The Chubby Hockey Girl’s Pucked by Seven Dragon Mates

MIRA'S POV

I read the requirements on my laptop screen for the third time, just to make sure I wasn't losing my mind.

Exclusive Hockey Coordinator for the Romano Dragon Clan. The most elite, most feared, most untouchable clan in the entire shifter world. I had dreamed about this position since I was fourteen years old, sitting in the nosebleed seats of their arena, watching their players tear across the ice like they owned it. Because they did.

Every requirement made sense. Five years of athletic coordination experience. Check. Advanced certification in sports therapy. Check. Willingness to relocate to clan territory. Absolutely check.

Then I saw the last line and my stomach dropped.

Applicants must possess an awakened dragon form.

I pushed the laptop away and pressed my palms flat against the kitchen table. My body, soft and round and stubborn as ever, had never once shifted. Not when I turned eighteen. Not when I turned twenty one. Not ever. And people had made sure I never forgot it.

Too ordinary. Too heavy. Too human.

I grabbed my phone and called Kyra before I could spiral any further.

She picked up on the second ring. "You better be calling to tell me you finally hooked up with someone."

"Kyra, I'm serious. I just found the listing for the Romano Clan hockey coordinator position."

"Oh my god, Mira. That's literally your dream job. Please tell me you're applying."

"I want to. But there's a problem." I swallowed hard. "They require an awakened dragon."

The line went quiet for a second. Then Kyra let out a low whistle. "Well, that's a big requirement."

"It's not just big, Kyra. It's impossible for me." My voice cracked a little and I hated myself for it. "You know I've never shifted. Not once. My dragon is completely dormant."

"Okay, hold on. Don't start doing that thing where you convince yourself everything is over before it even starts." Kyra's voice got that bossy edge it always had when she was about to drag me out of my own head. "Do you remember that fortune teller we went to last summer? The one at the night market?"

"The old woman with the crystals who smelled like burned sage? Yes, I remember her. She was a scam."

"She told you the only way to awaken your dragon was through mating, Mira. And you laughed in her face."

"Because it sounded ridiculous." I leaned back in my chair and stared at the ceiling. "Some random old woman tells me I need to have sex to unlock my inner dragon and I'm supposed to take that seriously?"

"What if she was right, though?" Kyra's tone shifted, lower now, more careful. "Think about it. You've tried meditation. You've tried the herbal rituals. You even did that freezing cold lake ceremony that gave you a chest infection for two weeks. None of it worked."

I pressed my lips together because she wasn't wrong. I had tried everything. Every traditional method, every modern technique, every desperate suggestion from every healer and elder I could find. Nothing woke the dragon inside me.

"Kyra, even if she was right, I can't just sleep with some random guy."

"Why not?" She sounded genuinely confused, like I had just told her I couldn't eat pizza on a Friday.

"Because I want my fated mate. I've always wanted my fated mate. You know that."

"Mira." Her voice went flat. "Your fated mate could show up tomorrow or he could show up when you're forty seven. Are you going to put your entire life on hold waiting for some guy the Dragon Goddess may or may not send your way?"

"It's not about putting my life on hold. It's about respecting myself enough to wait."

"Girl, you can respect yourself and still get laid. Those two things are not mutually exclusive." Kyra laughed, that bright, sharp laugh that always made me want to throw something at her. "Besides, you already tried the whole crush thing and look how that turned out."

My chest tightened. "Don't."

"Bryce Hollister. Senior year. You walked up to him at that party with your whole heart in your hands and what did he do?"

"Kyra, I swear to god."

"He looked you up and down like you were a joke. And then he told you, and I quote, that you were too chubby and too ordinary for him to even consider touching."

The memory hit me like a fist. I could still see his face, that lazy, disgusted smile. The way his friends had laughed behind him. The way I had stood there in my nicest dress, the one I had picked out specifically because I thought it made me look pretty, and watched every ounce of my confidence drain out through the soles of my shoes.

"He was one guy," I whispered.

"He was one guy who said out loud what half the dragon shifters at our school were thinking. That Mira Ashford is the chubby girl with no dragon and no business dreaming big." Kyra's voice softened just a fraction. "And he was wrong, Mira. He was completely wrong. But you're never going to prove that by sitting around waiting for fate to hand you something."

I didn't answer. My throat was too tight.

"Look, I'm not saying go out and throw yourself at the first guy you see. But college is crawling with hot dragon shifters. You're telling me not a single one of them has caught your eye?"

"That's not the point."

"It's exactly the point. You need to awaken your dragon. The fortune teller gave you a way. Maybe it's time you stopped being so stubborn and actually considered it." She paused. "I'm heading out. I need to grab a few things from the store. But think about what I told you, okay? Really think about it."

"Fine."

"Fine meaning you'll actually think, or fine meaning you're going to sit there eating ice cream and pretending this conversation never happened?"

"Goodbye, Kyra."

She was still laughing when I hung up.

I sat there for a few minutes, staring at my phone, turning her words over in my head. The fortune teller. The mating. The idea that my dragon was locked behind something so physical, so intimate, that I had been too proud and too scared to even consider it.

I stood up, grabbed my jacket, and stepped outside. I needed air. I needed to stop thinking for five minutes.

The hallway of our apartment building was quiet. Late afternoon light came through the tall window at the end of the corridor, warm and golden, and I was so busy looking at it that I didn't see the wall of muscle coming around the corner.

I walked straight into him. My face hit his chest and I stumbled back, almost losing my balance. Two hands caught my arms, steadying me like I weighed nothing.

I looked up.

He was tall. Really tall. Dark hair that fell just past his ears, a jawline sharp enough to cut glass, and eyes so deep brown they were almost black. His shoulders were wide, his grip was warm, and he smelled like cedar and something smoky that made my brain go completely blank.

He was, without exaggeration, one of the most beautiful men I had ever seen in my life.

"Careful." His voice was low, almost lazy, like he had all the time in the world. The corner of his mouth tilted up just slightly. "You might hurt yourself walking into things like that."

"I, um." Brilliant, Mira. Absolutely brilliant. "Sorry. I wasn't looking."

His eyes moved over my face for a second, just one second, and then he let go of my arms and stepped past me without another word. I stood there like an idiot, watching him walk down the hallway, my heart slamming against my ribs so hard I was sure he could hear it.

He didn't look back.

I pressed my hand against my chest and felt the heat crawling up my neck, spreading across my cheeks. My skin was tingling where he had touched me, both arms, like someone had pressed something electric against my body.

I thought about the fortune teller. I thought about my dormant dragon. I thought about every person who had ever looked at my soft, round body and decided I wasn't worth their time.

Then I thought about the way he had looked at me, even if it was only for a second.

Maybe Kyra had a point.