For years, Ashley Carter built her life around one man.
She gave up her medical scholarship, worked exhausting double shifts, and poured every dollar she had into Weston's hockey dream.
She never asked for anything in return.
Until the night Weston became Rookie of the Year.
Standing beside the man she had sacrificed everything for, Ashley expected to finally hear him say her name.
Instead, he thanked everyone but her.
Then he introduced the woman he'd spent years calling his “cousin” as his girlfriend, and made Ashley painfully understand that being an Omega had always been something he considered a weakness.
That night, Ashley walked away because she finally realized she had lost herself trying to be enough for someone who never saw her worth.
With nowhere else to go, Ashley takes a physical therapy position with a rival NHL team and decides to build a life that belongs to her.
But starting over isn't easy.
Especially when her new boss is Brooks Wayne. The league's most intimidating Alpha.
Arrogant, controlling, Impossible to read, and completely convinced that Omegas are too fragile for the world he lives in.
But no one sees the man behind the Alpha—the broken pieces, the old wounds, or the reason he built so many walls in the first place.
Ashley wants nothing to do with him.
Brooks wants nothing to do with an Omega who refuses to know her place.
Then one unexpected accident puts them in the middle of a media scandal—and suddenly, the two people who can't stand each other are forced into a fake relationship.
It should be simple. Pretend in public and keep their distance in private.
But somewhere between the arguments, stolen glances, late nights and moments Ashley never expected to share with anyone again, Brooks starts seeing the woman she is.
And Ashley begins discovering something she thought she'd lost forever: herself.
She's stronger. Braver. And finally building a life of her own.
The problem?
The Alpha who once couldn't stand her suddenly can't seem to stay away.
And the more Ashley gets beneath Brooks's cold exterior, the more she begins to wonder, what if the man everyone fears is just as broken as she is?
And when Weston finally comes looking for the woman he left behind, Ashley has to decide whether she wants the life she once dreamed of, or the love she never saw coming.
