Lahat ng Kabanata ng Mated to My Rival Step Brother: Kabanata 191 - Kabanata 200

Alex's POV:The steam was still thick.Blake stood in front of me with water running down his face and his chest and that particular stillness he carried when he was waiting to see what I would do next. Not passive. Never passive with Blake. Just watching. Measuring.I reached for the waistband of his training shorts.He looked down."Alex.""I know.""That is not an answer.""It was not a question either." I kept my hands where they were and looked up at him. "Someone could still come.""You said the block was empty.""It is.""Then.""Then stay still."He exhaled through his nose. That particular exhale that meant he was choosing to let something happen rather than stop it. His hands stayed at his sides. I held his gaze and pulled the drawstring loose and the waistband gave and I worked the wet fabric down past his hips slowly, deliberately, watching his face the entire time because his face was the thing I could not stop looking at.He stepped out of the shorts without being asked.

Blake's POV:The knock came again from outside.Alex and I looked at each other and neither of us moved and then a voice cut through the door that was not the same voice as before."He is gone. There is another shower block around the corner." Maya. Clear and unbothered and apparently standing in the boys locker room like this was a completely ordinary Tuesday. "You can go there."A pause from the unknown person outside."What are you doing in the boys locker room?""Did you forget?" Maya's voice carried the particular tone of someone who found the question mildly amusing. "Alex Thorne is my boyfriend."My chest did something small and involuntary.It was the truth. I knew it was the truth. I had known it was the truth for a long time and had arranged myself around that truth with varying degrees of success depending on the day. But there was something specific about hearing it said out loud through a locker room door with the steam still sitting on my skin that made it land differentl

Blake's POV:I looked up at Rolf and the oak tree was solid at my back and the afternoon was quiet around us and I waited to hear what he had to say.He sat down beside me without being invited. Not close. Just within conversation distance, his back against the wall rather than the tree, his long legs stretched out in front of him and his pale eyes on the middle distance."I will be direct," he said."Go ahead."He looked at me sideways. "I am here to win the Alpha Heir Competition. That is the only reason I transferred. Ironhold did not have the level of competition I needed and this bracket does." He paused. "You are the most capable opponent in this bracket. Possibly the only one worth genuine concern."I said nothing."I am proposing an arrangement," he continued. "Information sharing. Tactical alignment through the early rounds. We identify the weaker pairings and manage the bracket together until the final stages." He said it with the same flat economy he used for everything. Lik

Rolf's POV:The classroom was half empty at this hour.Late afternoon theory session. Pack governance and inter-territorial law. The kind of subject that most Alpha heirs sat through with the particular expression of people who understood the material was necessary and found it somewhere between tolerable and actively painful. The professor's voice moved through the room at a consistent unhurried pace and chalk met the board at regular intervals and the afternoon light came through the long windows in flat pale strips across the desks.I sat in the back row.I always sat in the back row. Not because I could not follow from the front. Because the back row gave you the whole room without giving the room you.My notebook was open in front of me and my pen was in my hand and I had written approximately four lines since the session began forty minutes ago. The rest of the page was blank. The professor had not noticed or had noticed and decided it was not worth the conversation. Either way

Alex's POV:It's 8:30 PM, just 2 hours left the Blake will be here.The knock on the door pulls me away from the window where I had been standing, watching the city lights blur into each other below.I walk to the door without rushing. I already know what it is.I sign the slip, take the box, close the door.I stand there for a moment just holding it. Dark matte packaging. No branding. Discreet. Exactly how I ordered it."Finally," I mutter, carrying the box to the dining table.I slice through the tape and open the flaps.I stare.The silk ropes are folded with a precision that feels almost theatrical. Deep crimson, nearly black under my low lighting. I lift one coil and let it run slowly through my fingers. Smooth. Strong. Not a rough edge anywhere. Quality. Real quality. I had done my research before ordering and it shows. Worth every penny.I set the rope down and reach for the next items nestled in their foam compartments. I check each one carefully. Charged. Clean. Exactly as des