Chapter 156: An Unexpected Guest

I stared at Reid, watching the way his jaw worked, his throat bobbing as he practically wretched at the sheer memory of what we had just heard.

​I knew Reid was a lot of things. He was a loudmouth, an obnoxious prick, a stubborn son of a bitch, and a pain in my ass on a daily basis. But all of those flaws combined didn’t come close to that of a rapist.

​And yes, there had been times early on when I hated the fact that he took me whenever he wanted, when my instincts felt entirely overwhelmed by his sheer presence. But I couldn’t deny the truth: my body had craved it, and he had simply been reading my frantic pheromones.

He had only ever directed that raw, territorial drive toward me, and only after I had initiated it during my sudden heat. It wasn’t the same thing.

What Edward did was calculated, non-consensual malice. What Reid and I had was chaotic, but it was ours.

​"He genuinely believed his own lie," I said, a cold shiver of disgust running down my spine as I stared at the melting butter on my pancakes. "He thought that because he’s a Stein, an Alpha, because he’s the league’s golden boy, that I would just understand. But the second Marina threatened to pull the trigger on those files... he realized his name couldn’t protect him from the truth."

​"Your sister is an absolute menace," Reid said, shaking his head in sheer, unadulterated awe. "Seriously. She walked in there like an executioner and dismantled him in under ten minutes without even raising her voice. I’ve never been more terrified and inspired in my entire life."

​"She’s an Evans," I said, a small, fierce spark of pride touching my chest. "We don’t back down. Especially not when someone tries to touch our own."

​"Good," Reid murmured, his grip on my hand tightening, his grey eyes drilling into mine with a steady, unyielding certainty that chased away the very last remnants of the alleyway panic. "Because you’re mine, Kain. And I’m yours. Let the media speculate whatever nonsense they want about those photos tomorrow. Let the haters ship you with whoever they want. We know exactly what we are."

​I looked down at our fingers, completely tangled together in the quiet safety of the dark booth, the steady, warm pulse of his skin beating against mine. The ice beneath us had nearly shattered today, but we had crawled off it together—and this time, the ground beneath us felt completely solid.

​"Yeah," I whispered, looking back up into the eyes of my Alpha. "We know the truth."

​The ride back to Reid’s penthouse was quiet, the heavy adrenaline of the morning finally settling into a dull, exhausted ache. We kept our hands to ourselves as we walked through the secure lobby, maintaining our professional teammate distance just in case any building staff were looking.

​But the moment we stepped out of the elevator onto his private floor, the quiet shattered.

​Standing right in front of Reid’s apartment door was a figure. At the sound of our boots on the polished floor, she turned around.

​Reid instantly flinched, his entire body locking up as his scent of frozen pine spiked with sudden, defensive alarm.

​"Mom?" Reid muttered, his voice dropping into a tense, incredulous register. "What are you doing here?"

​Mom?

​My heart did a sudden, violent flip in my chest. I looked at the woman standing in front of us. She was tall, exceptionally imposing, and wore a sleek, body-length designer wool coat that draped over her shoulders like armor.

Her posture was flawless, radiating the kind of heavy, suffocating Alpha aura that only belonged to those born into absolute power.

​This was the matriarch of the McCoy Empire.

Her sharp, cold eyes flicked over Reid, dissecting his messy hair and defensive posture in a single second, before landing squarely on me. The media rumors about her son being in a relationship with his Beta captain had clearly reached her ears, and the displeasure radiating off her was palpable.

​"You don’t answer your phone, you don’t return your father’s calls, and instead, I find you smeared across every gossip column with your teammate," she said, her voice dropping like dry ice into the quiet hallway.

She took a slow, deliberate step forward, her sharp gaze cutting through Reid as if he were nothing more than a misbehaving child. "Is this the stellar hockey career you insisted on throwing your inheritance away for, Reid? Dragging our family name through a cheap locker-room scandal?"

​"Stop interfering in my business, Mom," Reid growled, taking a half-step forward to block her line of sight to me. "It’s not your place to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do."

