All Chapters of Chasing My Hockey Alpha : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Xenia’s POVI can hear my own footsteps echoing before I even process that I’m moving. Click. Click. Click. The marble floors always make everything sound louder, harsher, like the house itself mocks me. Maybe that’s why I kept pacing. Maybe I liked the sound of my agitation filling the silence. Or maybe if I kept moving, I wouldn’t have to sit with the thoughts clawing at the walls of my skull.My fingers wouldn’t stay still. They kept twitching, curling, opening, tightening again. Anything to release the pressure building inside me. I felt like every breath I took made my chest tighter instead of looser. Every second I stood in that room, my mind kept looping, running, choking on that single realization:Everything was going wrong.I heard footsteps coming towards me, I didn’t stop pacing. I didn’t want to look.. I already knew who it was, the girl with the quiet steps, the stiff posture, the fear she tried to hide but never could. The maid placed the bottle and the single glass on

Griffin’s POVIt was already morning, but I felt like I hadn’t slept at all. I stood in front of the mirror fully dressed, shirt tucked in, jacket already on, yet somehow I couldn’t get myself to leave the room. My reflection stared back at me like it was waiting for me to pull myself together, but even that felt like too much pressure.This shouldn’t have been difficult.One mission.Just one.Get Lena to agree to go with me to see my father.Simple. Direct. Logical.We had an agreement.A contract.It was literally part of the deal.We had a contract.She already agreed to the terms.Technically, she couldn’t say no.But every time I tried to imagine actually telling her… every sentence sounded ridiculous. Forced. Mechanical. Like I was a kid rehearsing lines for a school play.I took a breath, squared my shoulders, and tried out the words again.“Yeah, so… we signed the contract, so it’s cool if you go see my dad, right?”I groaned mid-sentence.God, I sounded like an idiot.I drag

Passerby POV — ElijahIt was supposed to be a quiet night. My shift at work had ended late, again, and I was walking home the same way I always did, cutting through the narrow streets behind the grocery store, then crossing onto the long stretch of road that led up toward my apartment.I had my earbuds in, the volume not too loud but loud enough to drown out my thoughts. Hood up, hands deep in my pockets, head down. Nothing new.The streets were mostly empty. A couple of streetlamps flickered like they were tired of doing their job. A stray cat ran across the road, stopped to glare at me, then disappeared between two trash bins. Everything smelled like a quiet night should. cool air, faint oil from the roads.I don’t know what I expected from the night, but it wasn’t that.I heard a loud noise.Screeching tires.Rubber burning against pavement.The sickening sound of metal folding into metal, I felt it in my bones rather than just heard it.Even with my earbuds in, I heard it clearly.

Xenia’s POVI blinked a few times before reaching out blindly toward my nightstand, fingers brushing over cold wood until I found my phone lying face down.I didn’t think anything of it at first. I was still half asleep. I picked it up and swiped it open.Thirty missed calls.My brain didn’t even process it for a full second. I just stared at the number, willing it to make sense. All from Lilith.My heart jerked so suddenly that my hands froze halfway to dropping the phone. I sat up immediately, the blanket sliding off my legs.“What the hell…?” I muttered under my breath, scrolling through the call log. The timestamps hit me one by one, yesterday evening, two minutes apart… sometimes less. Frantic. Aggressive. Desperate.Lilith wasn’t the type to blow up anyone’s phone unless something was seriously wrong. She didn’t even like calling once. She preferred showing up in person, making a scene, yelling if needed, but calling? Thirty times?Something wasn’t right.My fingers felt stiff

Lena’s POV I stared at my phone for a moment before tapping Ryker’s name again. My thumb hovered for a second, like my mind was still deciding even after my body had already made the choice for me. He picked up on the second ring.“Hey,” I said, trying not to sound impatient or too restless. “Are you still up for that meeting we talked about?”There was a pause, short, then his voice came through, a little rough, like he’d just woken up or maybe hadn’t slept at all. “Yeah. Sorry about before. We can meet now if you’re still in.”“Good,” I said simply, and ended the call.No extra words. No room for hesitation.Downstairs was quiet. Not a peaceful quiet— just the kind that made the whole place feel wrong.It made me think Griffin was probably holed up in his room again. And the part of me that still cared, still watched him, still tried to understand what was happening to him, wanted to check. But I didn’t. I didn’t go looking. I didn’t knock.Whatever was going on with him lately was