Beg Me Like You Mean It, Captain

The pill went down my throat, heavy and cold. It didn’t kick in right away, which bought me a small window of clarity.

Knowing the absolute hell Vance promised my body would endure over the next twenty-four hours, I used what little grit I had left to move around the kitchen.

My ribs throbbed with a dull, sickening heat every time I reached for a cabinet, but I forced myself to prepare a large batch of food.

I wouldn’t have the strength to lift a spoon tomorrow morning, so everything needed to be cooked, tupperwared, and ready to heat up.

While the chicken and rice were simmering on the stove, the sudden, shrill ring of my phone broke the silence of the apartment.

I picked it up from the counter, the screen displaying a familiar name that made a tight knot of warmth and anxiety tighten in my chest.

Marina.

My family is large. Seven kids in total, which is completely crazy when I think about it. The first two are my older twin brothers, Kelvin and Kalvin, both Betas.

Then there is my eldest sister, an Alpha named Marina—to this day, none of us understand how our ordinary Beta parents managed to give birth to an Alpha, but she carried the trait with terrifying pride.

After her came another set of twins, Chleo and Chloe, both Betas. Then there’s me, and finally, my youngest sister who is currently still in high school, another Beta.

Out of nine people in our family, it’s mostly a house of Betas. One Alpha. And me—the solitary, hidden Omega.

But the rest of them don’t know that. The only person in my bloodline who knows the truth is Marina.

She was the one who had driven me to the clinic for my official second-gender assessment years ago. When the results came back, finding out I was an Omega completely broke me.

In this world, an Omega designation meant restrictions. It meant safety protocols, legal barriers, and a definitive end to any dream of playing professional, high-impact sports. My career would have been dead before the first draft.

I remembered sitting in her car, sobbing, begging and pleading with her to keep it a secret. I was her favorite sibling, and seeing me shatter like that made her maternal, protective instincts kick into overdrive.

She couldn’t bear to see my life’s dream dismantled by a biological lottery, even if she was terrified of the physical danger I was putting myself in.

So, she chose to help me lie. Marina had gone back into that hospital, explicitly telling the administration that the assessment was flawed and demanding a retest.

When they took the second sample, she had covertly swapped my DNA with one of our older Beta siblings’ records. The official system registered the change, and the league database forever labeled Kain Evans as a Beta.

That was how I managed to hide my dynamic from the world, from the board of directors, and even from our own parents.

In this entire life, only three people knew what I really was. Marina, the sister who protected me; Vance, the doctor who supplied me; and Reid, the demon who controlled me.

Even now, while I was 25, she still cared for me and treated me like her kid brother. She was so sweet.

I slid the bar across the screen and brought the phone to my ear. "Hey, sis."

"Kain! Oh my god, are you okay?" Marina’s voice exploded through the speaker, tight with a panic that instantly betrayed her Alpha-lite protective streak. "I watched the game. I saw that massive Ballard bastard drive you straight into the plexiglass. The camera stayed on you for a full minute while you were on the ice, Kain. I thought you weren’t going to get back up."

"I’m fine, Marina, I promise," I said, my voice deep and steady, forcing the pain out of my tone as I stirred the rice with one hand. "The doctor ran the scans at the arena clinic. No broken bones. Just a really nasty deep-tissue bruise. I’m already home."

A long, trembling sigh echoed from her end of the line. "Thank God. When I saw you clutching your ribs like that, my stomach dropped. You know how dangerous an impact like that can be for your body, especially if your system is already strained from..." She trailed off, the unspoken word Omega hanging heavily between us.

"I know," I murmured, turning down the burner.

"Are you safe? Have you had any... episodes? Any changes?" her voice dropped into a hushed, conspiratorial whisper, the familiar worry bleeding through. "With the season picking up and the stress of the games, I’m always terrified your body is going to force a breakthrough. Are the blockers holding up?"

My hand tightened around the handle of the wooden spoon. My mind instantly flashed back to what happened in Lake Placid—the suffocating scent of frozen pine, the absolute loss of control, the heavy, dominant weight of Reid pinning me down, and the agonizing, addictive feeling of his teeth sinking into my neck to claim me and calm me down.

My ribs throbbed, a phantom ache recalling the sheer force of his hands on my skin.

I didn’t want to lie to her. Marina had risked everything to give me this life, and she was the only real sanctuary I had. But if I told her an Alpha rookie had uncovered my secret, fucked me, and knotted me twice in a mountain lodge, she would completely lose her mind.

She would try to force me out of the league tomorrow just to protect me.

"No episodes," I lied, my voice remarkably clear, a captain’s lie practiced to perfection. "I’m taking the blockers exactly on schedule, Marina. My walls are completely intact. Tonight was just a standard hockey hit. I’ll be back on my feet in two days."

"Okay," she breathed, sounding immensely relieved. "Okay, good. Just... Please be careful, Kain. You’re playing with fire out there, and the higher you climb, the harder the fall is if someone finds out."

"Nobody is finding out," I said, staring down at the kitchen counter where the empty glass of water stood next to the medication bottles. "I have everything under control."

After a few more minutes of her fussing over my recovery and reminding me to apply ice regularly, we hung up.

I turned off the stove, quickly packed the food into containers, and placed them in the fridge. The moment the task was finished, a sudden, violent wave of nausea hit me, followed by a cold, shivering sweat that started at the base of my skull and rushed down my spine.

The interceptor pill was finally entering my bloodstream, beginning its brutal, chemical flush.

I staggered toward my bedroom, my knees trembling so hard I could barely support my own weight.

My limbs felt heavy, like lead, and the pain in my ribs flared into a blinding ache as my body’s natural defenses began to dissolve under the high-dose medication.

I collapsed onto the bed, pulling the heavy blankets up to my chin as the first true fever chill racked my frame.

I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the twenty-four hours of agony ahead, determined to wash every single trace of Reid McCoy out of my system.