LOGINThe next morning, half the Wolf Den, and a handful of extra teammates, swarmed the campus gym after a loud night of pizza and beer. It was loud, chaotic, and smelled like sweat, rubber flooring, and too much cheap body spray.Connor and Drew were on the treadmills, racing each other like idiots. Max was perched on a bench press machine he wasn’t even using, playing a game on his phone. Beck was supervising from the stretching mats, pretending he wasn't hungover.Ryder was doing his best to act normal.Which meant doing his best to ignore Jax Calloway.He planted himself by the free weights, pretending he wasn’t dying inside every time he so much as touched a dumbbell. His whole body protested, mostly from actual training, partly from… other activities.But ignoring Calloway was impossible.Because Jax had decided to stretch.And stretch.And stretch.He’d been doing it for fifteen fucking minutes.Jax knelt on one of the mats, hands braced behind him as he eased into a deep quad stret
Jax drove with one hand loose on the wheel.The car still had that fresh‑off‑the‑lot shine, sleek, sharp, powerful, but it felt hollow. Maybe it was him. Maybe it was everything else. Whatever the reason, the car didn’t give him the rush he’d hoped for; it was just another machine eating up an empty stretch of road.The late‑afternoon sun hung low, pouring warm orange light across the dash, flashing over his knuckles every time the car glided past a break in the trees. He wasn’t speeding, but he wasn’t taking his time either, his mind restless.Lila’s voice spilled through the speakers, bright and edged with concern. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”Jax didn’t sigh, but it tugged at him. “It’s fine.”“Jax…” she pressed. “Look, Ry’s not an actual stalker, so there's no way he'll figure this out, but he’s suspicious. And stubborn. And loud. And he doesn’t let go of things once he grabs onto them.”Jax snorted.Yeah. He knew.He'd seen it in the way Ryder had followed him down the hal
The campus gym smelled like rubber flooring, old sweat, and a handful of guys pretending they weren’t hungover. Ryder pushed through the double doors like he owned the place. Chest out, jaw tight, every part of him screaming in protest.He ignored that.He ignored everything.Especially the aches lower in his body that had absolutely nothing to do with hockey.Leo trailed behind him, wary but mostly unfazed.Ryder slapped his ID at the check-in desk. The student worker barely glanced up before waving him through.He turned immediately, eyes scanning the place. Treadmills. Free weights. Squat racks.No Calloway.He scowled. Had the bastard already come and gone? There was no way. It took weeks, sometimes months, to get card access as a transfer, and Jax’s name hadn’t been on the sign-in logs Leo filled in.So where the fuck was he?"You good?" Leo asked quietly."Peachy," Ryder muttered.He marched straight to the row of free weights, grabbed a dumbbell that was far too heavy for the c
Ryder woke up in his own bed with a much smaller headache than he'd hoped for.A pounding, brutal hangover would’ve been convenient right now. Something he could blame it all on. Hell, maybe he could claim he’d been drunk all week. But the dull throb behind his eyes wasn’t nearly enough. He blinked at the ceiling, as the memories of last night hit. Hard.The face Jax made when Brooke yanked him down beside her. That quick, sharp widening of his eyes, shock and discomfort, before he erased it completely. That look stuck under Ryder’s skin like a splinter.Then the rest of the night flashed behind his eyes with brutal clarity.Jax’s fingers in Ryder’s hair, tight and commanding. Ryder’s knees hitting the floor, the hardwood beneath him. And then Jax’s cock against his lips. The heat of it, the weight of it, the way Jax’s breath broke when Ryder took him deeper, thighs tense on either side of Ryder’s shoulders like he was losing control. Ryder’s hands had trembled, trying not to think, n
Jax didn’t waste a second.He reached into his back pocket, tearing a foil packet open with his teeth like he’d been waiting to use it. Ryder’s breath stuttered as he watched Jax roll the condom down over himself, the thick length of him disappearing under smooth latex.Then Jax slicked himself with lube, stroking once, slow and deliberate, his jaw tightening like he was fighting to keep control.Ryder’s legs were already lifted, draped over one of Jax’s shoulders. His sweatpants and boxers still tangled around his ankles, shoes still on, exposed in a way he’d never imagined he would be.Jax lined himself up.Ryder felt the blunt heat of him press right against his entrance. Hot, solid, undeniable.His lungs faltered.Jax’s grip on his thigh tightened.And then he pushed in.The stretch hit Ryder all at once. Sharp, shocking, burning in a way that stole the air from his lungs. His fingers clawed at the floor, his head tipping back as a broken sound scraped out of his throat.Jax didn’
For a split second, Ryder forgot how to breathe.His mouth hovered over the head of a man's cock, close enough that he could feel the heat of it on his lips, close enough that the faint, clean scent of Jax’s skin curled into his head and rewired something fundamental.Fingers tightened in his hair.Ryder’s pulse thudded so hard it made his vision pulse too.He’d never done this before. Never even thought about doing it. Not to a guy. Not to anyone like this, on his knees, being guided instead of doing the guiding.And yet he didn’t pull back. Didn’t stop Jax from lowering his head. Didn’t stop himself from letting it happen.His lips brushed the tip, barely, and Ryder’s breath hitched hard.Jesus Christ.It was warm. Soft. Heavy. Too real. Too intimate. Nothing like the guys in porn he’d half‑ignored his whole life. Jax’s cock pressed against his mouth carried a heat that made Ryder’s stomach flip.His tongue moved before he could think, just a tiny flick against the underside.Jax’s
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
Nathan was taller than Lukas remembered, broader in the shoulders, his hair shorter now and flecked with gray at the temples. The shadows in the hall softened nothing. His eyes still carried that same sharp edge, the one that used to cut Lukas wide open when he was younger and stupid enough to thin
The hall outside the medical room was quiet, the muffled noise of voices and laughter fading behind them as the door swung shut. Mac leaned against the wall, arms folded, giving Lukas a once-over like he was about to check him into the boards.“You getting along with the doc any better?” Mac asked,
Lukas’s breath came rough and uneven, his body thrumming with anticipation as he slicked his fingers, pressing them between Aiden’s thighs. Aiden didn’t flinch, didn’t tense, his eyes locked on Lukas like he wanted to watch every reaction.Lukas watched the way Aiden’s chest rose as he pushed a fi







