ANMELDENChapter 109: Final NightThe league awards had been a spectacle, but the real storm was only beginning.We had stood on that stage and told the world we were together. The crowd had cheered. The cameras had flashed. The syndicate had watched every second. But as we left the venue hand in hand, the encrypted phone in my pocket buzzed with their final message of the night.*Perfect performance. The world believes the lie. But we know the truth. The evidence you’re gathering. The team helping you. The coming-out was just the beginning. The real war starts now.*Callan read it in the car on the way back to the apartment. His grip on my hand tightened, the fading link carrying his rage and his determination.“They know,” he said quietly. “They’re coming for us hard now.”The apartment felt like a cage when we walked in. The syndicate had forced us to live together, and now it felt like the walls were closing in. We had one night
Chapter 108: Smoking GunThe recording from my father’s unexpected visit sat on Elodie’s secure laptop like a loaded gun.We had gathered in a safe location — a small, nondescript office Elodie had arranged through her contacts. Tate, Beck, Merrick, and Maren were there too. The team was fully in now, and the weight of their presence made the moment feel both terrifying and hopeful.Elodie played the recording for everyone.My father’s voice filled the room, cold and matter-of-fact.*Love is weakness. I gave you the talent. The drive. The syndicate gave you the structure. You should be thanking me.**You built the app. You created the drugs. You’ve been exploiting players for years.*The admissions kept coming. The exploitation. The plan to use us for long-term control. The way he had groomed the entire system.When the recording ended, the room was silent.Tate swore under his breath. “That’s it. That’
Chapter 107: Unexpected VisitThe recording of my father’s confession burned a hole in my pocket the entire drive back to the apartment. Elodie had it now, copied and secured, but the words still echoed in my head.*Love is weakness. I gave you the talent. The drive. The syndicate gave you the structure.*Callan drove in silence, one hand on the wheel, the other occasionally reaching over to rest on my thigh. The link, though fading, still carried faint echoes of his pride in me for facing my father and his rage at the man who had used me my entire life.“You did it,” Callan said as we pulled into the parking garage. “You got the admission. That’s the smoking gun.”I nodded, but my hands were still shaking. “He looked at me like I was nothing. Just another asset. His own son.”Callan parked and pulled me into his arms across the console. “You’re not nothing. You’re everything. To me. To the team. To the people who actually l
Chapter 106: Recording FatherThe decision to record my father had been made the night before, but it still felt like walking into a trap with my eyes open.Elodie had arranged the meeting through a secure channel. A “private family talk” at a neutral location — a small café on the outskirts of the city. The hidden recorder was small, barely noticeable, tucked into the collar of my shirt. Elodie had assured me it would capture everything clearly.Callan drove me there in silence. The link, though fading, still carried his tension and his fierce protectiveness. His hand rested on my thigh the entire way.“You don’t have to do this,” he said as we pulled up. “We can find another way.”“I do,” I replied. “If we want to end this, we need his words on record. His admission about the drugs. The app. Everything.”Callan leaned over and kissed me hard, like he was afraid it might be the last time. “I’ll be two blocks away. Feel me throug
Chapter 105: Team InterventionTate’s knock on the apartment door came like a hammer.I was still reeling from the argument with Callan, the origin story finally laid bare, when the sound cut through the silence. Callan tensed beside me on the couch, the fading link carrying his wariness. The double dose had left us both raw, thoughts and memories still bleeding through in fragments.Callan stood and opened the door.Tate pushed inside, followed closely by Beck and Merrick. Their expressions were serious. Tate’s chipped tooth flashed as he spoke.“We’re done waiting,” Tate said. “The whole team is starting to fracture. You two move like you share one nervous system. Brooks almost collapsed in net because of hits *you* took, Captain. Tell us the full truth or we’re going to the coaches ourselves.”Callan closed the door and locked it. “Sit down.”The four of us gathered in the living room. Merrick leaned against the wall,
Chapter 104: Origin StoryThe double dose had pushed the link to its breaking point, and with it came the memories I was never meant to see.I woke up in the apartment the syndicate had forced us into, Callan’s arm still around me, but the connection between us was no longer just a hum. It was a flood. Thoughts. Memories. Emotions. All bleeding through as the drugs reached their peak before they began to fade.Callan was already awake. His eyes met mine, and I saw the exact moment he realized I was seeing everything.“You saw it,” he said quietly. “The camp. The profile. All of it.”I nodded, throat tight. The memory was still vivid in my mind: Callan watching me during training camp, the way his eyes had followed me across the ice, the deliberate decision to create the “Sir” profile, the months of guiding me through messages, shaping me into the submissive he wanted.“You groomed me for months,” I said, voice shaking. “Before I
Chapter 60: ReclaimingThe moment the words left my mouth, something shifted in the air between us.“Remind me who I belong to.”Callan’s eyes darkened instantly, the raw hunger mixing with deep, aching tenderness. For a heartbeat, he just looked at me really look
Chapter 58: Public Humiliation The team charity event was supposed to be a celebration. Instead, it felt like walking into an execution. The ballroom was packed with sponsors, media, league officials, and the entire Chicago Thunder organization. Crysta
Chapter 57: Sacrifice PlayThe hotel room felt suffocatingly quiet after the locker room blowout.Callan had been silent most of the ride back, his hand never leaving my lower back, but through the link I could feel the storm raging inside him. The decision he’d made in the lock
Chapter 56: Team FractureThe locker room had never felt so small.Even though most of the guys had already left, the tension lingered like thick fog on the ice. Tate’s accusation still hung in the air, sharp and unresolved.“You’re destroying him, Cap.”T







