로그인Declan’s POV Finals week happened anyway. That was the most surreal part of the whole ordeal, the way the world demanded normalcy in the middle of a hurricane. While the news cycle debated the "Maeve Collins Scandal," Maeve had her Evidence and Contracts exams, and I had my Sport Management finals. We spent every evening at my kitchen table, buried in textbooks and highlighters, studying with a desperate, focused intensity. It was our only way to maintain a sense of control. We decided that the noise outside wasn't going to take our degrees from us, too. There were photographers outside the building now. Not a mob, but a constant rotation of two or three regulars with long lenses and the patient, predatory energy of people waiting for a slip-up. We didn't hide, but we didn't perform either. We used the back entrance because it was practical, walking past the bins and the delivery trucks without shame. The distinction felt important and right now, we weren't hiding our love; we
Maeve’s POV Alana sent me the final "dossier" at two in the afternoon. She had been my silent witness all year, the one who saw the things I was too terrified to admit to myself. She sent a file of images she’d taken over the months, things I hadn't even realized she was capturing. There was one from January, a shot of me coming back to the dorm after a late night at the rink, my silver hair tangled and my face looking so raw and haunted that it made me flinch. Another was a grainy shot through the library window—me looking down at the path, my expression one of pure, aching longing as I watched for a ghost I wasn't allowed to acknowledge. In case you need them, she texted. For the record. For the truth. I sat with those photos for a long time, the afternoon sun hitting the screen of my phone. These were the evidence of the "youthful mistake" my mother was so eager to bury under a mountain of PR spin. They were proof that this wasn't an impulse, wasn't a "biological response
Maeve’s POV By noon, the post had four million views, and the digital world had effectively split in two. I sat on Declan’s couch, tucked under a heavy wool blanket that carried the scent of his laundry detergent—something clean and unremarkable that felt like a lifeline in a room that was beginning to feel like a bunker. I watched the numbers climb with a detached, clinical fascination. It was like watching a virus move through a population in real time. The internet was a magnifying glass, and we were the ants being toasted under the heat. Public opinion was a jagged, ugly split. On one side, the "romantics" and the younger Omegas saw it as a grand, defiant stand against a stifling political dynasty. On the other—the side that actually mattered for Declan’s career—the "purists" and the franchise stalwarts were calling it a career suicide note. The sports accounts were talking about "impulse control issues" and "locker room distractions," while the political pundits were havin
Declan’s POV I watched the press conference at six AM, the blue light of the phone screen making the dark room look like an aquarium. I was sitting on the edge of the couch, my muscles coiled as if I were waiting for the puck to drop, but the opponent this time wasn't on the ice. It was a woman in a five-thousand-dollar suit standing behind a podium three hundred miles away. I had known it was coming. The bond had been vibrating with Maeve's particular brand of dread since ten PM—a tight, metallic feeling that signaled she was bracing for a collision she couldn't avoid. I’d stayed awake, watching the shadows shift on the ceiling, feeling her heart rate spike and dip from across the campus. It was an agonizing, helpless sensation, wanting to reach out and pull that dread into my own chest just so she could sleep. Senator Eleanor Collins stood at a podium in Connecticut, framed by the state and national flags. She looked impeccable. Every hair was in place, her suit was a suit of a
Maeve’s POV Three days before finals, the world finally caught up to the secret I had been trying to outrun since September. My phone suffered a digital cardiac arrest. It wasn’t the battery—I’d been meticulous about keeping it charged, a habit born from months of needing to be reachable at a second’s notice in case Declan needed me or my mother decided to strike. It was the sheer velocity of the fallout. The notifications came in a tidal surge that paralyzed the hardware. The screen lagged behind reality, a stuttering, frozen backlog of mentions, tags, and messages from ghosts of my past. People I hadn’t spoken to since primary school were suddenly "checking in" with transparent curiosity, and strangers were dissecting the intimate details of my biology with the clinical coldness of a forensic lab. I sat on the edge of my bed in the dorm, the rhythmic, frantic vibration of the phone against my thigh feeling like a second heartbeat that wasn’t mine. It was a physical manifestati
Declan’s POV The sun was a pale, weak sliver on the horizon when we finally sat down at the small wooden table in my apartment. The air was cold because I hadn't turned the heat up, but the bond was acting like a space heater, a constant, low-frequency thrum of shared warmth that filled the kitchen. Maeve was sitting across from me, her silver hair pulled back in a messy knot, her laptop open. She looked like a general surveying a losing battlefield, her eyes darting across spreadsheets and bank statements with a clinical, terrifying focus. This was the Ashford in her; the part that didn't panic but planned. "Okay," she said, her voice steady now, though the exhaustion was etched into the corners of her mouth. "If we're doing this, we need rules. We can't survive on adrenaline and romance, Declan. Not with my mother holding the deck." "I'm listening," I said. I pushed a mug of coffee toward her. She took it without looking, her fingers brushing mine, sending a jolt of static throu
Maeve's POVMy mother called on Sunday at noon as usual. I was ready for her this time. I had spent the week building the version of myself that sounded settled, productive and completely fine, so when her contact photo lit up my screen, and I answered on the first ring. "Maeve." Her voice was pl
Maeve's POVOlder omegas were nothing but lies. They spoke about knots like they were just things that locked you and your alpha together so he could knock you up. They were always so prudish about it, and God, I wished they’d told us the truth. I'd felt Declan shoot his seed inside me, and it h
Maeve's POVI had to stand on the tip of my toes to get my hand behind Declan’s head, but the moment he realized what I was trying to do, his eyes widened, and he closed the rest of the gap between us. The kiss started as a light brush at first. His lips were soft against mine, and I took my time
Maeve's POVWe were standing on the deck of the house. It was a pretty large space with a small sofa, a round table with two chairs, and some plants. There was a pool table on one side, a table tennis table, and a basketball ring. For a jock house, it was pretty. And it was clean. Color me surp







