Chapter 5 — Mine to Handle

Lucian POV

I weakly clutched at the heavy, damp fabric of his jersey as the fever of the heat burned through my nervous system. The world spun on a broken axis, my vision blurring into soft edges of heat and shadow. Every light in the locker room felt blindingly bright, drilling directly into my skull. "Let go of me. If the coaches walk back in... if the front office finds out about this... my career is over before it even starts. Let me get to my car."

"The front office won't find out a damn thing because I own the press in this city, and I own the board of this entire franchise." Orion’s large fingers dug into my skin through my under-armor gear, anchoring me in place. "Look at me, Lucian. Open your eyes and look at me right now."

I forced my heavy eyelids open, looking down at the man kneeling on the rubber floor between my thighs. He held my entire life, my secret identity, and my lifelong dream in the palms of his hands.

"You are a lone Omega in a professional league full of starved, violent predators," Orion said, his voice dropping into a low, final tone. "Today, they merely smell you in a controlled space. Tomorrow, if you step back out on that ice without a plan, they will actively hunt you down during every single play on the shift. They will use the boards to tear your clothes, to smell you, to ruin your focus. They will break you until you bleed, just to see what you are hiding. If I don't step directly in front of you, you will be torn to pieces and exposed before the end of the week."

My body completely betrayed my mind. My back arched toward the radiating warmth of his chest, craving the heat. My fingers, which had been pushing him away, uncurled, loosely hooking into the shoulder pads of his jersey. I hated how small my voice sounded. I hated the fact that my omega instincts wanted me to tilt my head back and expose my throat to his teeth. "I don't need your protection."

Orion leaned upward, his broad shoulders trapping me against the wooden locker stall as his lips brushed against the unmated skin of my neck. "This isn't protection. Don't confuse me for some knight in shining armor, rookie. This is an investment. This is business."

His hot breath sent a violent shiver straight down my thighs, paralyzing my muscles.

"You want your dream? You want to skate on my ice and lift that championship trophy? Then you pay the admission price. From this exact second on, you don't touch another black-market suppressant. You don't speak to another player on this roster. You deal entirely with me. I am your only buffer."

I tried to claw back my remaining anger, trying to find the fierce, unbroken version of myself through the suffocating haze of my own pheromones. "You think you own me just because of a biological glitch?"

Orion tilted his head back, his dark eyes locked onto mine with absolute certainty. His pupils were blown wide, fueled by the heavy scent of my heat.

"I already do." He caught a tear of sweat on my burning cheek with his thumb, his touch possessive and rough. "I handle the front office. I handle the team dynamics. And during your heat... I handle you. You belong under my wing, Lucian. No one else touches you. No one else looks at you. You are my playmaker, and I don't let anyone touch my assets."

I tightened my fingers on his shoulders, digging through the heavy nylon of his pads to push him back. I needed him away from me. If he stayed this close for another minute, the last remaining walls of my sanity would crumble. "I am a professional hockey player, Kael. Not your pet. I earned my spot on the roster. I out-skated your defensemen. I scored the goals."

Orion slid his hands up from my hips, mapping the contours of my waist, his palms burning hot against my damp shirt. "And you will keep scoring them. But you will do it under my terms. When the main camp resumes tomorrow morning, you are on my line. You eat when I tell you to eat. You take the blockers I provide. And when the heat hits this hard, you come to my private quarters. Do you understand me, Lucian?"

The reality of my situation settled over me like a suffocating blanket. I was trapped. If I refused, he could expose me to the league commissioners with a single phone call, ending my career before I could even play my first official game. If I agreed, I was giving up my body and my freedom to the most powerful Alpha in the sport. There was no middle ground. There was no escape.

The anger drained out of me, leaving nothing but raw exhaustion and the burning fever of my cycle. "Why are you doing this? If I'm such a liability, why not just get rid of me?"

Orion’s gaze darkened, a dangerous spark flashing in the depths of his eyes. He leaned in until his nose brushed against mine, his breath mingling with my own.

"Because you're the first thing on this ice that hasn't bowed to me." His voice was thick with an obsessive honesty. "You're a ghost, Lucian. You're a beautiful, lethal little ghost who skates like an angel and fights like a devil. I watched you leave my best defenseman in the dust, and I realized right then, I don't want to destroy you. I want to control you. I want to see how high you can fly when you have an apex Alpha holding your leash."

My hands slowly lost their grip on his shoulders, my arms dropping limply to my sides as the primal fever fully pulled me under. The scent of dark cedar and winter frost from his aura wrapped around me like a shroud, completely blocking out the cold concrete locker room. I was trapped, locked inside his orbit. There was no escaping the predator who had claimed me.

Orion pulled me flush against his massive, solid chest, his lips grazing my jawline. "Tomorrow morning, first line drills. But tonight, you submit to your captain."

I didn't answer. I couldn't. His heavy arms wrapped around my waist, lifting me off the wooden bench. I wasn't just passing out. I was waking up tomorrow as Orion Kael’s designated asset, locked away in his private quarters, completely at his mercy.

I closed my eyes and let the darkness take me.