​"Well, it is my place if I am going to ensure that my son—my only son—does not fall for a Beta," she replied, her voice smooth, low, and completely unbothered by his attitude. She stepped forward, her heels clicking sharply. "I told you to find a good girl from a great family or an Omega who can actually bear your child and raise a family, not a Beta who will never be able to get pregnant for you."

​The sheer, traditional arrogance of her words stung, but I kept my face entirely blank. I stayed perfectly composed, standing with my shoulders squared as if the rumors of our relationship didn’t affect me at all.

​"That’s my business," Reid hissed, his grey eyes flashing with a dangerous heat. "Stay out of my business."

​"No, I will not," she said coldly. She bypassed Reid entirely, turning her sharp, calculating gaze directly onto me. "And as for you, Captain Evans."

​I met her gaze head-on, refusing to back down or show even a flicker of hesitation.

​"I don’t know exactly what kind of relationship you have with my son," she said, her voice dripping with formal politeness that felt like a threat. "But I would advise you to take proper care of him as his teammate. And not have any funny ideas. I’m sure you have a nice girl of your own to be interested in, but please stay away from my son in that regard."

​She paused, her expression shifting back into a rigid, aristocratic mask. "And also, I would like to invite you for dinner."

​"Mom!" Reid shouted, his voice echoing down the hall.

​But she didn’t even look at him. She raised a single, manicured hand, a silent command that instantly shut her son up. "I’m talking to your captain, not you, Reid. Mind your manners."

​She turned her attention back to me. "We would like to invite you for dinner tomorrow evening. You took care of Reid when his ankle was injured. Thanks to your supervision, he is able to walk again. All other things aside, you are doing a great job as his captain. Keep it up."

​Then, she looked back at Reid, her gaze turning thoroughly dismissive. "As for this game you’re playing... it’s about time you stop playing these silly games and return home. There are far more tangible things waiting for you there, not hockey."

​Without waiting for either of us to reply, she turned on her heel, her long coat swishing behind her as she walked toward the elevators. She didn’t care that she had just insulted the sport we had dedicated our lives to. She simply walked away, leaving a heavy, toxic silence in her wake.

​"Kain..." Reid whirled around the second the elevator doors slid shut, his face flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and pure rage. "Kain, please don’t take it to heart. My mother can be a total—"

​"I know," I interrupted softly, shaking my head. I let out a slow, tired breath. "Don’t worry. I didn’t take it to heart."

​"She has no right to talk to you like that," he muttered, kicking the wall near his door in frustration.

​"It’s normal for her to be like that, Reid," I said, leaning my back against the wall. "You told me before that she was entirely against you playing hockey. You’re being rebellious by staying here. This kind of reaction from her is to be expected."

​But even as I said the words to calm him, a cold, familiar dread was beginning to settle deep in my stomach.

​It wasn’t just about her insulting our sport, or her looking down on me as a "Beta." It was the fact that she didn’t know I was an Omega. If these rumors of us being together kept circulating, the McCoy family’s pride wouldn’t allow their heir to be tied to a Beta teammate. They would start digging. They would hire private investigators, look into my past, my medical history, my family’s records. Anything they can use against me.

​And if the McCoys started digging, my secrets wouldn’t stay buried for long. We had just barely escaped Edward; we couldn’t afford to have Reid’s family turning their massive resources against us.

​We had to act completely normal. We had to show them there was absolutely nothing to find.

​Reid shoved his keys into the lock, throwing his heavy door open. "Forget the dinner. We aren’t going. Let’s just go inside."

​"No," I said, my voice firm as I caught his arm before he could step through the threshold.

​Reid stopped, looking back at me with a frown. "Kain, she’s just going to corner you again."

​"If we don’t go, it just shows them we have something to hide," I explained quietly, my eyes dead serious. "We will go to the dinner and act like normal teammates. We will show them the rumors are completely baseless, and then your parents will have absolutely nothing to worry about. Reid, it’s the only way to keep them from digging."