Page 75 of Puck & Her Blades

Both Asher and Cygnus have called Jackson their protector.

What if he protects the entire team when he can?

What if he’s never actually been the Ice King who the press write about?

Roarke is about to hurt his own son like he’s a whipping boy. These are the type of abuses that I’ve been trying to uncover.

Cygnus was right that Roarke put these men together, letting them love each other, so that he could use it against them.

He’s weaponized love.

It’s a perversion of pack bonds.

Yet I can’t write about this without their permission.

Is there a reason that Jackson’s kept this secret? To protect Cygnus and the fact that he can’t purr? Because Roarke, as both billionaire and legendary ex-player, is Head Alpha?

How much political power does Roarke have behind the scenes?

Yet if I could persuade someone as famous and loved as Jackson to go public, it would blow the corruption and abuses within the sporting world wide open.

Is it worth the risk?

“Please,” Asher begs, “let me take this and not—”

“Get up and stand over there. You can watch your Captain being punished for your failures. If you fuck up in the next game, then he’ll be beaten in front of the whole team.”

I draw in a sharp breath.

“What if we win?” Jackson says, quietly. “What’s the reward?”

“You have balls.” Roarke appears to think for a moment. “What do you want?”

“A private room at the party on Saturday night. I want to be the only one who has control over who enters,” Jackson instantly replies like he’s already planned this. “I want all the pack invited, including Puck.”

My eyes light up.

Wait, he can ask for any reward, and he wants me to attend the party for the Omega selection?

Weirdly, he feels like my fairy godmother, waving his wand to get me to the ball.

Only, he doesn’t have a wand.

Instead, he has a tyrannical coach, with whom he has to make risky bargains.

“You really do have balls, asking me that.” Roarke sighs. “Fine. If you win the next match, which will get you to the last match before the finals of the Alpha Cup with at least four goals scored by Asher, you’ll get Puck and a private room on Saturday night. But you will invite into the private room the female Omega who you’ve selected to bond with from the attending Omegas. If you don’t win with those four goals, then you get a public beating.”

“Sounds fair. Right, Ash?” Jackson’s voice is cool.

“No problem, Captain.” Asher is trying to match Jackson’s calm but not managing it.

He sounds like he’s about to break.

“Bend over, son,” Roarke orders. “Eighteen. Count them.”

I can’t listen to this.

I grasp Cygnus’ arm.

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