Claimed on Ice: Marked by the Rival Captain

eo

games because they change people

uld feel the vibration every time my skates moved across the ice. The overhead lights made everythi

NS. 3. NORTHC

e seconds left. One g

g through my lungs. My muscles felt like they were being held together by adrenali

nic Vale was watchin

views, and crowded hallways outside locker rooms. Dominic looked at people like he wa

houlders looked broad beneath the Royals jersey, built from years of playing hockey. His jaw had clearly been broken

cry when we win thi

"Try not to break a hip, gr

and irritating him had become o

ught could catch up. The puck was on my blade as the crowd erupted around us. I

ening, half a second

inic Val

behind me as air vanished from my lungs, and the puck disappeared somewher

e injector beneath

uld happen next. Heat started beneath my skin, subtle enough that nobody else would notice but impossible for me to m

owd to notice. Not en

lpha standing f

ath my gear. I needed to leave before my body betrayed

d, his grip tightening

y entire body reacted. I to

touch me

nic narrowed his eyes as he studied me careful

tes carved across the ice, but I barely registered any of it. My heartbeat felt wrong inside my chest, fast and painfully u

vily inside me,

inal seconds that had mattered more than anything only minutes earlier. None of it mattered now. The only

e five min

r of the arena, the buzzer sounded for su

h to notice made everything unbearable in ways I refused to examine too closely. I shoved through the medical bathroom door, locked it behind

h me so quickly it almost made me dizzy as I s

liar enough to make my stomach drop instantly. It was the kind

berate and polite in the way

through the door, h

gh my chest. Maybe if I st

e added quietly. There was

ed outside the door. Then I heard him inhale slowly and deepl

athed like that

onger sounded like my rival

per this time. Outside the bathroom, Dominic let out a sound in his

rror, my body ans