Chapter 1 Chapter 1

Amber

“Due to renovations, the Elite Hockey Team and the Mavericks Winter Sports Club will now share one rink and one training facility.”

I was sure I'd read the Dean's lips correctly, but I still turned to Nat, my best friend. She stood beside me with one elbow resting lazily on my shoulder, though her attention wasn't on me anymore. Her eyes were narrowed at one of the Elite hockey players standing across the hall, and judging by the way the rest of his teammates looked ready to explode, the announcement hadn't gone over well.

I pulled out my phone, typed a quick question, and held it up. Siri's voice echoed softly between us.

"Nat, did the Dean explain why? The renovations are only temporary."

She finally looked at me, her brows drawing together.

"They're acting like the world is ending," she mouthed carefully so I wouldn't miss a single word. "It's only for a few months, but those jerks think sharing a facility with us is beneath them."

Before I could respond, an angry voice cut through the hall.

"You seriously expect us to share our rink with a bunch of half-breeds and that mute girl?"

The entire room seemed to pause.

If I could hear him that clearly without straining, then he had to be shouting at the top of his lungs.

Fucking jocks.

Always full of themselves.

The Elite hockey team had always believed they owned Belgrave Academy. They had the trophies, the funding, the media attention, and the strongest pureblood Alphas. To them, the rest of us barely existed.

My teeth clenched at the word half-breeds.

Those insults weren't new. Neither were the sneers that followed them.

Belgrave divided its athletes into two worlds.

The Elite teams consisted of powerful pureblood wolves gifted with exceptional abilities, students everyone expected to go professional or inherit influential packs after graduation.

Then there was the Mavericks.

Our club accepted everyone the Elite teams didn't want. Omegas. Half-breeds. Wolfless students like me. Wolves whose abilities weren't considered strong enough. The academy called us misfits years ago, but somewhere along the line we stopped treating it like an insult. If they insisted on looking down on us, then we'd wear the name with pride.

I slid my phone back into my pocket and signed for everyone to move.

Enough listening to people bark.

We had already lost nearly a week of practice because of the renovations, and our competition against Hugos Academy was only a few weeks away. Every hour on the ice mattered.

My teammates grabbed their equipment and followed behind me toward the rink entrance.

We barely reached the doors before a group of hockey players stepped directly into our path.

Six of them, all wearing the Elite team jacket.

One folded his arms with a smug grin stretching across his face.

"Didn't you hear what we said?" I looked at him without answering. Another player tilted his head toward the rink behind us.

"Turn around. This facility belongs to the Elite team."

According to who?

I calmly took out my phone again, typed a sentence, and turned the screen toward him.

“Your practice doesn't start for another hour. I confirmed the schedule with the athletics office this morning.”

He glanced at the screen before laughing.

"And?"

I typed another sentence.

“Then move. My team has work to do.”

The grin disappeared from his face. Instead of stepping aside, he deliberately moved closer until barely a foot separated us.

Behind me, I felt several uneven breaths.

Nat grabbed my sleeve. When I glanced back, a few of the newer Mavericks lowered their heads instinctively while others shuffled backward, unable to meet the Elite players' eyes.

That had to be the Alpha pressure.

Purebloods loved using it whenever they wanted to remind everyone who sat at the top of the hierarchy.

Unfortunately for them...

There was nothing inside me to answer that call.

Maybe because I was completely wolfless. Maybe because there was simply no wolf inside me to submit.

Either way, I felt absolutely nothing.

The blond player's confident smile slowly disappeared, replaced with a furrowed brow.

"You should already be on your knees."

His teammates chuckled.

"Maybe humans don't understand Alpha commands."

"Or maybe she's too dumb to know when to back off."

I sighed. I was done wasting my time trying to reason with some blockheads. Clearly, they weren't planning to move.

Slowly, I raised both hands and planted them firmly against his chest before shoving him out of my way.

It wasn't enough to knock him down, but it sent him stumbling a step sideways into one of his teammates.

The laughter stopped, every single person in the hallway froze.

The player's eyes widened in disbelief before his face twisted with anger.

"You little—"

He lunged forward, but Nat immediately stepped beside me.

"So what?" she snapped. "You think because she's wolfless she'll just stand there and let you push her around?"

The rest of the Mavericks instinctively gathered behind us

Across the hallway, more Elite players moved in until the space between both teams disappeared completely.

The atmosphere turned suffocating.

Students from the other sports clubs quietly backed away, sensing a fight was seconds away.

The blond player let his eyes glow, another wave of Alpha pressure rolling through the hallway.

Several of my teammates winced. The argument died so abruptly that even I noticed it. Every pair of eyes shifted past me toward the rink entrance, and before I could turn around to see what had everyone's attention, the crowd had already begun to part.

I frowned and followed their gazes.

A tall figure walked through the opening with a hockey bag slung over one shoulder, his stride calm and unhurried, yet somehow commanding everyone's attention the moment he appeared.

His eyes swept across the players before settling on me.

His jaw tightened.

The look he gave me was cold enough to freeze the entire rink.

Beside me, Nat leaned close enough for me to catch her lips.

"Amber..."

"That's Ryker Wilder." Nat mouthed. My breath hitched.

Everyone knew about the captain of the Elite team. I expected we would cross paths after we moved here, but the moment those golden eyes pierced through me, I finally understood why the heir to the Westbrook Pack was feared.