All Chapters of OFFSIDE MATE: REJECTED BY ONE ALPHA. CLAIMED BY ANOTHER.: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I couldn't feel my wolf.Seven days of pressing my palm against my chest, searching for that familiar presence that had lived inside me since I was thirteen. Seven days of finding nothing but emptiness where she used to be."Sloane?" My mother's voice came through the wall between our rooms. "Are you awake?""Yeah.""Can you come here?"I tried my door. Unlocked. The guards had stopped locking us in individual rooms after the first night. Why bother? Six armed wolves surrounded the house and we weren't going anywhere.My mother sat on her bed in the same silver dress from the ceremony, wrinkled and stained now. Her shoulders curved inward and new lines creased the corners of her eyes."I can't sleep," she said when I sat beside her. "Every time I close my eyes—"She didn't finish. Didn't need to."Your father tried talking to the guards today. Asked when the trial would be.""What did they say?""Nothing. They just stared at him." Her hand found mine, cold and shaking. "Sloane, I don'

THREE MONTHS LATER.The sound of skates cutting ice was the only thing that kept me sane.I pushed harder, faster, my legs burning as I raced down the rink. Cold air bit at my lungs but I welcomed it. Anything to feel something other than the constant ache in my chest."Gaya! Pass!"I snapped the puck across the ice to Mari, our center. She caught it and fired at the goal. The buzzer went off."Nice!" Coach Petrov blew his whistle. "Water break. Five minutes."I skated to the bench and grabbed my bottle, downing half of it in one go. Sweat dripped down my back, making the rejection mark burn.It always burned. Three months and it hadn't gotten better."You're skating like someone's chasing you." Anya dropped onto the bench beside me, pulling off her helmet. "Which would be great if we were running drills, but we're supposed to be working on plays.""I was working on plays.""You were working on escaping something." She gave me a look. "Want to talk about it?""No.""Didn't think so."

I didn't fall because of the pain.I fell because I stopped believing my legs would hold me.One second I was standing on the ice, the bond cracking open between us like something that had been waiting. The next second Kai Volkov's voice cut through it cleanly."I do not claim you and I refuse this connection."The bond didn't just break.It detonated.The force of it hit my shoulder blade first — the rejection mark, Crew's mark, the thing quietly killing me for months and it lit up like someone pressed a burning coal directly into the scar. My legs went. One moment upright, the next on one knee on the ice with my hand pressed to my shoulder and two hundred people watching me kneel in front of a man who'd just decided I was nothing.Again.The word sat in my chest. Again. Like I was made for this. Like the universe had one joke and I was always the punchline.Anya's skates cut toward me fast."Sloane…""Don't," I said.She stopped.I found a fixed point on the ice. A scuff mark, s

Her eyes didn't leave mine."There's a way to stop it. Your mother was a friend of mine."The notepad slipped.I caught it — barely — and the old woman's hand shot out immediately. Not touching me. Just one sharp look that said ‘calm down’ louder than any word could. Her eyes cut sideways. A quick sweep of the diner. Joe behind the counter pretending to wipe something.I straightened my spine. Rearranged my face. I made myself look like a waitress taking an order and not a girl who had just been told she didn't have to die.She slid the paper across the table without looking at it. So smooth I almost missed it."Call that number," she murmured. "Three days from now. Not before." She set her menu down and folded her hands like we'd discussed the weather. "I'll be waiting."Then she stood. Left cash on the table and walked out.I stood at the edge of her booth and stared at the door swinging shut behind her. I didn't move. Couldn't. My brain was doing something loud and disorgani

"You look exactly like someone we've been searching for."My heart dropped to somewhere around my ankles.But my face… my face was doing something completely different. My face had decided we were fine. We were confused actually. Mildly offended even."Me?" I let my eyebrows climb. Looked behind me like there might be someone else in the alley. I looked back and added a small bewildered laugh that I was very proud of. "I think there's been some kind of mistake.""Has there.""I've lived in Briar Falls my whole life." I gestured at the alley like it was a character reference. "Born here. Well… nearby. Small town, very unremarkable, you wouldn't know it."The big one said nothing. Just looked at me."Is this about the Hendersons?" I tried. "Because I told them I'd return the casserole dish and I fully intend to, life has just been…""We're looking for a woman from Silvercrest Pack.""A… sorry, a what?""A pack."I blinked at him slowly. The blink of someone hearing a foreign language f