Todos os capítulos de THE FOUR HOCKEY KINGS' FORBIDDEN MATE: Capítulo 31 - Capítulo 40

~ Kaia ~Classes resumed the next morning like nothing had happened, though the whispers following me down every hallway told a different story."That's her," I heard someone murmur as I passed. "The phoenix."I kept my head down, moving faster, though there was nowhere left to hide anymore. My disguise had dissolved the moment I'd stood in that ballroom, and now I moved through the academy as exactly who I was — Kaia Blackwood, not Kai — every stare a small reminder that the life I'd carefully built was gone."Ignore them," Elena said, walking beside me between classes, having stayed an extra day to make sure I wasn't navigating this alone. "They'll get bored eventually.""Will they? I'm apparently the last of a bloodline everyone thought was extinct. That's not the kind of thing people get bored of quickly.""Fair point." She bumped my shoulder gently. "For what it's worth, you're handling this better than I would.""I don't feel like I'm handling it at all."We rounded the corner t

~ Kaia ~Seraphina texted for the first time in three weeks on a Tuesday afternoon, the message sitting on my phone screen like something I had to read twice to believe.**Sera:** I'm coming to see you. Saturday. We need to talk.No explanation. No warmth, either, not the way Elena's texts always carried some joke buried in them even during the worst weeks. Just five words and a date, exactly the kind of controlled, careful communication I'd come to associate with my eldest sister my whole life."That's ominous," Elena said, reading over my shoulder before I could stop her."You think?""She's been weird about all of this. Weirder than me, even, and I've had a front-row seat to your entire meltdown for a month." Elena frowned at the phone. "She barely asked about the ballroom when I told her what happened. Just went quiet and said she needed to think.""Think about what?""I don't know. She's never exactly been an open book, even with me."Saturday arrived with Seraphina standing at t

~ Kaia ~Ryker found me at the rink two days later, earlier than our usual five a.m. session, the sky still fully dark beyond the glass dome."You're early," I said, lacing my skates on the bench."So are you.""I couldn't sleep." I didn't elaborate further, and he didn't push, which had become one of the more comfortable things about training with him — he never demanded explanations I wasn't ready to give.We skated in silence for a while, the familiar rhythm of drills settling something restless in my chest that had been sitting there since I'd read my mother's letter two nights ago."You've been different since your sister visited," Ryker said eventually, breaking the silence during a water break."Good different or concerning different?""I haven't decided yet." A ghost of dry humor, rare from him. "Softer, maybe. Less braced for impact than you usually are.""I read a letter from my mother. Written right before she disappeared." I hesitated, then found myself continuing, somethi

~ Kaia ~The trouble started small, the way most trouble does — Luca lingering too long at my locker after practice, Van appearing moments later with a reason to be there too, both of them suddenly finding excuses to occupy the same five feet of hallway."Am I interrupting something?" I asked, glancing between them."Not at all," Luca said smoothly, though his jaw had tightened slightly. "I was just telling Kaia about the study session Elias organized for the history exam.""I was telling her the same thing," Van said, arms crossed. "Except I got here first.""You did not get here first.""I've been standing here for two minutes.""I've been standing here for three."I looked between them, genuinely unsure whether to laugh or intervene. "You're both aware I can hear this entire conversation, right?"Neither of them answered immediately, and something about the sudden silence told me this wasn't actually about study sessions at all.Ryker found me at dinner, sliding into the seat acros

~ Luca ~Ryker called us together after Kaia had gone back to her dorm for the night, the four of us gathered in the living room the way we had been weeks ago, except this time the fire in his eyes carried something more resolved than uncertain."I want to say something plainly," he started, "and I want us to actually agree on it as brothers, instead of each of us circling it privately and pretending the others haven't noticed.""That sounds serious," I said."It is." He looked around at each of us in turn. "Kaia is our mate. All four of us. I don't think any of us can keep pretending that's uncertain anymore."The word landed in the room and nobody argued it, which told me more than any of our individual confessions over the past weeks ever had. Van's jaw tightened, but he nodded. Elias closed his notebook slowly, like even he had run out of need to document what was now simply true."I've suspected it since the first day," Van said quietly. "Since 'Mine' came out of my mouth before