Mating a Forbidden Wizard (MM Hockey)

CHAPTER 1: Red Moon

KARL’S POV

The red moon was doing something to my blood. I started feeling it the moment the sun went down. 

This kind of pull in my chest meant that my wolf was pushing against my skin, like it had somewhere to be and I was the only thing standing in the way. 

I gripped the edge of the bathroom sink and breathed through my nose as I told myself I had done this before. 

I had managed and controlled it. The red moon came three times a year and three times a year I found a way through it without destroying anything.

I just needed to get outside. Run it off in the woods behind the training facility before anyone noticed I was gone.

I grabbed my jacket off the hook and was halfway to the door when it opened from the other side, and Grey walked in.

“There you are.” He dropped his bag on the nearest chair and pulled out his tablet without looking at me. “I’ve been looking for you for twenty minutes. We need to talk about Saturday.”

I stayed where I was near the door and did not move closer. “Saturday is four days away.” I said.

“Which is why we’re talking about it now.” He pulled up game footage and turned the tablet toward me. “Their left defenseman has been cheating his positioning all season. If we run the play wide on the power play instead of cutting through the middle we can…” He stopped. Then he looked up at me properly for the first time. “You look terrible.”

“I’m fine.” I muttered, avoiding eye contact.

“You’re sweating.” He frowned. “Are you sick?”

“I’m fine Grey.” I said. “Can this wait until tomorrow.”

“It can’t.” He set the tablet down and crossed his arms and looked at me with those eyes that had been making my wolf insane for two years. 

That was the problem with Grey Andreyson. He never waited. He never backed down. 

He has always stood in the middle of every room like the boss, the he would look at you like you were a problem he was going to solve whether you wanted him to or not.

And he was my mate. Which meant every second he stood there looking at me like that the red moon had more to work with.

I could feel my hands now. That was the first sign — when I could feel my hands too much, the bones, the joints, the skin pulled tight over my knuckles — of my body wanting to shift. I pressed my back against the wall and breathed.

“Karl.” He stepped closer. “Seriously, what’s wrong with you?”

“Don’t.” I said.

He stopped, as his face twisted in surprise, or maybe with was shock from the way my voice came out. “Don’t what?”

“Come closer.” I said. “Just. Stay there.”

He looked at me for a long second. Then he took one more step forward anyway because that was exactly who Grey Andreyson was.

The pull in my chest became something else entirely.

My wolf knew its mate was standing three feet away on a red moon night and it was done being managed.

I crossed the space between us before I fully decided to. My hand went to the side of his face and I kissed him.

I told myself it was control. That I was doing it to take the edge off, to give my wolf something small so it wouldn’t demand something bigger, and that it meant nothing.

Grey went completely still for half a second. And… Then he f**king kissed me back.

He kissed me like he had been waiting for me to do exactly this and was annoyed it had taken so long. 

His hand came up and grabbed the front of my jacket and I felt my wolf who has been struggling for two years collapse into one point.

But then I pulled back. It took everything I had but I pulled back and stepped away.

Grey’s hand was still in the air where my jacket had been.

“Karl…”

“Saturday please.” I said. My voice came out breathlessly. “We will talk about the wide play on the power play before practice starts. Got it.” I picked up my jacket from where it had fallen and walked to the door. “And also, get some sleep.”

I left him standing there looking alternately confused and miserable.

The woods helped. I ran until the ache in my heart felt like something useless instead of a command, and by the time I got back to the dormitory building my hands were mine again and my wolf had settled.

I took the stairs to my floor and pushed open the door to my room. Only for me to hit bulbs light. Which was strange, because I always turn off my lights.

Then my eyes surveyed the room, but nothing till my eyes landed on the bed. And there was Irina sitting on my bed. Irina is the lady my father has been forcing me to mate.

She was in her dark travel clothes with her hair loose and her bag on the floor beside her feet.

It seems like she had been here long enough to get comfortable. She looked up when I came in with an expression that wasn’t quite a smile.

“You smell like him.” She said.

I kept my hand on the door. “How did you get in here.”

“Your father gave me the code.” She stood up slowly. “He thought you might need some help tonight. You know… red moon and all.”

“Get out Irina.”

“Karl.” She said my name the way she always said it, like she was correcting something. “Your father has moved the ceremony up. He said you only have two full moons from now. He wants our mating and coronation done before the season ends.”

“I said get out.”

She reached into the front pocket of her jacket and I didn’t understand what she was doing until she had already done it. She brought out a small spray bottle, then she sprayed it. It hit my face before I could turn away.

My legs went down first. Then my whole body slumped down within a second.

I felt the floor come up and I heard her say something before I felt a very sharp bite on the side of my neck where a mate mark goes.

The last thing I thought before everything went dark was Grey — the guy I love — grabbing the front of my jacket.  And now, a lady I hate mating me.