Lahat ng Kabanata ng Fake Dating The Alpha Hockey Player : Kabanata 61 - Kabanata 70

Kaidora's POVThe coffee shop is warm and bustling with the morning energy when I arrive. Students crowd around tables, laptops open, conversation flowing. The scent of espresso and fresh pastries fills the air, oddly comforting after days of tension.Amber waves from our usual corner booth, two lattes already waiting. Her face lights up when she sees me, and guilt twists in my stomach. I've been a terrible friend lately, too consumed with secrets and survival to maintain the one genuine friendship I have here.“You actually came!” She grins as I slide into the seat across from her. “I was half expecting another cancellation text.”“I promised, didn't I?” I smile, wrapping my hands around the warm cup, grateful for something to hold onto.“You did. And you look…” Her eyes scan my face, taking in the fading bruises. “Better. The bruises are healing nicely.”“Zane's been helping. Training me so I can defend myself better.” I take a sip, letting the warmth spread through my chest.“That'

Zane's POVFive days! We have just five days until the full moon ceremony, and I still don't know how I'm going to survive it without destroying everything.I stare out the apartment window, watching students move between buildings in the late afternoon sun. Their lives seem normal with no problems. None of them are pretending to have a mate bond that doesn't exist while knowing that completing the bond could kill the person they love.Behind me, I hear Kaidora moving around in her room. She's been spending more time there lately, buried in books and research that she thinks I don't notice. The distance between us has grown steadily over the past five days, an invisible wall built from secrets we're both too afraid to share.She's changed since that training session. Something in her shifted and hardened. The rage that consumed her that day hasn't faded— it's just been channeled into something more focused and more dangerous.I've watched her train with an intensity that borders on

Kaidora's POVI've been sitting on the couch for the past hour, staring at my laptop screen without really seeing it. The Blackthorn pack history page is open in front of me, words blurring together as my mind replays the conversation with Zane from yesterday.“That's all this is.”The lie sits heavy in my chest like a stone I can't seem to dislodge no matter how many times I tell myself it was necessary. That pushing Zane away was the right choice. That maintaining distance will make leaving easier when the time comes.But the look on his face when I said it— like I'd physically struck him— keeps flashing through my mind, and each time it does, something inside me twists painfully.I force my attention back to the laptop, to the research I should have been doing all along instead of getting distracted from why I'm here.The Blackthorn pack. Summer's family. The connection I need to find.I scroll through the history, looking for anything from ten years ago, any mention of conflicts,

Zane's POVSomething is wrong. The feeling hits me the moment I walk into the empty apartment, Kaidora's absence a tangible void that makes Darko pace restlessly in my mind.I pull out my phone and text her: Where are you? I came home and you're gone.The message delivers but no response comes. I wait thirty seconds that feel like hours before trying again.Kai, answer me. Are you okay?Still nothing.My wolf's unease bleeds into my own, amplifying the concern already tightening my chest. After our conversation yesterday, after the way we left things between us cold and distant, where would she go this late at night?I'm pulling up her location when instinct kicks in. Something pulls at me, an invisible thread tugging toward campus even though I have no logical reason to think she'd be there.But I've learned to trust these inexplicable urges when it comes to Kaidora. I've learned that whatever connection exists between us, real or imagined, it knows things my conscious mind doesn't.

Kaidora's POVThe pack house looks different in the daylight. It looks more imposing, like everything I should fear instead of the neutral territory I've convinced myself it could be.Zane pulls into the circular driveway exactly at noon, his jaw tight with tension that's been building all morning. We barely spoke during the drive, both of us lost in our own spirals of dread about what comes next.“Ready?” he asks, but his hands remain gripped on the steering wheel.No. I'm not ready. I'll never be ready to walk into the heart of werewolf territory and pretend I belong here. Pretend I'm going to be their future Luna when tomorrow's ceremony will expose every lie we've built.“Yup,” I say instead, pretending as though my heart isn't about to fall out of my chest. He sighs softly, and turns towards me fully now. “There's something I need to let you know, Kai,” he says and I nod once despite the fear crawling over my skin. “Since we insist that the bond is legitimate, this ceremony migh