All Chapters of Frozen Submission (M*M)Romance: Chapter 141 - Chapter 150

**Chapter 144: Father’s Last Words**The second message arrived three days later.I was sitting up in bed, picking at a hospital breakfast that tasted like cardboard, when my lawyer called. Callan was beside me, dozing lightly after another rough night. His shoulder pain had been worse, and my latest seizure—smaller this time, but still terrifying—had left us both drained. The link between us felt like a thin wire stretched tight.“Brooks,” my lawyer said carefully, “your father managed to get another message out. From prison this time. Do you want to hear it?”I almost said no.Almost.But some old, stubborn part of me needed to close the book completely.“Play it.”Callan stirred awake as the lawyer forwarded the audio file. I put it on speaker. His good hand found mine immediately. The link pulsed with quiet support.My father’s voice filled the sterile hospital room. He sounded different this time—rougher, like the polished mask had finally cracked. But the manipulation was still

**Chapter 146: Proposal**The hospital room was quiet except for the steady beep of monitors and the faint hum of the city outside the window.Callan’s proposal still hung in the air between us like something sacred. *Marry me. Now. Before the link disappears completely.* I had said yes through tears, and now we sat facing each other in the dim light, careful not to touch, hearts raw and open.“I meant it,” he said softly. His voice was rough from exhaustion and pain, but his eyes were steady. Captain’s eyes. The ones that had led teams through impossible seasons. The ones that had looked at me through every version of hell we’d survived. “I don’t want to wait for perfect. There is no perfect after what we’ve been through. I want to marry you here. In this room. With whatever’s left of the link still connecting us.”Tears slipped down my cheeks again. I didn’t wipe them away. “Yes. A thousand times yes. I want to be your husband before the link fades. Before we have to learn how to do

**Chapter 148: First Free Night**The silence in my head was the loudest thing I had ever heard.For the first time since the syndicate had forced the link into existence, there was no constant hum of Callan’s emotions brushing against mine. No shared pain. No quiet reassurance flowing between us like a second heartbeat. Just… me. And him. Two separate people in the same safe house bedroom.It was terrifying.And it was beautiful.We spent most of that first full day in protective custody adjusting to the absence. The team gave us space while staying close enough to protect us. Tate brought food and tried to keep things light. Beck coordinated with the federal agents. Elodie monitored the news. Merrick handled logistics.But Callan and I kept drifting back to each other.Without the link, every glance felt heavier. Every word more intentional. We couldn’t feel what the other was thinking anymore—we had to ask. We had to learn each other all over again.That night, after the others had

**Chapter 150: Bullet for You**Pain.That was the first thing I knew when consciousness returned—sharp, burning pain in my side where Kane’s bullet had torn through me. Then voices. Shouting. The metallic smell of blood. The squeak of wheels on linoleum as they rushed me into surgery.I faded in and out, the world coming in fractured pieces.Callan’s face above me in the ambulance, pale and terrified, his good hand pressing hard against my wound. “Stay with me, Brooks. You hear me? Stay with me, husband.”Husband.The word anchored me for a moment before darkness took me again.---I woke briefly in the ER. Bright lights. Too many people. Callan was there, wheelchair pushed right up against the gurney, refusing to be moved. His voice was hoarse from shouting.“He’s my husband. I’m not leaving him.”A doctor’s voice, calm but urgent: “He’s lost a lot of blood. We need to get him into surgery now.”I tried to speak. To tell Callan I loved him. That protecting him was worth it. All that

**Chapter 152: Empty Link**The silence was deafening.Not the kind of quiet you find peaceful on a calm morning. This was a hollow, aching void where Callan used to live inside my head. For months, the link had been my constant companion—his emotions brushing against mine, his pain echoing in my body, his love wrapped around my heart like a second pulse. Now it was almost gone. Just the faintest whisper remained, like a radio station fading out of range.I lay in the hospital bed three days after flatlining, staring at the ceiling while Callan slept in the recliner beside me. His hand rested near mine, not quite touching. Even that small distance felt wrong now.I missed him.Which was ridiculous because he was right there. My husband. The man who had screamed my name while my heart stopped. But the version of him I had grown used to—the one who existed partly inside me—was disappearing.Callan stirred, blinking awake. The first thing he did was look at me, searching my face the way