Her Alpha's Claim; Hockey King's Curvy Mate

Bella's POV.

I walked through the school gates the next morning with my head held higher than it had been in days. My legs still felt a little shaky, but I forced my shoulders back and kept my chin up as I stepped through the iron gates that had swallowed me in shame just a week ago.

A tall guard walked a few steps behind me, quiet and steady, sent by Dominic himself to watch over me. I could feel eyes turning our way almost instantly, whispers rising up around the courtyard like they always did, but this time I refused to let them pull my head down.

"Is that her guard?"

"The Alpha actually assigned someone to follow her around?"

"I heard she trapped him too, just like she tried with Elias."

The words still stung, sharper than I wanted to admit, curling low in my stomach the same way they had the day the video leaked. My body still carried every insecurity those whispers had carved into me, the ones about my curves, my weight, the way I filled out a school uniform differently than most of the other girls.

But I kept walking anyway, one foot in front of the other, because stopping meant letting them win all over again, and I was done giving them that.

"Bella!"

Riley's voice cut through the noise before I even saw her. She came running across the courtyard, her ponytail bouncing, and threw her arms around me so tight I nearly lost my balance.

"I found out! You're the Alpha's mate now! Bella, I am so, so happy for you!"

I hugged her back, laughing despite myself, feeling some of the tension in my chest loosen for the first time all morning. "I still can't believe it myself," I admitted, pulling back to look at her.

"He's just, I don't know, different these days. Colder one moment, softer the next. But I think he's really trying to make something good happen between us."

I told her about the mask, careful to keep my voice low so no one else could hear. I told her how his hands had shaken slightly when he set it down on the table, how his voice had cracked just a little when he talked about his wolf being harder to control than anyone else's.

Riley listened with wide eyes, nodding along like she understood exactly how strange it felt to see someone so powerful turn out to be carrying so much underneath the surface. I did not tell her about the flinch, or the way his face had gone tight with something like pain when I pulled away from his touch.

Some things still felt too fragile to say out loud, even to my best friend.

Riley squealed and pulled a small bag of snacks out of her backpack, pushing it into my hands like a celebration gift. "You deserve every good thing coming your way after everything that happened. I mean it."

Her smile was so genuine it made my throat tighten a little. Not everyone in this school wanted to see me fall apart. At least I still had her.

We had barely taken two steps toward the main building when a shadow fell across our path, and my stomach dropped before I even looked up. Elias stood there, arms crossed, his face twisted with something ugly that had replaced the charm he used to wear so easily.

"So," he said, voice dripping with mockery, "you decided to trap him too, huh? Same little trick you tried with me. Guess it finally worked on someone stupid enough to fall for it."

Heat rushed up my neck, and for a second the old fear tried to climb back into my chest, the same fear that used to make me shrink and apologize just to make him stop looking at me like that.

I opened my mouth to answer him, but before a single word came out, the guard stepped smoothly between us, blocking Elias's view of me completely.

"The Alpha ordered that no one disrespect his mate," the guard said, his voice flat and final, leaving absolutely no room for argument.

Elias's jaw clenched hard, his eyes flicking past the guard's shoulder to glare at me one last time before he let out a low growl and stormed off without another word.

I watched his retreating back, half expecting the fear to come rushing in the way it always had before. Instead, something steadier settled into my chest, warm and a little surprising.

Dominic had done that. He had made sure that even when he wasn't standing right beside me, I would not have to face Elias's cruelty completely alone.

Riley squeezed my hand once he was gone, her voice dropping low and serious for the first time all morning. "You didn't even flinch that time," she said, watching my face carefully. "A week ago you would have looked at the ground the second he opened his mouth."

She was right, and it surprised me too, how much steadier I felt standing my ground instead of shrinking away from it. Something about having someone in my corner, even a silent guard sent by a boy who barely knew how to say kind things out loud, had started to change the way I carried myself.

I turned to say something to Riley about it, my voice practically gushing with gratitude, when a flicker of movement across the courtyard caught my eye.

Dominic stood near the edge of the training field, arms crossed, watching everything that had just happened with a stillness that felt almost protective from a distance. Our eyes met for a second, and he gave me one small, sharp nod before turning and walking away toward the ice rink without another glance back.

My heart did something ridiculous, fluttering hard in my chest like I was fifteen again instead of standing here as someone's claimed mate. I spent the rest of the walk to class thinking about that nod, replaying it over and over, wondering what exactly it meant that he had been watching at all.

Maybe it meant nothing more than an Alpha checking that his mate was safe. Or maybe, some small hopeful part of me whispered, it meant he cared more than he knew how to say out loud yet.

By the time I sat down in first period, I could barely focus on a single word the teacher said. My fingers kept drifting up to my neck, tracing the raised edge of the mark hidden beneath my collar, and every single time I touched it, I remembered the warmth of Dominic's lips pressed against my knuckles the night before.

Riley elbowed me gently under the desk, leaning close with a knowing grin stretched across her face.

"You've gone far, girl," she whispered, eyebrows raised.

I felt my cheeks heat up instantly, and a small laugh slipped out before I could stop it. "Maybe I have," I admitted quietly, ducking my head to hide the smile threatening to take over my whole face.

The morning passed in a strange blur of whispers I mostly managed to ignore and stolen daydreams about gray eyes and a hand that had felt so gentle against mine. By the time lunch rolled around, my stomach was doing nervous little flips that had nothing to do with hunger.

I sat with Riley near our usual spot by the window, picking at my food, when a younger pack member I barely recognized approached our table and pressed a small folded note into my hand before disappearing just as quickly into the crowd.

I unfolded it slowly, my heart picking up speed the moment I recognized the handwriting, bold and sharp, pressed hard into the paper like whoever wrote it did not know how to be gentle even with a pen.

Come to the hockey rink after school. I want you to watch me practice. Bella, make sure you wear something comfortable, please.

I read it twice, then a third time, my thumb tracing over his name at the bottom like it might tell me more than the words themselves. Riley leaned over my shoulder, reading it just as fast, and let out an excited little gasp.

"He wants you there," she said, grinning wide. "That's huge, Bella. Guys like Dominic don't just invite people to watch them practice."

I folded the note carefully and tucked it into my pocket, my fingers lingering over the edge of it for a moment longer than necessary. A slow smile spread across my face despite every instinct in me screaming to stay guarded, to remember how badly trusting someone had wrecked me before.

But this felt different. Dominic had proven that much today, standing back and letting his actions speak instead of empty promises.

Still, as the final bell rang and I made my way toward the rink with my heart hammering against my ribs, I could not shake the small, nervous flutter wondering exactly what waited for me once I got there.

Whatever it was, I had a feeling my life was about to keep changing faster than I could catch up to it.