entirely for his benefit.

Ronan was a good player but he wasn't better than me and by the end of the game, he was glaring at me.

We finished the scrimmage 4-2, my team's favor, and I peeled my helmet off at the bench feeling like my ribs might actually be cracked and refusing to let it show on my face.

Ronan skated over anyway, slower this time, some of the earlier hostility replaced by something more careful.

As soon as he stood next to me, I caught a whiff of his scent which threw me off balance. He scented…..wolfish.

No, there's no way. Had to be the adrenaline from playing. Yeah, it had to be it.

"Who are you?" He asked while he gave me a one over before his eyes finally held my gaze. Probably thought the answers were in there.

"Your worst nightmare." I grabbed my water bottle, got up and didn't spare him as much as a glance. "Try to keep up because I'm not here to babysit big babies."

Something flickered across his face, gone before I could name it, and he skated off toward his own bench without another word, though I caught him glancing back once, twice, like he was still doing math that wasn't adding up the way he expected.

Adelaide appeared at my side a second later, already pressing an ice pack into my ribs without asking.

"That looked like it hurt." I was the one in pain but she was the one wincing. “Are you okay?”

"It did hurt a bit but I'm..."

"You're gonna tell me you're fine anyway?"

"Obviously." I rolled my eyes. “I've been through worse.”

She sighed, taping the ice pack in place carefully just the way she'd been fixing me up since we were kids. "You know he's going to be insufferable about this, right? Watching you score right after that hit. Guys like that don't handle being wrong gracefully."

"Good." I watched Ronan across the rink, already deep in some conversation with Renner, and he kept throwing a glance back toward me every few seconds like he couldn't quite help it. "I like him insufferable. It gives me something to work with."

She chuckled. "You're going to be a nightmare all season, aren't you?"

"His worst one." I grinned despite the ache still radiating through my ribs, watching him one more time before finally letting Adelaide drag me toward the treatment room. "I told him so myself.”