Chapter 138: Heat chaos
Kayden
"To the left, Vale! Move your ass to the left and pin Philip to the corner!" Coach Reddick shouted, letting out a groan as I missed his instructions, almost landing on the ground.
The morning had been excruciating, especially since we had been on the ice since 6:00 AM skating non-stop. We’ve been at it for hours and I’d already lost count at the seventh hour. Even though there were a few breaks sprinkled throughout the morning, they weren’t nearly enough for the sudden, crushing fatigue I was feeling.
It started the moment I woke up. It began as a headache; my head felt like it was practically being hit with a hammer. I hadn’t told Rhys, though. I knew him—if I said a word, he wouldn’t be able to focus on the drills, and he would be far too worried to keep up our "distanced" act in front of the team.
I didn’t know what was happening to me. Maybe it was because I had stopped taking suppressants ever since Leo fed me that mixture. I had no reason to take them anymore because my fake scent was still holding strong, and I only ever released my true orchid scent when I was alone with Rhys.
But now, right here on the ice, I had no idea what was happening to me. My legs wouldn’t stop shaking. My heart was racing so fast it felt like it was about to burst out of my chest, and cold sweats beaded on my forehead, streaming down my face under my helmet. It wasn’t the heat from the practice; it was a terrifying, hollow uneasiness that felt like it was consuming me from the inside out.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Vale? You are not playing like we have a game in two days. Move your ass and skate towards Philip!"
"Yes, Coach," I held on tight to my stick and looked down at the puck in front of me, but my vision began to swim. I could barely see anything for a few seconds. I stopped as I felt my legs shaking; my knee almost ended up on the ice, but I clenched my fists around my stick tighter.
"Why the hell are you stopping, Vale? That was not my instruction!" Coach Reddick yelled at me, but soon his words faded in my ears. All I could hear was a ringing that grew louder and louder until I wanted to cover my ears.
What the hell is happening to me?
I tried to move, to skate towards the wall and rest on it, but instead, I tripped. I was falling toward the ground, and it was then that my vision became clearer. I tried to steady myself, but there was no hope, and I had almost hit the ice when I felt a warm, solid hand catch me.
At first, I had thought it was Rhys, but there was no spark, no pine scent. It wasn’t him who had saved me; it was Philip. I blinked when my eyes met his brown ones.
"Hey, are you alright?" he asked.
Before I could reply, the Coach was already heading toward me. "What the hell is happening? You almost fell to the ground, Vale! You didn’t get enough sleep!" he yelled.
I groaned silently and whispered a thank you to Philip as I rose from his grip to stand on my own. "Coach, I am fine and—"
"No, you are not!" I heard Rhys shout from across the ice where he was skating with Miller. Both of them skated towards us and stopped right beside the Coach. "You need to get to the Doc to see if you are fine," Rhys said in a harsh tone, but I couldn’t help but notice the concern that followed as he spoke again. "We need you on the ice, so go meet with the doctor."
Miller nodded in agreement. "Have the doctor check on you, Kayden. Your skin is too pale."
"But I am fine and—" I tried to argue but swallowed my words when I saw Rhys throwing daggers at me with his eyes. "Fine, I’ll go," I gritted my teeth.
I removed my helmet and looked toward the Coach to see if he had his own opinion, but he didn’t say anything. "Alright, I will be back," I told him and skated out of the Dome.
Once I was out, I headed straight toward the clinic. My head was still pounding hard, my chest was burning, and I could feel my legs shaking.
It took all the willpower I had to make it there.
When I reached the clinic, I burst in, but Leo wasn’t there; instead, I met the other two assistant doctors. One of them was on her phone.
When she noticed me, she stood up immediately.
"You don’t look too good Mr Vale," the other assistant told me. "Why don’t you lie down and we’ll see what’s wrong with you?"
Lie down? In front of them? There was no way. This was exactly what I feared for my identity. If they ran a test on me, it would be too easy to find out what I was.
"Where is Leo? Is he—"
"Right here," Leo’s voice sounded behind me as he walked into the office with his hands in his pockets. "Skylar, David, go help with the tests I ran on some of the teammates in the laboratory. I will take care of him."
"Yes, sir," both of them said at the same time and hurried out of the office.
As soon as they were out of sight, I rushed towards the bed and lay on it. "Leo, I don’t know what is wrong with me. I woke up with a headache and—"
"It’s your heat coming, Kayden."
My eyes widened at the news. "What heat? I have been sexually active, I am not supposed to get my heat!"
Leo walked towards me and started checking my eyes, my hands, and my neck. Then he sighed. "I knew it."
"Knew what?" I demanded.
He didn’t answer fast; he just stared at me.
"Well, say something!" I snapped, gripping the edge of the examination bed.
"From a purely physiological standpoint, you’ve been running a dangerous experiment on yourself," Leo finally began, crossing his arms.
"You’ve been having frequent sexual contact with a True Alpha like Rhys while simultaneously having high-potency suppressants pumped inside your system. Do you understand the conflict that creates in your endocrine system?"
I nodded, because he had said it a million times, but I still didn’t understand why I was affected like this.
"It’s biological dissonance, Kayden," Leo explained, his tone as dry as a lecture. "Rhys’s knots and his pheromones were telling your body to prep for a cycle, but the suppressants were forcing the door shut. Now that the mixture I gave you has effectively neutralized those drugs, the dam has broken. Your body is trying to make up for years of missed cycles all at once. Sex doesn’t stop a heat when you’ve been chemically suppressing your nature for this long; it only delays the inevitable. This isn’t just a heat—it’s a biological debt, and your body is calling in the bill."
"And what does this mean?"
Leo adjusted his glasses and spoke as fast as he could. "It means that from a safety perspective, your participation in the conference finals is officially non-viable," Leo stated, his tone as flat as a heart monitor.
"In your current state of biological dissonance, your reaction times will be delayed by at least forty percent, and your core temperature is already fluctuating in a way that suggests a total systemic shutdown if you push yourself physically."
"You’re telling me I have to sit out?" I felt a surge of panic when he nodded. "Leo, I’m the left defender. Rhys and I work better together on the ice. If I don’t show up against the Falcons, everyone will ask questions."
"I am telling you that you are about to enter a high-intensity heat that has been bottled up for years," Leo countered, his gaze unwavering.
"If you go out on that ice, the physical exertion will accelerate the pheromone release. No amount of orchid-scented spray or fake Alpha patches will hide a full-blown biological cycle triggered by Rhys’s presence. You wouldn’t just be missing a game, Kayden—you’d be outing yourself to the entire league, the press, and the Falcons in the middle of the first period. My medical recommendation is immediate isolation."
I leaned my head back against the cold wall, the hammer in my skull beating harder. "Rhys is going to lose his mind."
"Rhys is an Alpha," Leo said, clapping his hands together. "And right now, every instinct he has is going to be screaming to protect you, which is exactly why he can’t be near you on the ice." He paused and checked his wristwatch.
"I’ll inform Coach that you’ve come down with a severe viral infection—something highly contagious to keep the teammates away. I am sorry, Kayden. Nature just benched you."
I clenched my jaw and then let out a scream, punching the bed. "But you can help me, Leo! There is a way you can put the heat in focus until the season is finished. After all, you are an Enigma!"