Chapter 6 — The Penthouse Awakening

Lucian POV

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was not what I could see. It was what I could smell.

The air was really thick and sweet. It smelled like cedar wood that had been crushed and rain that falls in the mountains and something that was strong. This smell was very familiar. It was the smell of someone who's in charge. It was the smell of Orion Kael.

I sat up fast. My heart was beating hard in my chest. It felt like a bird was trapped and trying to get out. My eyes were blurry for a second. Then I saw that I was in a nice bedroom. The walls were gray. The lights were blue. The bed was huge. It was much bigger than the bed in my apartment. The sheets were soft and tangled around my legs.

I looked at myself. I was not wearing my hockey gear anymore. I had on a black T-shirt. It was clear that the shirt belonged to someone bigger than me. The shirt felt weird on my skin. I started to panic when I realized that the shirt smelled like Orion. He must have put his smell on me when I was sleeping.

"No, no, no," I muttered, my voice sounding raw and cracked.

Memories of yesterday came flooding back. The locker room is where it all started. I felt this heat in my chest. I could smell my Omega scent. It was like warm honey and vanilla. And it was getting out into the team facility. I saw the way the other Alphas looked at me. It was scary. I thought about how I used those masks for six years to hide my Omega scent, and they did not work on the ice. Then I thought about Orion. I remembered how he stood in front of me, how he let out this roar to claim me in front of everyone, and how everything went dark after that.

My body is still shaking from what happened. I got out of bed. Swung my legs over the side. My knees felt really weak, like they were made of water. I had to keep going. I had to get out of there. If people found out that I am an Omega, my career with the Winter Wolves would be over. If the league found out that I lied about being a Beta, I would be in trouble.

I walked across the room on the thick carpet towards the big glass doors that led outside. The penthouse was really quiet except for the sound of the air conditioning. I went down a hallway past some fancy furniture and expensive art until I saw the front door. It was a steel door with a fancy lock on it.

I grabbed the handle and pulled it.

The handle did not move at all.

I hit the touchscreen on the wall with my palm over and over. The screen turned a red color. I heard a sound and then a voice that sounded like a machine said: "Access Denied. Captain Kael needs you to use your information to get in.”

"Damn it!" I slammed my fist against the steel door. I was really mad. "Open the door! Let me out of here!"

"You are wasting your energy, rookie." His deep voice was like a knife. It cut through the silence.

I turned around. My back was pressed hard against the locked door. Orion came out from the shadows of the kitchen lounge next to us. He was wearing a charcoal gray suit that made him look really big and strong. He was a guy about 6'3" tall. His dark hair was combed nicely; his face was sharp. His blue eyes were looking right at me. Orion did not look like someone who played a hockey game the day before. He looked like a king who was checking on his things. He looked very powerful in his suit. The way he was looking at me made me feel like I was his property.

Orion had a silver tray in his hands. They were really scarred up.

"Let me out of here, Orion," I demanded, trying to sound calm. My voice was shaking a little. I was scared. "You cannot keep me locked in your apartment. This is kidnapping."

Orion did not say anything for a moment. He walked towards me, his shoes making loud clicks on the floor. The smell of cedar was around him, and it was making me feel weird. My body was reacting to Orion. I did not like it. I felt a heat inside me. I was angry with myself. I squeezed my fists tight, my nails digging into my skin so I would not fall.

He stopped in front of me, a couple of feet away. Then he put the silver tray down on a table.

There were two things on the tray: a cup with a dark purple drink and some papers in a black folder with a silver pen on top. The papers looked very official. Orion had a tray, and now it was sitting on the table with the cup and the papers from the black folder.

"I did not kidnap you, Lucian," Orion said. His voice was smooth and calm. It also sent shivers down my spine.

"I saved you. If I had not taken you out of that place, Miller and the other strong players on the team would have hurt you. They would have tried to figure out what you were hiding. The coaches would have called the league doctors. You would be in a cell now or in a worse situation.

"What is going on here?" I looked at the door. Then I looked at the tray of food. "Is this some kind of prison? Are you going to turn me in?"

"Turn you in?" Orion almost smiled. His eyes looked very serious. "Lose the best player on my team? No way. I am a businessman, Lucian. I take care of what is important to me. I protect my players. Especially the good ones, like you."

He picked up the document and opened it, turning the pages toward me.

"This is a custom medical contract, " Orion explained, tapping his finger against the paper. "It makes you my own private athletic asset in the Kael Corporate Group. My family's private medical team will take care of your health. They will completely remove your identity as an Omega from the public records. You will not have to use those chemical masks that hurt your liver anymore. You will not have to be afraid of people finding out about you."

I looked at the lines of text. It seemed okay. Maybe too okay. "What is the problem with this deal?"

"The deal is you have to do everything I say." His voice got really low and serious like he was in charge. "You will stay in my house. You will eat the food that my people make for you. You will work out when I tell you to… The most important thing..." He picked up the glass with the stuff in it. "...You have to take this medicine. This is medicine that my father's company makes. It will stop you from having feelings, and it will hide your smell so you can still perform well."

He held out the glass to me. The purple liquid looked weird under the lights.

"Drink it," he commanded. "And sign the contract.

I stared through the glass at his face. This rich and powerful Alpha guy really annoyed me. He wanted to buy me. He wanted to take my freedom and who I am and make me part of his company like a present so he could control the team's wins.

"What if I say no?" I said sharply, looking up at him. "What if I don't want to be your company puppet?"

Orion's face didn't change. His eyes got darker like a stormy sea. He moved closer, invading my space until his big chest was almost touching my nose. The difference in our sizes was huge; his shadow covered me completely. I'm only 5'9".

He did not hit me. He did not need to. He just let his strong scent go out in a wave. The force of his energy hit me like a hard punch. I could not breathe. My eyes spun around. My hand went to my chest because my heart was beating very fast. My instincts were telling me to get on my knees to show him my neck to touch him to do anything to make him happy.

I held the edge of the marble table tightly so I would not fall. I gritted my teeth. Tried to fight the urge to obey him.

"If you say no, " Orion said quietly, his voice very menacing, "I will open that steel door now. I will tell the sports world what you really are. Your dream of playing hockey will end today, Lucian. You will not be able to play hockey."

He had all the power. I knew it. He knew it. He had spent his life learning how to control things, how to take over other businesses and how to boss people around. I was a kid from a poor neighborhood who knew how to play hockey.

I looked at the pen in front of me. My hand was shaking as I picked it up. I felt anxious and a little sick to my stomach. I was about to sign away my freedom, something I had been fighting for six years. If it meant I could still play hockey, I would do it. I would make a deal with anyone.

I turned to the page of the contract and signed my name at the bottom: Lucian Virek.

I threw the pen back on the tray. Grabbed a glass of purple liquid. I drank it in one gulp. It tasted like metal and mint, and it burned a little going down. Then I started to feel better. My body stopped shaking. I didn't feel so hot and anxious anymore. My usual scent was gone, replaced by nothing.

"There," I gasped, slamming the glass down on the tray. "I signed it. I drank it. Now open the door. I have morning skate in an hour. I need to get to my apartment to grab my clothes."

Orion didn't budge. He shut the leather folder, trapping my signature inside, and put it down. Then, before I could react, his big hand reached out, wrapped tightly around my waist. He pulled me close to his chest.

I gasped as the sudden touch sent a shock through me. My hands automatically went up to push against his shoulders. It was like trying to move a wall.

Orion leaned down, his face pressing into my neck for a second as he took a deep breath of my skin. Then he moved up to my ear, his warm breath touching my skin, making me shiver.

"You don't leave this room unless you're with me, rookie."