Claimed By The Three Hockey Alphas

My hands shake as I stare at myself in the mirror. The person looking back at me doesn't look like Freya anymore. My black hair sticks up everywhere after I cut it off two weeks ago. My face looks sharp and bony without my long auburn hair to soften it.

The socks I stuffed in my sports bra feel uncomfortable against my ribs.

"This is crazy, Freya." Mum's voice cracks behind me. She paces back and forth in our tiny room, wringing her hands the same way she did that last night in London when Marcus and his pack surrounded our house. "What if they find out who you really are? What if someone recognizes you?"

"They won't." My voice comes out deeper than normal. I've been practicing this voice for weeks, but it still sounds wrong to me. Like I'm wearing clothes that don't fit.

But it has to work. It has to.

I grab another sock and shove it into my sports bra. My fingers fumble with the padding. The oversized hockey jersey hangs loose on me, which is exactly what I need, but my stomach still churns.

God, I look desperate. I am desperate.

"You don't even look like a boy!" Lily bursts out from her bed, where fake documents are scattered around her. The birth certificate that says Frederick Sterling instead of Freya sits on top of the pile. "Your face is too—"

"I've got it handled." I snap at her, making her flinch. Guilt hits me immediately. I yank the black beanie down over my hair, tucking every strand underneath. "Sorry. I'm just..."

"Scared?" Lily's voice is quiet now.

"Focused," I lie.

Mum collapses into the desk chair. I can feel her worry filling the room like smoke. The lines around her eyes have gotten deeper in the three months since we ran from London in the middle of the night. She looks years older because of me. Because of my impossible dream.

"When I let you play hockey as a child, I never thought..." She picks up the fake transcript with shaking hands. "If your father were alive, he'd lock you in your room before letting you do this."

My throat closes up. "Dad would understand." The words come out softer than I want. I hate how young and scared I sound. "He always said I was too stubborn to know when to quit."

"Being stubborn is one thing." Mum's voice cracks. "Lying about who you are to get into an elite boarding school? That's not stubborn, Freya. That's insane."

I turn away from the mirror because looking at myself makes my chest feel tight. The hockey gear feels heavy and wrong on my body, like armor that belongs to someone else. But I remember how it felt to hold my stick, the burn in my legs as I flew across the ice, the pure joy of playing the game. That feeling is mine. It's always been mine.

Even when everyone said hockey wasn't for girls like me.

A sharp knock makes us all jump.

"Frey, car's here!" David calls through the door. "You sure about this? It's not too late to pick a nice, boring job. Like teaching. Or accounting."

Despite everything, Lily giggles. Even Mum almost smiles. David has kept us going these past months, working double shifts without complaining once. But I catch him looking at me sometimes with the same worried expression Mum has now.

"Coming!" My fake voice rings out, and the sound makes my skin crawl.

I pick up my bag and throw it over my shoulder. Inside are the few things I'm taking to my new life. Clothes that will help me look like a boy. A photo from the London Underground Women's League. And enough hope to either save me or destroy me completely.

Mum stands up and hugs me so hard I can barely breathe. I close my eyes and smell her lavender perfume, trying to remember it.

"Promise me you'll be careful," she whispers. "Promise me you won't take any stupid risks."

I almost laugh, but it comes out bitter. "Mum, I'm about to spend the next four years pretending to be someone else. I think we're way past worrying about stupid risks."

She pulls back to look at me. Her eyes are bright with tears. "Then promise me you won't lose yourself in the lie."

My throat burns. "I won't."

Lily throws her arms around both of us, her chin shaking even though she's trying to be brave. "What if they figure it out? What if you get hurt?"

Images flash through my mind. Marcus's rage when I rejected him in front of half of London's supernatural community. The deadly quiet after I said the words: I reject you, Marcus Blackwood, as my mate. The threats that made us run with nothing but the clothes on our backs.

I push the memories away and force confidence into my voice. "Then I'll deal with it. But I'm not coming back until I prove that girls can play this game just as well as boys."

"Better," Lily says fiercely.

"Better," I agree.

David knocks again. "Freddie? Car's leaving in two minutes with or without you."

The name hits me like a slap. Freddie. Not the girl who beat everyone in London's underground games. Not the daughter who used to help her dad fix cars in their tiny garage. Just Freddie. A lie wrapped around my real self like chains.

But if those chains can get me on that ice, I'll wear them.

I grab the door handle. My reflection catches in the window. A sharp-faced stranger in oversized clothes, trying to disappear into someone else's skin. My wolf is still asleep inside me, won't wake up until my twenty-first birthday in six months. No supernatural senses. No enhanced strength. No way to tell if someone sees through my disguise.

Right now I'm basically human. Vulnerable. Alone.

Perfect for lying and terrible for surviving.

"When you make that team," Mum says quietly, "remember it wasn't Frederick Sterling who earned it. It was you. My brilliant, stubborn, impossible daughter."

Her words crack something open in my chest. I nod because I can't trust my voice. Then I step into the hallway.

My heart pounds as I walk toward the lobby. In three hours, I'll be at Crescent Moon Academy. The most elite supernatural boarding school in North America. Home to the undefeated hockey team that's never let a girl play in its hundred-year history.

I'll try out as a boy.

I'll live as a lie.

And maybe, if I'm brave enough and lucky enough and good enough, I'll prove that sometimes the biggest lies hide the most important truths.

The car engine hums outside, waiting to take me toward either the biggest mistake or the greatest opportunity of my life.

I guess I'm about to find out which one.