LOGINRyder felt it first in his pulse. It was hard, fast, and impossible to ignore. He was suddenly too aware of everything, of the heat at his back, of the quiet drag of breath so close to his ear it made his shoulders tense.Jax slid his hand down Ryder’s spine, lighter this time, but unmistakably intentional. He guided Ryder’s fingers again, slower, anchoring him in place as his own thumb pressed just beside the bone.Ryder turned his head without meaning to. Just a fraction.Enough to see Jax’s mouth. The curve of his lips was calm. Focused.Ryder’s breath shallowed, his body reacting without permission.Jax kept his hand exactly where it was. “Are you hard?” he asked quietly.Ryder's silence betrayed him. He swallowed, jaw flexing, eyes still fixed on Jax’s mouth.Jax’s thumb traced a slow, idle circle at Ryder’s lower back. Not moving away. Not moving closer. Just enough to make Ryder’s knees feel unsteady.“You’re fucking sensitive, Hayes,” Jax murmured.Ryder’s face burned. He sta
By the time practice finally wrapped, Ryder already knew how the night was going to go.They piled back into the Wolf Den not long after, the house quieter than usual, most of the guys heading straight upstairs or collapsing onto couches with exhausted groans. Ryder lingered in the kitchen, opening the fridge, closing it, opening cupboards that held nothing he actually wanted.Ten minutes passed. Maybe more.He was staring into the pantry when someone cleared their throat behind him.“Hayes.”Ryder didn’t turn. He just glared at the shelf like he could see Calloway's condescending expression reflected it in.“What?”“Project,” Jax said. “Now. Remember?”Ryder snorted. “I’m hungry. What, I’m not allowed to eat on your busy schedule?”“You’ve been in here a while,” Jax replied evenly. “You don’t have any food in your hands.”Ryder snapped, spinning halfway toward him. “I haven’t found what I want yet.”Jax sighed, long and tired. “I’ll order you some fucking food if you’ll just get upst
The cafeteria was already half taken over when Ryder got there.Most of the team had pushed a couple of long tables together near the windows, bags dumped at their feet, trays scattered with food like an invasion. It was loud in that familiar way—chairs scraping, voices overlapping, someone laughing too hard at something that wasn’t that funny.Ryder dropped into an open seat across from Beck, snagged a fork off an abandoned tray, and started stealing bites without asking.“Get your own,” Beck muttered.“Shut up,” Ryder said, already reaching again.A few minutes later, the doors swung open and Calloway walked in.Ryder felt it before he saw it. A subtle shift in the room. Heads turning. A couple of girls at a nearby table straightening without realizing they’d done it.Max waved immediately. “Calloway! Over here.”Traitor.Jax crossed the cafeteria easy and unhurried, dropped his bag at the end of the table, then turned toward the food line without a word.Ryder pretended not to watc
“Hayes?”Jax’s voice broke the silence like a weight.Ryder stayed where he was, kneeling with his head low, one hand still hovering uselessly where the door had been a moment ago. Then he inhaled, slowly and looked up.His gaze traveled before he could stop it.Long legs, powerful and too familiar, planted wide in the doorway. Sweatpants riding low on lean hips, the outline of a bulge beneath them, obvious. The hem of a worn T‑shirt clung where it shouldn’t, stretched across a chest that made the fabric look like it was working overtime.Ryder swallowed.Up higher, Jax’s shoulders filled the frame, relaxed in a way that felt deliberate. Not defensive. Not surprised. Like this was exactly what he’d expected to find.Ryder’s pulse kicked up, loud in his ears. From this angle, everything about Calloway felt amplified. The height, the breadth, the quiet control of him standing there while Ryder was on the floor.Fuck.“Uh,” Ryder said, forcing a casual expression. “Hey.”Jax’s mouth twit
Ryder made it through the rest of anatomy wishing he hadn't come.The lecture blurred together in clinical terms and projected diagrams, the professor’s voice steady as she talked through vertebrae and nerve pathways.He took notes he barely processed, nodded at things he already knew, kept his eyes firmly off the back of Jackson Calloway’s head. By the time class ended, Ryder’s jaw ached from clenching it.Practice that afternoon was brutal as always.If anatomy had put him on edge, the ice stripped him raw. Ryder skated like he was being hunted, every drill a chance to prove himself. Larsson barked for speed, for control, for stability, and Ryder threw his body into it like he could outrun the words themselves.He pushed hard, skating like something was on his heels. Every drill, every sprint, every collision—he went at it full tilt, lungs burning, legs screaming, refusing to ease up. Since Calloway arrived, it felt like rest was a luxury he couldn’t afford. Like if he slowed for ev
The next afternoon blurred by in the usual way.Campus was loud, voices ricocheting off concrete, backpacks slung low, shit quality music leaking from someone’s phone. He messed around with the guys outside the student center, shoulder-checking Beck just to get a rise out of him, then took off after Zach when he stole Ryder’s cap and made a break for it across the quad.“Give it back!” Ryder barked, grinning despite himself as Zach zigzagged through a cluster of freshmen.He was mid-chase, lungs burning pleasantly, when he spotted Jax.Calloway was heading toward the science building, pace easy, posture infuriatingly relaxed, like yesterday hadn’t happened at all. Like he hadn’t pressed his cock between Ryder's thighs and ruined his ability to think straight.Ryder slowed without meaning to.He told himself not to look.He looked.The line of Jax’s shoulders under a fitted hoodie. The way his stride rolled through his hips. The exact shape of his ass as he cut through the foot traffic
The words echoed in Lukas’s head long after they were spoken.He swallowed, voice rough. “You were going to start a family with Nathan?”Aiden exhaled slowly, standing to face him. He raked a hand through his hair, still breathless, and shook his head firmly. “No. Nathan made it very clear he didn’
Morning crept in slow and gray, seeping through the blinds in Mac’s spare room.Lukas woke to the unfamiliar quiet of the empty house, his head thick, his body heavy like he’d been wrestling with dreams all night. For a long moment he lay still, staring at the ceiling, the events of last night pres
Lukas dug around in the dark until his fingers closed over the fake rock tucked beside the steps. This idiot never changed his hiding place. He popped the key free, shoved it into the lock, and shouldered his way inside. His phone buzzed nonstop in his pocket. By the time the door clicked shut be
The first few minutes were all sharp noise and the glare of cameras, but Aiden soon seemed to forget about the attention. His shoulders loosened, his posture no longer stiff as he leaned forward to follow the play. Lukas explained a few of the set-ups in his usual animated fashion, tossing in jokes







