My Hockey Alpha

Enzo

As I watched Nina walk away, I felt my heart break a little more.

Being around her felt like the most natural thing on earth; being apart from her made me feel as though I could hardly even breathe. But there was nothing I could do about it — I had to keep my distance from her if I was going to keep Nina, her family, and the town safe. As the son of the Fullmoon Alpha, I had to fulfill my duty and go through with the arranged marriage.

And yet, as I watched her form fade into the distance, all I wanted to do was leave my duties behind and run away with her. If only it were that simple.

…

The next morning, I woke up early to head to the hockey arena for our scrimmage with Ronan’s team. The arena was quiet when I entered, but my father was waiting for me with his arms folded across his chest. There was no doubt in my mind that he already got wind of the Claiming ceremony, and he probably wasn’t very happy about it.

“I see you’ve found a way to somehow turn all of your teammates,” he said with a low voice as I approached. “Care to enlighten me?”

I shrugged. I wasn’t about to tell him that Nina, of all people, had the power of Claiming. “I have my ways,” I said. “You should be thanking me. I just ensured that we’ll win this tournament.”

My father sighed, but to my surprise, he also nodded in agreement. “You may be right. The fathers of the young men who I hired certainly won’t be happy, but I’ll admit you made a good call.”

I couldn’t help but feel relieved that my father wasn’t going to bite my head off for doing what I did.

“Go on,” he said, nodding his head toward the locker rooms as the rest of my team started coming in through the front door to the arena. “Show Ronan who’s boss today.”

then headed to the locker room

with excited students who had come to watch the scrimmage. I scanned the crowd with my eyes for Nina, eventually landing on her as she sat up in the bleachers with Lori and Jessica. She saw me looking,

and his team, who were standing on the other side of the arena. None of them were talking to each other or

Staring at me.

had a sick smirk drawn across his

to ruin Nina’s image and drive us apart. I wanted to throttle him for what

minutes later, the announcer called the two teams out onto the ice. We got into our places; my team did as I ordered beforehand and kept their heads down, focusing solely on the puck rather than the other team’s weak attempt at intimidating us

match, but it was still extremely important. In just a few days, we would be playing in the final match of the Half-Moon Tournament, and this practice game was our chance to show

buzzer sounded

my body.

I knew he was the one to watch – the best player on the opposing team, and my biggest rival. We locked eyes

to victory. We played fast and hard, each side trying to gain the upper hand. Ronan and I clashed multiple times, each of us pushing the other to the limit, but my team also

feel victory within my grasp, and my heart raced with excitement. The

last

beside me as I flicked the puck back and forth with my stick. I heard a low growl escape his throat, and I made the grave mistake of glancing up to see his sickening grin and

footing, but it was too late. Ronan’s

I lost my balance completely and slid across the ice. A sudden burst of anger took over me at Ronan’s dirty trick, and without

ice. He threw a heavy punch at my head, but I dodged it and hit him with a swift uppercut through the jaw. All I could think about, above the game, above the

mouth, but I only saw Nina’s face in my mind, sobbing. I should’ve been there for her when Edward