MasukHis On-Ice RivalChapter 2: The Room That Was Too SmallThe hotel room was standard road-trip issue—two queen beds, one bathroom, a window that looked out over a parking lot, and barely enough floor space to hate someone properly.Levi tossed his duffel onto the bed closest to the window like he’d already claimed it. I took the other one without comment. The door clicked shut behind the last of the equipment guys and suddenly the quiet felt heavier than the hits we’d traded in practice.I sat on the edge of my mattress and started unlacing my dress shoes just to have something to do with my hands. Levi stripped out of his team hoodie with the same careless confidence he did everything. The T-shirt underneath rode up, showing a strip of hard stomach and the dark waistband of his underwear. I looked away fast. My cock still noticed.“You going to ice that bruise?” he asked.I glanced down. A dark mark was already blooming across my ribs where he’d driven me into the boards during the la
His On-Ice RivalChapter 1: The Trade That Ruined MeI found out I’d been traded the same way everyone else did—on my phone at 6:12 a.m. while the coffee was still brewing.One notification. Three paragraphs from the team’s PR account. My name sitting next to the words “in exchange for draft picks and future considerations.” No warning call. No courtesy heads-up. Just the sudden, public knowledge that I was no longer a Wolf. I was a Blade.And the Blades’ captain was the one man in the league I hated more than anyone.Levi Ashford.Six-foot-three of smug, golden-boy talent. The kind of forward who smiled for the cameras and then buried you in the corner with a dirty elbow when the refs weren’t looking. We’d been chirping each other since juniors. I’d broken his nose in a playoff series two years ago. He’d given me a seven-stitch cut above the eye the season after. Every time our teams met, the hits got heavier and the words got uglier. The media loved it. “One of the league’s best riv
His Unbreakable GuardChapter 3: The Night I Stopped PretendingThe third letter never made it under the door.Kane intercepted the man who tried to leave it at 2:17 a.m.I woke to the sound of a short, brutal scuffle in the hallway, then Kane’s low voice giving clipped instructions into his phone. By the time I pulled on sweatpants and opened the bedroom door he was already cuffing a struggling figure facedown on the landing. Agency backup arrived seven minutes later. They took the guy, the letter, and a partial print that apparently matched someone connected to the last story I’d published.Just like that, the immediate threat was neutralized.Kane closed the apartment door, locked it, and turned to face me. He had a thin cut on his knuckles and a dark smear of someone else’s blood on the sleeve of his T-shirt. His gray eyes were still sharp with adrenaline. The second they landed on me the air in the safe house changed.“It’s over,” he said. “At least this part. Agency will handle
Chapter 2: The Night the Line BlurredThe second letter arrived the next morning.Kane found it first. He was already awake when I came out of the bedroom, black T-shirt stretched across his chest, tactical pants, the same cold gray eyes scanning the hallway through the peephole before he opened the door. The envelope was plain white, no stamp, same blocky handwriting. He didn’t let me touch it. He bagged it, photographed it, and sent the images to the agency while I stood in the kitchen with coffee going cold in my hands.“They’re getting closer,” he said. Voice flat. Professional. “This one was left after I did the 0500 sweep. Means someone is watching the building’s patterns.”I nodded like I understood the operational language. All I really understood was the way my pulse jumped every time he moved past me, and the fact that I’d woken up hard again with the memory of his voice saying you’re hard still echoing in my head.Kane decided we were leaving the apartment by noon.“Safe ho
His Unbreakable GuardChapter 1: The Man They Sent to Watch MeI never asked for a bodyguard. I especially never asked for one who looked like that.The agency sent him after the third letter showed up under my apartment door. Same blocky handwriting, same quiet threat about what would happen if I didn’t “stop talking.” I was a journalist, not a celebrity. I wrote long-form pieces about corruption and corporate cover-ups. Apparently someone had finally decided the words were expensive enough to silence.They told me his name was Kane Maddox. Ex-special forces. Discreet. Efficient. The kind of man who could clear a room without raising his voice. I expected someone older, grayer, forgettable.I did not expect the man who walked into my living room at 9:04 a.m. on a Thursday.He was tall—six-four at least—broad through the shoulders in a way that made the black tactical jacket look tailored instead of bulky. Dark hair cut short, jaw shadowed with stubble, a thin scar cutting through one
Claimed by the CapoChapter 3: The Night the Debt ChangedI cooked breakfast at 6:45 a.m. like nothing had happened.Eggs. Toast. Fresh coffee in the press the way the inventory notes suggested he preferred it. My hands were steady. My head was not. Every time I closed my eyes I felt Dante’s fist wrapped around my cock through wet denim and heard my own voice saying don’t stop. The memory sat low in my gut, heavy and unfinished. Coming in my jeans had taken the edge off for maybe an hour. After that the ache had come back sharper, meaner, like my body had decided that one release under his hand was only the opening argument.Dante walked into the kitchen at exactly 7:00. Black shirt again, sleeves rolled, hair still damp from a shower. He looked at the plate I set in front of him, then at me, and the corner of his mouth lifted in that same knowing way.“You slept,” he said. Not a question.“Some.”“You woke up hard.”I didn’t answer. I didn’t need to. He could see it in the way I stoo
Chapter 3: Cabin Fever The family cabin loomed ahead like a trap wrapped in pine trees and fresh snow. Mom and Dad had insisted on the weekend getaway to bond us all together, but they bailed at the last minute with some excuse about a work emergency back in the city. Convenient. Or maybe suspicio
Chapter 2: Bound by the Secret The flash from Damien’s phone burned behind my eyelids long after he lowered the device. My knees still ached against the basement carpet, my lips felt swollen and raw, and the taste of him lingered on my tongue like a brand I could not wash away. I stared up at him,
Chapter 1: Caught in the Dark I never thought I would see my stepbrother like this. The house was supposed to be empty. Mom and Dad had left for their anniversary weekend, and I had planned to spend the night buried in my books, finally getting some peace from Damien’s constant noise. Hockey prac
Chapter 1: Caught in the ActThe bass from Jordan’s speakers thumped through the walls as I slipped out of his room, heart hammering like a damn traitor. The party downstairs was still raging—cheap beer, shitty EDM, and too many people crammed into his parents’ living room. But I wasn’t going back







