Chapter 3 She's The One

CHAPTER THREE - She's the one

Cassian's POV

I was about to leave the arena when the noise behind me slowly began to fade into something I no longer cared about.

The match had ended, the crowd was still reacting, and my team was still celebrating somewhere behind the glass walls, but my mind was already elsewhere.

I adjusted my grip on my bag and walked through the corridor that led toward the exit, trying to ignore the weight that always came with these places.

Because leaving the hockey world was never truly leaving.

Outside of it, something else waited, a pack that never stopped asking questions, a council that never stopped demanding answers and a future I had never agreed to.As Alpha, they all wanted the same thing from me, a mate, a bond, a continuation of bloodlines and politics and power I never asked for.

Every meeting, every gathering, every quiet conversation ended in the same direction. Kelly. The

Beta's daughter, she was always presented like a solution. A perfect match on paper. A perfect symbol for unity. A perfect way to satisfy expectations without conflict but I had already decided she would never be mine, not her, not anyone they chose for me.

I exhaled slowly as I stepped closer to the exit, freedom was supposed to feel like relief, but lately it

felt more like pressure from another direction.

That was when I noticed movement near the side corridor, a figure sat alone near the benches, slightly hidden from the main path where everyone else had already left. At first I almost walked past without paying attention, but something about the stillness made me slow down.

She was shaking.I recognized her, the girl from earlier, the one who had fallen during the match and stood alone on the ice while people laughed, I did not know her name.

In the arena, people did not use it much. They used something else instead. Something careless.

Something dismissive. "Fat girl." As if reducing someone was easier than seeing them

I stopped walking before I realized I had done it, she looked worse than before, not physically, but

emotionally, like something inside her had completely collapsed and she was trying to sit inside the ruins without knowing how to move.

I approached slowly without making noise. When I was close enough, she finally noticed me, her eyes lifted slightly, red and wet, and for a moment she looked confused like she could not understand why I was still here.

Then she spoke softly, almost broken. "Do you want your jacket back?"

Her voice was thin, like she had been holding it in for too long.

I shook my head slightly. "I did not come for that," said calmly.

She looked down again, like she did not have thestrength to hold eye contact for long. Then I asked the question that had formed without permission.

"Why are you crying?"

For a moment she did not answer, her fingers tightened slightly around the edge of the jacket I had given her earlier, and I could see her trying to steady her breathing again.Then she spoke. "My man betrayed me."

The words came out uneven, broken, like they had been sitting inside her chest for too long and finally forced their way out and then she cried again, harder this time.

Her shoulders shook fully, and she bent forward slightly as if her body could no longer carry the weight of what she had just said.

Something inside me shifted, not sympathy alone, something deeper.

My wolf reacted before I understood what it meant. "It screamed... "Mate... Mate... Mate"

It moved inside me sharply, restless, alert, focused entirely on her. It was not the usual reaction I had learned to control over years of discipline. This was different, stronger, Immediate.

The thought came without permission, I stared at her quietly, watching her break apart in front of me while everyone else had already moved on from her existence.

For some reason, I did not walk away, I stayed.

She wiped her face quickly, embarrassed, trying to regain whatever dignity she still had left. "I am fine," she said weakly, even though she was clearly not.

I did not believe her, I had seen enough people lie about that word.

Fine never meant fine. My gaze stayed on her longer than I intended

She was still shaking, still trying to breathe normally, still unaware of how strongly my wolf was reacting to her presence and then the thought came again.

Stronger this time, what if she was mine.The idea did not feel like curiosity, It felt like recognition, like something inside me had already decided before my mind had caught up. I stepped slightly closer without thinking, her eyes lifted again, uncertain, watching me like she did not know what I was going to do next.

My voice came out lower than before, steady but different."Do you mind coming with me? You can't stay alone here"

The words landed between us like something neither of us expected.

Her entire body froze instantly.

Her eyes widened slightly, confusion breaking through her pain for the first time.

For a moment, she did not move, she only stared at me and in that silence, I realized I had just changed everything without meaning to but I did not take the words back.

Because my wolf had already chosen and wouldn't want her to stay alone