LOGINHis On-Ice RivalChapter 4: The Night the Rivalry Changed ShapeThe third game of the trip was uglier than the second.We won again—barely. I scored the game-winner on a tip-in off Levi’s feed. The second the puck crossed the line he crashed into me behind the net in a celebration that looked, to everyone else, like the same old aggressive chemistry. Only I felt the way his glove lingered on the back of my neck for a second too long. Only I heard the low “that’s it” he breathed against my ear before the rest of the line piled on.In the locker room the guys were louder than usual. Someone cracked a joke about the “Cole-Ashford connection” finally paying off. Levi caught my eye across the stalls and didn’t smile. He just looked at me like he was already thinking about the hotel room.The bus ride felt longer. The elevator felt smaller.The second the door shut behind us Levi had me pinned against it.His mouth was on mine before I could speak—hungry, almost angry, the same competitive
Chapter 3: The Night the Hate CrackedThe next night’s game was a bloodbath.We won 4–2. I had two assists and a five-minute major for fighting. Levi had a goal, an assist, and a matching major for the same fight. The refs had finally had enough of us boarding each other into the glass. We sat in the box together for the full five, shoulders almost touching, both of us breathing hard and refusing to look away first. The crowd loved it. The coaches did not.In the locker room afterward the chirps were quieter than usual. Everyone could feel the shift. Levi caught my eye across the stalls while he peeled off his jersey. There was a fresh cut on his lower lip from my glove. When he licked it, slow, something low in my gut pulled tight.The bus ride back to the hotel was silent. The elevator ride up to our floor was worse.The second the hotel room door clicked shut behind us the air changed.Levi dropped his suit jacket on the chair, loosened his tie, and turned to face me. His eyes were
His 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
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
Chapter 4: Shadows and Surrender The crack outside the cabin window jolted me awake before dawn, my body still sore and marked from Damien’s relentless claiming the night before. I lay tangled in the heavy blankets, his arm draped possessively over my waist, his breath warm against my neck. For a







