MasukChapter 170MaxI sat frozen, the glow of the phone screen illuminating the dimness of the dorm room. The quiet hum of Ace’s refrigerator was the only sound in the space for a long, heavy minute.I kept expecting the screen to refresh, expecting some new wave of backlash or another video, but the feed had stopped. My father's words hung in the air, echoing off the walls, refusing to dissipate."Max?"Ace’s voice was a soft, warm whisper against my ear. His arm tightened around my waist, pulling me flush against his chest. I could feel the steady, reassuring rhythm of his breathing, a stark contrast to the chaotic fluttering in my own ribcage.I slowly turned my head to look at him. His dark eyes were filled with an intense, unwavering devotion that made my throat tighten all over again."He actually said it," I breathed, my voice cracking slightly on the vowels. "My dad... he actually apologized. In public. For
Chapter 169MaxI had to put the phone down for a second, pressed the back of my hand against my mouth and stared up at the ceiling, fighting the rising panic in my throat. I breathed deeply through my nose until the tightness in my chest loosened enough that I trusted myself to keep going.Then, with trembling fingers, I picked the phone back up.My mother's video appeared on my feed next. It was the shortest of them all. I wasn't surprised, she wasn't someone who performed emotion for an audience. I had learned that about her during the months we'd found each other. She felt things deeply but kept most of it private, expressing love through action rather than words.She was sitting at the kitchen table of our family home, her hands folded neatly in front of her. She looked tired, yet profoundly composed. I wondered who had helped her set up the camera, likely Maria or Adrian."I don't know how to do these things," she said quietly, gesturing slightly as if the concept of the vide
Chapter 168MaxI woke up before Ace again. He was out cold beside me, one arm thrown over his face, his chest rising in a slow, steady rhythm.It made me wonder when he actually slept.After the meeting, we’d returned to his dorm and stayed indoors. We weren't hiding; we just needed each other’s company to stay grounded. We didn’t make love, we just held each other close until we drifted off. I lay there for a minute, just watching him the way I sometimes did when I needed to remind myself that this was real.Then, I reached for my phone.Bad habit. I knew it before I even touched the screen. But after yesterday, there was a compulsion I couldn’t shut off, like needing to check a wound to see if it had festered overnight.It had gotten worse. Obviously.Notifications had piled up while we slept, more tweets, more think pieces, more strangers with loud opinions about our lives. I scrolled past most of it without reading. I’d learned over the last twenty-four hours that reading the c
Chapter 167AceThe athletic director's office smelled like coffee and polished wood. The kind of room designed to make you feel small before anyone said a word.Max and I sat side by side on the leather couch, shoulders touching, fingers locking. Our rings caught the light, I noticed it because the woman behind the desk noticed it.Her eyes dropped there for just a second before she looked back up, and that second told me everything I needed to know about how this meeting was going to go.Dr. Eleanor Drew sat behind a desk that was probably chosen for exactly this purpose. It was wide, dark and immovable. She was late fifties, sharp in the way that came from spending decades being underestimated and deciding to make everyone pay for it. Under different circumstances I might have respected that.She didn't waste time."Gentlemen," she said. "I'm going to be direct. The university is receiving hundreds of calls this morning. Donors. Alumni. Parents. The Board of Trustees is in an eme
Chapter 166MaxHe pulled back just enough to look me in the eyes. His thumb brushed a tear off my cheek I hadn't realized had fallen."We knew this might happen," he said quietly. "We talked about it at the ranch. The world isn't ready for us yet. But we're ready for each other. That's what matters."I didn't say anything. I couldn't. The words were stuck somewhere behind my ribs, tangled up with everything I was trying not to feel all at once.My phone buzzed again.This time it was a text from my coach.*Emergency meeting with athletic director at 9 a.m. Don't be late. This is serious.*Ace's phone lit up at the same time. His hockey coach. We stared at the screens in silence. The blue light caught the side of his face and for a second he looked tired in a way I hadn't seen before. Not physically tired. Something deeper than that."I'm sorry," I whispered. "I should've waited. Let you have your moment on the ice without turning it into… this."He didn't answer right away. Just loo
Chapter 165MaxThe first thing I felt when consciousness dragged me back was Ace’s arm heavy across my waist, his breath warm and steady against the back of my neck. The second thing was the buzzing. A constant, angry swarm of notifications that made the nightstand sound like it was trying to drill through the wood.I cracked one eye open. The dorm room was still dark, the digital clock glowing 6:47 a.m. Ace was dead asleep, face slack in that rare, peaceful way he only got after a championship win and a night of slow, thorough sex. His new platinum ring caught the faint light from the window and sent a little spark through my chest.Fiancé.The word should have felt warm. Instead, the buzzing grew louder.I reached for my phone with the hand that wasn’t pinned under Ace. The screen lit up like a explosion. 347 new notifications. Instagram. Twitter. TikTok. Group chats. Coach’s number. Mom. Sofia. Unknown numbers. News alerts.My stomach dropped before I even opened anything.The
Chapter 133 AceThe second Max’s cock slid past my lips I nearly lost it.He was thicker than I remembered—hot and hard, pulsing against my tongue like he’d been edged for weeks and finally given permission to feel something real. The taste hit me like a memory I’d tried to bury: salt, skin, that
Chapter 128Max"About six hours by plane," my mother said. "That's why we never crossed paths before and why you weren't on our radar until you shifted, because our territories don't overlap and there was no reason for us to be monitoring that area."Six hours—that explained why I'd never encounte
Chapter 130MaxSeven weeks had passed since I'd first woken up in that unfamiliar room and discovered I had a biological family I'd never known existed, and in that time everything about my life had shifted and transformed in ways I was still trying to fully comprehend. The days had blurred toget
Chapter 129Max"Maybe we could all do something together?" I suggested hesitantly because I didn't want to choose between them and make either one feel rejected.Both of them lit up at that suggestion and started talking over each other about different activities we could do as a group. I found







